Transcript
Loud,Clear, and Capable PS Engineering PDA360EX. By Paul Dye
Audio panels tend to be an afterthought for many homebuilders. A lot of attention is paid to EFISs, IFR navigators, backup instruments, maybe a backup com radio—and now to ADS-B compliance. But the audio panel is often an afterthought, just something to provide an intercom and switching between the various radios. In fact, there are far fewer “aviation” audio sources for most pilots in the age of GPS—gone are the need for DME, ADF, marker beacons—and for some even the nav receivers (unless you are in the habit of flying ILS approaches). But as aviation receivers in the cockpit dwindle, other audio has begun to dominate: XM music, mp3 recordings, even telephones vie for the pilot’s ear. And that means new technology audio panels need to be considered—and not just as an afterthought. PS Engineering, long a leader in audio, and a big supporter of the Experimental world, is now offering their latest tech—a fully configurable audio panel with stunning sound, intelligent audio technology to provide directional audio 24
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from different sources, and a Bluetooth adapter that makes placing a phone call (on the ground, of course) as easy as pushing a button and talking. And best of all, it is pin-for-pin compatible with several popular Garmin audio panels, so changing to the PSE unit takes nothing more than an Allen wrench and a minute’s work. The new PDA360EX is based on the PMA450 audio panel that was introduced to the certified world at Oshkosh in 2014. The PMA450 is the
company’s most advanced certified audio panel, and its heritage is very evident in the design of the new 360EX. The 360EX is, however, tailored for the Experimental market, taking into consideration the types of equipment seen in modern homebuilts. For instance, very few Experimental pilots need or want a marker beacon receiver these days, so that is gone. Few Experimental aircraft today incorporate ADFs or DMEs—so while the builder can configure the panel to have buttons for
The face of the PDA360EX is designed with fewer buttons than many other panels. The functions of the three softkeys change with the context, and labels appear on the display.
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these audio sources, this is no longer a default. Music, on the other hand, is very common, and the 360 provides a dedicated button for enabling or disabling the pilot’s favorite tune source. Kitplanes® tested the new 360 in one of our airplanes for a month, and we found the audio quality to be exceptional for all sources. We don’t know how you make a radio sound better, but the 360 seems to do it. Used with a pair of Quiet Technology Halo headsets, the sound quality was crisp and clear, but not tinny. XM music sounded rich and full. The intercom’s automatic squelch worked well in the somewhat noisy RV cockpit, although when tested in one of our noisier planes, in a redline dive, the intercom broke squelch and air noise accounted for about 50% of the audio heard by the pilot—but this was far better than other audio panels have done under the same circumstances. The unit connected easily to our iPhone via Bluetooth, and we were able to play music as well as place and receive phone calls that were very clear.
The three main functions we tend to use these days are select com 1, select com 2, and turn music on and off. There are dedicated buttons for these three functions.
The technology we were most excited to try—IntelliAudio, which puts the direction of various audio sources in different spots relative to the headset wearer—is very effective. Overall, the affect of IntelliAudio was stunning; it makes separating multiple voices much simpler. You can actually continue listening to ATC or the CTAF while listening to—and understanding—the AWOS. We have worn headsets and listened to multiple
channels for many years, and this is the easiest it has ever been—a huge plus for the design and the product. Most multisource audio systems simply combine the audio into a single stream, and pulling individual intelligence from each at the same time is a skill that takes considerable time to learn. Getting the voices from different directions shortcuts the learning process, and we predict that pilots will like it well enough that it will become the standard in
Designing the New Interface After trying the new 450 audio panel from PSE, we got in touch with the company’s founder and president, Mark Scheuer, to give him a little feedback on the user interface. He was very attentive, understanding the value of designing to the user’s requirements, and asked how we thought he could do better. My personal requirements for an audio panel are to switch between com 1 and com 2, and to control the music source. We no longer use DME, never have an ADF, and very rarely have a need to listen to a nav source. The truth is, most Experimental flying is done VFR, and navigation is being done by GPS, so it is extremely rare that pilots need to listen to the VHF nav receivers to identify the frequency by listening to the Morse code. Yet the 450 dedicates two buttons to monitoring nav 1 and nav 2, and one button for the marker beacon (also going the way of the dodo). Now in our case, we want to listen to the two coms and switch between them to transmit. Those buttons are fine and work very well on the 450. We also want to—with one button push—listen to the music, or not listen to the music. But you can’t do that with the 450 design. You have to select the music, then read the display to figure out which of the three selectable buttons you need to push next— and none of them is simply “Mute” or “Unmute.” Reading the display in turbulence is not always an easy thing to do, and being able to operate strictly by feel for critical functions (like turning off extraneous sources) is important. Photos: Paul Dye
In time, you can learn the sequence and do it by rote—but will that work in turbulence? The other thing we like to do on an audio panel when listening to music is to select if it will soft mute based on incoming radio transmissions or the intercom. We like to chat with our passengers while still listening to music. The 450 does this (and sounds great doing it), but again, it takes several button pushes to set the function up. The radio will override and mute the music with another setting. The trick is, you need to read the display in order to make these choices, and that means you have to give your full attention to the audio panel for a few moments. With hardwired, dedicated buttons (as on previous generations of audio panels), you can learn where to stab with your finger, and most of the time, get it right. The software of the 360EX gives you just that kind of control—just what the user ordered. Fortunately, the architecture of the 450 is such that a software change was able to create an entirely new animal: the 360EX. In fact, PS Engineering was able to demonstrate the flexibility of their product by creating the 360EX in just a little more than a week after we had discussed ways in which we’d like to see the buttons changed to suit the Experimental world—or at least our view of that world. The benefits of building the system to user requirements was not lost on Scheuer, and the end result is remarkably intuitive and simple for such a capable machine. —P.D.
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If your airplane already has a Garmin 240 installed, you can slide a PDA360EX into the same tray. All of the connectors are the same.
audio systems in a short time. (Garmin has a similar functionality in their topof-the-line GMA 350 audio panel, and we look forward to trying that soon.) Hardware-wise, the 360EX looks much like the 450, with just a couple of exceptions. Gone are the marker beacon lights, and in place of the button previously labeled “MKR” is a button with two little musical notes. The label reads “360EX” instead of 450. And that’s it—they are otherwise hard to tell apart. But turn the units on and,
functionally, the difference is obvious. The com select buttons work just as before—you can choose to monitor one or both coms, and you can select which one to use to transmit. Music is now controlled from the dedicated button—it is on or off, and this can be selected with a single button push without looking at the panel. When music is enabled, the bottom softkey is used to cycle through the soft mute modes for the music—it can be set to mute when a radio transmission is
received, when the intercom breaks squelch, when either event occurs, or when neither happens (this is karaoke mode). The IntelliAudio feature can be turned on or off with the middle softkey (although we’re not sure why you would ever turn it off). If the music is turned off, the bottom softkey is still related to music, but pushing it puts you into the music configuration menu where you can change volumes and sources. The nav 1 and nav 2 source buttons are still on the panel, even though they are rarely used in today’s GA flying environment—but stay they should because we still need to identify the ILS if we are going to shoot such an approach. DME or ADF? You can use the softkeys to configure for those, if you like.
Menu Driven
The 360EX is, above all else, very configurable. The whole point of the three buttons and the display is to provide the pilot options—options as to what those three buttons should drive, when. The 360EX is easily put into configuration mode on power-up. You simply hold down the bottom softkey as it boots, and this takes you to the configuration menu. Although not designed to be configured in flight (and there are few reasons that you would), the features can be changed at any time—including during quiet cruise periods if you wish to play with the settings. Once you’re in the configuration mode, you can set up the IntelliAudio feature to place the apparent direction for the audio from com 1 and com 2 (we preferred having them come from the 10 and 2 o’clock positions). You can connect the unit to your cell phone using the Bluetooth menu. This worked almost automatically, once I realized that the default password to type into the phone was “0000” as shown on the display. This can be changed if you wish a more secure connection. On another page, you can change the labels for the various audio sources—the default being ADF, DME, and AUX. Since we were testing this unit in our airplanes wired with no audio sources in those slots, we simply left it labeled “Radio,” and then ignored it. Once out of configuration mode, we simply turned it on and were able to use it intuitively right from the start. This met designer Mark Scheuer’s goal, as he stated to me up front: “If you have to open the manual to figure out how to use it, I have failed!” Well Mark, you didn’t fail, and the configurable menus and user interface should prove to be popular. —P.D. 26
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Once music has been turned on with the dedicated button, the lower softkey will cycle between three mute modes as desired by the pilot.
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The Bluetooth interface worked extremely well with our iPhone. Once linked, the display showed the battery level of the phone—a good indication that they were talking. We could play music from the phone or place a call, which was crisp and clear on both ends. The USB port on the front panel of the 360EX is a power outlet that can be used to charge phones, iPads, or what-have-you. The ability to slide the new unit in and out of a Garmin-wired airplane is great for demos and testing like we were doing, but it also means that changing from one brand of audio panel to the PSE is very simple. All it takes is an Allen wrench and 30 seconds of your time. We traded our demo units between two different airplanes as easily as we changed pilots. The connections use standard D-sub pins and sockets— easier to work with than the company’s early-generation units with Molex connectors. Having wired up both types, we strongly prefer the simplicity and clean
What is IntelliAudio? Mark Scheuer, president and founder of PS Engineering, is rightfully proud of the IntelliAudio technology used in the 360EX and 450 audio panels. We asked him why he feels this way, and how it differs from the “3D Audio” used in Garmin panels. “Our IntelliAudio (not Intelligent Audio, although it does make the pilot more intelligent) is much better and more effective than Garmin’s 3D Audio—in my opinion—in several significant ways: “First, to the best of my knowledge, 3D Audio is either on or off. You cannot make changes. You will always hear the passengers sounding as they are coming from the back of your head and the copilot coming from your right ear.* We feel that is just not natural in the cockpit. “We believe intercom audio should remain the same as it has been for 40 years—that intercom audio comes to both ears. This is what the pilot expects. “Second, we allow the pilot to select from any one of nine distinct positions in the stereo headset to tailor the sound to accommodate the pilot’s hearing impairments, if there are any. Finally, the IntelliAudio just sounds better, in my honest opinion.” *Editor’s note: Garmin service centers can set up their 3D units (at the time of installation) for the case where the pilot is on the right and copilot on the left. —P.D.
design of D-sub and are glad that most avionics manufacturers are going this way as well. Overall, we found the 360EX to be a robust, high-quality audio panel well suited for the Experimental market.
If you are looking for a panel for your new project, or a way to upgrade to a more capable unit with Bluetooth to be able to talk with ATC on the ground through your phone, the 360EX is definitely worth a look. J
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