crossfeed a garmin 300xl and 396. Is it worth it?

[rbridges]

Looks like I'm buying a plane with the 300xl and 396. The 396 is hardwired to the plane but doesn't communicate with the 300. I would have preferred a 430, but I'd also prefer being taller and good looking.

Anyway, the screen on the 300 is small compared to the 430 and I've heard people say the moving map leaves a lot to be desired. It sounds like a good idea to connect the 300 to the 396. Anyone have that setup?

 

[mvferrer]

Yes, I've done that in the past and I think it's worth doing if you have no plans to upgrade to something else. The 300XL provides "aviation out" to the 396 and it downloads waypoint and route info to the 396.

 

[rbridges]

Yes, I've done that in the past and I think it's worth doing if you have no plans to upgrade to something else. The 300XL provides "aviation out" to the 396 and it downloads waypoint and route info to the 396.

definitely won't be doing any major upgrades for a while. thanks.

 

[gismo]

definitely won't be doing any major upgrades for a while. thanks.

What I like about this is that the panel GPS's flight plan will already be on the 396 if the airplane's electrical system shuts down in flight. No scrambling, just fly off the 396 until you get things sorted out WRT the electrics. I do recommend putting a simple SPST switch in series with the serial data line to the 396 as there are times when you may want to isolate the two and it requires a lot of button pushing on the 396 to disable the serial input and the same to get it back on.

 

[JHW]

It'll cost you 2 wires and a half hour of time. I agree with the comment that sometimes you'll want to divorce the 2 but I don't have any trouble doing it through the 396 setup screen.

 

[rbridges]

I'll ask about that. Thanks again.

 

[jsnapp]

put a toggle switch on the rs232 connection from the 300xl to the 396 so you can decide when and when not to have the 396 download the flight plan. some times I like to have the portable unit show distance to an airport only while the panel mount unit shows a larger flight plan.

 

[KSMooniac]

I concur...definitely worth hooking it up so your 396 will act as an MFD using the flight plan data from the 300XL. I have that with my 496 + 530W/430W combo. If I only had a single panel mount I would add a switch to quickly turn off the data stream push, but with the two panel mount screens I have plenty of data fields to play with.