Garmin 396 Power Adapter/Cable

sba55

sba55

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sba55
I recently bought a 396 that (as I just noticed) mysteriously didn't come with a cigarette lighter power adapter for the plane. I'd love to be able to plug in the 396 on my trip to Gaston's, but it looks like Garmin uses a proprietary power plug on the unit.

Does anyone know if I can get an adapter at radio shack/etc? It seems unlikely, but...any ideas? It's too late to order one since I'm leaving on Thursday.

-Felix
 
I ordered mine on ebay.

Keep the screen dim as you can and you'll have a LOT of battery time. As you would expect, screen brightness has a dramatic affect on battery life..at least a couple of extra hours.

As a fail safe, grab a small power inverter and plug it in using the AC cord.
 
FlyNE said:
As a fail safe, grab a small power inverter and plug it in using the AC cord.
Click to expand...
Good idea. Thanks!

I believe the airplane doesn't have that dropping resistor that Beech put in some of the 28v models, and I think the CB is good for 5 amps (I'll have to check). That should be enough for the GPS I imagine...maybe even a laptop?

-Felix
 
well I don't know how handy you are but, I made a data cable and a second power cable for my Pilot III GPS it is not all that hard but it takes some time. Is the connector the round one with 4 holes and a grove on the side?

You could also look for an airport on the way to Gaston's that has a pilot shop. maybe, post you flight plan and someone could let you know of a good shop near by. I would call the shop to see if they have one on hand before I would stop.

Bob
 
rmciottijr said:
well I don't know how handy you are but, I made a data cable and a second power cable for my Pilot III GPS it is not all that hard but it takes some time. Is the connector the round one with 4 holes and a grove on the side?
Click to expand...
Close - it's 5 holes and two groves. But I'm no good at electronics - I sort of like the inverter idea. I could get a MacBook from work and I believe that only uses about 20 Watt on average....

rmciottijr said:
You could also look for an airport on the way to Gaston's that has a pilot shop. maybe, post you flight plan and someone could let you know of a good shop near by. I would call the shop to see if they have one on hand before I would stop. Bob
Click to expand...
Good idea. Maybe I'll do both, just to be safe. And I'll be sure to turn the screen brightness down, too.

Thanks!

-Felix
 
sba55 said:
Close - it's 5 holes and two groves. But I'm no good at electronics - I sort of like the inverter idea. I could get a MacBook from work and I believe that only uses about 20 Watt on average....


Good idea. Maybe I'll do both, just to be safe. And I'll be sure to turn the screen brightness down, too.

Thanks!

-Felix
Click to expand...

Screen brightness can easily make a 2-3 hour difference in battery life. Just hit <power> -> <up/down arrow> <enter> to adjust.
 
sba55 said:
Close - it's 5 holes and two groves. But I'm no good at electronics - I sort of like the inverter idea. I could get a MacBook from work and I believe that only uses about 20 Watt on average....
Click to expand...
It is all pretty simple math.

Watts = Volts * Amps

If your airplane is pushing 28 volts to the plug with a 5 amp CB that'll give you (28*5) 140 watts.
If your airplane is pushing 14 volts to the plug with a 5 amp CB that'll give you (14*5) 70 watts.

I just measured my 15" MacBook Pro with a multimeter at 84 watts in the following state:
Full Screen Brightness
Full Keyboard Brightness
Wireless On
Volume Full
Video Playing
Battery charging

I'm not sure what the 396 would draw. Garmin's specs don't say (it won't be much)--but I could measure it using Jason's if you really cared.

Keep in mind that a power inverter isn't going to be 100% efficient. I would guess they would be about 90%.
 
Well, neither the inverter nor the AC adapter are 100% efficient. The 396 ac adapter won't supply more than 15 watts, so I suspect that it'd use quite a bit less with a dimmer screen. The XM antenna appears to use up a LOT of power.

-Felix
 
sba55 said:
Well, neither the inverter nor the AC adapter are 100% efficient.
Click to expand...
As I said--the inverter isn't--so leave a good 10% of room there. I was measuring the power consumption WITH the ac adapter so the inefficiency of the adapter was part of the 84 watts. Worst case--you pop the CB.
 
Felix

I have a 496 and the cables are famous for falling apart when you remove them from the back of gps. I do not know if it's the same cable on 396. When I needed one in a hurry, Boat US sold the exact same part number for their marine GPS.

Garmin.com shows the same power cable for 396 / 496 - 010-10516 cable
 
sba55 said:
Good idea. Thanks!

I believe the airplane doesn't have that dropping resistor that Beech put in some of the 28v models, and I think the CB is good for 5 amps (I'll have to check). That should be enough for the GPS I imagine...maybe even a laptop?

-Felix
Click to expand...

Don't even think about plugging a 12v inverter into a 28v socket. The best result would be a dead inverter, the more likely outcome would be smoke.

You can purchase the car cord for the 396 at almost any shop that sells the GPS or online. I think the same connector might have been used on some Garmin marine products so you might check a boat store if that's more convenient. This connector is definitely Garmin specific and it's not used on many other Garmin products outside the x96 line.
 
jesse said:
It is all pretty simple math.

Watts = Volts * Amps

If your airplane is pushing 28 volts to the plug with a 5 amp CB that'll give you (28*5) 140 watts.
If your airplane is pushing 14 volts to the plug with a 5 amp CB that'll give you (14*5) 70 watts.

I just measured my 15" MacBook Pro with a multimeter at 84 watts in the following state:
Full Screen Brightness
Full Keyboard Brightness
Wireless On
Volume Full
Video Playing
Battery charging

I'm not sure what the 396 would draw. Garmin's specs don't say (it won't be much)--but I could measure it using Jason's if you really cared.

Keep in mind that a power inverter isn't going to be 100% efficient. I would guess they would be about 90%.
Click to expand...


IIRC the 296 I have draws about 1/4 amp at 28v. Worst case is charging the battery with the display on full bright and searching for satellites. I would expect the 396 to need another 1/10 amp or so. If the unit uses a switching internal supply (likely) the current will double when run on 12v.
 
OH - thanks, maybe I'll have time to check a boating store.

Lance - I'm electrically challenged, but not quite that stupid (although it's close ;)). The ship has a 14v system, so that will at least save me the step from 28->14 and I can just get what I think would be a fairly standard 12v inverter. Correct?

-Felix
 
sba55 said:
OH - thanks, maybe I'll have time to check a boating store.

Lance - I'm electrically challenged, but not quite that stupid (although it's close ;)). The ship has a 14v system, so that will at least save me the step from 28->14 and I can just get what I think would be a fairly standard 12v inverter. Correct?

-Felix
Click to expand...

Correct. The smallest I've seen is 35 or 50 W and that should do fine unless you also want to use it with a laptop.
 
Garmin is pretty good at shipping out replacement cables if you tell them your "connector came apart"

There is both a West Marine (that would probably have the cable for a 376C) and the Airport Shoppe (at RHV and PAO) that would probably stock the cable.

I really wouldn't mess with the inverter. I'm sure it would work just fine, but that is a lot of extra cables running around in the cockpit.
 
if you can access the battery, then you will see the amp hours listed on it. this is the number of hours the battery can supply one amp, or the number of amps the battery can supply for one hour. That should allow you to do some math with the knowledge of how many amps are drawn based on lance's and jesse's information. I could figure it out for you if you let me know the amp hours the battery is rated for.
 
AirBaker said:
Garmin is pretty good at shipping out replacement cables if you tell them your "connector came apart"

There is both a West Marine (that would probably have the cable for a 376C) and the Airport Shoppe (at RHV and PAO) that would probably stock the cable.

I really wouldn't mess with the inverter. I'm sure it would work just fine, but that is a lot of extra cables running around in the cockpit.
Click to expand...

I second that. A cable will be cheaper, more reliable, and less bulky than an inverter so unless you need the inverter for something else go for a cable.

Also if you do choose the inverter route, don't get the kind that's built into a plug like the one Jason posted a link to, that type is very abusive to the socket.
 
Lots of good advice here. I'll order a replacement cable from Garmin - it sounds like that's the best solution.

Thanks everybody!!

-Felix
 
rpadula said:
I have heard that Garmin redesigned these cables because of this problem.

-Rich
Click to expand...


I hope so, but 5-stars for their support. I've gone through a few cables. They'll even replace the battery pack if you give them the secret password.
 
Ok, Felix. I think I oversold the ability of the unit. After using our 396 on the way down here I can get about 4.5-4.75 hours with a dim screen and 4-4.25 hours with the screen set to the middle brightness with the XM plugged in. I can get up to 7 without the XM in the car, and that's what I was basing my comments on. Find a cable for a flight from that distance.
 
sba55 said:
Does anyone know if I can get an adapter at radio shack/etc? It seems unlikely, but...any ideas? It's too late to order one since I'm leaving on Thursday.

-Felix
Click to expand...

Felix,

I broke several of those connectors as they are hard to pull off from the GPS. I ended up cutting the cable and adding a quick disconnect to it so I can leave the cable attached to the GPS about 4-6 inches worth and so I don't have to fear it breaking as often.

Talk to Will at Gastons, he has seen my setup. I can help solder one for you if you want. But at least carry a spare if you don't do what I did as you will break the connector at the GPS side at some point.

I'f you want to see it let me know I'm based at PAO. I think you are too?

Ron
 
rklutts said:
Felix,

I broke several of those connectors as they are hard to pull off from the GPS.
Click to expand...

Same here... It helps, but not sure if it eliminates, the problem to make a ring of superglue around the connector where it comes apart. Garmin support says to pull straight back and not to wiggle the connector free.
 
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