Imamane - Thanks for your suggestions, which I tried.
First I tried changing the “Device Type” to “Car Stereo”. Unfortunately, that didn’t make a difference.
Then, I tried using the Voice Memos app to play recordings when the iPad was connected via BT to the GMA35C with the MiraCheck app not running. Those Memos played fine and I could hear them in my PFX headset, but I was not able to record anything on Voice Memos using the connected PFX headset microphone. Interestingly, however, if I then launched MiraCheck, the same thing happened: I could hear Mira and Voice Memos, until I activated the microphone on Mira, and then I could no longer hear either Mira or Voice Memos in my PFX headset!
I have been having some issues running MiraCheck as a slide-over app on my iPad Mini IV. Frequently MiraCheck crashes and sometimes it takes down Garmin Pilot as well. And to further complicate the situation in flight, when I “resume” MiraCheck, it starts all over at the beginning, not picking up where I left off before the crash. Very frustrating when also trying to focus on flying the airplane.
Consequently, I have been running MiraCheck separately on my cellphone (a Samsung Galaxy S10) and Garmin Pilot on the iPad.
Yesterday, I discovered a solution to the “Two Headsets” issue, at least for pilots using an Android device and bluetooth headsets. It turns out that Samsung Galaxy cellphones from the S8 and newer models (not sure about other Android devices) include a feature known as “Dual Audio”, which permits the audio output from the phone to be broadcast simultaneously to two bluetooth devices (headsets in our case). A little tricky to set up the first time, but then turns right on and is as reliable as the bluetooth connection of your phone to your car audio system.
The Dual Audio function was designed to permit users to play their over two devices, such as two separate sets of BT speakers or two separate sets of BT earbuds.
BTW, I forgot to mention that the Dual Audio feature doesn’t seem to work if your BT connection is set for Dual Audio and Calling! When making the connection click on the gear and select Dual Audio only.
I know no customer wants to hear it, but trying to introduce new features as well as support aging devices is an age old problem. Typically when devices get 4 or 5 years out it is hard to keep supporting them effectively or it holds things back. There are definitely many factors of being able to utilize multi-tasking on an iPad. The iPad Mini 4 is 6+ years old and only has 2GB of memory. Garmin Pilot, as well as ForeFlight, are very resource intensive apps and over the years also keep moving forward. The latest release of MiraCheck is also resource intensive, especially if trying to utilize some of the new features where thousands of airport info can be queried with your voice. If you aren’t going to utilize that feature then you can toggle it OFF and it may help some.
Thanks for your post here John. I did do some testing on this Android feature and found it very finicky. Your persistence is appreciated. For Android users the have those devices it is great that it can be done. Apple also supports dual audio but of course it is Apple and only works with their own headphones like AirPods.
One question on the Android solution. Does it work if you turn the mic on one of the phones to be able to control Mira with your voice? If so, if both phones turn on the mic, does it allows either to control the checklist with voice?
My apologies and an update to my recent post concerning sending audio from Mira running on an Samsung Galaxy cellphone to two headsets: Upon further testing today, it looks like the Android Dual Audio feature is indeed sending audio via BT connections simultaneously to two Lightspeed PFX headsets. However, unfortunately, it appears that the communication is only one-way, from Mira to the two headsets (pilot and copilot can both hear Mira) and not from either headset mic back to Mira (neither pilot nor copilot headset mics are “heard” by Mira). Apparently, when I was “checking” items on the Mira checklist, my voice was being picked up by the mic in the nearby cellphone running Mira and not by the mic in either headset!
Yes, you are seeing the finicky aspects I talked about. FYI, you can press-and-hold the Audio icon in the Quickbar at the bottom to see the current audio status which will show what inputs and outputs are being used.
I confirm that the copilot hears Miracheck, too.
The setup I described is significantly spoiled by the fact that Miracheck hears all the radio chatter from ATC and other aircraft, and thus it is not possible to give it commands while anyone is speaking on the radio. I’ll look into whether that can be changed in the GMA35c configuration, but I haven’t found something up to now.
Having used that setup in several flights not, I have also had the occurence that sometimes Miracheck seems not to get any sound in. Then later in the flight, it just starts working. Not sure why, I didn’t have the mental bandwidth to debug (busy flights).
