Replacing Hand Mic on Garmin VHF-215 AIS

[JDubya]

Has anyone had any issues replacing their microphone on their VHF bridge-to-bridge radio? Mine is not working with either the old mic or a replacement that I bought. I'm wondering if anyone has done this before and found it to not really be a "plug and play" situation.

Background is, I bumped into the jack on my VHF handset and broke the outer plastic casing. Wires remained intact and I was still able to talk on it.

In researching a replacement, I came across the Garmin GHS-11 https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/568161#devices, which is listed as compatible with my VHF-215 AIS radio. This seemed like a great solution to me compared to the standard mic, because I struggle to read the radio's display from up in the helm seat since it's installed below the switch row on the C-30S and is not in a great line of sight.

I swapped the mics with the whole system (chartplotters, GHC-20, etc.) off, and powered on with no joy. Google & TugNuts searches don't yield any advice specifically for the 215. I did find some firmware related solutions for connecting to the Garmin VHF-210, but the steps I found to solve that haven't worked for me. The instructions both installation and operator's manual are silent on connecting the microphone.

When I go into the system info and run the self test, there's a line that says "Mic: No." Powering off and plugging the old mic back in doesn't work now either, same results in the self test.

I verified there are no bent/broken pins in the connector on the radio itself. I'm just not seeing anything else that's obvious for this one.

Any thoughts or previous experiences are welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

[gswearin]

I have this unit and tried to simply plug into the existing mic. Didn't work but plugged into the back of the unit and drilled a hole, works well but a bit ugly. Happy to chat about it.

 

[JDubya]

I called Garmin support today, they informed me that the GHS 11 handset has to be plugged into the back of the radio. I guess (in 20/20 hindsight) that makes sense since it’s intended to be used as a remote station away from the head unit.

I’m not sure I want to drill new holes just to route the GHS 11 handset to the front of the head unit, so I’ll likely just replace the basic mic and consider where/how to use the 11 as a remote station.

 

[Red Raven]

…

I’m not sure I want to drill new holes just to route the GHS 11 handset to the front of the head unit, so I’ll likely just replace the basic mic and consider where/how to use the 11 as a remote station.

Why not? I did and I highly recommend it. I can see the radio info on the handset easily where I could not see it at all before. I made a custom mount at an angle on the dash such that it was directly in my vision.

A hole is a hole wherever you put it in the boat!

Curt

 

[JDubya]

I’d be concerned about managing the upholstered (pleather) dashboard panel behind the helm wheel around all the other electronics, I guess. I haven’t looked closely at whether that could come off easily enough to do the work. I’ll have to give it more thought and research.

It would be nice to have the VHF display info in a more visible location, for sure!

 

[Red Raven]

I’d be concerned about managing the upholstered (pleather) dashboard panel behind the helm wheel around all the other electronics, I guess. I haven’t looked closely at whether that could come off easily enough to do the work. I’ll have to give it more thought and research.

It would be nice to have the VHF display info in a more visible location, for sure!

The handset should come with a bezel to cover the pleather around the hole. I used a sharp utility knife to cut the hole in the pleather first so it doesn’t tear. Check for any wires and electronics behind the panel before drilling. All the extra wire for the handset is coiled neatly behind the dash.

Curt

 

[Toucan]

We also replaced the mic so that we could see the info. The hole is easily made for the cord using a Forstner bit, Turn the bit backwards to cut through the upholstery, then forward to cut through the wood. Hold the upholstery down to the wood and run a vacuum cleaner when cutting the wood to minimize wood chips falling between the upholstery and the wood.

Barry Thompson
TOUCAN, R-27 Classic

 

[Kgcmflyer]

Here is my experience when adding the GHSII Remote HandMike to a 2019 C302S….I decided to add this as well to enable better reading of the screen without having to put my head down near the front of the radio to read…..My solution after looking for spots to mount the “through dash” mount and trim ring was to run the cable from back of radio to over under the throttle controls and exit without drilling a hole…Then mounted the Remote Mike holder to Starboard side of Starboard Garmin Plotter. This location put the new remote Hand Mike right in my field of view….and it is easy to retrieve…..My main concern with putting the “through dash” mount in the panel with trim ring was that the length of the plastic end of the wire provided would not be long enough to fit through the Vinyl Dash, backing wood and sub-structure fiberglass…..Almost anywhere on the dash that was available and desired, would require drilling a larger hole from behind head/bathroom mirror access and then drilling a smaller hole in the wood/vinyl structure to make it work…..There just wasn’t good access from behind panel to get a drill in the right spot…(maybe a small right angle drill could have worked) anyway, that is when I decided to go the other route….After fishing the Garmin remote wire from behind the mirror to the starboard side opening beside the dash, I retrieved it from a removed cup holder and brought it out into the helm station, made the connection to the handmike and then secured the connection hidden back into the area under the throttles…..(There is a 1/2 inch space between throttle vinyl surround structure and hidden/covered fiberglass structure)…I figured tucking the connection back up in there would prevent a similar problem like the original mention from the first post about damaging the connection protruding from the radio….Also, the GHSII did not work with my 210 AIS unit even though I had the 3.0 software as stated in the included instructions….I did an update to the 210 unit to 4.4? Software and the GHSII now works well. Did software update through Active Captain, although the 210 is not listed in my devices….Active Captain DID update the 210 software….Patience, as it took over 2 hours for the updates to transfer and process……And YES, I did the testing/software/validation PRYOR to install…..Hope this helps….Cheers……Mark