Garmin Quest power cradle FAILURE

[nick]

Last year I started a thread relating to Intermittent Power Supply to Quest. I cannot find it now, it must have been deleted.

This resulted in many theories about vibration etc... but I was never convinced.

Anyhow, Garmin were good enough to replace the power supply cradle and all seemed to be OK with the new one.

A couple of weeks ago it started to fail again. If I pushed the Quest hard into the mount it would restore power, but would fail again shortly afterwards.

So, I took the cradle apart and found the problem.

It is not water-tight, and the amount of oxidisation that occurs clearly affects conductivity ...

 

[nick]

Unfortunately, the amount of oxidisation that had occured had seriously weakend one of the contacts - these are simply "M" shaped springs. One had actually broken.

The circuit board labels these as (Left to Right) ...

TXD, RXD, VOICE, VGND, GND, VCHRG

The picture shows the TXD one removed, it was actually the VCHRG one that had broken.

I cleaned all the contacts and reassembled it but with the VOICE contact missing (I don't use it).

I am not sure what TXD and RXD do, I cannot think of how or what the Quest might Transmit or Receive via the power cradle!

It works reliably again, but I guess it will only be a matter of time before it fails again.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has the same problem, or if the contacts on the RAM power cradle are of a better design.

 

[RAM-man]

Unfortunately, the amount of oxidisation that had occured had seriously weakend one of the contacts - these are simply "M" shaped springs. One had actually broken.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has the same problem, or if the contacts on the RAM power cradle are of a better design.

Nick,

I am on record within the Forum as to my thoughts on the Garmin cradle. So lets take it as read. I assume the old threads can be viewed.

The RAM GA15 cradle has a slot and takes the QPAC moulded contact pad of which 4 pins are used. The QPAC connectors do differ from the Garmin design, QPAC are stronger, springy-er and reduces the possiblity for 'vibration induced shutdown' of the Quest itself. As to corrosion, I am unaware of any reported corrosion failures on the QPAC contact points. QPAC has gold plate contacts.

The 'real acid' test for this type of product was the recent T*I*T*S venture into the Sahara. If any ex- sahara kit parts remain, then a pm to Fanum (Bill) plus a few ££ donation towards 'bricks and cement for the hospital wall' - will help.

RAM-man

 

[PanEuropean]

Nick:

Thanks for posting those pictures. I'll forward a link to this thread to the Garmin engineers in Kansas.

Michael

 

[ianboydsnr]

I have the same quest mount, i used waterproof grease to cover the contacts and a bag over it if out overnight, hope it works in keeping out moisture, have not used in a while, so time will tell, not good quality though as it was expensive

 

[Deleted account 220427002]

I have the same quest mount, i used waterproof grease to cover the contacts and a bag over it if out overnight, hope it works in keeping out moisture, have not used in a while, so time will tell, not good quality though as it was expensive

white grease would seem like a good idea or maybe some vaseline

 

[ianf]

Is it on a permanent feed, or switched? - I'd imagine it'd go manky a lot faster if there was 12v permanent across it. My TT one is switched, and there's no sign of verdegris on any of the pins. (garaged mind).

 

[JohnC]

Could the Quest cradle not be dismantled and made watertight, say with silicone sealant? A bit of a poor show for Garmin that you would have to do this though. I've had mine for about a year now and touch wood no problems. I dont protect it from the rain but it's on a switched feed.

 

[nick]

When mounted on my Dakar, the power was permanent. The accessory socket does not switch off and I did not always unplug it.

Note the oxidisation in my photo is on the inside and may go un-noticed.

Using sealant may prevent the 'spring' contacts working, and won't prevent oxidisation on the outside anyway.

 

[JohnC]

Hmm, never experienced any oxidisation myself and I live by the sea, out in all weathers. Perhaps there is something we are missing here. Powered 50% of the time and looks as good as the day I bought it

 

[Schwarz Baron]

Would regular maintainence, not help solve the problem, as with everything we buy, after all would we blame the tyre company because we hadn't put air in over the Winter, and it was flat in the Spring, 'Bloody Metzler, I'm not buyin them again' . I always thought, exposed contacts would need a little regular maintainence

 

[nick]

I always thought, exposed contacts would need a little regular maintainence

The oxidised contacts are on the inside so easily go unseen. You need to disassemble the mount.

Of course I cleaned the outside, exposed contacts

 

[gsron]

Hi Nick,

I had the same problem after 12mths, not long for some thing as expensive as this I feel. Any way split the unit and removed the two contacts from the left and changed them for two that were corroded, one was broken as it turned out. Coated the contacts and mateing faces with vaseline and reassembled, works fine including the voice prompt which I use...... I think the terminals that I removed are for marine use, but not sure.

The bike is garaged but if it's raining and outside it gets a plastic bag over it's head with an elastic band around it. This has proved to be successful........ touch wood for me, over two years.

I'll go with a ram mount next time if the quest stays the course, as the Garmin mount is poor quality and obviously not water tight!!!

GS Ron

 

[Fanum]

FWIW, I don't think this is a RAM problem or a GARMIN problem...it's just physics.

I've had two power leads fail in my Touratech mount- same problem, the cathodic action rotting away the copper terminal.

It's cured by not having the cradle powered up when the Quest is out of the cradle- or at least delayed by such a large degree that it's unlikely to affect the average user's cradle.

No power=no cathodic action

 

[Twotter]

Had this happen on myh first Quest cradle, got it replaced and after that I applied some advice that Cookie (I think) offered.

If you're not using the GPS then pull the fuse and you don't get the problem - easy peasy

 

[Bumpkin]

Depending on the angle that your cradle is mounted water forms a puddle that has nowhere to go but into the unit. I drilled three small drain holes in the bottom inner edge of mine as a precaution although I might need to make them a little bigger to be effective.

I doubt if the ingress of rain combined with cathodic corrosion will be too much of an issue for me as my cradle is 1/ switched with the ignition and 2/ removed from the bike when not in use.