Hardwiring a GPS

[darren]

Hey all!

Just bought Garmin power cable (010-10082-00) for hard wire installation of new GPS to my Adventure. Anyone know best place to wire it to and any tips (laymans terms please) or should I get BMW to do it. Can't be difficult can it?

Darren

 

[Paul G (BHT)]

Darren, I wired mine straight to the + - terminals of the battery. This way the socket is permanently live. Just remove the tank and make sure you route and secure the cable in a suitable place.

 

[Rob Farmer]

Darran,

The 1100 has an auxillary fuse, Fuse 3, that is permanently live. This fuse supplies power to the Auxillary socket, The indicators, alarm (if fitted) and the RID. The RID is the closest place to the handlebars to pick up power. If you remove the windscreen to get to the instrument display then remove the back of the display to get to the wiring there are two wires Red/White(+) and brown (-) that you need to connect to. Use a scotch lock (little blue thing from Halfords for joining wires) to connect your GPS lead into the GS wiring. Reasemble the instrument cluster and replace the windscreen and it's all done...Simple?

Personally I would connect it across the battery!

Cheers

Rob Farmer

 

[legger]

bmw navigator

Hi everyone

as anyone come accross this problem before, i just bought a bmw navigator on friday, and every time i use the find menu, i ask it to look for pubs/disco's or theme parks, and other look for menus, the navigator not only crashes, but turn itself of, the only thing i have done to it since friday is load part of the uk from mapsource to the data card, am i doing something wrong or is there a fault.


Andy.

 

[darren]

Legger:

I had this problem on the loaner from Rainbow. I since bought one from them and sorted mine. Trick is to go to Garmins website and download latest update (2.32 I think). While you're there download latest Mapsource update (4.09)...Problem should be solved.

Url's are:
http://www.garmin.com/products/spIII/download.html

http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/download.html

 

[legger]

Darren

Thank's for that one darren, did yours also switch its self of???, which mount did you end up buying, ive been told the bmw one allows the unit to vibrate to much and thus renderes the antena us only after a few thousand miles.



Andy.

 

[Paul Hennessey]

Hi Legger

I have a Garmin GPS V and went for the Touratech Rallye Mount, I think they make similar for the StreetPilot which would fit your BMW unit..

According to Touratech's technical info, units exposed to 'overlanding' on a bike were found to be subjected to more than 40 g's of vibration (ie 40 times the force of gravity) which soon wrecks the internal electronics!! With the Rallye mount on those forces were effectively reduced to below 1 g !!! which I thought was pretty impressive, thus protecting your investment. (The mount looks incredibly sexy too, like it just came out of the space shuttle!)

The only thing I find disconcerting is that when you encounter severe vibration, the GPS looks as if it is being shaken to death but this is actually you and everything else being shaken to death whilst your GPS unit remains almost stationary!!

Cost about 85 quid from www.touratech.co.uk expensive yes but a lot less than 500 quid to replace my GPS V. Touratech will also retrofit your GPS to make it even more resilient.... I think they fill the casing with resin or similar which stops the circuit boards from throwing all the components out of thier sockets!

Hope this helps
Paul

 

[legger]

Thanks paul

Thanks paul, im just gonna go to touratech site and see if i can get rid of £80 quid.

 

[darren]

legger: Yep, mine turned itself off too. Let me know about the Touratech mount, I just got the BMW one but haven't got time to change it before my trip to Greece next week. Think I will change to the Touratech one, if I have any dosh left after my hols! Have you got your Adventure yet?

Darren

 

[Paul Hennessey]

With reference to the turning itself off thingy!!

Apparently, when subjected to vibration the batteries in the units move around and momentarily break contact, this is why they shut down! Also, having this happen all the time causes a small arc between the battery and the terminal so eventually a layer of carbon will form on the terminals making the matter worse over time.

The Touratech mount does make a difference, I've just come back from 10 days in the Pyrenees and my GPS V only shut down twice... If you knew what I'd subjected it to you'd agree that this was a miracle in itself!!!

The only way to stop the shutdown happening (so I'm led to believe although I haven't got round to doing it myself yet) is to hardwire it to the bikes electrical system....... The original heading of this thread!!! The other nice thing about the Touratech mounts (well definately the one for the V anyway) is that you can permanently fix the power lead to the mount so every time you stick your GPS on the power coupling is automatically connected!

Paul

 

[darren]

Thanks for that Paul. However, in my case it was definately a glitch in the unit software causing is to switch off, as it did it both on and off the bike. Rainbow also said that most of the units had this glitch. Downloaded latest version and now sorted. Glad to know about the vibration thing though, looks like I'll have to save for a Touratech one...Bu#ger!

Cheers, Darren