Mounting and Power... Nuvi 550

richie

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Allihies again.. but off to Asia soon....
Waiting for delivery so excuse the questions which maybe answered once I have the unit.
1. is the car cradle supplied suitable for mounting to the bike, I see on eblag people offering a mount with a ram like ball to be used for the 550 car mount.

2. Is it possible to cut the car power adapter and connect it via a fuse to the bike.

Or are there other reasonable priced options which would be better.

Thanks

PS Arsey I have mapsource 2008 and the Nuvi is 2010 I guess I can still send routes to the unit as it'll recalculate with new maps....

Sorry that's question number three:augie
 
Hi Ritchie.

1. The car mount has a sucker which which you put on the windscreen the cradle does come off but I would not trust this to use as a bike mount it is too flimsy.

2. Do not cut cables the car adapter has a voltage divider to drop voltage from 13 volts down to whatever the mini USB uses (3V?)

3. Mapsource will work with routes and waypoints the mapping is a different version so you will get strange things happening with routes like straight lines at junctions and bends and linking across to roads on the nuvi from the older mapsource mapping data. Also the nuvi has lots more points of interest on than your old mapource like camp grounds etc. In the end I updated Mapsource to the same version as the nuvi as they both have the same data on and easier to plan routes. An other advantage using mapsource V10 is you can do round trips without mapsource putting the route all over the place.
 
Small point, but all USB is 5 volts.

If I was going to do this I'd run a 550 in a waterproof tank bag, with a BMW to ciggy lighter adaptor which you can get from places like Nippy's.

But what I did was buy a Zumo, which is much less pfaff...
 
Hi thanks slowdown did not know what the voltage was except it was a lot less than 13.8v and that more to the point Ritchie would have fried his new nuvi.

I have used a tank bag before with a GPS unit but I found it not very good as it reflected the sky and made it hard to see although it is a fix if you do not want to buy the mounting hardware.

If you want a better version of a program than your old mapsource you can download Tyre it is free uses Google maps and you can download routes to your Nuvi using the USB connection to your Nuvi.

http://www.tyre.tk/

The nuvi will work 6-7 hours without power if you are doing wee day trips if you are touring try these guys for a power cable

http://www.locatis.eu/index.php?pag...n=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26&vmcchk=1&Itemid=26

If you are going to mount the unit on a GS using ram mount then you will need RAM-HOL-GA32U £9.99 for the nuvi and RAM-B-149ZU £31.99 for mounting this on the Handle bars plus vat.

available here:-
http://www.buybits.com/search.aspx?q=RAM-B-149ZU
 
Hi thanks slowdown did not know what the voltage was except it was a lot less than 13.8v and that more to the point Ritchie would have fried his new nuvi.

I have used a tank bag before with a GPS unit but I found it not very good as it reflected the sky and made it hard to see although it is a fix if you do not want to buy the mounting hardware.

If you want a better version of a program than your old mapsource you can download Tyre it is free uses Google maps and you can download routes to your Nuvi using the USB connection to your Nuvi.

http://www.tyre.tk/

The nuvi will work 6-7 hours without power if you are doing wee day trips if you are touring try these guys for a power cable

http://www.locatis.eu/index.php?pag...n=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26&vmcchk=1&Itemid=26

If you are going to mount the unit on a GS using ram mount then you will need RAM-HOL-GA32U £9.99 for the nuvi and RAM-B-149ZU £31.99 for mounting this on the Handle bars plus vat.

available here:-
http://www.buybits.com/search.aspx?q=RAM-B-149ZU

Cheers again,

Once it arrives I will check out the power lead and see where the DC reducer is...
I already have a ram arm and handlebar ball so only need a cradle...
 


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