gps install

[vandy]

I just bought a decent 5" garmin pluss a stem mount setup with a new cradle but I havent seen too much on the electrical instalation of the unit itself..

Is there a decent weather proof lighter type receptical or do i have to splice the original wires for the bike and then get a new cable for the car?

 

[Fairlaner]

yes....

R

 

[kenporider]

yes....
R

Sometimes life's questions can be answered in the most simple terms. :good:

You basically have the option to either hard wire directly to the bike or you can purchase a 12v outlet and use that. I'm assuming it's not a Zumo, in which case I'd go for the later option. Most here use Powerlet for their 12v needs, there are also other options for marine grade cig lighters.

So, as Fairlaner said....yes....

 

[BIODSL]

I just bought a decent 5" garmin pluss a stem mount setup with a new cradle but I havent seen too much on the electrical instalation of the unit itself..Is there a decent weather proof lighter type receptical or do i have to splice the original wires for the bike and then get a new cable for the car?

vandy...nice signature line If this is the only electronic farkle you plan to add, wire it to the battery and be done with it. If you even think there more you'll add later, it's time to get some type of fuse block. I like Curt Gran's unit found here It costs more than some but the relay is built in and it allows you to wire each device either hot or switched. A nice primer on wiring can be found at the Iron Butt Association fourm here.

 

[Bounce]

I just bought a decent 5" garmin pluss a stem mount setup with a new cradle but I havent seen too much on the electrical instalation of the unit itself..Is there a decent weather proof lighter type receptical or do i have to splice the original wires for the bike and then get a new cable for the car?

Get the Garmin hard wire kit. You'll be glad you did.

There's also this as a place to start considering.

 

[vandy]

It looks like I'm going to go with the hard wired into the bike route.

I found a Garmin cable in the flee market for 5 bucks so its not going to brake the bank on me.

Now I need to bust open the lighter end to figure out which one is the positive and which one is the negative end..

At least I assume that it makes a differance.

 

[Bounce]

My garmin hard wire kit was bare wires on the end. No cigar lighter tip on it (otherwise it's the cigar lighter wire and not the hard wire). If you mean the cigar lighter socket, then don't bother; go back to battery.

 

[vandy]

I bought the wire that goes from the garmin to the cigar lighter. I am planing in taking apart the male end and running that to the battery after I determin the hot wire. I won't need a relay because the Garmin will not be on the motorcycle If I am not. I think the center of the cigar lighter is the hot wire but I am not sure yet.. I should be able to find an old female end from a car or something to see if the side or center is the hot area.

 

[user 17287]

You are right the center is the hot (that is where there is a fuse) and the side is ground. If it is like mine I wanted to splice off the cigar lighter end and use those wires however when I took apart the cigar lighter end it had a computer board in it that reduced 12v to approx 5v. Turns out the Garmin I had only needed 5 volts to run so I had to keep the computer board in place and run my wires from that. Not all Garmins use 5 volts, my other 2 Garmins use 12V.

 

[vandy]

Which garmin used the 5 volt. the oldest one or the newest one?

 

[Bounce]

Probably the newer ones. I've had an original (monochrome) Street Pilot and a 2610 and neither had any step-down boards in their hard-wired kits.

Watch for things like fuses when removing cigar light plugs, too. A lot of gadgets hide them there when you get that kind of cable. That's why, over the years, I've gone to using the OEM hard wire kits for my GPS and V1 installations.

 

[LAF]

MY 2820 needed nothing between it and unless something is built into the cradle of my Zumo 660 it needs nothing except hot and ground also.

I would recommend a fuse block of some type and a relay. I have used a Centech, and have recently purchased the Fuze Block. It is just so easy and nice to have a single point to go to in case of power issues. No inline fuses so you save space and points of failure. And it protects your electronics and other "stuff" being fused.

You for sure can just hit the battery but remember it is always on, so your GPS will be also. You have to remember to turn it off when you stop, or when you park it for the night. Keep or put a inline fuse in it.

 

[user 17287]

It depends on the GPS unit itself not the age of it. Which Garmin do you have? My Nuvi (not bike specific ) runs at 5v My Garmin G V and 60CX can use anywhere from 4V up to 30 something Volts. This info can be found in the owners manual. With Garmin (not sure on other brands) you can download the owners manual if you don"t have it.

ps I just tapped into the wires on the back of the socket in the glove box that way it was already fused by the bike It will also go on and off when I start/shut off the bike.

 

[vandy]

Well my garmin is a nuvi 1490t and I guess that would put me at the 5 volt also. Knowing what I know now the flee market garmin cable might be worthless to me, If i need a 5 volt and the other cable is the normal cable delivering 12 volts it wont help me at all..

I guess I can mount a lighter adapter inside of the glovebox and that way my cable will still be saved. I went back to the garmin manual download and cant find anything about 5v or 12v sys.. but I did see somthing about a 5w max for my system.

I did try to find the Garmin wiring kit but no luck.

 

[user 17287]

if you have a solder iron you can still use the cable. What i did is took apart the part that plugs into the cigar lighter and soldered in a wire in the same place as where the fuse wire is soldered to, this is the + side. This will eliminate the fuse that is in the part you bought at a garage sale, but like I said earlier the bike already has a fuse to its cigar lighter. I ran this wire and spliced it in to the bikes wiring under the glove box. I did the same with a ground wire. This makes for a ugly big lump but there is a lot of room under the glove box to hide this connector you just soldered into.

EDIT...hold everything...gpscity.com has your cable for $21 go to the web site type in your model in the search, and under your model they list the cable(right under the extended warranty they offer). I see in the notes it will not work with my Nuvi but I already made the above work for me.

 

[DANA]

I just installed a Garmin Nuvi 1490T on my FJR. The power lead also has the traffic antenna built in so I didn't think chopping up the power cable was a good idea. I added a weatherproof power outlet, which I bought at the parts store, under the seat. This way I could just plug in the supplied cable and everything would work correctly. I made a bracket and mounted the Fuzeblock FZ-1 under the seat back by the tailights. I then wired the power outlet for the nav system and wired the radar detector to the Fuzeblock. And yes, the 1490T is a 12 volt system.

 

[bramfrank]

A couple of things to consider;

1. If the power plug on the adapter you are wiring in has a LED, do not connect it to the battery directly, as it will drain it completely after remarkably little time

2. I used a conventional cigarette lighter socket to power the traffic receiver I have plugged into the USB connector of my Zumo - I took one of those 'socket octopus' things that I bought at a dollar store and cut one off and wired it to my switched fuse block (underseat). To keep it from vibrating out of the socket I used a tie wrap to keep the plug from backing out.

You can do the same with your power cord . . . route it under the tank.

I don't think there's any point to buying a waterproof connector for underseat installation - it doesn't get wet there and the plug on the power cord isn't protected either.

 

[tmc]

I installed a West Marine 12v outlet in the "D" panel. GPS is on a Rambone and I just zip tied the excess cord and plug it in.

Simple, easy to install/remove, and not in the way at all.

 

[vandy]

I'm not the first owner of this bike and one of the former owners installed a plug receptacal on the fairing panel under the rt handlebar.

This outlet won't work for my unit but due to the fact that there was a hole already drilled there I think I will try to install a waterproof outlet in this area unless it is extremely ugly.. My garmin will not be installed on my bike most of the time, just on trips outside of the city so a unused covered plug will be OK there, and I wont mind a lighter plug sticking up in the air for those other occasions when the gps will come in handy. I wish I could have afforded a zumo but the nuvi was more at the end of my budget with the bad luck I have had this year.

Other that being water proof does the zumo really offer that much more that i would use?