I'm so compy illiterate that I can't get just the post in this thread that I want. Sorry, kids. But on the second page of this thread one of our members, X-YZman(he ridin a Honda now) gives some pretty good pointers on using a unit on your machine, and a couple links to places that have what you need to hook it up with.
http://midirtriders.com/vbulletin/forum ... d.php?t=38
Gps thread from my other board
Gps thread from my other board
Kalkaska, the inbred capital of Michigan. ....a place you can walk into the greeting card aisle and find one that reads "Happy Birthday Uncle Dad"
Originally Posted by "XYZ-Man"
"The low down on the gps battery's is....
The vibrations from the bikes motor causes the battery's to vibrate in the gps housing. The spots where the battery's touch each other (+ to -) will come apart slightly because of the vibrations. When that happens it sparks. That spark causes carbon arcing. With enough of that carbon arcing you will notice a little black spot on the ends of the battery and the metal pickups where the battery's touch. Because of that black spot the juice wont flow.
You can give the battery's a few twists to clean off the contacts and it will work for a while again.
But the best cure is to power it off the bikes power. As liquid said a KX and most MX bikes have no stator. Yep thats a problem.
If your bike has a stator you can get an inverter to convert the stator voltage to what the gps needs (either ac to dc i think) www.cycoactive.com sells them for like $50.
If your bike has electric start you have a battery. You can wire the gps direct to the battery with an inline fuse. cycoactive sells those also.
But if you have no battery, stator, and dont want to buy a lighting coil (yes they are available for the kx check www.electrexusa.com) There is still hope.
1. Dielectric grease is your friend. Lather all the electrical contacts with it.
2. If you have a gps like a e-trex where you have 4 battery's in pairs side by side with a big cover over them. What you can do is get some silicone and make little hershey kisses on the underside of the battery cover right over the battery's. When you put the cover on these little drops will help hold the battery's in place and keep them from vibrating.
3. My GPSv has the battery's sliding into a hole 2 deep so the silicone trick dont work for me. I take some black tape and tape the battery's end to end. Make sure that the battery's form a V when you tape them. So when you straighten them out it stretches the tape and holds that center connection tight. Kinda hard to explain.
So there ya go. A few tips for gps usage.
Oh I have a ram mount on mine that works awesome. Never had a single problem with it yet."
"The low down on the gps battery's is....
The vibrations from the bikes motor causes the battery's to vibrate in the gps housing. The spots where the battery's touch each other (+ to -) will come apart slightly because of the vibrations. When that happens it sparks. That spark causes carbon arcing. With enough of that carbon arcing you will notice a little black spot on the ends of the battery and the metal pickups where the battery's touch. Because of that black spot the juice wont flow.
You can give the battery's a few twists to clean off the contacts and it will work for a while again.
But the best cure is to power it off the bikes power. As liquid said a KX and most MX bikes have no stator. Yep thats a problem.
If your bike has a stator you can get an inverter to convert the stator voltage to what the gps needs (either ac to dc i think) www.cycoactive.com sells them for like $50.
If your bike has electric start you have a battery. You can wire the gps direct to the battery with an inline fuse. cycoactive sells those also.
But if you have no battery, stator, and dont want to buy a lighting coil (yes they are available for the kx check www.electrexusa.com) There is still hope.
1. Dielectric grease is your friend. Lather all the electrical contacts with it.
2. If you have a gps like a e-trex where you have 4 battery's in pairs side by side with a big cover over them. What you can do is get some silicone and make little hershey kisses on the underside of the battery cover right over the battery's. When you put the cover on these little drops will help hold the battery's in place and keep them from vibrating.
3. My GPSv has the battery's sliding into a hole 2 deep so the silicone trick dont work for me. I take some black tape and tape the battery's end to end. Make sure that the battery's form a V when you tape them. So when you straighten them out it stretches the tape and holds that center connection tight. Kinda hard to explain.
So there ya go. A few tips for gps usage.
Oh I have a ram mount on mine that works awesome. Never had a single problem with it yet."
-
RodeHard
Another good trick is to use NiMh rechargables. They last a lot longer than regular batteries and they are also a little larger in size so they will fit more tighter between the contact points.
I also took (soft side) velcro and taped it to the bottom of my GPS where it contacts the carrier. This drastically cuts down on vibration. In addition to that I use RAM rubber mounts. They also kill alot of the vibes.
I've been using the Garmin E-map GPS for years. They are cheap, ($50) compact and are pretty tough. With the proper software loaded pretty much anything that is a trail shows up. I think in the last 5 or 6 years I've only toasted a couple of them. One was from a crash, and the other was from riding in -10° below weather. The LCD didn't take too kindly to being frozen. Once it thawed it just stayed black.
I also took (soft side) velcro and taped it to the bottom of my GPS where it contacts the carrier. This drastically cuts down on vibration. In addition to that I use RAM rubber mounts. They also kill alot of the vibes.
I've been using the Garmin E-map GPS for years. They are cheap, ($50) compact and are pretty tough. With the proper software loaded pretty much anything that is a trail shows up. I think in the last 5 or 6 years I've only toasted a couple of them. One was from a crash, and the other was from riding in -10° below weather. The LCD didn't take too kindly to being frozen. Once it thawed it just stayed black.
