... was gonna hardwire my Garmin 200W seeing as I HATE the wires showing across the dash, and since I have an auto charger for my old Razr, I figured I'd hack that up rather than the OEM cable.
Before doing this, I plugged the cable into the 12V, and then into the GPS... problem is, I get the screen I normally see when I hook the Garmin to the PC. I don't get the maps or anything.

What am I missing here?

TIA!

 

Does the Garmin charger plug into the same port? The Razr charger is mini-USB.

 

Probably has something to do with the fact you are using a Razr charger with a GPS.

 

My Garmin cannot be powered for normal use through it's USB port. Its simply a data interface port and only supplies 5v at very low current.

 

The port on the Garmin is the "mini port" just like the Razr.



I wouldn't think there's much of a difference wiring wise.

 

Probably different voltages and amperages.

Also, as a side fact... NEVER use an adapter that didn't come with the unit.

So many people think that, "Oh it fits, it should work..." till it starts smoking or burning... or there is a nice loud pop of a capacitor popping.

 

I try to explain that to my wife. her's isn't a Garmen. It is one she bought off the Shopping Channel. But anyway she just got it back from a $50 repair.

 

only garmin chargers will charge the units. The amperages are different, and I also wanna say they are pinned differently...

 

I used some extra wire I had laying around to lengthen the cable on my Garmin for the same reason. Then I ran it under the carpet all the way to the rear 12v outlet. It was pretty simple to do as long as you're not worried about messing up your original cable on the Garmin charger. It's just the hot wire wrapped in insulation and the insulation is surrounded by the ground wire. I cut into it, pulled apart all the surrounding ground wire and twisted it up. Connected that to about 5ft extra wire. Then pulled back the insulation around the hot wire and connected that to another extra 5ft of wire. Did that at both ends where I cut. Soldered, heat shrunk, etc...works like a charm.

 

If the Garmin was going to stay in my truck, I'd just hack the cable. The wife will more than likely use it once in awhile though in hers, so I'll prolly just run an extension from the rear 12V, up the A-pillar and down behind the mirror.

 

My Garmin (probably like most) only came with a car charger, which makes sense. I use my cell phone charger to charge it in the house and I use my USB cable for my phone to the computer to hook it up to the computer.

 

I tried using the house charger to charge the Garmin... same result. I get the same screen as when it's hooked to the PC.

It's weird, maybe never meant to be.

 

Hmm - that's mini-USB, which is a standard. 5 volts. Dunno why it thinks it's a computer.

 

Why are you guys hacking the charger all apart? Just solder your ground to the metal "clips" on the side of the charger and your positive wire to the tip. Wrap it tightly in electrical tape and your golden.

And dont forget, extra car chargers at bestbuy for $20

 

Mine does that too on a standard charger. If I wait long enough it will go to the navigation screen after it fails to sync up because there is no computer there.