Garmin Zumo cradle modification: Part I

[MarkW]

For no reason other than that I'm bored at home on a rainy day I thought I'd finally get around to fettling the satnav cradle for my Harley. I know this is hardly riveting stuff, but humour me...

Shortly after acquiring my faithful old ZZR1200 I bought a Garmin Zumo for my jaunts across Europe, which I hard-wired into the ignition. It's been a great unit, but it does have a whole load of wiring for accessories I never use. Hiding it all under the fuel tank and behind bits of fairing was easy on the Zed, but I don't want it permanently attached to the Harley. A simple stripped-down powered cradle that can be plugged into the 12v accessory socket in the fairing without a bunch of other cables flapping around is what's needed:

Too much linguine!

 

Chop it all off:

 

Unscrew the ball mount and rear cover:

 

There are two red and two black wires to the cradle. These two supply the power - all the others can be chopped off:

 

Find the other end of the two power wires. They are wrapped together separately, whereas the other red and black are wrapped with a white and a green wire. A continuity tester comes in handy if you're stuck:

 

Part II coming up...

[mikestrivens]

As a matter of interest what are the other cables for?

I was toying with getting a Garmin and this bike attachment but I have been happy using Waze on my iPhone so far. I do need a permanent power supply for it though.

[raesewell]

The other cables are for various things like traffic dongle, Tyre pressure monitors etc.

Just looked at the manual, not tyre pressure monitors but mike input, headphone output and traffic dongle.

[JRH]

As a matter of interest what are the other cables for?

I was toying with getting a Garmin and this bike attachment but I have been happy using Waze on my iPhone so far. I do need a permanent power supply for it though.

 

USB port

Stereo audio out

Stereo audio in

Microphone in

And power

See here http://static.garmin.com/pumac/zumo_590_Wiring_Specs_EN.pdf

[Gerontious]

Ive had a Garmin Zumo 660 since 2010.. now 8 years old and still going strong.

I had a problem updating the maps and after a call to Garmin customer support.. they asked me to return it to them. They updated the software and mapping. gave me lifetime maps and a 16gig SD card, new battery and then returned it to me by special delivery.. all for £50, Remarkable as the gadget was at the time 7yrs old. I thought it had had it and was going to be forced to replace it.

Its done me proud over the years.. enabling hassle free tours across europe and preventing problems.. like when one of the guys forgot to fill his tank and finding a fuel stop became an emergency.

I dont use any of its extra features.. just its screen. sound muted.

all in all a great piece of kit. Garmin are highly recommended by me.. and their customer support (Southampton) is fantastic.

[MarkW]

Ive had a Garmin Zumo 660 since 2010.. now 8 years old and still going strong.

I had a problem updating the maps and after a call to Garmin customer support.. they asked me to return it to them. They updated the software and mapping. gave me lifetime maps and a 16gig SD card, new battery and then returned it to me by special delivery.. all for £50, Remarkable as the gadget was at the time 7yrs old. I thought it had had it and was going to be forced to replace it.

Its done me proud over the years.. enabling hassle free tours across europe and preventing problems.. like when one of the guys forgot to fill his tank and finding a fuel stop became an emergency.

I dont use any of its extra features.. just its screen. sound muted.

all in all a great piece of kit. Garmin are highly recommended by me.. and their customer support (Southampton) is fantastic.

 

That's pretty impressive customer service!

I must admit I've been really happy with mine, and it is certainly considerably better than the one out of the car that I used to shove in my tankbag: you couldn't disable auto-flip on the display, so every time you went round a corner you had to try to read the thing upside down!

[Stu]

I did this to my zumo 590 when I first got it about 2 years ago!

The length of some of the wiring is crazy!