Anyone got a Montana and Rugged Mount I can use to test my device please?

AustinW

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I am having a bit of trouble with my Garmin Montana and / or the rugged mount. Basically the Montana won't pick up the bike's power from the rugged mount, or it does but intermittently. The device works fine on battery. I have power (12.5v) at the correct pin on the mount and have been through the wiring just in case there was an iffy connection (there wasn't). I suspect its the GPS rather than the device but I would like to put it on another Rugged mount to check (and to put another device on my mount to double check) before I rip into Garmin as this was a replacement only a few weeks back. I have a spare battery and have installed that but no difference either.

Anyone within a couple of hours ride of Garstang/Preston/Lancaster ?

Unless anyone knows of a secret setting I have unwittingly changed.
 
I'm not up your way but if you are ever in n Wales give me a shout.

Only thought (other than the obvious loose battery connection or broken wire), is whether your bike's generated voltage is staying above the required voltage for the Garmin. Eg - when starting my TE449 then the Garmin will go onto it's own battery, but I don't suffer this on my xchallenge or GS. I also had voltage issues on my of TE310 and DRZE.
 
I'm not up your way but if you are ever in n Wales give me a shout.

Only thought (other than the obvious loose battery connection or broken wire), is whether your bike's generated voltage is staying above the required voltage for the Garmin. Eg - when starting my TE449 then the Garmin will go onto it's own battery, but I don't suffer this on my xchallenge or GS. I also had voltage issues on my of TE310 and DRZE.

Thanks, I may take you up though. Your profile says Flintshire so not that far and a good excuse for a ride. I will leave it a couple of days to see if anything else comes up and to do a bit more fettling and testing.

The Garmin should run on anything between 10v and 50v. I am beginning to think its a connection problem between the device and the mount although all seems ok but will eliminate everything else first.
 
Just a thought It doesnt' have to be the AMPS rugged mount. Any powered Montana specific mount would test whether its my device or not. Thanks.

This morning I have checked the following:
Power at mount = 12,8v and 14.4volts with the engine running.
Pins on the mount are clean move freely and have power all the time.
Battery removed from Montana and connections cleaned.
Master reset on the montana.

None of the above have made any difference.

I also tried to power up the Garmin from a 12v supply put directly through the connectors. It wouldn't start up.

The montana powers up normally on its own batteries and charges as normal from mains or USB.

I am about to go and check if the CanBus is powering down under the load of charging the Montana.

Any other thoughts, else I will be returning it to Garmin tomorrow.
 
Bugger, it's starting work ok now which would be fine if I had fixed something but I haven't. I suspect it will be ok for a week or so then go off and on intermittently before failing for a while. At that point I will return to Garmin.
 
It wouldn't power up from the mount at all so no battery = no worky. But it always worked from the Montana's own battery. The problem was getting power from the mount into the device. I have been for a ride and deliberately went over every pothole and rough bit of road and it has stayed on so hopefully ok for now.

The device is a replacement I got in March, it has some extra foam inside the battery case and on the case lid that officially does what the ear plug foam did.

I did read that something stops the battery from charging from the mount when temperatures are low (like 0c) and although it hasn't been that cold it has been on the cool side whenever I have had the problem and it has fixed itself as the day has gone on and warmed up a touch. Its a possibility that explains the apparent randomness.
Does it work OK in the mount with no battery in place?
I always keep a piece of ear plug between the battery and cover.
 
Probably the mount - we've had two replaced, the new one worked fine each time


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