26XX Snap-in dock

From: Steve L. (stevelischynsky_at_solectron.com)
Date: 07/05/04 

Date: 5 Jul 2004 08:45:24 -0700

I got annoyed with hooking up the power and antenna cable every time.
So I looked at putting together a snap-in dock that has it's own
connector for all of the pins including the coax antenna as a DIY
project.

Being a engineer for telco equipment, I design electronic hardware for
a living. But it was a challange to make this thing small enough to
fit the bean bag and use off-the-shelf components as much as possible,
include a snap in lock feature and retain Garmin's adjustable base. It
took a few months, off and on, to figure out how to do this.

I built one as a DIY'er. Here are some CAD shots and photos.

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v330/slischyn/5a54bc83.jpg
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v330/slischyn/1823fd91.jpg
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v330/slischyn/e6a88bc9.jpg
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v330/slischyn/Unsnapping.jpg
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v330/slischyn/d987922f.jpg
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v330/slischyn/Bean_bag_and_base.jpg

I've been using this for about a week now. I find I use the GPS more
since it is so easy to just snap it in. It powers up by itself as soon
as it is snapped in and uses the external antenna that I have
permanently mounted on my roof. I remove it by squeezing on the spring
locks and lifting up- only takes a second. I used to put a hat or
magazine on the gps for quick stops to hide it, but now I just unlock
it and either hide it or put it in my jacket pocket.

The base part of the dock stays with the vehicle. The power cable and
external antenna are always plugged into this base. The GPSr mount
part of the dock is always attached to the GPSr. The power and coax
cable run from this mount to the GPSr and are always plugged in.

Having some experience with it, I think I can move the speaker to the
dock, including the DR connector and maybe a headphone jack. This
would get rid of the huge lighter and speaker adapter that Garmin has
and would make it only a 2 wire cable running to a standard lighter
plug. It would also make it easier just to get rid of the lighter plug
and hard wire the power cable into the vehicle. I'll start re-doing
the CAD model to see if this is even do-able and maybe build a second
one.

I thought I'd share this project with you to see what you think. I
think Garmin should have offered this in the first place.

Steve L.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: TP360CE troubles..
    ... For some reason it gets fixed for one power cycle when I ... Attempts to fix this problem by re-soldering the connector ... My "fix" for that 760XL is to run it from a Dock I ... I have one battery pack that still charges reliably, ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware)
  • Re: 26XX Snap-in dock
    ... > I got annoyed with hooking up the power and antenna cable every time. ... > So I looked at putting together a snap-in dock that has it's own ... > connector for all of the pins including the coax antenna as a DIY ...
    (sci.geo.satellite-nav)
  • Re: 26XX Snap-in dock
    ... "Marcel" wrote in message ... >> I got annoyed with hooking up the power and antenna cable every time. ... >> connector for all of the pins including the coax antenna as a DIY ...
    (sci.geo.satellite-nav)
  • Re: TP360CE troubles..
    ... I left it plugged in for a while with the power on (with it ... Attempts to fix this problem by re-soldering the connector ... My "fix" for that 760XL is to run it from a Dock I ... I have one battery pack that still charges reliably, ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware)
  • Re: Cellphone Reception/Transmission
    ... Handset power is controlled by the cell site. ... attaching an external directional antenna could conceivably ...
    (sci.electronics.design)