Re: 26XX Snap-in dock

From: S Frank (lemmy999_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 07/05/04 

Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004 15:39:23 -0400

Couldn't load any of the pictures, but it sounds like a neat idea. 

-- 
Shane
"Steve L." <stevelischynsky@solectron.com> wrote in message
news:f95b7f42.0407050745.79edd10e@posting.google.com...
> 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: Power Point 2003 - cant burn to CD
    ... Thank you again Steve. ... the re-installed file and Power Point opened it! ... (This disc still works on the desktop, even after all my failures on ... Will PPT start and open other presentations ok? ...
    (microsoft.public.powerpoint)
  • Re: T61 laptop locks up when sleeping and gets docked
    ... in hibernate or shutting it off, we'll put it in Sleep mode, and bring ... ThinkPad Advanced Docking Station and power it back up. ... I suspect this PC has 2 configs - one for dock and one for portable mode. ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)
  • Re: Studio lighting equipment? Help me shop!
    ... Steve Wolfe wrote: ... effective wattseconds of power, so I was wondering what that means. ... Alien Bees are very light for monolights. ... stand with a boom arm, you need a solid base and a stiff stand, the boom ...
    (rec.photo.digital)
  • 26XX Snap-in dock
    ... 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 ... The base part of the dock stays with the vehicle. ...
    (sci.geo.satellite-nav)
  • Re: What are these power pole transformers for?
    ... Steve B. wrote: ... 95% of things in series (on power lines) are some type of switch. ... Often you will see they also have a fuse in parallel to them (but ... a squirrel gets on the transformer, the squirrel shorts, the breakers ...
    (alt.home.repair)