Re: How is eTrax Vista HCx on a mountain bike? 60 series 'power off' real solution inside :)

On Oct 30, 8:22 am, "Domagoj Malovic"
<domagoj.malovicBRISIsamoBR...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi!

I own a Garmin 60Cx unit, and use it for mountain biking. After some
research and 4 replacement units from Garmin, some research and sodering, I
solved the problem. For some that might not be familiar with the problem
still, the battery compartment in the 60 series has two metal tongues that
press against the brass pads on the PCB inside the unit that establish
electrical contact. Due to violent vibrations on a MTB ride and two
different types of metals used to establish the contact, the pads on the PCB
develop stains ( for the lack of the right English word) that are not
conductive. Therefore the units starts powering off more and more riding
over bumps. Many people can make it shut off by squeezing the case on the
side sliding the contact surfaces over the 'stained' non-conductive part.

You can see what it looks like here on one of my own units:

http://www.dizmal.hr/garmin/60cx.avi

The solution is to open the unit, (6 screws, unglue the top antenna rubber)
and solder the contacts with thin wires. You can see what it looks like
here:

http://www.dizmal.hr/garmin/garmin.jpg

Needles to say, my fixed 60Cx works flawlessly now.

I recently bought the eTrex Vista HCx unit for the smaller size, much better
battery life and the barometric altimeter, sence my 60Cx is unusable to
analyse the ride profiles as the GPS altitude on the sensitive Sirf Star 3
chipset fluctuates too much.

But I am affraid of the following:

1. Will the rubber band around the unit come unglued sitting in the sun
mounted on a bike in the heat of the summer, or has Garmin solved that
problem?

2. Did Garmin finally put a connector and wires between the battery
compartment and the PCB of the unit? Anybody opened it to know? (BTW, on the
60 series, they do have a connector inside theunit for the serial/ext. pow.
connector!! But not for the batteries!)

3. 60Cx is easy to open, fix the problem and close - but how to do it on an
eTrex, and will it still be IPX7 waterproof after the fix?

4. The original bike mount on the new eTrax is very flimsy, and the whole
top part of the unit holds to the battery compartment cover and the rest of
the bike by only the very thin metal locking pin that locks the batt.
compartmant closed?? A very lousy and questionable solution. There is a RAM
mount for it that cradles the whole unit, but the part for the handlebars is
just WAY too big.

I would appreciate any thoughts on the subject, as Garmin simply does not
provide 'the right' unit to use on a MTB :( What unit to keep? One is big
and clumsy and reparable, and the other one has more features, is smaller
but I am not sure about fixing it if it needs it?

Greetings from Croatia,

Domi

I recently bought an eTrex Vista HCx for use on my mountain bike. It
worked great the first few rides, but now experiences the shutoff
problem you have described. At first it only happened a couple times
on a ride, but now it will shut off over almost every bump (which is
very frequently!). The bike mount for the Vista HCx is a bit
different than the standard eTrex mount. It uses the same rail mount
on the handlebars, but comes with a accessory clip that screws on to
the original battery cover and then allows connection to the rail
mount (the standard eTrex mount replaces the original battery cover
with a new cover to connect to the rail mount). I think it is fine
for holding the unit while mountain biking. The biggest risk would be
applying too much force or torque when pushing the buttons on the unit
whille connect to the handlebars; with the wrong force the plastic
could easily break.

I haven't had a chance to try any potential fixes for the shutoff
issue since it really started to be a big problem this week.

Thanks for the information you posted; very helpful!

.

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