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Why I will never buy a Garmin again (until this issue is fixed)

Former Member over 14 years ago

Please forgive my rant. I just think this is unbelievable overdesign/oversight by Garmin.

I had a Garmin 370 that went kaput after 3 years. I purchased a 1350 LMT as a replacement that had great features. Alas, I promptly returned it, and will never buy a Garmin again. Here is why: because the new Nuvis are too stupid to know whether or not they are plugged into a computer.

My main problem: my car has a single cigarette lighter.

Because of this, I use a dual USB power cigarette lighter adapter (available at Wal-Mart for $7.99), and charge my devices via USB cords. This has worked swimmingly for years with a Nuvi 370, iPods, smart phones, cell phones, etc.

Again: no problems, for YEARS.

My 370 finally conks out after 3 years of service. No problem, time to upgrade anyway. I get a 1350. Great unit, except it refuses to work via USB power. It thinks it's plugged into a computer. No way to bypass storage mode to go the main menu. Absolutely, positively brain-dead design flaw.

The new Garmin Nuvis are the only devices in existence AFAIK that think they're plugged into computers while actually plugged into simple USB power. It's absolutely ridiculous, and tech support has basically told me I'm SOL.

You need to work with USB power, Garmin. In the meantime I'm buying a dashboard mount for my Android phone and using the Google Maps GPS.

0 SARLABS over 14 years ago

You need to use the cable that came with your 1350LMT, the one with a cigar lighter plug on one end and a USB connector on the other. Using a regular USB cable will not work. So now, both your cigar lighter plugs will be in use. If you need a spare one, there are triple cigar lighter plugs available, at Wal-Mart too, mine even has a USB port in addition and some funky blue LED lights. Cool and cheap.

0 Former Member over 14 years ago

SARLABS, I know you try to help people out, but that is the wrong answer.

It should work with a USB cable like every other device in the world.

Those cigarette lighter splitter adapters look terrible, necessitate my carrying separate bulky car chargers and USB cords whenever I travel, are not physically stable, and most importantly, the way my car is, does not leave me physical room to actually plug in anything.

I use a USB power cigarette lighter adapter with USB cords. For everything. The fact Garmin does not support this is I-N-E-X-C-U-S-A-B-L-E. Tech support has even admitted as much to me when I spoke to them.

Garmin needs to know about this, realize the error of their ways, and fix it.

By the way, my original account was apparently banned, simply for the OP listed above, hence the new account.

0 POPEJ. over 14 years ago

I agree, that Garmin doesn't have a friendly solution for alternative USB supply. But have you noticed, that original cable that you have discarded, contains TMC receiver? Some functionality of your GPS won't work without it.

0 Former Member over 14 years ago

PopeJ,

I can live with some reduced functionality (loss of traffic info, for example), but not with NO functionality. I mean, for goodness sake, the GPS works well enough off the battery, plugged into nothing. Why shouldn't it work just as well off USB power?

I have just now purchased the Motorola Droid dashboard mount from Amazon.com for $25, and shipped the 1350LMT back to them. I'm just doing Garmin a favor in telling them why they've lost my business so they can fix the design flaw.

0 SARLABS over 14 years ago

Facts are facts, this is how Garmin built their Nuvis and we can only find other workable solutions. I'm also a ham radio operator and my radio is powered directly from the car's battery. You could do a similar setup and end it with a female cigar plug, then use the cable Garmin supplied. Yes, wiring via today's firewalls is not easy. I found ways around it in my Kia Soul and in my truck too, so I believe you can find a way to do that. I'd just add an in-line fuse to make the installation safe for your GPS.

0 stuartmw over 14 years ago

For the benefit of others that may read this thread this is NOT a Garmin specific issue. I have a Sandisk MP3 player that often goes into mass-storage mode when powered from many 3rd party USB power adapters. One has to find a power adapter "that works" and there's no way of knowing, in advance, which ones will.

As reported the Garmin nuvi's are very fussy about this. While indoors I run it from battery power and use the Garmin cable in the car. It's therefore not a big deal to me.

BTW this is a technical issue with many USB power adapters. A USB cable has two power signals (Gnd and 5V) and two data signals. Obviously a power adapter uses the former two wires however its what they do with the data signals that causes an issue.

Of course Garmin's designers may have intentionally done something to force the use of their cable. If so they're not the only ones. Some Verizon phones need their USB cable and display an error message if a generic one is used.

Yes its very annoying when manufacturers do this kind of stuff but Garmin aren't unique in this matter and there's relatively simple work-arounds as others have pointed out.

0 POPEJ. over 14 years ago

It could be interesting to note, that Garmin solved this problem for some users, I think some Asian devices simply ask on screen what mode it should work - GPS or mass storage.

0 SARLABS over 14 years ago

Check out the differences between a microUSB type A and type B. I think there is such beast and one or the other might just solve your problem with the Nuvi.I remember such post somewhere but I don't have the time to look it up now.

0 POPEJ. over 14 years ago

Technical details about Garmin mini-USB plug are known. Nuvi measures resistance between pin 4 and 5. You should short this pins for 500mA USB supply. Garmin supply has there 18kOhm, which indicate 1A USB supply.

I'm not sure if the same is valid for micro-USB.

0 cfredw over 9 years ago

garmin work around

Please forgive my rant. I just think this is unbelievable overdesign/oversight by Garmin.

I had a Garmin 370 that went kaput after 3 years. I purchased a 1350 LMT as a replacement that had great features. Alas, I promptly returned it, and will never buy a Garmin again. Here is why: because the new Nuvis are too stupid to know whether or not they are plugged into a computer.

My main problem: my car has a single cigarette lighter.

Because of this, I use a dual USB power cigarette lighter adapter (available at Wal-Mart for $7.99), and charge my devices via USB cords. This has worked swimmingly for years with a Nuvi 370, iPods, smart phones, cell phones, etc.

Again: no problems, for YEARS.

My 370 finally conks out after 3 years of service. No problem, time to upgrade anyway. I get a 1350. Great unit, except it refuses to work via USB power. It thinks it's plugged into a computer. No way to bypass storage mode to go the main menu. Absolutely, positively brain-dead design flaw.

The new Garmin Nuvis are the only devices in existence AFAIK that think they're plugged into computers while actually plugged into simple USB power. It's absolutely ridiculous, and tech support has basically told me I'm SOL.

You need to work with USB power, Garmin. In the meantime I'm buying a dashboard mount for my Android phone and using the Google Maps GPS.

I share your displeasure to this apparent program flaw. I have an older nuvi 200w. The usb cable is intended for data transfer and charging. If you plug the usb cable into one of the handy usb receptacles, the nuvi will start to load and then stop with a data icon showing. Unplug the usb, wait a few seconds for the data icon to disappear and then plug the usb back in to your dash usb connector and the loading will resume and then normal operation ...... The regular auto power cable has a resistor joining one pair. Illogical programming .... yes!

cfredw