Montana 700i carholder very low volume

Have the 700i in use for couple of weeks now, great unit. Received the car holder (windscreen suction cup type) yesterday.

Hip hip hurray for:

- Upgrading to RAM mount ball (1 inch)

- Power supply by micro-USB, so now you can use every USB powersource (lighter adapter/powerbank) for powersupply to the unit.

Negatively surprised by the very, very low volume of the speaker.....in a normal car with roof & windows closed it's propably understandable. In my Lotus 7 (has no roof or windows...) you don't hear ANYTHING AT ALL!!! Unless you're doing 20mi/h or so the speakersound drowns in it's surroundings.

What to do about this? Tried several voices in US & British English as well as French, Dutch and German (i'm from Europe and speak&understand 6 languages fluently). Neither of the tried voices gives a better result. The sound is good quality but the volume is way, way, way too low.

Please Garmin, get us a solution for this....

0 atlas_cached over 3 years ago

Have you adjusted the volume in the Status Page while connected to the powered mount yet?

See GPSrChive > Montana 7x0 > Operation > Status Page

0 ramon_73 over 3 years ago in reply to atlas_cached

Yes, it was on full when I first checked. Turned it to about 60%, no effect (even less volume). Then back on full, no volume increase then compared to before.

0 atlas_cached over 3 years ago in reply to ramon_73

My powered mount speaker is much louder at 100 compared to 60.

You can also link a bluetooth headset to your Montana for those otherwise too noisy environments....

0 Garmin_ODQA over 3 years ago

Hi ramon_73, are you using the Montana mount with the included adapter?

The automotive mount requires 2.4 Amps, which can be delivered when using the included adapter. Another adapter may not be able to fully power the automotive mount.

I'm not an expert on cars, but maybe you aren't getting the same level of power from the cigarette lighter compared to modern vehicles? It might be worth investigating this possibility as well.

Thanks,
Mel
Garmin Outdoor Software Quality

0 ramon_73 over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin_ODQA

Yes, I'm using the supplied adapter which came with the kit. Cigarette lighter is connected directly to the car battery. Wiring is done with 10AWG cable. +12V and ground have same wiring type and are both connected directly to the battery clamps. Voltage of the cigarette socket is sightly over 13,8Volts.

The supplied 12V => USB adapter has 2 USB connections, would it make a difference to use one or another USB socket?

0 atlas_cached over 3 years ago in reply to ramon_73

Perhaps a capacitor would help smooth out your voltage drop when cranking, or a higher capacity battery. Or both.

0 ramon_73 over 3 years ago in reply to atlas_cached

Car battery is fairly new (8 months old) and has more than enough capacity for cranking and rest of the car.

And the proclaimed voltage drop on cranking is not of influence for the Montana audio. When I drive the car (only in weekends/spare time), I first start the car, drive out of garage, close doors, plug in Montana and the set route and drive off.

So the cranking is not of influence at all for the gps unit.

0 atlas_cached over 3 years ago in reply to ramon_73

Sorry, confused this thread for another 8^(

0 MIKE-SD over 3 years ago

You did power the mount and not the garmin? Both connections possible. But it's the mount that needs to be powered.

Also it's a 1" speaker. You can't expect much power.