Montana 700 problems in motorcycling

I'm going in circles with support on chat.  They guy won't come off the "professional installation" topic.  I see others getting an RMA done or other fixes being suggested.  My support guy will only suggest I get a mechanic to verify the installation.  Any suggestions?

In my case, when the support chat started to going circles I mentioned about these topics were they sent new rubber spacers and the support went that direction.

No problems since then.

What do the rubber spacers look like, and where do they get installed?  Do you happen to know if they are available via mail order?

they replace the ones that come with the RAM mount, they are the same diameter but larger. There are some youtube videos explaining it.

They sent me the new rubber bands via ordinary mail.

Another weary multi year, multi unit Garmin customer here.

On a trip (in and out of service) and the amps powered mount just stopped charging my 700i - this combo has worked fine on my other bikes (also amps mounts) for a while, but just yesterday not enough juice to charge on this mount.  Can confirm the 4.3v at the pins but charge either stays static at a value (ie. 71%) or unit starts rapidly discharging. Unit charges fine secured in mount with USB cable but we're on light enduro and I'm wary of snapping off the usb cable.   

Had a "chat" with "Chris" and he wasn't able to answer basic questions like what is the grey wire for, how to determine voltage output of amps while 700i is in cradle, what the pinouts are.  Suggested I take the moto to a KTM dealer to get them to determine what is wrong with the amps mount/700i - ridiculous, kind-of sad and funny at the same time that an employee Garmin "CS" doesn't know details of their trade and thinks that KTM would know.  Thinking it must be AI. 

Has anyone figured out a way to diagnose voltage levels while the unit is in the mount - are there voltmeter probe tunnels or do i have to strip the wire housing between the converter and the mount to see if the grey trigger is working to push 5v to the red wire? Does the grey wire carry a voltage and when mount connection is made then zero's out and flows the full 5v to the charge pins?  How does this work?

Just to make it easier for others, this is the contact info I have (please correct if wrong):

800-511-2459

[email protected]

This is from a third party site which is generally reliable.

https://www.gpsrchive.com/Montana%207x0/AMPS%20Mount%20Diagram.html

Apparently the grey wire is intended to sense whether or not the unit is IN the cradle.

While I was searching for this, I also ran across Garmin KB articles of various sorts. This one has the motherhood and apple pie list of possible problems. There are also links at the bottom for other possibly useful articles. Or not.

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=e3aDzpdq6U5q1zxbcejtU5&productID=690986

My 700i (third one after two RMAs) exhibits the same behavior in the mount...   99% of the time no charging.   Most of the time the charge percent stays static (i.e., "maintains") but occasionally will drop dramatically with no detectable pattern.    It will drop, then stay static again for a while.     My unit also charges fine with the USB cable.

During the "chat" for my first RMA, the tech tried to tell me that the units are not  supposed to charge when in the cradle.   When I told him that is contrary to my observations and questioned what would be the point of a powered cradle if it can't charge when in it he got offended and threatened to end the chat.   Nice.    

This "grey wire" is concerning...   first I am hearing of it, but on the surface it sounds like it could be responsible for our "no charge" scenarios...   perhaps the control box is not sending the full voltage out the grey wire or it is not making good contact on the AMPS mount?

No matter what is going on I am getting super tired of looking down at the GPS while riding and seeing a black screen and having to scramble to turn it back on to see where my next turns are.   This unit is a DUD and Garmin is not addressing the real problems with it, hoping we will just go away after a RMA or two...

No direct experience because I don't ride. As far as I can tell from the forum posts, the original problem is that the pointed pins on the mount destroy the flat contacts on the unit. This is the result of vibration. Eventually, the damage reaches the point where reliable mount-to-unit contact is impossible.

Again based on forum posts, my understanding is that Garmin is attempting to address the damage problem with a redesigned mount. I assume (no facts in evidence) that the redesign features better vibration damping.

With your RMAs, did you receive a new mount?

I cannot speak to the question of whether or not the unit charges in the cradle. I think it likely that it does. But it is also possible that the unit is directly powered by the cradle - and does not charge from the cradle. It is not out of the question that charging behavior differs between the cradle and the USB port. Either way (power+charge or power only), losing contact is likely to result in a shut down.

You are not alone in thinking of unking a very expensive piece of equipment. Not sure what the alternative would be, especially for the inReach communication part. But if it doesn't work anyway...

I have received new mounts from Garmin but the shut-down problems are not with the mount.    The unit will shut down on it's own even if just laying on a table untouched.    Also, if the mount experienced a loss of power that could lead to a shutdown, the unit would flash up the "power lost, stay on? or turn off?" screen instead of an immediate shutdown.   

I have observed the GPS charge from some lesser percentage (<100%) to 100% when inserted into the cradle.   It used to do this every time reliably.   Now, hardly ever.

My AMPS mounts are mounted on Touratech vibration isolated mounts, which have very robust rubber isolator/dampeners on them.   The tiny rubber biscuits Garmin sends out as part of the RMA process for the mount do nothing compared to these.     The charging problems MAY be related to the mount and wear to the contact pads, but it is 100% *NOT* the cause of the spontaneous shutdowns, which is the real problem here...