DAMN Riders - No rules, Just ride!

Garmin never ceases to amaze me. The older 680T I had is slow and not as friendly as you would like. Had it for 10 years. It has been a good unit. I checked out a new Montana 700 and really like it. The units were available before the powered motorcycle mounts were. So I finally get my 2 mounts (1 to move from Dirt Bike to Dirt Bike and one to mount and stay on the 700). I go do a check and the 12V will trigger/power up the unit but not charge it! It needs 5V TO CHARGE, NOT 12 AND THE MOUNT DOES NOT HAVE A STEP DOWN CONVERTER BUILT INTO IT LIKE THE 680 HAD! WTF!

So I ordered a small 12V to 5V 3a converter that is about the size of a match box and is all potted and waterproofed. Installed in on the GPS power cable inline by the battery and voila! Now the when I plug the unit in, the power triggers it to start up and then charge. Why Garmin?

I really wish there was a decent alternative to garmin.

Wingfixer wrote: ↑Tue Nov 17, 2020 4:01 pm I really wish there was a decent alternative to garmin.

The Voyager Pro is awesome, BUT, it doesn't do "find nearest" etc. It is a pure geo map/track and route display that works great but once you hit the roads, while it has the streets and such on the maps, you just can't say "find nearest gas" or lodging etc.

The Montana 700 series is the best garmin has made IMO. Very intuitive user interface (similar to Voyager Pro), fast screen refresh and nice unit. Nice big display. I'll be running it when we go out in Dec.

Old thread. Bill, do you (or anyone else) have a Voyager Pro? Can you move it from bike to bike easily w/ different profiles? Not really sure I'm looking for the different features the Montana has. I really don't have a need for finding gas stations/etc since I'll have my phone on me too. Thinking a Voyager Pro might be simpler for offroad/GPX track type stuff while also keeping an eye on bike data. But I'd like to see your Montana as I understand its faster than the older units.

I'm still drawn to phone solutions but most Android phones really aren't truly as waterproof as they used to be. The old Samsung S8 Active is better than my S3 but none of the new ones aren't as robust. I'm a sucker for quadlock mounts on phones and they have no case support for off brands. But I'll be investigating the mil-spec type phones to backup/augment the bike's main GPS.

Steven, I do have the voyager Pro on the 500. I have not moved it, but if you had 2 mounts, it would be easy to move between bikes. You have feeds/inputs from:
Engine temp
Wheel Speed
RPM
Power cable

SO if you had 2 mounts, then it would be easy to move the head unit between bikes. No profiles per say, I will say it is easy to load stuff and get data on and off the VP. Nice display too and it updates pretty fast, but IT DOES NOT DO routing----while it will show streets and such, it does not do POI finding or routing, it is a GPS/Topo map display mostly.

And yes, the new Montana's (700 series) are faster and more "Android" like in the GUI. Simple and intuitive. Me likeeee. I have one I run on the T7 and the 300 as I added mounts and power cables on both so I could go from one to the other.

Excellent. Hard to find someone w/ both. Everyone compares to the older 680, etc.

On the VPro, can you reset the odometer/etc when you move it bike to bike? I would probably get multiple mounts for it. I guess the odometer is really the only thing you'd want to keep separate (assuming all bikes had the same sensors)? Maybe seperate bike profiles aren't needed. I was reading the new v1.5 software update allows you to upload some pretty nice maps.

Bill, I ordered the 'rugged mount' for the 700 and it says the power is 10-30V. Does this look like the same one you have?

Yes sir. When I hooked it up, as soon as I rolled the key, the 12V signal would cause the trigger/power up of the unit but not charge it as it is looking for 5v to charge. I order some of these:


Hooked them inline between the bike power supply and the mount. On the T7 I hid them in my side panels, so it was clean and easy. Now the unit lites off the gps at key roll and charges.

On the 500 and 300, I just installed it inline by the bikes battery in one of the little crannies by the ECU within the frame rails.

FWIW, mine charges fine w/ 12V applied.
I did some reading. There is a dc/dc converter in that box in the middle of the cable. You only have to provide 5V if you cut the box off. THe converter is in the cable and not the Montana now.

My mount must have been bad. When it first happened, I hooked it up direct to the Battery and got the voltage to the mount, just not low enough. Called Garmin and they had me send it back, just the 700 unit, not the mount. They sent me a new one and I had the same issue. Called back and they were stumped. I checked the voltage at the mount and could not get anything from the pins except 12v, so I went and got the converters, cut the wires and made my own. Works great now, so I ordered 2 more converters and made my own wire harness' with converters to feed the 2 dirtbikes. All good now. One mount, multiple bikes.

Problem is, depending on who you get on the tech line, some know stuff and some don't. I did not want to mail in stuff and wait anymore, so I corrected it myself with a 5 dollar converter off Amazon.