Anyone here hard-wire their Garmin units to inline power

[brunp]

I am just curious to find out 1), if you any of you guys hard-wired your GPS units into an inline power source within your BMW and how you got it all hooked up...

Paul

[CQ7String]

I was about to do it, but it started raining the minute I got home, grr.

I'll fire up some pics as soon as the weather clears up. I don't want to butcher the Garmin cord, so I picked up a cigarette lighter -> two bare wires adapter that I plan on running to the fuse box.'

Edit: Pic of the adapter -

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/garmin-hw1.jpg

[brunp]

I was about to do it, but it started raining the minute I got home, grr.

I'll fire up some pics as soon as the weather clears up. I don't want to butcher the Garmin cord, so I picked up a cigarette lighter -> two bare wires adapter that I plan on running to the fuse box.'

Edit: Pic of the adapter -

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/garmin-hw1.jpg

Cool.....curious if one is able to hard-wire it from the driver side. Where will you be placing the unit?

Paul

[CQ7String]

Ideally I'd like it tucked away on the left side of the windshield. I don't intend to leave the actual unit in there, so it'll depend on where I can get the cable to tuck away the cleanest. Either on the left by the pillar, or dead center.

The GPS just kills the whole ambiance in the cabin at night, so I'll only pull it out when I'm actually needing to find a place. I have the Nuvi 205w, which is a nice looking unit but it's brightness just doesn't get dim enough to leave it on fulltime.

[brunp]

Ideally I'd like it tucked away on the left side of the windshield. I don't intend to leave the actual unit in there, so it'll depend on where I can get the cable to tuck away the cleanest. Either on the left by the pillar, or dead center.

The GPS just kills the whole ambiance in the cabin at night, so I'll only pull it out when I'm actually needing to find a place. I have the Nuvi 205w, which is a nice looking unit but it's brightness just doesn't get dim enough to leave it on fulltime.

even in night mode?

Paul

[Majikthese42]

I thought that was what the cupholder and cigarette lighter socket was for.

[brunp]

I thought that was what the cupholder and cigarette lighter socket was for.

True, but then you lose out on your cup holder for drinking coffee as that is what you are likely to drink when you require GPS. I still have yet to figure out the ideal sport, but I know for sure, it is not in the flat dash surface. I am hesitant to get a proclip mount as those cover all the venting area's. The location just on the left next to the A-pillar is ideal, but not sure if there is an inline source for power. I am sure it is easy to take the A-pillar off. Just pop-off the airbag plug and I am sure there is a screw and then you pull the panel off.

From there, one could in theory, find a inline source anywhere within the dash area....

Paul

[CQ7String]

even in night mode?

Paul

To me anyway, yeah. It's not that it's overly bright, it's just that the GPS lighting takes away from the amber a bit. I only use the GPS when I need to find something anyway. :)

Anyhow, pics as promised. Didn't have my camera during the "install" but you'll get the idea. Took about 15 minutes.

The only part of the wire you can see, running to the unit:

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/nuvi1.jpg

"Look ma, no wires!" I ended up putting it dead center. I initially was planning on putting it by the left side A-Pillar, but it's too much in LOS there and is just distracting as hell.

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/nuvi2.jpg

I came across the trim and down the backside of this panel here. You'll need to peel the weatherstripping back a bit to get it completely off so that you can get the wire back far enough so that it's out of sight, and the panel pops on properly. I had to come from the inside of the glovebox back out, as only the small usb-style plug will fit through the bits inside.

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/nuvi3.jpg

The only other visible part of the wire, at the bottom of the pillar. I'll do a little more poking and tucking later on, but you'd have to be looking for it to see it.

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/nuvi4.jpg

And the wiring inside. That's the adapter wired up and plugged into the normal Garmin cigarette lighter plug. Yellow connector on the left is ground, small blue connector top right is the fuse that I used for switched power. It all sits nicely behind the flap in the glovebox completely out of sight.

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/nuvi5.jpg

The upside of this setup is that you'll end up with a couple of nice tappable wires for other accessories as well. I plan to hardwire my radar detector to the same two wires coming off of the adapter.

Hope this helps. :)

[brunp]

To me anyway, yeah. It's not that it's overly bright, it's just that the GPS lighting takes away from the amber a bit. I only use the GPS when I need to find something anyway. :)

Anyhow, pics as promised. Didn't have my camera during the "install" but you'll get the idea. Took about 15 minutes.

The only part of the wire you can see, running to the unit:

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/nuvi1.jpg

"Look ma, no wires!" I ended up putting it dead center. I initially was planning on putting it by the left side A-Pillar, but it's too much in LOS there and is just distracting as hell.

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/nuvi2.jpg

I came across the trim and down the backside of this panel here. You'll need to peel the weatherstripping back a bit to get it completely off so that you can get the wire back far enough so that it's out of sight, and the panel pops on properly. I had to come from the inside of the glovebox back out, as only the small usb-style plug will fit through the bits inside.

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/nuvi3.jpg

The only other visible part of the wire, at the bottom of the pillar. I'll do a little more poking and tucking later on, but you'd have to be looking for it to see it.

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/nuvi4.jpg

And the wiring inside. That's the adapter wired up and plugged into the normal Garmin cigarette lighter plug. Yellow connector on the left is ground, small blue connector top right is the fuse that I used for switched power. It all sits nicely behind the flap in the glovebox completely out of sight.

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/nuvi5.jpg

The upside of this setup is that you'll end up with a couple of nice tappable wires for other accessories as well. I plan to hardwire my radar detector to the same two wires coming off of the adapter.

Hope this helps. :)

Looks nice, so you have it positioned in the center...I have tried the center of the window, but not sure if it is more in the way then within the column in the center...how long is the hard-wired connection cable and where did you get it?

Paul

[CQ7String]

Looks nice, so you have it positioned in the center...I have tried the center of the window, but not sure if it is more in the way then within the column in the center...how long is the hard-wired connection cable and where did you get it?

Paul

It certainly looks nicer out of the way in the corner, but I really didn't like it when driving around. :( In the center, I don't even notice it really.

http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/garmin-hw1.jpg

The cable's about 8" long or so, and was $10 at Best Buy. It's item #8294179, "Cigsock female cigarette lighter plug". It took me a good 15 minutes to explain to the kid working there what I was looking for, so you might want to bring the # with you. Otherwise they might try and sell you the same half dozen completely-different-items that they did to me. ;) I wish I'd thought of something in the past to be honest, because I've chopped up a good number of radar detector cords in my day, heh.

[dassub]

Not too bad at all.

I've ended up using my TomTom from the ash tray, only when needed, so basically once a week or so.

It is pretty tricky to find good locations.

[E90DTM]

i sit my magellan in the ash tray as well. fitment is perfect and it does not slide around anywhere... even when i drive in the mountains! i don't like mounting my navigation anywhere that's visable. these things have high theft rates.