Repairing a GPS's antenna that's been chewed by a cat

[+Kabuthunk]

I'm guessing that others may have gone through this, so I figured I'd tell my tale of woe for others to either laugh at, get help/ideas from, or associate with... whichever you prefer

 

Note: The topic description was cut off, obviously. You get the gist of it though

 

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March 30, 2007. Approximately 6:30 pm I'm estimating would be the time. I placed my geocaching bag on my computer desk while I snagged the coords of the geocache I was to tackle that evening. It was not out of my sight for more than about 20 seconds while obtaining something from the kitchen. I left the apartment shortly thereafter, with the thought of a new find in mind. About halfway to the cache, I went to grab my GPS from off the side of the bag, and the antenna rubbed against my hand. It felt... rough. Not like the usual smoothness associated with the rubberized tip. And then I looked down. Do YOU see anything wrong with this picture?

 

No, your eyes do not decieve you. That yellow there? That's officially the colour of the top of the actual antenna held within it's rubbery casing. The cat had decided, in the 20 seconds in which I happened to not be looking in that direction, that it would make a tasty treat. And then stop, before I came back and noticed it chewing. The close-up shows that a chunk of rubber was torn free entirely, and the top was half-severed entirely. However, there IS one blessing. The cat didn't decide to go deeper and mangle the actual antenna itself. There was the slight scratch of one tooth-mark, but it didn't tear anything, nor did it look to have caused any serious damage.

 

So... as you can imagine, there was many, MANY obcenities thrown about upon discovering the damage (as well as thoughs as to what I would physically do to the cat itself... hence the subtitle of this page). However, I had planned to be gone for about 4 or so hours... so that gave me time to cool down (which is probably good. If I was at home when I noticed this... I may have done things I'd later regret. Not kill it or anything... but I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up slapping it in anger... which wouldn't teach it anything, really. In either case... I had quickly come up with a plan. Step 1... since the rubberized coating doesn't appear to be physically attached to the actual antenna, I'd put a layer of saran-wrap under the ripped part, to avoid gluing the rubberized cover to the antenna itself. You can see the saran-wrap in this close-up.

 

So now that the actual, physical antenna is protected from the glue, I set to work preparing to complete the rest. And... as has been seen with my geocache, I am a large fan of Goop brand glue. It's brutal-insanely strong, remains flexible under all conditions I've subjected it to (some of which include below -40 degrees celcius on Early Maridia), dries clear, and is readily available. You can't go wrong. Then again, I wasn't about to use a lot of it.

 

As well... to be careful not to over-apply the glue, I quickly designed my own glue-application tool. Aka: a wooden skewer, followed by shaving down one side so that it's in the form of an almost miniature spatula. That ended up being the side that I used for application 1. The pointy side will likely be used to get into the unglued crevaces during application 2... touch-up phase.

 

To say the least... it was a tense 5 or so minutes. It could have been less, it could have been more... all I know is that I needed to keep my hands steady to avoid smearing psycho-glue all over everything. I have no clue if working with such an expensive item made my hands more or less steady... but they did the job regardless. The completely separated piece took a little bit of turning around to get it placed how it's actually supposed to sit... but in the end, everything was held in place. The outside still looks a little rough, and there's some cat-tooth marks on the very top, but all in all, it's starting to look normal again.

 

Thus came the next step... holding everything tightly together so that when it dries, it'll actually dry in the correct position. The last thing I need is to have to try to mangle it apart again so that I can start over. With how strong this glue is, I can guarantee the rubber would tear long before the glue would. I'd almost have to file down any sticking-out parts of rubber in order to correct any mistakes. Hence, I used a really low-stick tape (ie: crappy dollar-store masking tape) to wrap overtop of everything, and SHOULD be keeping it all in place. If it turns out to be mangled inside afterwards, and touch-up phase can't fix it, then I'll fix it as needed. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

 

But now we're left with another problem. Really weak tape? That doesn't sound like something that will hold together in any kind of dampness, or any other conditions that I might cross while geocaching while it's drying. It's 24 hours to fully dry... two applications... two days of non-geocaching? Possible, but unlikely. It was the weekend, and I had planned that at the BARE minimum, I was planning on taking on some geocaches on Sunday. Hence... electrical tape overtop of the masking tape. It would at least turn it black again (since the white top looked strangely conspicuous... and I'm wanting to keep my conspicuity to a minimum), and as well is quite stretchy, so it should hold the glued portion together better. The combination of the two tapes should keep lots of tape residue from sticking to the antenna, as well as keep it held tightly together. And now... we wait. For drying.

 

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I'll keep you posted on how phase 2 goes, and what it looks like upon full completion.

Edited March 31, 2007 by Kabuthunk

[vtmtnman]

Looks like a great repair so far.

 

This is why I keep a backup GPS,for times like these.Hope the repair goes well for ya.

[Pinon]

Nice repair job....get even..shoot the cat !!

[+hogrod]

About 6 months ago I seen a post on here where the exact same thing happened..... they called garmin and explained the issue and got a new unit from them, so If I were you maybe give garmin a call.

[+MetroGT]

I recently purchased a new 60Cx and when I went to work, I had placed it on the top shelf inside my computer desk. When I got home, the GPSr was on the floor. The cat had climbed on top of my monitor and grabbed my nice new treasure and attacked it. Luckily I purchased a CarTom GPSr case and there were only two small scratch marks on the edges of the screen protector. The lucky part is... CarTom Cases cover the antenna too, so that probably protected the weaked target.

 

If Garmin doesn't replace your unit, grab one of these cases and you hide the damage behind the neoprene case. I customized my case by taking off the logo, the belt clip, and the back strap. That way I could put a small hole in the case to use the original belt clip and I cut a circle to get access to the data port. I hate having to take my GPSr out of it's protection every time I want to upload/download the data.

 

Good luck on the replacement.

[Boxer Crew]

I haven't been on this forum for a while - but, well you see last night our cat chewed the arial on my 60CS so I thought I would have a look and see what peoples suggestions were. You have no idea what it is like to look at your own desk on the internet without having posted pictures.

 

The differences, mine is a CS, I used Lepage glue, I didn't add the second layer of black tape.

 

What phase was the moon in last night????

Edited March 31, 2007 by Boxer Crew

[zedex]

Nice repair job. If you want it to look even better, go get yourself a chunk of heat shrink from an elecronics store. Heat shrink the end of the antenna.

I see lots of pictures of the damage but none of the guilty party.

[+Kabuthunk]

Coincidentally, I have a somewhat small picture of the culprit available:

 

.

[Greenbastard]

no matter what, or how severe, please do not pull the cats teet!

[+RRLover]

hmmmm . . . . an apartment cat huh?

 

Perhaps it's jealous and would like to go caching,

ferret (I call 'em weasels) harnesses work pretty well,

so as he (she) may return from the journeys unscathed.

 

We've got four cats and I've not scathed a-one yet!

(but I've sure thought about it once or twice)

Norm

[+Kabuthunk]

Nah, that cat fears the outdoors. Literally, pretty well meows like mad if you even put it on the grass

 

But here we see... the end result (or very close there-to). It was a complete success! The pieces dried together in perfect formation, and everything looks almost as good as new. With a little bit of rubbing, the slight bits of whitish glue that is currently visible can be easily removed, thus making it look nigh-new again. Albeit this is before the second gluing... there will be neglegeable difference between now and afterwards. The second gluing is mainly just filling one not-quite-fully-glued-down seam, and the slight 'flap' from where a tooth dug in will be glued down. Otherwise, it will remain identical. Surpisingly less needed for phase 2 than anticipated. I guess the taping in the above pictures helped squish the glue out and spread through the cracks. In either case... I'm quite pleased, and hopefully the glue will keep the cat away. Not that I plan to leave it anywhere the cat can get to again anyway .

[+NightPilot]

Nice repair, but if you're just worried about function, not looks, some rubber electrician's tape would be quicker and easier, waterproof, and probably as strong.

[zedex]

Cute kitty and splendid repair. You should be a surgion sporting goop.

 

I have one question. Where did you get that leather case?

[+Kabuthunk]

Nice repair, but if you're just worried about function, not looks, some rubber electrician's tape would be quicker and easier, waterproof, and probably as strong.

Nah, I wanted looks, too. I'm kinda picky about things like that when it's something expensive I own

 

Cute kitty and splendid repair. You should be a surgion sporting goop.

 

I have one question. Where did you get that leather case?

From S.I.R. sports. It's the actual Garmin-brand case for the gpsmap 60 series. I quite like it, although it was annoying to upload new waypoints, since you had to take it out of it's case to get the USB cord in (as well as to take out the batteries to charge 'em, but you only have to slide it halfway out for that). Hence, I cut a small hole in the cloth right over the rubber USB cover and hand-sewed around the edges so it wouldn't fray. Now, I can easily pull open the USB port without de-casing the gps :}

Edited April 1, 2007 by Kabuthunk

[zedex]

Nice. I may need to get me one. I looked at their online catalog but couldnt find a listing for it. Would you have a part # or catalog #?

 

Thanks.

[-Oz-]

That looks pretty good. Well done, DIY projects rock.

 

This is why cats are dumb :-P

[+Kabuthunk]

That looks pretty good. Well done, DIY projects rock.

 

This is why cats are dumb :-P

As opposed to a dog who would have likely chewed it up more, and then swallowed it?

[+RRLover]

That looks pretty good. Well done, DIY projects rock.

 

This is why cats are dumb :-P

As opposed to a dog who would have likely chewed it up more, and then swallowed it?

Tabasco sauce is your friend!

 

Norm

[+NightPilot]

I don't need tabasco sauce. I have chili pequins growing in my yard. One of those will take care of lots of equipment.

[+El Diablo]

As someone that co-exists with 6 cats (no one owns a cat. You serve at their pleasure!) I feel your pain. I can't count the number of cell phone antennas that I've replaced over the years due to being chewed off by one of the arrogant things.

 

Cats believe that if it moves, it needs to be stopped. If it dosen't move then it needs to be batted, bit, and back kicked until it does. Then take appropriate action to stop it.

 

El Diablo

[zedex]

As someone that co-exists with 6 cats (no one owns a cat. You serve at their pleasure!) I feel your pain. I can't count the number of cell phone antennas that I've replaced over the years due to being chewed off by one of the arrogant things.

 

Cats believe that if it moves, it needs to be stopped. If it dosen't move then it needs to be batted, bit, and back kicked until it does. Then take appropriate action to stop it.

 

El Diablo

 

so true.

[+Kabuthunk]

Sorry 'bout the delay in response to the 'what model of GPS case is that' and the rest of the topic in general.

 

Just now got around to phoning up Garmin. Unfortunately, since I live in Canada, they said they can't really just send me anything at the drop of a hat, so to speak.

 

However, they gave me the email address of the Canadian repair facility in Quebec, so I'm going to email them and see if they can possibly just send the antenna cover or something.

 

It's purely cosmetic at this point, so there's not loss either way, no matter what happens

 

As for the GPS case that zedex asked about... it can be found over here:

 

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=1189

 

Enjoy :}

 

I'll post a reply once I hear back on the email, too.

[+Kabuthunk]

Aaaand here's the response I got from my email:

 

Dear customer,

Thank you for contacting Raytech Electronique, unfortunatly neither

Garmin nor us can sell any parts to fix the unit yourself. The only

repair available is a flat rate repair at $207, at this price the unit

is overhauled back to new.

.

 

Yyyyyeah, a cosmetic fix to the antenna cover does not equal over 200 dollars. Oh well... looks like I live with the mangly antenna

 

So... Garmin support = ubertacular if you're in the States... less useful if you're not. Although, on the phone they were very pleasant and were helping as much as they could, so that part gets top marks :}