Colorado Cable Issues

[+milos6058]

Now that I'm a new Colorado owner, I started investigating what it will take to power my unit in the car. Being an engineer, I figured there must be a cheaper way then Garmin's auto cable. Turns out that the only difference between the cable that comes with the Garmin (called a mini- and the power cable is that pin 4 & 5 are shorted together on the power cable (sort of making it a Mini-A). So I took a standard Mini-B cable (not the one that came with the Colorado) and modified it into a Mini-A. Sure enough, it powers the unit in the GPS mode. Boy is the backlight bright!!

 

To make the modification I used a razor knife to cut the molded plastic off the small connector. Underneath I found a two piece metal connetor that was easy to pry apart. Once apart the outer housing slipped off the end of the connector exposing the small plastic piece that had the five contacts molded in. Looking at the contacts laying upright and facing you, pins 4 & 5 are the right most pins. Simply solder a solder bridge across those two pins as far away from the ends as you can. You have to use a very small soldering iron so as to not melt the whole thing but with care you can do it. Simply put the outer piece back on over the end and with pliers, pinch the housings back together. Since mine had a small piece of copper foil wrapped around the back of the housing, I wrapped some back on. I'm not sure this is necessary, especially if you're only using it for power. After that, simply slip a piece of heat shrink tubing over the connector and heat with a lighter to shrink it. There you go, hope this saves you some bucksl

[Joe-bar]

BE CAREFUL

 

Car connector = only 5V not 12V

Edited April 5, 2008 by Joe-bar

[+g-o-cashers]

Good information. That was what was suspected (see H7) but this is the first time I've heard of someone doing the actual modification and testing it.

 

GO$Rs

[+Bazzer]

Now that I'm a new Colorado owner, I started investigating what it will take to power my unit in the car. Being an engineer, I figured there must be a cheaper way then Garmin's auto cable. Turns out that the only difference between the cable that comes with the Garmin (called a mini- and the power cable is that pin 4 & 5 are shorted together on the power cable (sort of making it a Mini-A). So I took a standard Mini-B cable (not the one that came with the Colorado) and modified it into a Mini-A. Sure enough, it powers the unit in the GPS mode. Boy is the backlight bright!!

 

To make the modification I used a razor knife to cut the molded plastic off the small connector. Underneath I found a two piece metal connetor that was easy to pry apart. Once apart the outer housing slipped off the end of the connector exposing the small plastic piece that had the five contacts molded in. Looking at the contacts laying upright and facing you, pins 4 & 5 are the right most pins. Simply solder a solder bridge across those two pins as far away from the ends as you can. You have to use a very small soldering iron so as to not melt the whole thing but with care you can do it. Simply put the outer piece back on over the end and with pliers, pinch the housings back together. Since mine had a small piece of copper foil wrapped around the back of the housing, I wrapped some back on. I'm not sure this is necessary, especially if you're only using it for power. After that, simply slip a piece of heat shrink tubing over the connector and heat with a lighter to shrink it. There you go, hope this saves youurc some bucksl

[/quote

Your talking about the cable end that goes into the Colorado are you? I puorchase a $12 car conector that has the large USB plug on it. I tried the standard cable and the Colorado thought it had the PC connected to it.

 

Barry

[+Red90]

Your talking about the cable end that goes into the Colorado are you? I puorchase a $12 car conector that has the large USB plug on it. I tried the standard cable and the Colorado thought it had the PC connected to it.

 

Barry

 

Yes, in a normal USB-B mini cable, pin 4 is connected to nothing... So there is no wire to anywhere. The main end only has 4 pins.

Edited April 5, 2008 by Red90

[+milos6058]

BE CAREFUL

 

Car connector = only 5V not 12V

 

I should have been clearer. I used a standard USB cable with the normal sized male connector on one end (unmodified) and the male mini-B on the other end. I modified the mini-B end which is the end that goes into the Colorado. To use this cable in the car I have a cigerette lighter plug that has a USB female socket on the end. It converts the 12vdc to the 5vdc used by the USB.

[rjfrider]

I made my own cable using a Radio Shack 12v to 5v voltage regulator, then got a 3" jumper from Powerlet which does the same thing (joining 4 and 5 pin). The jumper is just $9. I included a 1 amp fuse in the circuit........the whole thing is hot wired to my motorcycle battery to power the Colorado all day long off the bike. So, no battery drain down at all - even with backlight on all day and night. Rider

[+Red90]

I made my own cable using a Radio Shack 12v to 5v voltage regulator, then got a 3" jumper from Powerlet which does the same thing (joining 4 and 5 pin). The jumper is just $9. I included a 1 amp fuse in the circuit........the whole thing is hot wired to my motorcycle battery to power the Colorado all day long off the bike. So, no battery drain down at all - even with backlight on all day and night. Rider

 

Ummmm 12V to USB adapters only cost a few dollars...... Ther eis no need to fabricate anything.

[+qlenfg]

So you spend $400+ on a GPS and balk at $28 for a factory power cable that you don't have to hack and won't damage your unit? My time is worth way to much to fiddle with this kind of stuff to save a couple of bucks.

[+Red90]

So you spend $400+ on a GPS and balk at $28 for a factory power cable that you don't have to hack and won't damage your unit? My time is worth way to much to fiddle with this kind of stuff to save a couple of bucks.

 

Well, personally, I have many USB cables lying around and it took me 5 minutes to modify one and it won't damage my unit.... as I'm qualified to know what I'm doing.

 

I just have a problem spending $28 for a $2 cable.

 

Now the factory cable IS nicer as it is a right angle plug and those do not exist (AFAIK) anywhere else....but it still hurts me internally to pay $28 for a $2 cable...

[+Styk]

The only drawback to the right angle plug is it's hard to grip and pull out straight without exerting a lever like force on the plug.

 

While I have only used a few different USB cables on my old 60Cx, I had a lot of trouble with the cheap cable while none with the Garmin supplied cable, perhaps I just got a bad cheap cable, or the particular manufacturer had sloppy manufacturing processes.

Edited April 7, 2008 by stickman756

[+Styk]

Has anyone bought the serial cable for the colorado to see how it is wired?

[rjfrider]

If you buy the $28 Garmin cable, you still have to cut the male cigarette lighter plug off to hard wire it to a motorcycle battery. I'd never connect a female cigarette lighter plug to the battery and then plug the Garmin cable in. It's a true hardwire connection, so until Garmin makes a hardwire adapter, the cigarette lighter plugs don't make sense. Rider

[+Red90]

If you buy the $28 Garmin cable, you still have to cut the male cigarette lighter plug off .....

 

You can't do that as the plug contain the voltage regulator. You must have a 12V to 5V regulator in the circuit.

[+qlenfg]

If you buy the $28 Garmin cable, you still have to cut the male cigarette lighter plug off to hard wire it to a motorcycle battery. I'd never connect a female cigarette lighter plug to the battery and then plug the Garmin cable in. It's a true hardwire connection, so until Garmin makes a hardwire adapter, the cigarette lighter plugs don't make sense. Rider

 

Why not? I have a BMW (John Deere) outlet on my Guzzi for electric gear and such, and if I need to run something with an SAE lighter plug I have an adapter. Same for the BMW, and when I had a Concours I had an SAE lighter outlet on the dash. Most people who tour add lighter outlets so they can use a compressor, GPS, radar detector or whatever.

[+Red90]

With the new firmware, you can use a normal USB-mini B cable. Just set the Serial protocol to "Spanner" and it will ask you if you want to go into USB mode or not when plugged in. In that mode, it behaves like a "traditional" Garmin USB GPS.

[+milos6058]

With the new firmware, you can use a normal USB-mini B cable. Just set the Serial protocol to "Spanner" and it will ask you if you want to go into USB mode or not when plugged in. In that mode, it behaves like a "traditional" Garmin USB GPS.

 

Yea, I checked that out and you're right. I can put my soldering iron away for another day!!!

[+IvorBigun]

With the new firmware, you can use a normal USB-mini B cable. Just set the Serial protocol to "Spanner" and it will ask you if you want to go into USB mode or not when plugged in. In that mode, it behaves like a "traditional" Garmin USB GPS.

 

Yea, I checked that out and you're right. I can put my soldering iron away for another day!!!

only on the update of course

 

I was suprised the original cable did not have the power part connected my 76csx only needs one cable for power it takes power from USB so I can have the light on all day while in the 12v usb power adapter

plugged in the Colarado nothing so even driving to a cache site I still use the 76 as it has the light with out running the battery down

 

Why cant I have full brightness on batteries I know they dont last long but I use NH rechargeables

some time I do eve bike rides only for an hour and strugle to read the trip computer I would then have the choice Brightness agianst battery life and I could CHOOSE MY SELF

 

the 76csx works well on full light I know have 2 bike mounts the colarado for day use and I still need the 76 for eves May be garmin dont want people selling their old units so every one has to buy new lol

[+EARTHQUAKE5683]

USB power is 5vdc and that is what the cig lighter adapter does. Lower the voltage down. From there you can spice on a usb cable and be good to go. Here in Japan they sell cellphone chargers that have the female usb port on them. I bought one today to find out that it put it into the mass storage mode. Got home, downloaded the new firmware/software update, put it into "garmin spanner" mode and everything worked fine. This solves the problem for my wife having a charger for her 300 but they dont sell that phone charger for mine. I have an old cellphone charger that I will mod to work with the mini-b plug. Before I start hearing all the...just fork out the 28 bucks, blah blah blah, I am an electronics tech in the USAF. I can take voltage readings and know that my old cellphone charger is 5.05vdc and can micro solder. Thanks for the concern though.

 

Hope this helps anyone with any questions.

 

Joe

[+Paul_Aris]

Anyone try the Motorola Razor charger to power the colorado in the car? I have an iplug charger with the proper USB connector for my razor. Should work if you have the latest beta update in the colorado?

[+IvorBigun]

Anyone try the Motorola Razor charger to power the colorado in the car? I have an iplug charger with the proper USB connector for my razor. Should work if you have the latest beta update in the colorado?

I am not sure about the Moto charger I used to have the V3i and do still have the usb charger but have not risked it

 

But what does work now since the update just tried it to confirm

 

If you have a usb charger that plugs in to a 12 v cig lighter type socket in spanner mode it does power the colarado

 

Also if you have a 240v plug type usb charger (mine is for Palm lifedrive) that too also works in spanner mode both these units supply correct USB voltage

 

I was using the standard garmin cable that came with unit on both counts

 

The clever thing is when you remove the cable it ASKS do you want to keep the unit on

Why cant it ask the same question in garmin serial mode instead of always turning off when you disconnect from PC

Edited April 13, 2008 by IvorBigun

[+stachefinder]

Milos6058 is correct. Standard USB mini-b connectors have a floating pin 4 (X pin). The Colorado USB data cable uses this type of connector. The various chargers have pin 4 (x pin) connected to ground. Some devices seem to have a resistor between pin 4 and ground but the Colorado does not. The Colorado can accept 5 Volts DC. If you go to the debug screen (hold rock and roller down while you power up) you will see the internal/external voltages displayed. You will also see that you have a USB mini-b cable connected if you are using the data cable. The display shows no cable connected if you are using an external power source.

 

Ths gamin serial cable is a pain. If you don't have a serial port on your computer you will need a USB-Serial converter. The Garmin cable does not supply power to the Colorado. If your batteries are not fully charged the receiver will shutdown almost immediately (as noted in this review: http://www.gpsinformation.org/penrod/colorado/colorado.html). To use the serial cable, plus have the device stay on you have to create a gadget that splices power in to a mini-b plug from you external supply, connect in the Tx/Rx signals from the USB end of your serial cable and then tie pin 4 to ground. Don't forget that Tx on one end is Rx on the other.

 

If you do all this you will be able to connect you Colorado to your favorite PC based mapping,navigaton software while going mobile.

[+g-o-cashers]

If you do all this you will be able to connect you Colorado to your favorite PC based mapping,navigaton software while going mobile.

 

With the latest software (2.51) I don't really see the need for the serial->USB cable unless you have a serial connector on your computer and no USB. With PVT supported over USB and Spanner to convert to NMEA a standard USB cable is all you need with the Colorado to do tracking.

 

I tried a standard Motorola phone USB car adapter today and it powered the Colorado fine in my car. It doesn't work like the Garmin adapter but if you have 2.51 installed you can just tell it not to go into mass storage mode.

 

All the details about cable types and how they work in the Colorado are documented in the FAQ in the Cables section.

 

GO$Rs

[rjfrider]

Why not? I have a BMW (John Deere) outlet on my Guzzi for electric gear and such, and if I need to run something with an SAE lighter plug I have an adapter. Same for the BMW, and when I had a Concours I had an SAE lighter outlet on the dash. Most people who tour add lighter outlets so they can use a compressor, GPS, radar detector or whatever.

 

Because - my bike is a KTM dirt bike and the sockets eventually would come loose.....thus, I choose to hard wire directly to the battery. So, only a blown fuse or broken wire would shut down the gpsr. Rider

[+EARTHQUAKE5683]

Why not? I have a BMW (John Deere) outlet on my Guzzi for electric gear and such, and if I need to run something with an SAE lighter plug I have an adapter. Same for the BMW, and when I had a Concours I had an SAE lighter outlet on the dash. Most people who tour add lighter outlets so they can use a compressor, GPS, radar detector or whatever.

 

Because - my bike is a KTM dirt bike and the sockets eventually would come loose.....thus, I choose to hard wire directly to the battery. So, only a blown fuse or broken wire would shut down the gpsr. Rider

 

Build yourself a small power supply. Plenty of info on the net, but you really dont need much. A small box to mount it in, a voltage regulator and a small cap.