Garmin usb cable hack

I also noticed that my phone almost needs a small water cooled radiator during live maps use. This limits things considerably. We have a standalone GPS in each vehicle and one to use in rental vehicles I custom mount the GPS making swapping in or out not particularly easy but possible for updates. After installing the Express software and playing with it a bit I seem to have few issues.

It compares device software revisions to the latest and will tell you if you need to update. Since it only gets used a couple times per year, I see no reason to have it park itself as a resident on the computer. Not sure how it works in earlier versions of Windows. I loaded the NA maps, on the SD card no problem. But I also want the European maps. The particular Bay map I found instructed me to create the Garmin folder and call the NA file gmapprom.

If I give it the same name as the NA map gmapprom. What you might be able to do depending on how much space you have on your device is copy the NA map to the internal storage and the Europe map to the SD card. I have the files downloaded and ready to install but cannot see hidden files. Any assistance would be appreciated. Once I tried to do the same on a Pc, everything went as usual and worked as it should.

Thanks Jim! I have a garmin gpsmap and the new north america maps. The only thing that I can get to work is the north american topo maps. Any chance you can direct me towards some information that would allow me to download my activity data from a Garmin xt WITHOUT having it go through Garmin web services?

Windows does not support formatting to Fat32 for memory cards over certain size 32GB? MPW is not the easiest tool, but there are probably other easier tools or methods as well, just do a quick google search. Thanks for this guide btw, works great! Old garmin navs are available for next to no money, so this is a good guide for those on a tight budget. I read about GMap Tool, but I did not found any clear instructions how to split big file. Any clear advise how to split or compress an update bigger than 2 GB?

Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. And this is fine - it will work. But there are two warnings. The charger must be capable of supplying 2 amps.

And you must never use the modified cable on a computer as it will draw more than the. Or you could stop being so tight and buy a charger to the new standard. You will find that you need it more and more over the coming years as more devices become compliant. It would be a good idea to be able to check for compliance when purchasing off, eg, Amazon.

I'm afraid I don't. I've had the same problem myself. The only way I've found to do it is to check compatibility with a device that needs these chargers. I agree with the sentiment that it would be nice to know what you are buying. I bought 3 different car chargers for my Palm Treo Pro all of which claimed full compatibility and none of them worked. I know because I had one. PocketGPS Web. Weekly Newsletter. Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site.

Submit A Support Request. When connected to the PC they mount as a disk drive and when connected to the supplied USB car charger they will charge and function as normal. But, when connected to a third party 12v USB charger they act as if connected to a PC and refuse to charge or to offer the normal GPS related display and functionality. This occurs because the manufacturer has chosen, for reasons best known only to them as USB is supposed to be a standard, to short USB pins 4 and 5.

The device looks to see if pin 4 is grounded and if not, it switches to USB disk mode. Fortunately, I only blew up a cheap power bank, and not my GPS or my phone The Mini-USB connector shell has five very small solder pads. If you have any doubts at all , plug that connector into your breakout board and use your meter or continuity tester to be sure. Bend the other lead degrees to the Ground pin, which should be the leftmost pin in the bottom row.

Don't solder it yet, but cut it to a length that will just reach the ground pin. Cut the non-computer end of your USB cable off The small or square end. Push the USB cable through the strain relief supplied with the new connector if it will fit mine didn't, but there's a solution to that later.

If there is a foil or braid shield, cut that off close to the end of the jacket. You should now have four thin wires. If it's a charge-only cable, you'll only have two wires. Solder the ground black wire first, after bending that other resistor lead so it's touching the leftmost bottom row pin. Double-check you've got the resistor on the ID pin and not one of the data pins.

Unplug from your power source and use the Ohms setting to check. It should be 18K between ID and ground; all other resistances should be infinity. Now you can close it up and test it on your GPS!

If it doesn't work, try shorting the ID pin to Ground instead of using a resistor. All I know for sure is this works on a Nuvi and a Nuvi If your strain relief didn't fit because the cable was too fat, run a bead of hot-melt glue around the cable where it exits the connector, the slip a piece of heat-shrink tubing over connector and wire.

When you shrink the tubing, the glue will re-melt, filling the space within. When glue starts to seep out the end of the tubing, you know you've got a good strain relief!

Some Samsung tablets and maybe phones, too - the later ones with the Micro-USB connector - when used with a standard Micro-USB cable, will not charge at their full rated charging current of 1. Instead, they will charge at a lower current of. This is indicated on the battery icon of the tablet with a red "X" across the battery. If the tablet is being used , the battery may never catch up. This is caused by Samsung's use of proprietary charging cables. Luckily, this too can be fixed or, "hacked," if you prefer.

All the preceding warnings about USB color-coding apply here also. Reference the schematic in this step. Cut the cable in half at whatever point along it's length suits you. Strip each of the internal wires.

Most of the action here happens on the "tablet" end of the cable. Twist one lead each of the 10K and 33K resistors together, twist onto the white and green wires, and solder this connection. At this point, think a bit about how you will protect the finished splice. If you're using heat-shrink tubing, don't forget to slip it on now , before re-joining the two cable ends. Now, take the red wire from the power end, the red wire from the tablet end, and the other lead of the 33K resistor, connect all three together, and solder.

Do the same with the two black wires and the other lead of the 10K resistor. You're done, except for insulating and protecting the splice. For more ideas on splicing, see this Instructable. Be sure to test your cable as noted in step 3; You'll need a Micro-USB breakout board for this one, of course.

Note : This cable has now become a charge-only cable, since you cut off the data wires on the power end. It's a good idea to label it as such, to avoid future frustration! Note 2: This can probably also be done with a Micro-USB connector shell, but it'll probably be harder to fit two resistors into the shell.

Reverse-engineering is fun, and can be very profitable in terms of money saved. If you have any more reverse-engineering ideas, leave a comment and you may get a free premium membership! Tip 9 months ago on Step 2. I had to use a bright light and a big magnifier to look down into the connector end to see it. Using a "break-out" connector is essential to attempting to do this. I was doing the same with a Garmin Colorado But I modified the internal usb with a smd resistor.

Great post, I was looking for this since I can't get my 3rd party charger to work with my Garmin Nuvi. Just curious though, at the end of the Garmin part you're saying: "If it doesn't work, try shorting the ID pin to Ground instead of using a resistor.

Saves parts and time. Reply 2 years ago. It might, but my philosophy is never to produce a short unless one knows exactly what will happen.

I don't solder until I've done a temporary lash-up to verify operation. I have heard somewhere that the value of the resistance may also set how much current may be drawn from the USB mA vs 1A -- which would charge faster obviously.