I just mounted my GPS (Magellan Meridian) to the handle bars of my KLR650. The GPS seems to be loosing it's signal. Any ideas? the GPS has freash batteries and was tracking 5 sats. at the time of testing. I have own this GPS for about 3-4 years now with no problems. Is the lose of signal from the vibration? The mount has rubber between it and the handle bars. By the way the signal comes right back and seems to do this at various speeds. when veiwed the GPS doesn't look like it is vibrating all that bad.
OK I would bet that since you're using batteries a small bump or vibration and your batteries lose contact. Try hard wiring it. If you don't have the hard wire try putting a small piece of foam under the battery spring terminals to add more tension so the batteries don't separate.
The vibes from the thumper are killing the batteries. Hard wire and remove the batteries is the only answer.
If you are using the external antenna make sure it sits on a metal surface. The GPS antenna needs that metal as a ground plane for its reception.
THanks for the ideas the unit is not shutting down and the and I am runing the enternal ant. The unint seem to loose my position for a moment and then reconnect right away from the vibration. do any of you guys have this problem or what kind of GPS units do you run.
I'm still thinking the vibes are causing the batteries to lose contact . It can be happening so fast that you won't see a change on the display but it's enough that the receiver recycles sat. track.
My Garmin GPS V did the same thing even when hardwired. I had to use the Touratech mount with the big rubber mounts to make it work.
Had a buddy with this same exact problem (at least the symptoms) on his old Garmin III. Touratech mount on a KLR and lots of drops with the moto running; never with the engine off. I loaned him an antenna and the problem went away. He called Garmin and they sent him a new antenna (for free) and he never saw the problem again.
I'll agree with what most everyone else has said - hardwiring the unit to the bike electrical system does solve the 'jiggled battery/unit lock-up' problem. I have a Magellan Meridian Gold that I mount to my R100GS handlebar with a RAM mount. For short trips, it runs on internal batteries (with an occasional hiccup). It is hardwired for longer trips. This unit and set-up has been nearly bullet-proof over thousands of miles. While hardwiring the unit does solve many of the problems, a power issue should not cause the unit to lose lock on satellites. The antenna, or position of the antenna, would most likely be the place to look. The antenna in the Magellan is located in the top of the unit. This requires that the unit be held or mounted nearly vertically to gain and maintain lock on the satellites. If it is mounted flat (or nearly flat), the antenna essentially points the wrong direction (ie. away from the satellites). You can test this by holding the unit vertically while you turn it on and let it acquire a position. Once you have a positive satellite lock and a position acquired, turn to the 'sky plot' screen, which shows the strength of the satellite signals, and turn the unit flat (or even upside-down). You'll see the strength of signals weaken. It should also be noted that a minumum of four satellites be locked in order to provide positional data. More is better. If you lose one, even momentarily, the unit will get 'lost', and stop providing data, until it locks onto another satellite again. Heavy tree cover or tall nearby trees, tall mountains, buildings, and high voltage power lines can all disrupt satellite signals, from one, or all of the satellites that are locked on at the time. This can be shown by simply putting your hand over the top of the unit (covering the antenna) as you watch the 'sky plot' screen. Hope this helps. - Kewaneh
Its not vibration... I had the same problem with my Garmin III Plus and V when mounted on my R100GS/PD. I noticed that the unit would loose track periodically while riding but would re-lock when idling. There seemed to be a direct correlation between signal strength and engine rpm. At higher rpms the signal strength would weaken until loosing lock altogether. Engine vibration insignificant. My conclusion is that the GPS is receiving EM interference from the ignition system on the bike. I'm sure that those ignition systems are pretty noisy. It doesn't take much to loose lock since the GPS signal is much weaker than even natural ambient RF noise.
Yeah my am radio makes a heckava noise on my thumper. You could wrap it in aluminum foil or you could get a metal touratech mount, I get no interference on my unit. I have always run it on batteries. Stays locked most of the time. Even after I broke the mount, there is no static interference, I just lash it in there with half a mount! Oddly it has never come off even in a tip over in the snow. It is now guarded by metal only on the bottom half! An early beta lashing system, still worked fine...Magellan Sporttrak Topo.
My Lowerance would loose the connection to the battery contacts when I mounted it on my LC4. I knew it was the connection because I would loose the plot trail. If you can put the unit in your camel back and ride aound for an hour with no problems I would say that the ignition systems or the antenna is NOT the problem.
i have the same unit mounted to the fork tube pinch bolts. the batteries making and breaking contact is the offender. hard wire and leave the batteries in you'r tank bag.the 12volt cig. plug type is the cheapest and available almost anyplace, unlike the ones that are designed to hook directly to an 12v source. one thing i've noticed is that after 8k miles the power cord developed an "open" and it had to be replaced. this current one dosen't have enought miles on it to say wethere or not it's a design defect.
