Sat nav connection

[Knapdog]

I'm off touring Spain/France on the fat lady in the summer and I've treated myself to the Garmin Zumo XT2.
In the past, on other bikes,  I've just connected up the sat nav straight to the battery. This new sat nav comes with an inline fuse but should I continue to connect direct to the battery or some sort of intermediary device?
I already have a USB port connected to battery for when I was using Google Maps on my phone and I've also recently purchased a GoPro so that's likely to be connected to USB port also, though not at the same time as phone.
Any help appreciated.

[steveB (VRCC UK)]

Could wire it into the accessory connection under the r/h side panel. They are JIS bullet connectors Green (Earth) and Red/Green (Live). Note; only rated and fused at 5 amps so good for SatNav, phone etc but not for heated grips, clothing or supplementary lighting. They are switched by ignition so no chance of leaving accessory turned on.
On my own bike I use it (through a relay) to turn on another fuse box powered from the main fuse. This fuse box powers heated clothing, grips, driving lamps, air horn, gps etc and means if one of these accessories blows it will not take out any of the bikes vital systems.

[Knapdog]

Could wire it into the accessory connection under the r/h side panel. They are JIS bullet connectors Green (Earth) and Red/Green (Live). Note; only rated and fused at 5 amps so good for SatNav, phone etc but not for heated grips, clothing or supplementary lighting. They are switched by ignition so no chance of leaving accessory turned on.
On my own bike I use it (through a relay) to turn on another fuse box powered from the main fuse. This fuse box powers heated clothing, grips, driving lamps, air horn, gps etc and means if one of these accessories blows it will not take out any of the bikes vital systems.

Thanks, Steve.
If I connect to that accessory connection will that mean that I don't need to attach the separate inline fuse to the red wire?

[steveB (VRCC UK)]

Knapdog - Garmins use a 3 amp inline fuse. So use it if you're going to wire directly to battery (yuk). Or change the 5 amp for a 3 amp in the 'acc' position in the bikes fuse box if your going to use the accessory terminals and delete the inline fuse.

[Knapdog]

Knapdog - Garmins use a 3 amp inline fuse. So use it if you're going to wire directly to battery (yuk). Or change the 5 amp for a 3 amp in the 'acc' position in the bikes fuse box if your going to use the accessory terminals and delete the inline fuse.

Yup. I understand. Thank you.

[MarkT]

A problem with connecting it to an ignition switched power supply,  is 1) It will run off the internal battery unless you let it time out, or return and power up the bike again, or if you tell it to stay on it will drain the internal battery fairly quickly. 2) Powering it off means a break in your track of the trip.  Inconvenient if you want the track to be contiguous - you will have to re-attach the segments with a track editor after downloading it. 3) Depending on the model, if you are following a route you may have to restart it when powering back up.
I have mine fused but not ignition switched & power it off on completion of the ride.  If you don't, the Garmins I have owned power themselves off anyway in their default timeout - 30 seconds on my current ZUMO. My other devices are ignition switched via relays - no issues for them shutting off.

[steveB (VRCC UK)]

Mark; don't have a problem with either Zumo or my current TomTom or whatever the system is in our car. Never used route tracking so not sure about that. I remove the GPS from the mount for lunch and coffee stops, busy petrol stations and overnight on long continental trips. All the units I've had just light up again and continue with the planned route when switching the ignition on (they also adjust the ETA, average speed etc). Maybe I'm missing your point, but I have an aversion to lengths of 'hot' wires.

[Knapdog]

Mark; don't have a problem with either Zumo or my current TomTom or whatever the system is in our car. Never used route tracking so not sure about that. I remove the GPS from the mount for lunch and coffee stops, busy petrol stations and overnight on long continental trips. All the units I've had just light up again and continue with the planned route when switching the ignition on (they also adjust the ETA, average speed etc). Maybe I'm missing your point, but I have an aversion to lengths of 'hot' wires.

Steve, I've added bullet connectors to the ends and plugged in to the "Accessory" ports.
I've also replaced the 5amp fuse in the fuse box with the 3amp fuse that came with the Garmin.