To Power or not to Power?

Aladdin_Sane · Regular Visitor Joined: Jan 01, 2006 Posts: 79

Is it really worth getting the powered mount for my Quest 1 or not?

I'm pretty sure I can plug it into my cheap 'Oxford Bike Mic' to get the audio so that would be a plus

Anyone bought the powered mount but think they could have done without?

Anyone bought the non powered mount and wish they'd bought the powered one?

I met a guy high in the pyrenees last summer who had the quest on his bmw. He had the powered mount for his quest but kept the audio turned off which kinda defeated the object imo.

After he gave a quick demo of his quest I decided I needed one too. Shame I didn't buy it before I went on a touring holiday!!!

enzo · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 17

A S, I've only just taken delivery of the powered mount from Garmin for my bike-Sprint ST.

I thought it would save taking charger and could plug earphones straight in.
The Quest locks in with 2 different types of fixing(friction 'nibs' and locking pins) - not obvious until you have the unit sitting in front of you.
Also, there is no need to unscrew the power mount from the car bracket and swap over.

As for the speech - just plugged in some i-pod ear pieces and they work very well. Even had to turn the volume right down!!

IMO a much better purchase and worth the extra cost.

Qaulity does not come cheaply. Rolling Eyes

Enzo

Skippy · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:10 pm Post subject:

I think power and sound are a "nice to have" but I do without them. It depends how much you ride - your mileage may vary! Wink

For driving in town I sometimes wish I had voice directions (safer than taking your eyes off the road to look at the screen). :x

As for power, my rides aren't generally long enough to run the battery flat.

I left the Quest switched on one day with the backlight off and it shutdown after about 17 hours. I guess that it wouldn't run flat in less than about 8 hours with the backlight on 100%. Bummer if you forget to take the charger so you can charge it up every night though.
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Gone fishing!

dandywarhol · Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 2:26 am Post subject:

One benefit of having no 12v power supply is that the backlight comes on when a direction change is imminent, assuming the Quest is in your line of vision and your eye catches it of course!

I have mine powered with the Garmin car kit plugged into a cigarette lighter socket and a home modified breaker type of jack plug in the speaker housing to send the sound to the Autocom. The Garmin cradle soon developed a fault with a combination of hot weather deforming the cradle and rain water causing verdigris on the connections, making the 12v supply break intermittantly and causing the Quest to shut down! Crying or Very sad

Turning the unit to backlight on full time cured that problem but it seems the standard Garmin cradle really isn't suitable for outdoor use.

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Garmin Quest|Ram Mount|Yamaha TDM900

At the cutting edge of technophobia

Kritou · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:26 pm Post subject:

For a start I use a RAM cradle on my R1150RT. I added the QPAC combined power/audio pack that bolts to the back of the cradle and cost about£40

This works very well but in retrospect the cheaper £15 audio only option would have worked fine for me. It makes for a lighter package (less amplification of any vibration that gets into the mounting system) and vastly simplifies the installation of course

The RAM cradle is very sturdy and causes none of the problems with cracking of the Quest's antenna hinge that seem to be associated with the Garmin mount

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