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Garmin Zumo 345LM - Will it drain the battery

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Antares 
#1 ·
Hi Folks,

Intro - It was recently my Birthday, and in a few weeks I'm off on my first road trip, from UK to Holland and then to Germany, meeting up with friends in Netherlands and Germany, couple of days riding in the mountains, then back to UK again. I'm gonna be helped with a proper Sat-Nav, so I bought for my self-birthday gift, Garmin-Zumo-345LM.

Test it yesterday with a hundred miles around the Peak District, and the Motorcycle specific routing did a great job of taking me away from the A roads I know already onto better, bendier, hillier and more stunningly beautiful scenery.

Today I wired in the charging loop. as follows. I crimped terminals onto the ends of the Black and Red wires so that I can attach them on the Battery posts. The little transformer needed some positioning to stow it under the seat as well, and then I ran the cable under the tank and along with the other wiring up to the handlebars to fit into the RAM mount for the Sat-Nav.

All good, however, because it's not through the ignition there is always power, so just need to take the unit off the mount when not riding (Which I will do anyway).

Question - the transformer even when nothing is on the cradle, will take some charge, but it this negligible or is it going to drain my battery in a few days? Does anyone already have experience with wiring the Garmin charger direct and not experiencing any drain, or alternatively made the experience that this is a vary bad idea and really either the positive needs to go via the ignition or have a separate inline switch.

I'd prefer not to have to mess around with the wiring if it's not really necessary, and I know that yes over a longer period (weeks into months) the transformer would eventually make a dent in the battery, but when it's home in the garage it has a battery tender attached in anywise, so long term standing is not the concern here.

Many thanks for advice, assurance or experienced warning in advance.
 
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#2 ·
Just fitted the same Garmin to my Tiger 800xc. I'm having the exact same problem. Read on another discussion to wire it to a connection that is only live with the ignition on. It's the small transformer, converting the 12v to 5v that's drawing power from the battery all the time.
 
#3 ·
Hi Folks,

Intro - It was recently my Birthday, and in a few weeks I'm off on my first road trip, from UK to Holland and then to Germany, meeting up with friends in Netherlands and Germany, couple of days riding in the mountains, then back to UK again. I'm gonna be helped with a proper Sat-Nav, so I bought for my self-birthday gift, Garmin-Zumo-345LM.

Test it yesterday with a hundred miles around the Peak District, and the Motorcycle specific routing did a great job of taking me away from the A roads I know already onto better, bendier, hillier and more stunningly beautiful scenery.

Today I wired in the charging loop. as follows. I crimped terminals onto the ends of the Black and Red wires so that I can attach them on the Battery posts. The little transformer needed some positioning to stow it under the seat as well, and then I ran the cable under the tank and along with the other wiring up to the handlebars to fit into the RAM mount for the Sat-Nav.

All good, however, because it's not through the ignition there is always power, so just need to take the unit off the mount when not riding (Which I will do anyway).

Question - the transformer even when nothing is on the cradle, will take some charge, but it this negligible or is it going to drain my battery in a few days? Does anyone already have experience with wiring the Garmin charger direct and not experiencing any drain, or alternatively made the experience that this is a vary bad idea and really either the positive needs to go via the ignition or have a separate inline switch.

I'd prefer not to have to mess around with the wiring if it's not really necessary, and I know that yes over a longer period (weeks into months) the transformer would eventually make a dent in the battery, but when it's home in the garage it has a battery tender attached in anywise, so long term standing is not the concern here.

Many thanks for advice, assurance or experienced warning in advance.
Whilst it's possible for it to add to battery drainage i don't think this is an issue if you ride at least once a week. I have a USB charger on my bike and I'd assume that it's the same business (12v->5v, 4.2A total). It is a very straight forward charger no "voltage indicators" or any other flashy stuff, so if the Garmin one has anything like that anything i say may be irrelevant, but I wired that USB charger direct because i did want to always have access to it, I can take the fuze out if I really don't want it to drain but I've left my bike sitting 3 weeks in the winter outside and it had no problem whatsoever starting so I'd argue the charge is negligible or at worst on par with the base draw of the bike's electrics. That's just my experience but i don't know anything about that unit in particular, though Sat nav chargers tend to be lower performance than USB outlets so might be even less of an issue.
 
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