GPS USB Port Repair

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[Jair2k4] learned the hard way not to lend out your expensive GPS to untrustworthy people. His Garmin 200 was returned with a broken USB port and unable to charge. Luckily, all it took was some inventive thinking and he had it repaired in no time. By breaking open a Nokia cellphone car charger, he had a source of 5 volts. After that, it was only a matter of soldering the connections. However, not content with the design he pulled out a Dremel and mounted it in his 1991 Suzuki Sidekick. Quick, dirty, and actually working afterwords, just the way we like it.

19 thoughts on “GPS USB Port Repair

  1. I wonder what he did with the battery. Doesn’t look like it’s still attached (I would think it would just use the car battery after this hack). It would definitely be a good idea not to leave the battery in since lithium ion batteries don’t like heat so much.

  2. mental note to myself: when creating the opening for a speaker … either try to find something to mount over the opening you create, like the cover for a tweeter, or print out something that you can then tape down on the surface and use a pattern for the hole spacing–free-hand looks pretty lousy :^P

  3. Where do you live? In California, your Car would get broken into the first night you installed that.

    Some people have to take the GPS out when they are not in their care, or it will get the window broken and itself stolen..

    Let alone if you went to Frisco or something..

    Good idea, not that good unless you have full coverage insurance I guess

  4. @Ryan,

    I’m guessing that the thieves are just betting that the GPS has been stowed in the glove box if they see the suction-cup mount; I wouldn’t be surprised if that pans out half the time.

  5. Putting it right below where the handle to the handbrake makes it doubly hard to use being as you have to look completely away from the road and look around the handbrake to both see and use it. nice hack otherwise though

  6. Yeah, it I were to mount a GPS in my ‘kick, I’d want it closer to the action.

    Right now it sorta stands in the dashboard divot,
    (if you drive a ‘kick you know what I mean), but it
    slides out on sharp corners…

    I’d also want to have a way to have the car battery run/charge it.

    The GPS’s I use are a Visor and a Palm III, them and their Magellan GPS attachments are power hogs.

  7. I dont use it for looking at streets… I use the voice guidance to help me pinpoint where i need to get off the freeway. I live in central washington. nobody will steal it, because it’s pretty well hidden under my ebrake. not to mention the fact that I JB welded it to the console….

  8. What i want to know is: does the 200 have the same internal hardware as the 205, because the 205 can tell you the speed limit, and the 200 cant.. and i have a 200, and it has a microSD slot where i read 200 are supposed to have a big SD slot,and it even shows on the box it came in, a big SD slot. so i’m wondering how to go about upgrading my firmware or whatever, so that the 200 has the features of the speedometer &stuff. so if anybody thinks its possible, or knows for sure, email me or just post a comment

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