USB Charging

Any mini USB is fine, and it will charge while connected to the PC...if the PC is on

Remember that it is plugged in and dont start formatting unknown disks. You dont want to accidentally delete your garmin files.

Yes you can use your computer to recharge your gps.A regular usb cable with a mini connector on the end will work.I have a nuvi 250 and i find that while connected 2 the computer to upload poi's or photos, it charges the gps.

...but isn't the AC charge much faster?

- Jon

I'm thinking that maybe that unit doesn't come with an AC adapter.

...the nuvi 250W doesn't come with an AC charging unit.

I know my nuvi 200 & 260 didn't come with an ac adapter but the car charger works quicker than the usb-computer mode.

But who is going to sit in their car with it on (cause my cig lighter doesn't work without it being on) for a couple of hours...lol.

...Is why I shelled out for the PC cable and the AC adapter. Nice thing about the AC adapter, it comes with the different plug configurations for places outside North America. They just slip into the wall end for a quick changeout.

Wall adapters are available that have USB charging ports. I've seen them at RadioShack and WMart, generally under $20 (unless it's for an iPod!). A couple yrs ago I pickup a adapter that plugs into the wall with a female cigarette lighter outlet. Allows using a regular 12v charging cable.

Yeah any USB will work like mentioned earlier provided that you have the computer on. Didnt the garmin come with a usb cable to sync and update with that should do it as well. Itll be a lot slower than ur car cable but it will charge it.

The 2xx series Nuvi's don't come with anything but the suction mount and the car power cord. I find it very odd that Garmin wouldn't charge a few bucks more and at least include the sync cable for the PC.... IMO, that is a necessity

I love how all these new electronics use USB now. I don't have to buy a car charger for my phone;since I can use my Nuvi's car charger.

Can' you also use a cell phone charger that uses a mini USB adapter, I use my Razar Motorola cell phone charger with my Navigon.

Bob

I reckon that on your Zümo, that's correct.

It seems that since the spec. for USB says max. current is 500mA, that's the max. the unit will draw via that port.
However, units that have a dedicated charging port as well (seems to be everything except the Nüvi 2xx series) can and do, draw higher currents via it. This presumably results in it charging faster.

I think it's only the Nüvi 3xx, where that second port takes the form of another mini-USB connector - the rest seem to have some other type of plug.

I now know that my Nüvi 3xx will sometimes try to draw so much current via that charging port, that if it is not properly supplied, it will not charge at all. (Ie. Completely flat Nüvi, 500mA 'usb' power source in REAR 'usb' socket = NO CHARGE).

See also:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10790

The family and I are here in Sunny San Diego for the weekend....well get in the rental car and for some reason the cig lighter does not work...nor is there and other power outlets except a regular 12v port in the back...Some genius at Jeep puts only one power outlet upfront and a regular two prong outlet in the center console in the back...even in the back of the jeep (I think it’s a liberty) does not have an outlet...Now what self respecting Jeep lover would have designed this without a Tail gating power source in the back?? Any way back to the story...we ran out of battery on the way back and have now put the NUVI plugged into the USB port...I hope this works..arrrghhhh

Yes, I've used my BB charger on my C340. But I'm wary of using "any" USB charger. I used to have a Motorola Q (real piece of fancy junk phone) and although it used "standard" mini-USB to charge, if you used anything other than a Q-specific charger, it would power the phone but not charge it. It makes me wonder if some silly manufacturers out there (like Moto) use non-standard voltages or signals with standardized adapters.

Plugging into the PC should always be safe, though.

I have a question regarding this whole charging, plugging in issue.
Most of you sound like you're running your GPSr on battery and only plugging it in when the battery is low, or dead.
Do any of you run it always plugged in?
Does anyone know if this helps or hinders battery life?
I tried searching through the forums and can't find an answer anywhere.
Thanks.

Here is my opinion and it is only opinion...

Which is better ford or chevy? Who knows for sure. Same thing here, does plugging in the GPSr make the life of the battery shorter? Some say yes, others say no.

Yes, I leave mine plugged in all the time. Unless i am in a rental car and know that I am going just an hour or two.

If using my GPS in my car it is always plug in, and if working on my computer like now it is plug in the usb, so my gps battery is always full.

I suspect that your impression is wrong, probably because the only people who talk about battery life are those who DO run it unplugged most of the time.

Unless you have a very old unit, it has a Lithium-Ion battery (same as cell phones and laptop computers). The only thing that will hurt a Li-I battery is letting it go completely DEAD.....which is hard to do since most units shut off before that point.

P.S. This is NOT a guess. The subject was covered in the March issue of PC World, page 89.

The nice thing about having the USB cable is the ability to use the Garmin POI Loader software, and the Web Updater software. You'll use the POI loader to load up the Nuvi with POIs from web sites like this one, and the web updater will check the garmin site for software updates for your nuvi.

My Nuvi 350 came with a USB cable, but I have used any USB cable with a mini plug lying about. I use the same one for my Harmony remote control when my Garmin cable is MIA.

I also use the USB cable to charge my Nuvi at my work desk. I hate leaving my GPSr in my car unattended. So, I take it in with me to my desk, plug it in a charge it up. It is plugged in for 8 hours. That seems to be enough time to get a full charge!

Any charger with 5 pin mini usb will charge your gps unit.
It charges quicker with AC charger because AC charger provides more current (1A) compared to a max of 500 mA on usb port. Just make sure the AC charger is not rated for more than 5V, 1Amp or you might damage your unit.
A computer's usb port is also active in standby mode so you can charge your unit even if your computer is in standby mode.
Hope this helps...

****************************
Garmin Nuvi 360 with Fodor's and Language Pack

Interesting in that I just had a similar discussion about battery life in iPods today at work!

My very simple understanding of Li-I batteries is that they have a limited amount of "cycles" they can go through. A cycle is a full discharge to a full charge state. At one point, when iPods switched to Li-I, I believe they were rated for 500 FULL CYCLES. That meant that if you ran it (almost) all the way down and then charged it all the way up, that was one cycle. A 1/2 discharge followed by a fill-up is considered a 1/2 cycle. The battery was rated for 500, no matter how you diced or sliced it.

I know their are people out here that can probably explain it better than me. Have at it!

I think that was well said.

That is, however, not the only factor in battery life. Simple age is also a factor, as is exposure to extreme heat. No matter how "nice" you treat them, they won't last forever.

My solution for this trip was to take my NUVI USB cable and use it for charging...or at least I thought it was my NUVI cable..it turns out that this was actually my cable for the PSP...but it worked great...and then after looking around to hotel room I notice my wife’s Cell phone charger had the same small plug in and I used that also...both of these worked great for the recent situation I was in! Believe me the last thing you want is to be traveling down a highway in California and to have the NUVI run out of battery...It was a good thing I put the hotel # in speed dial before we left for that day!

I also noticed the MSN batery was all the way discharged...funny I always thought these were the same 'battery' that everyone was talking about...hmmm

As much as I wished that this was true, it is definately NOT the case with my Garmin nuvi 660. If I plug in any USB cable other than the AC power adapter, the device goes into 'USB Mass Storage' mode. The 660 will stay powered indefinately, but the battery does not charge in this state.

I see this behavior with a standard USB cable attached to a desktop or laptop, the USB charger for my Bluetooth headset, and even thje standard 12V USB power brick for MP3 players.

Only the 12V cable that attaches to the back of the 660 or the Garmin AC adapter will charge the 660.

Bummer!

Turn the GPS off while attached via USB and you should see a message on the screen saying that it is going into charging mode. I think that you are expecting the charge rate to be the same as with 12v and concluding that since it is MUCH slower, it is not charging -- but it should be.

I have a car charge for my moto razr v3m.

I just got a garmin 250W.

When I use the garmin charging, it works fine with
the garmin and won't power the phone (get unautorized charger).

When I use the moto car charger, the garmin goes into
usb data storage mode (like a computer).

It would be nice if I could travel with one cord...

marty

I charge my Nuvi 350 all the time off my desktop PC. =D

I'm sure the 250 works just the same.

Does this this method work for you:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/12601

...how do you come by so much smarts? You're a woman of few words, but you're always right on the money in your replies. Do you live and breathe GPS? Do you work in the industry, or what? Tell us your secret!

GC

Thanks for your kind words, GC0110.

No, I don't work in the industry. I'm just interested in them. And I'm lucky to have good memory recall.

Hopefully, I don't "live and breathe GPS". I have lots of interests. But this is a great site, so it's enjoyable to come here and be able to help people and also learn a bunch myself.

Yes it does but when you connect your usb cord, the splash screen comes up, when the text comes up on the bottom of the splash screen, push the off button. then it should say going to the chargeing mode.

I have been plugging my nuvi 760 into a Dynex self powered USB router and it has been working fine.

Haven't tried charging it with the Motorola RAZR AC Adapter yet, but that's next.

Apple just released a tiny USB charger, barely larger than a normal plug head. It works perfectly with my nuvi.

Jen

Does anyone know what is the DC amperage and voltage for the Garmin charger? I knew that different unit use different setting though. My Motorola S9 uses 5v/550mA instead of the standard 5v/500mA USB and I have to use that particular charger to charge. The Garmin seems uses both higher voltage and amerage to trigger the regular GPS mode instead of the storage mode.

Jeff

It's not the DC power supply rating that triggers the Garmin units with mini-USB connectors to go into GPS mode, it is a ~17K ohm resistor connected to a normally unused pin in the mini-USB connector itself. This has been discussed in several threads in this forum.

Have a look at this post (http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10701). I think we covered a lot of the territory on power/cables/batteries and ended with some workable solutions.

Bottom line - power from any USB specification source but you do need the special plug if you want to power AND navigate. (Listed in the post - and it does work.)