Garmin After Market Power Cords

I just wanted to post a follow up to my original post on this topic. My wife and I have used my Garmin DriveSmart 65 with Amazon Alexa in our Jayco RV a number of times since I bought the Gonifeto cords. I bought two that have USB-A ad one that has USB-C. I have been using the USB-C cord with my Anker Nano Car Charger. During a trip Thursday night, while navigating with the Garmin DriveSmart 65, it stopped working. It would appear to be starting up, but then power down.

After giving this some more thought, I don't think it was getting enough power. I just checked and I was using the middle port (USB-C), which is only 45 watts maximum. No other devices were connected to the Anker Nano Car Charger. In retrospect, I should have switched to the 100 watt USB-C port.

I also found another Garmin power cable at home that I have never used. I think it came with the DriveSmart 65. It states:

Garmin 320-01296-00
(Other places call that the Garmin part number 010-12840-00)

Input: 10-24VDC = 3.0 A

Output: 4.6-5.3VDC = 4.6 A

The Garmin DriveSmart 65 manual states:

The vehicle power adapter included with your Garmin DriveSmart 65 with Amazon Alexa device is not compatible with any other Garmin devices. Connecting this vehicle power adapter to a different device could cause damage to the device.

Does anybody on here have any thought on what that could possibly damage? I suspect that is simply a standard disclaimer.

Another theory I have is that despite the claim on Amazon from Gonifeto, these might not actually provide enough power for the DriveSmart 65.

I should add that I am using the 320-01296-00 right now and the DriveSmart 65 seems to be working. I never would have expected that it needs 4.6 amps to work correctly!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZ7BL16W?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_...

https://www.anker.com/products/a2737?variant=44052473315478&...

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/drivesmart65w-alexa/...

Although the power limit for USB C, per (USB PD) 3.1 specification, is 240W, the power supplies in most vehicles do not provide anywhere near that. They seem to be designed mainly for low power applications, like charging a phone.

I have had some success powering my smaller screen GPSr's via USB C, but not with newer, larger screen models.

I do like the size of the cables you linked for ease of routing. I use them with a 200W USB C charging adapter, but that requires a 12V vehicle power outlet.

My 2023 Taos has a mat for wirelessly charging my phone and that's what I've been using. More recently, have been using an m4 iPad Pro with the boydsmaps app in the car (and used an Android tablet before that).

Plugging directly into the USB port charges these things really fast - faster than any of the wall chargers that I use in the house. A quick search says that the port provides 45 watts, which is a lot. The Apple charger that came with my iPad is only 20 watts.

I have several cigarette-lighter type Garmin power supplies from their 7" automotive devices (DriveSmart 61, DriveTrack 71, Dezl 760). The labels on these say ~5 volts @ 2 amps, which should be 10 watts according to the "West Virginia Law" (W = VA).

I no longer use any of these, but did in the past and the auto USB port had no problem powering it. There was a problem, however, with the GPS randomly "waking up" when the car was off for some reason. This didn't happen with the cig lighter, so I used that instead.

Back in my gpsreview days, we had a number of people report problems powering Garmin devices from automotive USB ports. The common complaint was that the GPS thought it was connected to a computer and went into USB disk mode. IIRC, this could be prevented if you were sure to get a power-only cable, which is (apparently) missing some of the data pins. But this was some time ago and I've never experienced that problem myself.

I have been using the Anker Nano Car Charger, which claims 100 wats on one of the USB-C ports. I am wondering if the wire is too thin to pass the power needed. The Amazon listing shows that the power cord uses upgraded pure copper 18AWG cable with 3.5mm thicker wire.

https://tinyurl.com/2uv4ervc

https://tinyurl.com/4hpuyk7t

Curious as to why you think such a beefy power supply is needed for the DriveSmart 65? Like I said, the adapter that came with my DriveSmart 61 is rated at 10 watts. I have an original Garmin AC adapter that came with my Montana 600. It powers my DriveSmart and DriveTrack devices fine and also charges the batteries.

According to the label, it only has 5 watt output (5 volts at 1.0 amp maximum).

High power usbc has its uses.

Many laptops today accept power only via usb c. These need anywhere from 40-100w (or more?) to charge and power while in use.

With that kind of current/power, usb c cables must be robust to handle it without combusting.

My hp elitebook laptop (2021 vintage) will accept power via usb c but also has a dedicated female barrel connector to accept power from the accompanying brick.

Personally I prefer the old school method. If the barrel connector gets damaged, it's a simple daughter board to swap out. Takes 5 min. If the usb c port gets damaged, that requires board level repair.

This is progress!!!!