Will this USB cable fry my nuvi?

My 260 did not include a cable, I use the one from my camcorder and so far it hasn't fried the Nuvi

Thanks Flaco. Does your camcorder cable have that cylinder filter thing on it or is it just a straight cable?

No filter

Does anyone know if you can get a USB cable that will plug into your PC/Laptop, charge the Nuvi and allow you to operate it. i.e.: will not put it into Mass Storage Mode?

The appropriate voltage must be available from the computer's USB as it will charge while in Mass Storage Mode. I guess if it sees data connections is assumes it assumes your computers wants to talk to it and switches to Mass Storage Mode.

The only that I know of to do this is to hack a USB cable. AsianFire posted this link a while back: http://pinouts.ru/GPS/garmin_nuvi_power_pinout.shtml

I know there are at least a few Electrical Engineers out there... As a point of curosity... What is the purpose of the filter on the USB to mini cable that comes from the Garmin factory. It must be there for a reason, it must cost more than a cable made without one?

My guess (and I must admit that it is only that, but an educated one) is that the filter is not electrical but electro magnetic. It would be designed to reduce radio frequency interference.

I could possibly see that if you had a problem with the computer you were connected to that it would create interference on the screen of the GPS.

Think of the noise you hear in a speaker just before your cell phone rings if it is laying close to the speaker.

From my experience this filter is for noise reduction if you are copying videos. If you remove it, it will not have any effect.

Its called a ferrite core, or ferrite bead. As much as I distrust Wikipedia, theres a fairly decent explanation with reference links here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead

I don't see ferrite cores on cables as much as I did ten years ago. I'm not sure why. The after market USB cable I bought for my portable hard drive/MP3 player does not have a ferrite core and works fine with the Nuvi.

I appreciate all who responded to my question. Now I have a USB cable for Home, Work, with Laptop, etc... much more convenient! Thanks everyone

A little ealier in this thread I asked:

For anyone who's interested - I found an answer in another thread:

The procedure works well with my Nuvi 200W, not sure how seriously to take the warning, most devices these day are hot swappable - any thoughts on this?

My 2 cents, I have a Garmin USB cable that came with my c330, but I use my digital cameras USB cable for the reason that the cable is much longer. Results are the same with my nuvi 250w. No problems here.

i am actually an Electrical Engineer and all that cylinder is is a ferite core which is to reduce electrical noise it would not fry your nuvi not having it but you could get bad comunication or bad info due to other eelectrical noises "white noise" but you will be fine

Plug in the nuvi thru the usb cable to the pc. once it is connected and shows that it is in a mass storage mode. On your pc there is a button that you can safely remove a device. Stop the nuvi. That's it. But doing this means you cannot access you nuvi anymore in the pc but will continue to charge.

Thanks Doc Brown. I was posting on the fly yesterday and could not remember the word "ferrite" to save my life.

gdlcjr - thanks but I want to be able to operate and charge at the same time. The procedure I referenced in my previous post above works for me.

If anyone wants to know if they have ferrite on their cable here's a picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9748069@N03/1433591530/

I found (with the 750) that if I have the Nuvi off and locked when I plug it in then it will stay on and go to normal operating mode when it is ejected and can be used. If the unit is not locked then when ejected it will continue to charge as you indicated and will go into sync when turned on.

Also, with my 750, I found that I could use my cell phone charger without the unit going into sync mode if I plugged it in while the unit was in diagnostic mode.

I have been using USB cable came with my Blackberry to charge Nuvi 660. so far no issues.

QUACKINUP - The method you described above works for me (200W) thanks for the tip. I would expect other mini-USB chargers to work - they have no data connections and will operate just like the car charger.

To others reading this; try QUACKINUP's method and post your results with your model number.

This procedure is dangerous for both devices. There is an easier way...

Just go to your tray and "stop" the device. Your Garmin will switch to charging/operation mode. No need to unplug it at all!

Unplugging an USB device without "stopping" as they say in Windows or "unmounting" in UNIX can cause high current and fry some circuits.

That's why it is called a standard. You can use any cable which has a normal USB socket for a PC/Laptop and a mini USB device socket (as on your GPSr). Regardless of having filters along the cable or not.

You just have to remember before unplugging any USB device to stop/unmount it.

If I stop the device it switches the nuvi from mass storage mode to off, if I turn it back on it goes back to mass storage.

QUACKINUP's procedure above gets me where I need to be.

All I do is turn my Nuvi350 off by pushing the power button and it automatically goes into charge mode.

Double Tap - My desire was to be able to charge from my laptop/PC and use the GPS at the same time. The procedure posted by QUACKINUP allows you to do just that.

I am sorry I misunderstood what you were trying to do. My bad

Thank you,quackinup
Excellent remarks!

I'm using the same USB cable to connect Garmin Nuvi, Smartphone, and Canon EOS digital camera to PC - all work just fine.

The filter on some cables is to reduce noise, mostly of higher frequencies. Luckily, most homes these days don't have noise that strong - or maybe the equipment got more tolerant (though knowing where it's been made doesn't make me confident . Anyway, I'm doing OK so far without that filter on all of the above-listed devices.

Dave,
I bought my first automobile GPS just last Sat.
(A NUVI200 _ I love it) But I immediately wanted to know what makes it tick, and instead of buying a USB cable, I used a one from an old KVM switch for my NUVI200, thinking it would give a MASS Storage connectin to my laptop. All it did was provide power and charge the battery on NUVI.(Like you want)
My laptop would not even recognize it as a drive.
So I did have to buy another USB cable (for cameras, etc.), that did connect the NUVI as MASS Storage.
Both cables look alike. (but definitely worked differntly - (I thought USB was USB - period.)
Also once I did MASS Storage to laptop, I did some tweaking to the NUVI memory. You can delete all of the foreign voices, foreign help files and even any of the JPEG pics you don't like. (BE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR LANGUAGE FILES INTACK.) This allows for extra storage for vehicle icons, pictures, etc.
Garmin e-mailed this a.m. stating that yes these files can be deleted (or removed), (I had already done it, works great and I added .) I saved ALL files I removed from the NUVI memory, and placed them on my laptop hd for back-up.
Hope this helps,
Mike

I have read all the above with interest but lets take this one step further. I want to carry an external battery pack for my NUVI 250W.

I have the battery pack (can provide a supplier in Australia who has been most helpful). I have already found that 4 x fully charged NiMH AA batteries are over-voltage so I know that I need to regulate back to 5V and yes – it does power. BUT as already noted with standard charge/data cables, it goes to USB Mass Storage mode – not Navigate.

Research tells me that the secret is that the mini-usb X pin must be connected to the 4 pin (Ground) with a 17.3K ohm resistor to make the cable a power only cable (see http://pinouts.ru/GPS/garmin_nuvi_power_pinout.shtml)
Where do you buy one of these? OR
How do I make my own without cutting up a car charger? OR
Does anyone know where the elusive 200K ohm resistor is in the cable so I can mutilate/change it?

And I like the idea of doing a backup!

No need to hack up a cable if you use this procudre from Quackinup:

Actually not all usb calbes are interchangable. i tried using my garmin cable to charge my blackberry and got a warning that the current cababilites of the cable would not handle the blackberry. Balckberries charge VERY quickly.

This doesn't have anything to do with the Garmin, but last week I was working with someone that needed me to copy some files to his flash drive. Well, I was using Windows 2000 at work and I didn't stop the USB device before unplugging it. When he tried to get the files off his flash drive, they were not there. Apparently, if you don't stop the device correctly, it loses the copied files. When using Windows XP or Vista, you don't have to stop the USB device before unplugging it.

idea:

1. The 250W when locked and plugged to a battery with a standard usb - mini-usb cable still thinks it is in a media mode takling to a computer - NOT navigation mode SO - no use for extending out of car battery life.

2. I was writing a long reply and had an idea! - so cut to the chase.

Has anyone tried cutting the car charger cable and inserting USB female/male plugs? Male plug would go into my 4xAA battery box... Hot swappable power!

I have now started a new post on this at http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10701

You really don't have to do it with win2000 either. However, you will get the warning that it got unplugged and you (as you saw first hand) run the risk that not all the files (or any) got copied to the flash drive. However, that can also happen in XP or Vista as well.

Sometimes, even though it apears the copy is done, the files aren't done copying over. I've unplugged drives from both 2000 and XP without ejecting and had no problems, as long as I've given sufficient time. When I have pulled it out right after the computer indicated it was done transferring I've lost files (sometimes with some kind of a write error).

I guess I'm a little slow in joining this thread, but I was able to use quackinup's method to keep my 760 working as a GPSr AND charging at the same time.

I also was able to use a "regular" USB cord to connect the GPSr to the computer without any apparent ill result.

I also have a plug that plugs into the wall socket and at its back side, there is a female USB outlet. The plug clearly states that the output is 5v. I'm tempted to try using this to charge the 760. What do you electrical engineers think about this?

The plug is intended for a storage device (a harddrive with a LCD) for downloading and storing pictures from a digital camera.

I don't consider myself a techno geek but I have a 250 and if the voltage in is too high (see my bit about battery connections) it just does not work. I fugure the Garmin people have put in over-voltage protection - quite sensible when you think most are going into vehicles with at least 12VDC to zap anything unprotected. Basic rule would be that if it specifies 5VDC and comes in through a mini-usb then it will most likely work anything usb powered - unless the current is too low for the device.

On my recent trip I used my PSP USB cable..

You will be fine... I do it all the time. The GPSr will think it is being connected to a computer so you will need to do a technique to trick it into charging while you want to use it as a GPS.

Here is what I do for my 770... before you plug it in tap and hold the battery icon for around 10sec to cause the diagnostic screens to come up. When these diagnostic screens appear then plug it into the wall charger. At this point tap the exit button and the unit will "reboot" into GPS mode and still be recharging the battery.

Did what you said. Worked as described. Thanks, this is way cool! Saved myself from buying a wall charger.

The filter you see on the cable
is a ferrite clamp choke. The ferrite is used
to reduce high frequency emissions which
can radiate from communication lines.
These are usually used to pass the FCC
Part 15. If your cable does not have one
I would not be concerned.

The problem you have is if the cable you are using fries your 760, Garmin will not cover it under warranty. To me it is a small price to pay ($20) to use the AC charger they recommend. You must have paid four to five hundred for the unit. Nothing may ever happen but if it does you will be....SOL Maybe I am to cautious but screwing around in the diagnostic screen is not what I want to do...

Yes you can get a usb cable to do what you want from:
http://www.gomadic.com/brand-garmin-accessories-garmin-nuvi-...

This is the cable you need "Garmin Nuvi 200 Straight USB Cable uses TipExchange" the exchangable tip that comes with the USB cable will allow you to connect your Nuvi200w to the PC in the Navigation Mode.

At this website there are cables for allmost all the Garmin units.

H Hannah
Nuvi750 and Ique3600

I can use my Nuvi 350 USB cable on my Motorola Razor cell phone. I am guessing the Razor USB will work for the Nuvi.

This is about the third posting from you peddling that $20 A/C adapter, are you getting a commission from Garmin?

The USB cable "will not fry the unit", telephone A/C adapters "will not fry the unit"

Many of us in this forum use it all the time.

Just hit the power button on the unit when it's connected and it will go into charge mode.

It might take a few tries.

How did you know I get a commission? I still have 146 of them...want a special price? You have your opinion and I have mine..How about I won't respond to your posts and you don't respond to mine..It just makes sense to me..

I have a Garmin C340 and my son is giving my wife his Nuvi 200. It does not come with a cable to charge on the computer. Can I use the one that came with my Streetpilot C340?

No it won't fry the Nuvi,as long as they both have a MiniB USB Connectors.
And they do!

Bob

Thanks for the answer.