Garmin 305 issues

Jez mon
Jez mon Posts: 3,809
edited June 2009 in Workshop
I've had my 305 for one and a half years now, and it's begun an annoying habit of switching off whenever I go over a any poor road surfaces. As riding over such surfaces is unavoidable, it's rendering it completely useless. Has anyone else had this issue, and do they have any solutions
You live and learn. At any rate, you live

Comments

  • Simon Notley
    Simon Notley Posts: 1,263
    Yes, I have had this issue, but it's not good news. The solution is to get it replaced but unfortunately yours is out of warranty (I assume - mine came with a one year warranty) so I'm not sure you'll be able to do anything other than buy a new one. You could try contacting Garmin, I've found them to be very helpful in the past. I suggest phone not e-mail as they don't seem to respond quickly to e-mails but phone is almost always answered right away.
  • paulbricey
    paulbricey Posts: 84
    You can find dozens of strings on this very common problem all over the internet - I have exactly same....

    1. Often you can overcome it by putting the unit in back pocket instead of on hard hitting bar or stem mount
    2. You can improve it a bit but not fix it by opening the unit and bending the contacts up a bit more so tension is higher (but still need to carry in back pocket in my experience)
    3. If you can solder in small circuit boards with tiny wires you can bypass the problem contacts with permanent wires and then reseal the unit - unit can be pried open with finger nails/knife.

    Personally I'm still at phase 2 but the unit is in my pocket and looks rubbish with tape & elastic bands holding it together....I'll solder it soon once I get the right type of wires..!
    Briceyinstockport
  • gsk82
    gsk82 Posts: 3,439
    id imagine garmin are the type of company that will just replace it if you contact them direct, either that or repair it for free
    "Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago
  • fnegroni
    fnegroni Posts: 794
    mine does that when the mount bracket is pushed all the way to the top of the stem, and the unit seems to be sensitive to being pushed upward by the stem's clamp.
    Basically the pressure from the clamp and the holder holding it down seems to somehow push the internal contacts apart.
  • paulbricey
    paulbricey Posts: 84
    I can't believe you think Garmin will replace it for free after 1.5 years and outside the warranty - go read the threads and you'll see that at best you have to pay a packet of cash to get the thing replaced .......and then it fails again ....(and guess what) you pay again....

    (I work in a company that lives off selling lowish and then making money from aftermarket sales & products - the business model is called 'razor-razor blade'..... or 'Garmin won't work outside warranty'
    Briceyinstockport
  • JasonRwmb
    JasonRwmb Posts: 268
    Mine did this a year or two ago. It got to the stage where it was pretty much unusable. I did think about sending it back but found too many stories of units failing again and again...

    I found option 3 in Paul's post fixed it. If you do a search on google there is a good site that details exactly what to do. It is not actually that difficult, I am not brilliant with a soldering iron but I managed to sort mine out ok. You don't actually need any new wires, you can just use the existing wires from the battery, and hard wire them to the circuit board, so by passing the spring contacts. It seems very strange that Garmin used this sort of contact on something exposed to a lot of vibration.

    If I get chance I will see if I can found the website with the details.

    Mine is still held together with tape as I haven't got around to getting the right sort of glue!
  • Jez mon
    Jez mon Posts: 3,809
    Thanks very much for al the answers. Does anyone know if the 705 has these issues, I was thinking of getting one before my 305 had these issues, but now I'm not so sure!
    You live and learn. At any rate, you live