Garmin Portable GPS

[Cool Rod]

If anyone is thinking about a GPS for their AV, I bought a Garmin 276C about a month ago. It's the latest Garmin technology. Here's an FYI.

It has a lot of features, including voice prompting (it tells you when and where to turn), autorouting (figures your turn-by-turn course), can double as a marine chartplotter on your boat, and has a built in rechargeable battery for hiking. It's WAAS enabled.

It has the biggest color screen available in a portable and the most pixels for the most detail. It has a transflective screen for really excellent visibilty in direct sunlight.

Of course you can move it from car to car or to a motorcycle, and when you sell your vehicle you don't have to include your GPS like you would if it was built in.

Voice prompting and autorouting requires an optional Auto Accessory Kit which includes a 12 Volt power cable with cigarette lighter adapter and various mounting devices including a non-slip mount which doesn't need to be permanently afixed (the kit is bundled for about $200 extra). It also includes a CD with street-level mapping for the entire US and most Canadian cities as well as restaurants, gas stations, ATMs, attractions and just about anything else you could imagine. Marine and coastal charting requires an optional BlueChart chart (about $110). You can buy other maps for fishing and topo maps too.

Total cost about $925 delivered including auto kit and marine chart. That's a lot, but less than a factory installed unit (which isn't offered on the AV anyway) that usually goes for $2500 or more.

This is the first GPS I have had, so I can't compare it to anything, but I am very happy with it. Lots of positive buzz about it on the Internet in the Satellite Navigation groups.

Here is a link to a vendor. I didn't buy it here, but the price was similar.



http://www.gpsnow.com/gmmap276c.htm

 

[Joe Pollick]

I have a Garmin GPSMAP176 which is the ghetto-rific version of what you have and have been very happy with it through the years. It doesn't have the voice feature like yours (which is good or I'd have it talking dirty to me whille I drive ) but has been more than satisfactory for what I need.

Joe

 

[jackalanche]

Cool Rod, where did you mount the 276c? What did you do vis-a-vis the audio for the voice prompt feature?

looking for ideas . . . .

 

[ShapeShifter]

Where is the speaker for the voice prompts? One of the things I didn't like about the StreetPilot III's voice prompting is that the speaker was built into an oversize cigarette lighter plug. I would rather hard wire it and use a hidden (or at least less visible) speaker.

My GPS-V just beeps when a turn is coming up. But if I have the tunes cranked, I don't always hear the beep. I had the same problem with my handsfree phone, in that I would often not hear it ringing with tunes playing. I solved that problem by figuring out how to hook up a relay so that the phone's mute output turns off my stock radio (which does not have an entertainment mute input.)

Can something like that be done with the 276C? Does it have an entertainment mute output? Or at least is the volume adjustable and loud enough to be heard over moderate volume music?

(Jack, I wanted to ask this on the other thread, but didn't want to take it so far off topic. So I tracked you down and followed you here. )

-- SS

 

[jackalanche]

Where is the speaker for the voice prompts? One of the things I didn't like about the StreetPilot III's voice prompting is that the speaker was built into an oversize cigarette lighter plug. I would rather hard wire it and use a hidden (or at least less visible) speaker.

My GPS-V just beeps when a turn is coming up. But if I have the tunes cranked, I don't always hear the beep. I had the same problem with my handsfree phone, in that I would often not hear it ringing with tunes playing. I solved that problem by figuring out how to hook up a relay so that the phone's mute output turns off my stock radio (which does not have an entertainment mute input.)

Can something like that be done with the 276C? Does it have an entertainment mute output? Or at least is the volume adjustable and loud enough to be heard over moderate volume music?

(Jack, I wanted to ask this on the other thread, but didn't want to take it so far off topic. So I tracked you down and followed you here. )

-- SS

working on just those issues, SS, I have the plug with raw wires out and I also have ordered the cig plug with speaker unit you refer to (yup, I think they utilize the same system for the 276c, it is sold as a portable GPS, after all (and to be sure I will be moving it between the Av and the Sea Ray) and I can hack into the power and audio feed in that plug bundle and do something. Garmin also seem to sell a wide variety of cords, but it is hard to tell what is for what.

I also thought about a phone activated stereo mute - type system. To be honest, the voice prompt nav will not be in constant everyday use, but if you think about it, when on a long trip with hour long legs, you want to be able to play the radio and have a good system for allowing the garmin to alert you to the upcoming turn, right? Just got the 276c the night before I left on the trip I am now on, so I have not mounted it yet or even played much with it yet.

Sydney is nice, but my toys are calling me!

 

[ShapeShifter]

but if you think about it, when on a long trip with hour long legs, you want to be able to play the radio and have a good system for allowing the garmin to alert you to the upcoming turn, right?

Exactly! Driving through a congested area, it could be annoying to have the radio cut out constantly as directions are coming fast and furious. In this case, a mute is not as important, since you probably don't have the radio cranked in these situations. (At least I don't, it's too much of a distraction in an unkown congested area. And if it's a well-known area, I wouldn't be using the GPS anyway.)

But on the other had, while cruising, I may have the radio turned up, and the whole point is that you don't want to keep looking at the display every few minutes because you can't hear the voice over the music. In that case, having the radio cut out while the voice is speaking would be great!

But to do that requires some sort of mute output from the unit. This is usually a line that is open circuit most of the time, and gets grounded to activate the mute. If that is the case, that's ideal, becuase I could paralell it with the phone's mute output (as I'm sure others could do, also, even if they have to resort to what I did.) But in reality, any kind of mute output would give something to work with.

On the hard-wire cable for the GPS-V, there are four pins: Power, ground, serial data in, serial data out. I would assume that the 276C has more pins than that, because the sound has to be able to get to the speaker in the power plug. The real question is how many pins are on the connector, and what are the pin definitions?

Sydney is nice, but my toys are calling me!

Hey, you're only about 450 miles from Melbourne. Are you going to look up Skidd while you're down there? Who knows when you're going to be closer?

-- SS

 

[jackalanche]

Ok, back in the ol USA (CT to be exact!) - I was only in Sydney Tuesd morn thru Friday morn, all work and no play and certainly no time for a 900 mile rt road trip - but while there I did pm him on one of htese sites.

Jason is aslo Garmin now, I have put him on it as well . . .

 

[ygmn]

Glad you back JACKALANCHE....hows the VETTE?

 

[ShapeShifter]

At the Garmin site, the 276-C manual can be downloaded. Page 97 is interesting, it shows the pinouts of the power/data connector:

• Black: Ground
• White: Alarm
• Brown: Voice +
• Yellow: Data In 1
• Orange: Voice -
• Blue: Data Out 1
• Green: Data In 2
• Red: Power
• Violet: Data Out 2

That's a lot of pins! It looks like the voice audio signal is indeed available on this connector (as one would assume since the lighter plug has a speaker.) There is also power and serial data. But what is really interesting is the "Alarm" wire?I wonder what this is?

Hmmm... how is it used, when is it active? Could it be used as a mute line?

-- SS

 

[Beer]

The alarm output may be for waypoint alarm, when you get to within a predetermined range of a waypoint, most GPS's will alarm to indicate you have arrived (usually with a Beeping/and or flashing of a message on the screen).

Cheers
Beer

 

[jackalanche]

The alarm output may be for waypoint alarm, when you get to within a predetermined range of a waypoint, most GPS's will alarm to indicate you have arrived (usually with a Beeping/and or flashing of a message on the screen).

Cheers
Beer

if true, why a pin-out for it? seems such beepbeep stuff could be dealt with in the pure audio out, unless it flashes my interior lights or something . I have the manual in-hand, I have the kids all weekend as the wife is now flying, but I will see what I can come up with . . . right now I am up at 2:00 am due to being a bit time-zoned . . .

SS, I can tell you that the unit is very very cool, and a great solution for someone who wants a GPS unit that they can take from the boat to the car (some might find its nautical side to be unnecessary, but you can just alternate between the dual personalities as you wish)

Hey ygmn! Vette is running Sweeeeet . . . if yo want a car that generates a ton of thumbs up, "nice car" and being stopped on the street by admirers every time you get in it, that's the one. get's distracting at times, but in a good way. here's a dusk photo, only good for showing off the new Gold Lines I just put on . .

 

[Cool Rod]

Hey Jackalanche and Shapeshifter, you guys are so far ahead of me I'm almost embarassed to chime in!

I wish that there was a way to tie in to the Bose speakers with a way to automatically override the music. That would be extra cool.

I don't have mine permanently mounted, I use the friction mount. It never budges.

I keep mine in my center console when I'm not using it. That way I don't tempt any B&E-type guys. (Attention B&E-type guys: forget that you read that!)

There is a big learning curve if you don't already have GPS savvy. I'm always going back to the owners manual. If you just want to get from A to B, it's reasonably simple, but there is a lot of expert stuff too.

I bought the BlueChart CD for the day I get a boat. For now I use it when I go out on my friends boat. He thought he knew the local waters, but he was awed by the BlueChart.

Things I wish it had: built-in speaker so you could get voice prompts when walking in unfamiliar cities; hard drive like the 2610, instead of cards; "scenic drives" maps so you could just take a nice spontaneous sidetrip when travelling.

Here's an interesting review that you may have already seen

http://www.gpsinformation.org/wilson/g276crev.htm

I don't think I'll be doing the kind of mods you guys are talking about, but I'll be interested to see what you come up with.

Cheers

 

[Cool Rod]

I think this place has the lowest prices, at least that I have found. My BlueChart was $99 plus shipping.

http://www.planetgps2.net/

 

[ShapeShifter]

if true, why a pin-out for it? seems such beepbeep stuff could be dealt with in the pure audio out, unless it flashes my interior lights or something

I was thinking it might be for a marine, motorcycle, or other potentially noisy environment where you might want to hook up a flashing light or bell/siren alert.

The real question is when is that output activated, and for how long? Does it just activate when one of the manually set alarms go active (like proximity or anchor drag) or does it also go active at each turn? If active during turns, how long does it stay active? The whole time it is talking? If so, it might be useful as a mute output.

I wish that there was a way to tie in to the Bose speakers with a way to automatically override the music. That would be extra cool.

That is not incompatible with what I am looking for, you are just trying to take it a step further.

To do what I want, which is simply to mute the radio when the GPS is talking, some sort of output is necessary so that the GPS can indicate when it is talking. I would use this just the way that I did with my cell phone mute signal. Niether my radio or MP3 player had an entertainment mute function, so I hooked up a relay so it would be energized anytime the phone is in use (phone's mute line grounded.) When the relay is energized, it breaks the power to the radio and MP3, which simply think that the ignition has been turned off. So with power off, they simply go quiet. At this point, the phone can be heard using it's own speaker. When the phone call is done, the relay drops out and makes contact again, and the radio and MP3 power up and continue where they left off. I would hook up the GPS the same way.

To do what you want is almost the same idea. The difference is that you don't want the radio to turn off. Instead, what you want is to feed the audio from the GPS into auxiliary inputs to the radio, and use the mute signal to cause the radio to temporarily switch to the aux inputs. This is essentially what OnStar does when it wants to talk. How this is done, or if it is even possible, depends on the radio unit you have.

With the factory radios (2002, 2003 and later) this is possble (because OnStar can already do it) but it won't be easy. To do it, the audio will need some sort of amplifier/buffer circuit that takes the audio from the GPS, and connects it to the input audio bus at the right time. Then, to switch the radio to the aux inputs, it is necessary to send it the appropriate serial data bus command (which is not documented as far as I can find) over the truck's common class-2 serial data bus. Extreme care is necessary, as this data bus goes all over the truck to all sorts of places, and disrupting this bus due to improper connections can have bad consequences.

There are adapters out there which will do most of the work, and provide a set or two of auxiliary inputs to the various factory radios. However, so far as I know, none of them give the ability to automatically switch the radio to the aux inputs based on an input signal. All they do is tell the radio that aux inputs are available, but it is still up to the operator to manually select the aux button on the front of the radio.

So, is connecting it up so the voice prompts automatically play through the radio is theorietically possible? Yes. But is is easy to do? Absolutely not. Even with my engineering backgound, this is one project I am not about to touch.

Mute? Yes. Play through the radio? No.

-- SS

 

[jackalanche]

holy crap SS way to geek out there! I think you pretty much convinced us not to go for the "audio thru the speakers overriding the radio" thing, or just lost some folks . . .

 

[ShapeShifter]

holy crap SS way to geek out there!

Yeah, I guess that's me.

I think you pretty much convinced us not to go for the "audio thru the speakers overriding the radio" thing

I was once hoping to feed my cell phone audio through the stock system, so I had given it a lot of thought a while ago. Can you tell?

It should be no surprise that I gave up on that route. A hidden powered speaker is not all that bad...

-- SS

 

[jackalanche]

A hidden powered speaker is not all that bad...

-- SS

I came to the same conclusion while pondering this in Sydney last week, but I still want to incorporate a stereo-mute feature (switchable perhaps?) so that my jamin of Boston's Foreplay/Longtime (old man reliving his youth )one hour into my trip does not cause me to miss Ms. Garmin kindly warning me to "take this exit" . . .

 

[Cool Rod]

I don't really know why anyone would want to do this, but I stumbled across a feature I didn't know about.

If you are operating from your internal battery and the cigarette lighter cord with speaker is still plugged into your 276C, the speaker still gives voice prompts.

I guess that if you used the cord with the bare wires instead, you could connect to a speaker in a motorcycle helmet or on bicycle handlebars or in a backpack. Or you could just use the cigarette lighter cord as is, although it looks weird with the plug-end hanging out.

Well the handlebars thing might be OK, even if the other two are dumb!

Here's a place to get RAM mounts. They give you some mounting options.

http://www.tvnav.com/rammount.html

 

[ShapeShifter]

but I still want to incorporate a stereo-mute feature (switchable perhaps?) so that my jamin of Boston's Foreplay/Longtime (old man reliving his youth )one hour into my trip does not cause me to miss Ms. Garmin kindly warning me to "take this exit" . . .

My unit does not have a "Silicon Sally" voice (just a beep), and I wasn't listening to Foreplay/Boston (this time) but just yesterday on the way to Pittsburgh, I missed the beep, and missed a turn. Fortunately, I realized before I had gone more than a couple miles, but still. Had I had an entertainment mute on the GPS, it wouldn't have happened, no matter how loud I cranked the tunes.

-- SS

 

[jackalanche]

to be honest I am still on mundane non techie action items like - WHERE TO MOUNT THE THING?

as for techie stuff, recall that I have all kinds of vid screens as well as an A/V switcher - I can send any one or more of four different sources to any one or more of three different screens (I have three screens, including a Viz unit up front in the pass demi-visor). I had been trying to come up with a central location for the 276C, so that the front seat passenger / wing man could also see the screen and assist in direction giving, or be entertained by it. But then I realized that I have all of these screens, and the A/V switcher which means the kids can still watch Shrek in the back two screens and wife can watch Nav on the front screen. Audio follows video, so wherever the Nav is showing the audio (IR headsets) will follow, if anyone is so inclined.

Now, if I could only get a video out from the Garmin . . . .

 

[jackalanche]

well, after driving to Nantucket and back for last week's vacation (ok, I drove to Hyannis, then put the Av on the ferry) I can offer some observations on the 276C and the lighter plug with speaker:

First, the thing can be cranked up pretty f-ing loud, so it might not be necessary to create a stereo mute feature. And, you can have your little stepford wife (as I began referring to her, since the Garmin can be programmed, unlike my wife) speak to you with an English accent if you prefer - that's what I opted for.

If you are in Nav mode, you might want to disable the offroute voice advice, since the minute you exit for Gas the thing advises you that you screwed up and are off the route you selcted, and you need to turn right at the next stop sign, blah blah blah to get back on track. As I said, you can program more compliance into her, by disabling this uppity behavior

I have the raw wire bundle plug, and I have the cig lighter/speaker plug, and I want to hard-wire an external antenna (which all seem to come with a plug end), but I also want the voice prompts, so I will be cutting into wires soon as they do not seem to make it easy to have the external speak AND an external antenna . . .

 

[ShapeShifter]

so I will be cutting into wires soon as they do not seem to make it easy to have the external speak AND an external antenna . . .

That seems very odd...

On my (much simpler) unit, the antenna input is completely independant of the power/data cable plug. To hook up an external antenna, I first remove the built-in antenna by rotating it down while gently pulling it out. The antenna will pop off, revealing a female BNC connector. The remote antenna has a mating BNC connector that just attaches with a quarter twist.

Looking at the pinouts of the 276C data connector, there do not appear to be any antenna pins. Perhaps the antenna connection is the same as on my unit? Using a BNC bayonnet connector is almost a GPS industry standard (although some use smaller connectors.)

-- SS

 

[Naked AV]

How come there are no pics in this thread

 

[ShapeShifter]

How come there are no pics in this thread

You can get to pics of my paltry little setup though the link in my sig. Here is an example:

​

But what I really want to see is Jackalanche's setup.

-- SS

PS: Naked AV, your signature picture looks like it might be just a tad over the 500 x 100 pixel size limit.

 

[jackalanche]

ok, maybe I spoke too soon on what I need to do for my remote antenna hook up, like my 8th grade soccer coach used to say (and we young kids were in AWE of him, to be sure) when you assume . . .

I should perhaps have read the manual on how to hook up a remote antenna, SS is right, not the same plug. Kinda stooopid if you ask me, when you move the unit from car to boat, I have not one but two plugs to pry out? (no need for the remote antenna in the boat, clear sky above the unit when it's mounted there )

here is the remote antenna from Garmin, it permits external mounting or windshield mounting using the suction cups:

As for pics of my in-Av set-up, I have so much going on right now, and living out of 1/2 the rooms of my house while construction is going on, I am not my usual organized self, will post up soon. Here is what I did: I mounted a swivel arm to the face of my ash tray (I am suprised that, in 2004, an ashtray is automatically placed in every car you buy, but thankfully ours has some steel in there and it is rather snug too - still, I may screw it closed permanently if I notice any excesive wiggle of the 276C, not a small unit that); had to shim the bottom screw plate up a bit to make up for the curving face; I used this unit (but that's not a 276C shown), I think www.gpscentral.ca is a great source for all of the component parts for these RAM mounts, but you get hit for Canada export tax:

I like this idea, if I ever part with the Av I will not leave behind screw holes in the dash, the ashtray is a cheap part to freshen up.

Since the speaker that comes with the lighter plug - speaker thingy really seems to work well, I will, by week's end, mount an additional lighter socket under the dash, out of sight, and plug that thingy in there, and this will allow me to pigtail off of the radio-type power source (off once I open the door) - as you know the stock jobs under the lighter plug array door are always hot. Since the dash-face location of the main GPS unit causes the loss of satellite reception every once in a while, need to locate an external antenna, likely going to center it above the rear roof edge cladding. More freakin wires to run up to the dash (kinda crowded what with the big ol feeds to my 110 inverter under the rear seat, the rear facing lights, etc. etc.)