I have my Garmin 1490 T hard wired inside the fairing of my electraglide. I got the bike back from the dealer and figured I'd check out everything to make sure it was working. Sometimes things are left disconnected when they have the seat off, the battery disconnected, or the fairing apart.

I have hard wired my Garmin, my XM receiver and a flash2pass garage door opener inside the fairing. The flash to pass and the XM worked fine, but the Garmin fired up but then cut out at various times after it booted. Sometimes it would load the maps but it would always cut out within a minute or two. I was convinced that I had a bad electrical connection, so I checked and double checked a couple of times....disconnected and reconnected, and still the unit didn't function properly.

Finally, I brought the unit in the house and connected it to the house current and found it did the same thing. So I went on the Garmin website and found it has been a problem with this particular unit, and you could download a patch to fix it. So after doing so it works perfectly.

Taking the fairing off isn't that hard but I sure wish I had looked at the Garmin website first. Hopefully this post will save others from doing unnecessary work.

 

I just bought one of those and downloaded the latest updates. Is that patch included in the latest updates or do I need to get that separately? Do you have a link to the patch. Also, how did you hard wire your garmin? Did you purchase a direct wire cable that protects the garmin or just wire it directly into something?

 

thanks for the imfo....how do you like that gps ? i have been thinking of buying the 1450...i have an old 2610 that the face is chipping off the screen and can hardly read it in the sun, but still works fine

 

Answering your questions:
I am not sure how I found the patch. I believe I went to the garmin.com website and clicked on 'support' for my particular model and I read a note at that point which described the problem I was having. All you do is make sure your battery is fully charged and connect the Garmin to the USB port and follow online instructions. My guess is that if you have the latest version, you do not have to do it. It's easy enough to tell if your unit has the problem. Just turn it on (using your charger if you're not hard wired) or your wall charger and see if it stays on. Mine cut out, as I said, within a minute or two like it wasn't getting any power.

I hard wired the unit where the wiring goes into the cigarette lighter inside the fairing using some fancy connectors (no soldering). I am using an after market gizmo that is made for my model. It has the + and - wires that go into a module. Exiting the module is the specific connector for the unit. I then run the wire out through the handle bar opening on the right handle bar and velcro it there when it's not being used. I will try to find the link for the specific connector I bought and post it on this thread.

I like the Garmin. It is a bit cheaper than some of the specific motorcycle GPS's. It has a large screen, is very bright, and when I mount it on the tank mount glare is not a problem.

 

http://www.mountguys.com/product_p/mfx5v-b.htm

 

If you went to Garmin's website and got the updates, you should be good.
The software update that is available will update the units firmware and internal software.

Note: These aren't the same as the map updates that you buy.

The software updates are free, and its a good idea to check for new updates once or twice a year.