Trust me, I've been trying to convince him to do mine for months.

 

THUMBS UP
good job mate!

 

i ordered a second radio lid after seeing this post! got the garmin nuvi 265wt ready!

ooo one question, did you disassemble the gps?

 

I believe he did disassemble the GPS. Check one of his earlier replies.

 

Sorry I've been MIA for a while. Work has really taken the front seat again recently...

[QUOTE=hecash,Feb 5 2010, 03:47 PM]I'm curious about HOW he disassembled it.

 

Hi Aphex4000. what sort of price point would you be setting for these? Are you thinking about building them from an off the shelf Nuvi or are you going to have the buyer provide one?

I'd be in depending on your price but I'm also realistic in understanding that these are probably difficult to build and require a lot of time/energy/up front expense.

 

If tests with the Nuvi 7xx series go well, that's what I'll go with. Accuracy with the 260W jumps up and down between 45ft and 150ft. This has always been fine for me (even in Downtown Houston), and may be fine for most people/places since the unit can deduce which road you are based on your direction and speed, however I am worried it may give terrible results for others. Because of this, I want to use a unit that works with an external antenna. Many of the cheaper TomToms offer an MCX connector for external antennas, but I am not a big fan of the TomTom interfaces. I am currently not considering using buyer provided units since I couldn't guarantee they will perform well, or even fit. Based on the number of hours it takes for fabrication, wiring, and cost of parts, pricing will be ~$500.

 

That sounds like a very fair price for the amount of work needed and I also like the idea of an external antenna.

You can count me in among the many who will be interested at a $500 price point.

 

Can we get pictures of the back and of it installed??

 

Some quick shots I took tonight of the second prototype. Although the original video shows cf on the door, I refinished it with graphite gray metallic paint while replacing the internals and reworking the housing. You can also see a video of the previous version installed here .


The new setup has been simplified to two cables now. USB for data/power and the switch wire. I cannibalized an old mouse for the USB cable and have it running to a 12v USB adapter for power. This makes it a lot easier to connect to a laptop while in the car, or the PC when I bring the unit indoors.


The back panel has been reworked as well. The factory USB connector has been removed completely so the cover is nice and smooth. Also, the unit is mounted a little higher so the antenna is now closer to the leading edge. One thing I really want to emphasize here is that this is NOT real cf. It's 3M DI NOC architectural vinyl. You can see in the previously posted pictures that there is a nice weave texture, but it is still just vinyl. This new back cover is not made of balsa and fiberglass; it is made of styrene.


Sorry about the quality of the photos, it's waaaay late.

[Edit] Revised back plate completely flat. This only works with 1390 and 1690 models.



Eek! Lots of top-down driving dust!


Download the how-to here.