396 goes off and on by itself while navigating.

[Fxwheels]

It happen once or twice before, but on today's ride the 396 shut off on me several times then after few seconds restarted and continued navigating. It's sitting in its cradle.
Known issue?

[CollingsBob]

I have had that happen while using the 396 on my motorcycle too. Interestingly I just used the 396 in my car while driving for 6 days/4200km’s to conduct some tests and an experiment and the unit never repeated that issue.

[MikeD]

A similar thing happened to me while riding recently and turned out to be caused by one of the brass sprung power pins in the cradle getting stuck in. When the unit lost cradle power it reverted to internal battery power but the screen was too dim to see, however vocal directions through the headset continued to be audible. Subsequent repair was simple.

[Wallace]

This happened to me a lot with my old 395.
I fitted a volt meter to see if it was an interruption in power supply and it was rock-solid at the times the unit shut down.
I tried improving the contacts with heated screen repair paint, which did not make that much difference in improving the contact pressure.

Th best that I could come up with was replacing the cable and making very sure that the contacts did not get wet if I left the bike unattended, without the GPS in place.

One interesting thing was watching the data screen, I don't remember what it is called, it is the one with the speed at the top and it is surrounded with a coloured speed ring, the ring seemed to be erratic as if there was a bad connection with the 395, or something loose within the GPS, which ultimately made me replace the GPS.
(I replaced it with a Tom-Tom and almost immediately regretted it as it was too dynamic in shaping routes, differering wildly from the mental picture of where I thought I should and wanted go and where it thought the best route it wanted to use. So I bought a 396 and all is well with the world.)

The power problem has not happened to me since with the new 396

[Fxwheels]

On my current trip, the 396 lost power again and the screen became unseen in the daylight. Happened right on the highway where I had to find a shoulder to stop and put my backup Nuvi 1450 for $20 off ebay which performed flawlessly.
And it was after I've cleaned all the connectors and made sure they have power.
Don't know what to do next. I want to like it but it looks like I can't rely on 396

[jfheath]

@Fxwheels

When this happens - have you established whether or not the Zumo was running on battery power or bike power ? It might be difficult to determine that at first glance.

I am wondering if it is running on battery power when you set out, and occasionally there is enough oomph coming from the alternator to overcome whatever is topping the unit from being powered from the bike. Then when it cuts off, it shuts the unit down, as if the ignition had been turned off.

How is you device connected to the battery ? Maybe the fuse is not properly ocated in the fuse holder, or the connection to the battery isn't tight enough / is rusted / is hanging on by a single strand.

[Fxwheels]

@Fxwheels

When this happens - have you established whether or not the Zumo was running on battery power or bike power ? It might be difficult to determine that at first glance.

I am wondering if it is running on battery power when you set out, and occasionally there is enough oomph coming from the alternator to overcome whatever is topping the unit from being powered from the bike. Then when it cuts off, it shuts the unit down, as if the ignition had been turned off.

How is you device connected to the battery ? Maybe the fuse is not properly ocated in the fuse holder, or the connection to the battery isn't tight enough / is rusted / is hanging on by a single strand.

Hi jfheath.

When I'm on my bike at home, the cradle is connected directly to the battery.
On my last trip to Spain I've rented a bike and connected the cradle to the bike's 12v socket.
The result hasn't changed. I gave it another chance and it was disconcerting every 2 minutes with "external connection lost" message, then reconnected itself back again right away either by itself or after I pressed "ok". Repeat every few minutes. Other times it wouldn't reconnect and turned off.

I've checked all the connections with the tester and the power comes everywhere including the small connectors on the cradle.
I could suspect that the cradle connectors aren't pushing tight on the unit, so when getting this disconnect message I tried to push the unit tighter to the base with no good results.
So based on that I'd assume that the unit sits well and connected on its cradle, which makes me believe that maybe something within the unit itself. Just guessing.

[jfheath]

Try it with the car cradle if you have one - or plugged direct to the USB socket.

Check the voltage / battery / power info on the system diagnostic screen. This is the long press of the circular speedo to access Deiagnostics Page.

On the 595 the power info is in Developer Info Power Source (PSRC).
On the XT it is in the same place.

I don't know where it would be on the 396 - but since it came out between the 595 and the XT, its probably the same.

The screen shows internal battery volts AND external volts and a whole load of other useful stats.

Curiously, I have my 595 plugged into the charger at present - and it is telling me that the battery isn't charging ! Might explain a lot about the poor battery life !

[Fxwheels]

So on today's ride, instead of using the provided cradle, I used just the USB cable. One side plugged into USB input on the bike and the other side directly to the unit.
The whole ride went without losing the connections! However, on the way back just 15 minutes from home, the unit's display went to 40% like when battery is too low. I stopped and checked the connections and they were all good as the unit reacted when I unplugged and plugged again the USB cable.
This is also what happened several rides ago while the unit was in its cradle...
Now, I tried to move the bar to 100% but it went back to 40% again with the bogus message "for 100% display light connect the cable provided with the unit". Yet for the whole day it was the "correct" cable. Moreover, like I've mentioned it happened when the unit was in its original cradle.
Sadly, Garmin is full of mysteries.

[jfheath]

Time to monitor the power levels on the system diagnostic page ? See what voltages are coming from where before and after this happens. See my previous post.