I am venting about a dead XT, again.

[Peobody]

My XT died again today, mid day on day 5 of a 7 day trip. The scenario is the similar to the last time. I stopped to visit a historic sight. I left the XT mounted and let it go to sleep as I normally do. When I returned to the bike about a half hour later the XT was dead. It will not start. The last time this happened I thought excessive heat was the cause but today was chilly so that rules out heat. I plan to plug it in to an AC USB charger overnight in the hopes that works. I think that is how I got it working last time. There is no need to offer suggestions. I won't get them in time for them to be of any use. The wi-fi in this motel is terrible so I'm currently in its lobby where I can get a signal. Once I send this I'm heading back to the room to get some sleep. I may be pulling the paper map out of the trunk in the morning. Thanks for listening to my rant.

[jfheath]

Sorry to hear that @Peobody

I have noticed a few times that if the Zumos get a power pulse after automatically closing down, they automatically start up again and do not shut down.

Such a pulse could come from an alarm (triggering the flashers perhaps) or accidentally turning the ignition on again briefly,

It might depend on how you wired in your Zumo, or what you did before leaving the bike.

Something similar has happened to me with my on board camera, which is permanently connected to the battery. It draws virtually no current once shut down properly - which it does about 30 secs after the ignition is turned off. Once I had parked I turned on the ignition to reposition the bike, and then turned it off again before the camera had chance to start up properly - which meant it didn't shut down properly when I turned the ignition off again. Bike battery was dead in the morning.

[FrankB]

@Peobody

Bad luck. Hope it works out ok for you.

I was wondering, suppose it happened to me and I had to buy a different unit. Would I go for the XT2, or try to get hold of a XT? Or maybe TomTom?

What would you do?

[danham]

From way out in the cheap seats, so I have to guess: this sounds like a bad battery. Li-ion batteries are "smart" enough to try to protect against overcharging and also draining down to zero, from which they don't recover. But the way they do this is "dumb." They essentially disconnect from the device. The XT is very reluctant to start up, even with bike or house power, if its battery has done a protective shutdown. So charging from house power may revive yours, but if he battery is worn out or defective, this may happen again.

-dan

[Peobody]

Picking up where I left off...
The XT was plugged into an AC wall charger overnite (about 10 hours). In the morning it required a longer then normal press for it to start up but it started like a wake-up, not a cold boot. It showed the previous days route with my location at the end point and a dotted line back to the point in the route where it decided to go unconscious. I took it out the bike, put it in the cradle, then started the bike. All was normal including the charging indicator. I then checked the battery info. It confirmed that the battery was fully charged and power source was external at a voltage varying between 5.01-5.03. The "Battery" entry showed "OK Cap" which I assume means that it is OK and at capacity. No red flags that I could tell. It behaved fine for the seven hour muliple stop ride home. Of course I was sweating it every time I stopped and it went to sleep but everything was normal.

I was wondering, suppose it happened to me and I had to buy a different unit. Would I go for the XT2, or try to get hold of a XT? Or maybe TomTom?

What would you do?

I would ask you. Seriously, I don't know. It would be stretch for me to justify the cost of the XT2 so I think I would be looking at other options, likely another XT if I could fine one. The support and comraderie I get on this forum gives a Garmin product an edge over TomTom but I would certainly look their way.

[jfheath]

I was wondering, suppose it happened to me and I had to buy a different unit. Would I go for the XT2, or try to get hold of a XT? Or maybe TomTom?

Been there, done that. My Old 590 died - my fault. The battery connector came off, so for many moons I was riding with the plastic connector missing and just the male and female metal parts pushed together. (Big improvement).
But then the inevitable - one pin broke off.
Then I tried to fix it.

So I bought a second hand 595. Almost brand new. But I didn't use it as much as I thought I would, so I gave it to my brother. I still had the original 590 cradle on my bike. Then I found that I had a use for it after all - when the XT was giving me problems, as a point of reference.

Discovered that some XT behaviour was actually there on the 595 - I just never noticed it. Mainly cos I spent more time with the 590.

So I found another almost new 2nd hand 595. And I am using that a lot at the desk.

The cradle is there on the bike, and I often use both.

But if the XT dies again, I'll be going back to the 595, and that will have the 590 software loaded onto it. The dim screen when at 100% brightness was never an issue for me. The rest of it is pretty bomb proof, and is my point of reference for how the XT should behave.

But I reckon that I have the XT sorted now - in that I can plan a route in such a way that it will never screw up my route.

[Peobody]

But I reckon that I have the XT sorted now - in that I can plan a route in such a way that it will never screw up my route.

Maybe I will be able to do that some day. On my just completed 6 day trip I experienced three route calcs that resulted in the routes being different from their tracks. I was at a loss to explain the first two until it happened again today. I should have known that using the "Up ahead" feature to select and add a location as the next stop would recalc the remainder of the route. In all cases the exuberance for Faster roads was obvious. I thought the XT was supposed to "learn". I sure wish it would pay attention to that fact the I rarely ride on interstate highways.

[FrankB]

What would you do?

I would ask you. Seriously, I don't know. It would be stretch for me to justify the cost of the XT2 so I think I would be looking at other options, likely another XT if I could fine one. The support and comraderie I get on this forum gives a Garmin product an edge over TomTom but I would certainly look their way.

Though it wasn't a serious question, I will use the opportunity to answer.

First of all. If my XT lasts as long as my Zumo 220 (I had that for 9 years, and still worked when I gave it to someone else) I will probably not need another unit, because I will be too old by then.
If I would need another unit, I would go for an XT, if they're still available. Because I'm quite happy with it and know enough of it to make it work the way I want.
Should the XT not be available anymore and am forced to buy an XT2, I expect to have a lot to learn, to make it work the way I want.
TomTom is a no go.

[Peobody]

Regarding my random unconscious XT issues, the behaviour is as if the XT has a dead battery. I find it odd that the problem has only occurred following a stop when the XT goes to sleep. The battery indicator on the XT has always displayed the lightning bolt when the bike is running, but that icon is not visible during navigation so I'm wondering whether a power loss could go unnoticed. While navigating, is there a way to tell whether the XT has lost power and is operating on battery?

I really don't think that power loss is the issue but I'm trying to cover all bases. To that end, I have contacted Garmin who is sending me a new cable. I have the old style cable. It had been problem free so I saw no reason to replace it, not to mention that it is a PITA to snake it to the battery behind the plastic on my Goldwing.

[FrankB]

An easy way to tell is by adjusting the brightness level of the display. The XT has 2 settings, 1 is when it is running on the battery, the other when on external power. I set the brightness level for battery very dim (20-30 %) for external power high (80-100%). When external power is lost, the display goes dim, and you will notice it.