cradle mount charging problem

[ChuckXT]

My zumo XT, when using the motorcycle mount and battery fully charged, will cycle through "connected / not connected" every few seconds.
Anyone else experience this?
I am guessing when the battery is fully charged is draws very little or no charging current so the device thinks it is not connected. Then, a small current is drawn and the unit thinks it is connected again. Only a guess.
If so, bad charging design!

[MotoToph]

This is not normal and have never had this happen with any of my Zumo's. Have you tried cleaning the contacts?

[ChuckXT]

Yes, I've covered all the obvious checks, different charging sources, connectors etc. it is a behaviour of the fully charged zumoXT.

[MotoToph]

Well it should've do that. Mine is always on the powered mount.

[Peobody]

Garmin has produced an "improved" cable. AFAIK, they replace the old ones at no charge. There is a discussion here that includes a picture that helped me identify whether I had the old or the new one. I had the old which had been trouble free however I called Garmin and they readily sent me the new one.
Also, there are discussions here that contain tips about adding a spacer behind the cable pin assembly in the mount (I used a piece of foam weather stripping). This adds pressure to the back of the pin plate helping insure the pins stay in contact with the XT. There is a picture of the foam trick here somewhere too. I will be back with the URLs to those discussions if I can find them.

All of that said, if your XT is new than none of the above should apply and contacting Garmin is probably the best thing to do.

Edit: This discussion shows both the old and new cable as well as the foam trick.
viewtopic.php?p=16160

[ChuckXT]

Thanks for the info. Yes, I have the new mount as shown in your photo.
However, the problem lies within the zumoXT charging circuit sensing.

[ChuckXT]

Thanks Peobody.
After reading your post and looking at 'Rofar's post about reinforcing the back of the mount connector I tried that and - so far so good.
It seems it was the lack of sufficient pressure on the 5V pin contacts on the motorcycle mount.
And, I have the 'new connector' that was suppose to fix the problem---try harder Garmin!

[rbentnail]

This happened to me this fall. I did two things:

- cleaned the mating surfaces with a pencil eraser, and
- used a dab of dielectric grease on the pins and worked them in & out.

[twowheelstom]

- used a dab of dielectric grease on the pins and worked them in & out.

those 2 pins on that rubber charging plate are on springs? what about a squit of WD40 degreaser on the pins to unstick them?

[finerone]

It's interesting how a simple mechanical adjustment can fix what seemed like an electrical issue. Garmin should probably take note of this common problem with their mounting system. Cheers for sharing the fix - might help others with the same Zumo XT charging headache.