Zumo User Forums

I got the opportunity for a 50 mile ride this weekend, testing the painted contents on the Zumo as I went.

The results were a mixed bag, it worked, a solid connection for the first half of the run. I removed the Zumo when the bike was parked and the GPS had intermittant contacts for the second half of the journey as the paint was disurbed.

My conclusion the conductive paint could be a short term solution just as long as the GPS wasn't removed from the cradle.

In the long term, I am considering making a whole new set of contacts for the cradle using a 3D printer, possibly finding a broader set of pins for better surface contact.

A 200 mile run yesterday and the Zumo had an uninterrupted spell of power with a third layer of conductive paint.

I didn't remove the Zumo when I stopped for lunch, it will be removed tomorrow when I take the bike to work, so I'll be curious to see how things go on the road home tomorrow night.

sounds like the paint added is working, you're doing a good job with that, let us know if you added more paint

Fxwheels wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2025 11:29 pm
It can be pins or less power supply than it needs, but I gave up and using the USB cable. Had enough aggravations with it.

I am having same power to the pin problem with my 396.
The negative (-) pin on the cradle had proper ohms reading between the battery side of the converter box and the cradle pin side,
but there's no 5v (+) power at the cradle pin.

How did you connect a USB cable to your Zumo 396?
because the 396 USB port is hidden when the 396 is in the cradle.

I had an old Garmin USB power supply cable and tried to take the cradle pin plug apart and for those of a curious nature...

The pins are set into a hard plastic base and the contact pins are set into a soft plastic shell, which fits into the cradle and is secured to the cradle with a single cross-head screw,
The pins are potted with a silicon compound, which gives water repellancy but has the drawback of making the spring pressure a lot more than it should be.
This is why the pins have dimpled the contacts on my Zumo, causing the poor connection problem.

The USB cable is soldered directly onto the pins and it is possible that this has broken off inside the potted cradle plug.

I ordered a new 396 power cable P/N 010-11843-04

Greetings all, well I now know what my problem (is) (was) for not having any volts at the 396 cradle pins, that original (new in box) power cable has faulty wiring inside the black (12v to 5v) converter box, there's broken off bare wires inside there, I think its the faulty wiring on the (-) negative wire, I ended up taking that box apart to investigate whats inside, I blew two 7.5amp fuses finding this out lol. so when my new purchased power cable arrives and it works out ok, I am going to treat myself to a coffee and a apple fritter at the local coffee shop lol

I think that there are 3 possible explanations for my 396 power cable problem,
#1 it was already a faulty cable from the factory
#2 I caused the cable malfunction problem by using the multi-meter probes
#3 I over-heated and caused damage to the 12v circuitry in the converter box when I soldered bullet plugs on the wire ends