Hardwireing a GPS

[lragan]

Hey, Nick, if the factory supplied a 1 amp fuse, I would use it!!  My bad.  I thought the 1 amp fuse was already in the tail light circuit on the bike.  If I had bothered to look up the wiring diagram I have in a book right behind me, I would have known better.  My apologies.

I think they make a 0.25 amp fuse in that size, which should be margin enough, but the factory guys know what they are doing, so I would just roll with it.

There is a trade-off in selecting fuse size.  If you select one that is slightly higher than the current the device draws, you will have maximum protection.  A fuse is just a weak wire, after all, and they will eventually "wear out" or blow even if there is no fault on the system.  Going for maximum protection means you will have to replace it more often.

The manufacturer of the unit you smoked could have helped prevent that by adding one more component that would draw a great deal of current when presented with 12 volts, and almost none at 5 volts.  Had they done so, you would have blown a fuse, but the unit would have survived.  Would have cost them maybe 20 cents more at manufacture, or about $1 at retail.  But hey, I purchase mostly on price, so I understand their obsession with reducing cost...

Thanks for the review of the Nuvi.  I have used Garmin in the past with good results.  I have heard good things lately about the Tom-Tom unit, but don't know anyone who has personal experience with one.

Happy navigating.  Looks like you are set!!

[Herman]

I looked at the Tom-Tom units also, but the online reviews every where I looked the nuvi had slightly better results (both had good reviews) and I think the nuvi 200 costs a little less....I think, plus I believe the nuvi has a longer battery life (4-5 hrs.)  If you go to Cnet.com and do a search on whatever electronic device you are interested in, they have pretty good video reviews of things (GPS devices, cell phones, etc.) plus lots of consumer reviews.