Zumo 665 Battery Status Indicator when Hardwired

[Karson]

Hopefully I hear what I want - but my question is does the Zumo 665 battery indicator not indicate when it's hardwired? My Zumo is in a switched outlet on the PC-8, and no matter what position the key is in, the battery states that it is fully charged without any indication it is powered externally.

Thanks!
Karson

 

[Spider]

That is how mine works. Have gone on some pretty long trips with it; if it isnt charging, the screen brightness goes down and the battery indicator appears on the main screen (not the map screen). Happened to me once last year after riding through a few days of rain but cleared up once everything dried out.

G

 

[Karson]

That is how mine works. Have gone on some pretty long trips with it; if it isnt charging, the screen brightness goes down and the battery indicator appears on the main screen (not the map screen). Happened to me once last year after riding through a few days of rain but cleared up once everything dried out.

G

Thanks - if you have a chance, can you snap a picture when the unit is being powered by its own, as well as when its being powered & charged by the motorcycle battery? I fear something is wrong with my setup, and I want to make sure I know what I'm looking for on the screen when I start taking multimeter readings.

Thanks!

 

[Karson]

For what it's worth after playing some more with it, my Zumo only get's juice when I have the brake pulled back, brake light on. Key is obviously in the on position during all of this.

I wired my PC-8 up with the taillight harness. I'm a layman with electrical stuff, so I'm bugging Jim over at Eastern Beaver to figure out what might be up.

If anyone has any suggestions as to what the cause of this might be, gracias!

 

[stevepsd]

Sounds like you have tapped into the brake-light circuit instead of the tail/running light for the switched power on your PC-8.

The taillight wire is blue/red, the brake light is yellow. The third wire is black - ground. It is a 3 wire connector.

My Zumo 665 will only show the battery icon when it is being powered from its internal battery. The battery icon goes away when external power is applied.

 

[Karson]

Sounds like you have tapped into the brake-light circuit instead of the tail/running light for the switched power on your PC-8.

The taillight wire is blue/red, the brake light is yellow. The third wire is black - ground. It is a 3 wire connector.

My Zumo 665 will only show the battery icon when it is being powered from its internal battery. The battery icon goes away when external power is applied.

Gosh, I could have sworn there was only one 3 wire connector like that under the seat near the rear of the tank in that rats nest. Will investigate my setup this afternoon when I get off for work. The good thing is, is that I know exactly how to get to the wires. The first time is always a little slower.

Thanks for your help Steve.

Edit - just looked in my service manual and it only shows one 3 prong connection under there for the tail/brake light assembly. Could it possibly be that the connection can be rotated around in different ways?

 

[Poohbear]

Gosh, I could have sworn there was only one 3 wire connector like that under the seat near the rear of the tank in that rats nest. Will investigate my setup this afternoon when I get off for work. The good thing is, is that I know exactly how to get to the wires. The first time is always a little slower.

Thanks for your help Steve.

Edit - just looked in my service manual and it only shows one 3 prong connection under there for the tail/brake light assembly. Could it possibly be that the connection can be rotated around in different ways?

Steve is saying that it is a three wire connector. It just seems that you have tapped into the yellow (brake light) wire instead of the blue & red (tail light wire) which explains why your Garmin is only powered when you apply the brakes.

 

[Karson]

Steve is saying that it is a three wire connector. It just seems that you have tapped into the yellow (brake light) wire instead of the blue & red (tail light wire) which explains why your Garmin is only powered when you apply the brakes.

Gotcha. I'm not sure I follow the tapping part, maybe I'm just being thick and dumb, so my apologies. The Rear Brakelight Adapter from Eastern Beaver should just be plug and play, but perhaps that's not the case.

Exploded view:

EDIT again: Seems as if some connectors had flip flopped blue and yellow wires. I'm thinking that is the case with mine.

 

[Karson]

FWIW - I flip flopped the wires and la-ti-ta-da everything worked as normal. Thanks for all the help everyone - just thought I would bring this issue full circle

 

[newventurer]

I need to confirm this but it could be that if you have your cell phone connected (bluetooth) that the indicator is showing you the battery life of your cell phone. I will check on this but I have another GPS/Stereo combo in my son's truck that shows the phone battery that is synched.

Update,...

Na that doesn't seem to be the case with this unit. I did look in the manual and one of the few references to the battery indicator says, "Problem - My battery gauge does not seem accurate. Solution - Allow the unit to fully discharge, and then fully recharge it (without interrupting the charge cycle).

Good luck.