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So for my 19th Birthday, my parents gave me this little toy:



So of course, I couldn't just stick it on the dash and go. I went by radio shack, bought a female-end cigarette lighter mount, and added a receptacle under the dash, right above the pedals. I plugged in the charger and ran the wire out the left side of the dash, so there's no loose wires going everywhere.

It's a Garmin nuvi 200W, and I love it. Smart little thing. Speaks with a British accent, my sister named it "Penny." It's great at finding detours when, say, I35 gets insanely clogged up outside of Hillsboro and you take Farm roads all the way to highway 6, bypassing Waco all together. Besides, who here doesn't like taking the curvy, hilly, scenic route with no traffic?

 
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Fancy. I want one. I always wonder though. If everyone has a GPS and everyone takes the same detour route wouldn't that make the alternate clogged? I guess we don't have to worry about everyone having one for awhile, but still.

 
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very nice! i use my moms a lot so i cant hardwire it :/

 
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Nice! I can't wait until someone finishes the US map software for the PSP GPS add-on (already have it for UK and Europe) so I can do the same in the states. Good stuff man.

 
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it would and it wouldnt. not all navi's are teh same.....some actually have live traffic updates and others just rerounte according to its closes's calculation of where trafic would/should be...etc

 
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Yeah, that's how mine is. It stores all the information onboard, one with a live update is very expensive. But since it's dependant on where you are and where you're going, and not many people have one, it works great.

 
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do you have a pic of how you did the hardwire?

 
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Nah, it's really not that complex or worth taking pictures of. I just bought a receptacle from Radio Shack and safety-wired it to the frame. There's a U-shaped piece of metal that was right where I needed it to be. I grounded it on the frame, and then spliced the "hot" lead into the existing cigarette lighter's power lead.

Here's a diagram to illustrate it, it's very straightforward:



I hate to sound condescending, but if you can't figure it out from reading this, you probably shouldn't attempt it. It's kind of simple, but there's a lot of improv involved.

 
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ok.thanks.

i'm thinking of installing this...
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=family

 
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Yeah, that's the exact one I used. Instead of using the 2 slits to mount it, I drilled 3 1/16" holes for wire. If you get it, you'll see what I'm talking about.

 
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Great mod! Looks nice! How much

 
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It was about $240 where my parents got it.

 
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where did you get that from?

 
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I think they got it from the BX at Carswell. More or less a military-only "everything" store. Got a pretty good price on it too, maybe $230?

 
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Very nice, can't wait anymore..
Good!!

 
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haha nice man! such a larger screen compared to my phone. I'm runnin with a Nokia N95 as my GPS. Works like a charm, and i can take it whereever but at times i wish the screen was larger! great pick up though!