NAV V 4-Button cradle

Has anyone adapted the 4-Button Garmin/NAV cradle so that it can be used on a different (non-BMW) motorcycle? When I received my NAV V, back in 2015, it came with 4-Button cradle, complete with the wiring harness to easily plug it into the wiring harness of a GS. As I have an RT with the in-dash GPS mount, I didn't have a use for the 4-Button cradle. Now I'd like to put a DIN connector on the cradle so that I could use the same GPS unit on a different motorcycle (one equipped with a Powerlet plug direct to the battery). I'm tired of using two different GPS units on having to remember how to for each unit. I'd much rather use the NAV V on both bikes.

The 4-Button cradle comes with 2 connectors coming from a single pigtail from the backside of the cradle. This single pigtail splits into two sets of wires, on set has two leads, a purple wire and a white wire (which I'm guessing is the power connector), and the other set has three wires, a purple wire, an orange wire, and a black wire. I'm guessing the purple wire is a ground, since it's the only common color between the two leads, but I don't know for sure. Which two wires do I need to connect to the DIN (Powerlet) plug?

I don't care if the 4-buttons work to control the unit, as long as the touch screen works, but I do want the unit to power up correctly and let me use the touch screen.

An alternative might be to use a ZUMO 660/665 powered cradle, if I can find one.

Suggestions from anyone?

I secured a NAV 6 cradle and am using my NAV4 in that cradle presently. The touch screen works fine, I don't have the ability to use all the NAV6 features like the wonder wheel however, nor do I care to. All that matters to me is I can use the NAV4 touch screen, and that works just fine on my NAV 6 cradle

brownie0486 said:

I secured a NAV 6 cradle and am using my NAV4 in that cradle presently. The touch screen works fine, I don't have the ability to use all the NAV6 features like the wonder wheel however, nor do I care to. All that matters to me is I can use the NAV4 touch screen, and that works just fine on my NAV 6 cradle

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How did you connect the cradle to power? Did your cradle have any docs showing how to hook up the two pigtails?

jgoertz said:

How did you connect the cradle to power? Did your cradle have any docs showing how to hook up the two pigtails?

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The cradle came with the wiring, my mechanic just plugged it into the correct receptacle [ on my bike I have been told it's at the front of the tank on the right side ]

The three-wire plug on the 4-button mount supplies power via the two outside pins. The two-wire plug is used only on bikes that have an onboard sound system, so can be disregarded. Your connectors should look similar to this:



How you connect it depends upon whether or not you might someday want to use the mount on one bike only, and plug it into the harness on that bike. If you wish to preserve that capability the easiest way to connect is to purchase the harness-end repair connector, which is the connector that the 3-prong plug of the mount plugs into. That part number is 83 30 0 413 586 and looks like this:



The 586 repair plug can be wired to your male DIN plug, then the mount harness plugged in. Once the wiring is all neatened up your mount can them be jumped bike to bike and powered via a DIN socket.

You can wire up the 586 adapter following the comments for the 83 30 0 413 585 repair plug on the Max BMW website. That plug is the same one already at the end of the cord on the mount. Be careful to note which pin socket attaches where, when the two parts are plugged in together, so you get polarity correct.



If you don't plan on ever plugging the mount directly into a harness, you can always just cut off the three-prong plug on the mount harness and feed the outer wires into a male DIN plug. The buttons will work fine either way, you just won't get the data screens you'd get with the mount plugged directly into the harness on the bike. The comments in the picture above should let you know which wire is positive and which is negative.

Best,
DeVern

Thank you, DeVern. That is exactly the information I was hoping to find. Now to order the repair plug and another DIN plug and go to work.

Max BMW had the accessory plug. It arrived today. Now when Amazon delivers my Powerlet plug and Ram ball mount, I'll have all the parts/info I need to complete my project and have a transportable NAV V mount.

I'm getting close!

Success! Had to get the 4 items needed to make this work from 4 different sources (plug w/wires from MaxBMW, Powerlet male plug from Amazon, RAM/AMPS ball mount from GPSCity, and shrinkwrap from Lowes). Took 3 weeks to gather all the items after Amazon cancelled the RAM ball mount on the day they said it was to be delivered, but GPSCity stepped up and got me one in just 4 days! With all parts in hand, using the info from DeVern and from PatM55 (on the BMW-LT forum), I had everything wired and working within about 45 minutes, including gathering the necessary tools and the final cleanup. I now have a portable mount for my Nav V that will work on any bike with a BMW (Powerlet or DIN/Hella receptacle)

Best,
DeVern