Quest on bicycle

Folding Solar panel driving my Quest. I find that my shadow blocks the sun according to riding directions. For now, I will only use the panel while camping.

Five watt folding solar array from Northern Tool May 1, 2006 at N40 03.730 W75 06.160. The Quest is in full back light and the charging icon is displayed.

Close-up with 41 minutes of run time. The alternator tester is showing 13.5 volt under load of the Quest charging and running. At 6 hours the charging icon changed to a AC plug, indication that the internal battery was full. The alternator tester showed 14.5 volts.

Quest an panel folder after charging 12 volt battery pack. the battery was at 5 volts, cutoff for the Quest and the Luexon 5 watt light. The alternator tester showed 5 volts. After seven hour and 24 minutes the alternator tester read 13.5 volts. The alternator tester shows 14.5 when the battery is full from the wall charger.

Below is a replacement battery pack. Showing the tabs soldier the holder I made from a rain gutter down spout for 10- 5 amp hour "C" cells. the company tat sell the 5 amp hour has shrink tube but I had trouble determining the proper size. Another company tell you what size shrink tubing to use but they only 3.5 amp hour NjML cells.

Arrow points to 7 amp hour gel cell fitted between the seat post and reat rack of my tour bicycle. Solar panel fitted over my sleeping bag. The solar supplied more power than needed to recharge ny cell phone and Quest gps using backlight and voice..

I first made the route then I use "Edit", "Selected Maps Around Route" This was only 26 maps and 46 MB. I use the rest of the memory space to extend around the route and South to Washington DC. The Quest select named roads and this sometime put me on named road that are also highways. I usually look at the display and take a parallel road, stop navigating for a period and let Quest recalculate from later.

To make a cue sheet, in Mapsource from the route created, On the left are tabs for; Maps, Routes, Waypoints and Tracks. Click on the route tan and the name of the start and end of the route created is there. Double click on that line and a box appears on the map. One choice is to center the route on the map. another is to invert the route of the route. On this default page is a list of via point. Click on the Direction tab and list of turn (vias) and waypoints that you hade inserted to vary the route on the map. If you accepts the auto routing of this map there are only vias for every turn. Click on the top row, hold the shift key and press the end key. the entire page is selected. Press Control and Insert ant this data in copied. Open a spreadsheet and paste this data in cell 1, column . Download http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ibikealot/ for a better cuesheet.

If you upload tracks from a gps you have a choice to see a profile with the track tab.

To find items, I select "Where Am I " first, then save, then find nearby, then item , "Food & Drink", or any service.

Hold the OK key and the location comes up. Give the location a name.
Push the FIND key Once, select MY LOCATION and a list comes up. The
location that's named is on this list. you route to it.

For my uses, I prefer the Quest 1 for my bicycle rides. I want to create my route on my computer. The area that I ride about 500 mile range, Central Pennsylvania, Delaware, Eastern Maryland, Northeast Virginia, New Jersey, Southeast New York and Connecticut, fits in the Quest 1 memory. I visited Florida recently and it took only a few minutes to select section on Pennsylvania and sections of Florida ant uploaded those maps to the Quest 1.

While the Quest 2 has the entire NA City Select NT preloaded, you don't get a CD to make routes on a computer. Almost always in the Philadelphia area, a route I create in City Select will use roads that I know isn't bicycle friendly. The map treat all named roads as local roads. In south New Jersey, I can usually ride any road that City Select choose. Under Edit, Preference, Routing tab, I set the map for Bicycle, Try to Avoid all listed roads. Then I set the speed on Interstate and Major Highways to 8 mph Other Highways to 10 mph, Collector Roads to 12 mph and Residential Streets to 15, mph. This seem to flavor local roads when I plan a route. On the GPS, I set the route setup for Bicycle and Avoidances to avoid all listed roads.

The Quest manual does not describe the off-road capabilities very well.
Under the Settings - Route Setup - Route Preference menu choose "Prompted"
so you will get to choose the "Off Road" mode whenever you start a route.

Reversing a route on Quest
To reverse a route on the Quest gps, involve bring the route up, move the pointer to "Show Turns" then press the menu button, and a menu comes up with "Reverse Route" as one of the options. However, this will only follow waypoints that you put in the route, and the original rout need to be reloaded from the map to be used again.

Garmin have a download for MapSource Click on "Help" then Check for Software updates. Updating to 6.11.3 allows the drawing of tracks under Tool and the opening of Goggle earth under view. I have made a track from the Art Museum to Green lane. a picture of the map is on this page more than half way down. The map file is there for downloading also. http://www.billcotton.com/philadelphia_area_bicycle_trails.htm

I had hopes that the track on the map I post with drawn track of the bike
paths From the Art Museum to Green Lane was routable, one advantage of
DeLorme' maps over Garmin, a routable line can be drawn on its maps. At this
point I cannot upload the drawn track to my gps. However, the track join
feature work great, however. Broken tracks because of lost satellite or
turning the gps off can now be joined. one advantage of this is that the
entire profile of uploaded tracks can be viewed in MapSource as one track
profile.

Helmet with one ear piece and a one dollar digital tune FM radio. Plans are to incorporate the radio output to the Quest speaker shown below.

Quest with Lanyard. Charging cradle modified to mount on my Handlebar bracket. Note the ear bud and the mono plug and socket under the Quest. The car cradle is modified to fit in front on my tachometer in the car. The Quest has four Philip head screws on the back. Led me to think that when the internal battery dies out of warranty, it can be replaced. The contact plug on the cradles are the same as the eMap and some other Gramin gps, BUT with pins connected different colored wires. The plug is held in place with a clever bracket and a #4 Torx head screw. Contact me for pin out of wires an dimension for the lanyard loop.

Latest light and speaker. 12 volt power pack below down tube water bottle cage allow for continuous of backlight and speaker.

Now that I use a 12 volt power pack, I gotten uses to voice command on my bicycle.

The 5-volt power pack is connected above, the charging indicator is shown on the power icon. The backlight is on also.

Right side black box holds four AAA NiMH cells, 4.8 Volts A larger box holds 4 AA cells. The Charger is rated at 5 volts.

Car adapter. I get reception most times without the external antenna. I notice going north west from a start, it take longer to acquire a fix. I do have a Glesson antenna mounted inside of my windshield. On short trips I can remove the Quest faster without the antenna attached.

The Quest does have a bicycle mount available. However, I suggest that a “lanyard” be mounted to a secure position on the bicycle. This has save my Quest several times from hitting the ground as it bounce out of the cradle.

The Quest package includes a car cradle and a charging cradle. Whenever either of these is plugged into the Quest’s backlight comes on. It can be dimmed to conserve power if the input power source is not being renewed. (In a car or motorcycle, the alternator keeps the battery charged)

Using the Quest with a 5-volt 4000 ma, external battery pack give about 2 hours running with backlight on, before the Quest senses low input power and beeps.

The voice output to an ear bud is adjustable and little extra power from the internal battery. I was able to get 6 hours on a very cold day using the internal battery with beep and voice commands to a Sony ear bud. I stop all navigation after getting a low battery warning and use the Quest for another 6 hours from the internal battery.

The external power draw from a external battery, measured a maximum of 650 ma, highest when powering up. averaging about 380 while simulating a route, down to about 60 ma with no activity. This was with a full internal battery.

I need a 5 volts regulated power supply for my Quest gps. I have modified
the charging Cradle so that I can use a 4.8 battery pack. I only get about an hour
run time as the gps needs about 4.5 volts to not use it internal battery.
I built a regulator using a Maxim 1659 IC. I get 5 volts at 350 ma. http://www.billcotton.com/homeshop.htm
The external power draw from a external battery to the Quest, measured a maximum of 650 ma, highest when powering up. averaging about 380 while simulating a route, down to about 60 ma with no activity. This was with a full internal battery. I hooked the Maxim regulator to the gps and it cuts out after about ten minutes.

I plug the input for the Maxim LDO regulator into a 12 volt 2000 ma battery pack. I parallel the 5 volt output with a 4.3 volt 2000 ma battery pack and connect this to the Quest input. The 4.3 battery seems to take the surge from the gps. I have this under test, 7 am; March 2nd. I will report the run time later.

To find nearest service,, first use find to bring up "Where Am I", "Nearest", then service you need.

Some of my hacking on the Quest: I made a 5 volt regulator with a 12 volt input, my light are supplied from 12 volts NiMH battery pack. I also have a four cell NiMH pack to recharge my Quest gps direct. Since I didn't bring the 4.8 pack, and the regulator malfunction, I had no way to re-power the Quest.

I cut the wire on the home charger and place a plug and jack on that cable. The cradle end I modified it so that I could mount it on my bicycle. I fashion a strip of spring steel as a safety retainer for the Quest.

I went to one of the few real hardware left in Philly. and bought a #4 torx socket key, I needed to find the size also. I had the same plug from my other GPS and I also machine one. These has four wires coming out of the plug. The plug slid into the old unit. the new unit, the plug is held by the torx screw.

I mounted a lanyard under one of the Quest screws. I used a stereo radio ear phone set and cut the wire on one side, removed one ear piece from the connecting band and glued that to a old helmet. By using a mono plug and jack on this and the wire to the voice input, I have a quick release when leaving the bicycle. With this plug in, when the speaker button is press, a volume control appears to "Adjust Volume on Motorcycle Ear Bud" I plan to use a ear bud with my new helmet. It would clip on my ear instead of the helmet.

For car uses, I removed the suction mount from the car adapter and mounted a thin piece of Plexiglas so that the Quest is in front of the Tachometer. Picture here

Using auto route on the bicycle is not good in my area. Auto puts me on road that are wrong for bicycling, narrow shoulders or fast traffic. I use Mapsource City Select. I set the gps to avoid highway, toll roads and unpaved roads. In City Select; I use Edit, Preference and Routing, Under Vehicle; I select Bicycle. Under Try to Avoid; I selected all boxes. Under Speed; I selected Interstate Highways -1 mph, Major Highways - 8 mph, Other Highways - 8 mph, Collector Roads - 10 mph and Residential Streets 15 mph. (Earlier versions of Mapsource didn't allow selecting speeds this low.) I use the route tool and select my start and finish points. I zoom in to each and select with the route tool. I go to the start and zoom to a level that shows ever street. I then use the pointer and rubber band to road that I want to use. In a strange area, I only use name streets and roads.

A route of 61 miles from Philadelphia PA to Reading PA made with these settings, has 102 turns. the same route uploaded and then download from the Quest has 18 turns.