Garmin Powerswitch

[mtbikernate]

Was looking at other stuff today and stumbled across this.

Garmin PowerSwitch™ 6 Solenoid Power Block and Wireless Accessory Cont – Blue Ridge Overland Gear

Looks like a handy way to add aux lighting and accessories with minimal fussing inside the cabin with physical switches.

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[Deleted member 1634]

That does look pretty cool. And honestly something I probably would've considered for my auxiliary lights. I'm all in on Garmin as my navigation/safety/GPS brand of choice. Mostly because once you have one, it's nice to have the next talk to the first, and so on until that's all you have. But in classic Garmin fashion this is a pretty expensive product. Does get me thinking about Garmin vehicle products though.

 

[D Fresh]

Trigger 6 shooter will do the same thing, app control, plus physical switches, wireless, for about $100 less.

And for just $100 more you can step up to a Switch Pro SP-9100. It has one small comms cable to run into the cab but offers much greater functionality.

If this were $125 cheaper it might be interesting.

 

[Deleted member 1634]

That does look pretty cool. And honestly something I probably would've considered for my auxiliary lights. I'm all in on Garmin as my navigation/safety/GPS brand of choice. Mostly because once you have one, it's nice to have the next talk to the first, and so on until that's all you have. But in classic Garmin fashion this is a pretty expensive product. Does get me thinking about Garmin vehicle products though.

Looks like it would pair nicely with this pretty versatile navigation device too.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/685257

Get this device and you could basically outfit your rig with on road navigation, off-road maps, public land boundaries, iOverlander sites built in, in-Reach satellite communication, additional cameras, and control your auxiliary accessories. There are obviously different things out there that can do these things separately, but there's something to be said for the convivence of having it all in one place. Again, it's a Garmin so it's expensive. But I'd certainly consider it.

 

[mtbikernate]

Trigger 6 shooter will do the same thing, app control, plus physical switches, wireless, for about $100 less.

And for just $100 more you can step up to a Switch Pro SP-9100. It has one small comms cable to run into the cab but offers much greater functionality.

If this were $125 cheaper it might be interesting.

The more I dug, the more I realized that this thing is just one component of an ecosystem of accessories. It pairs with this GPS, for example.

Garmin Tread™ GPS Navigator and Two Way Radio – Blue Ridge Overland Gear

Which combines a GMRS radio, puts party members on your map screen, controls the switches, can pair with extra cameras, can pair with an InReach, and such.

or this one, without the radio

Garmin Overlander™ | Navigation for Overlanding

Some of the features of these things duplicate what Sync 3 does, esp if you have built-in nav. But I think this powerswitch is more about staying within the Garmin ecosystem for more than JUST lights.

 

[D Fresh]

The more I dug, the more I realized that this thing is just one component of an ecosystem of accessories. It pairs with this GPS, for example.

Garmin Tread™ GPS Navigator and Two Way Radio – Blue Ridge Overland Gear

Which combines a GMRS radio, puts party members on your map screen, controls the switches, can pair with extra cameras, can pair with an InReach, and such.

or this one, without the radio

Garmin Overlander™ | Navigation for Overlanding

Some of the features of these things duplicate what Sync 3 does, esp if you have built-in nav. But I think this powerswitch is more about staying within the Garmin ecosystem for more than JUST lights.

Makes sense.

Everybody knows that "overlanding" is the new hotness. I can see why they'd want to get in on the money.

 

[mtbikernate]

yeah, I venture often onto USFS roads where there is no cell signal. multiple times per week, and often for work.

I'm playing with the Sygic GPS app on my phone (works through Android Auto on the truck), since Waze can't navigate when I have no cell signal, but I've been considering a Garmin for the truck instead. depends on how well this app ends up working.

 

[mtbikernate]

Makes sense.

Everybody knows that "overlanding" is the new hotness. I can see why they'd want to get in on the money.

Garmin has offered models suitable for the off-road crowd since before "overlanding" was a thing. And a bunch of the accessories here found their first use elsewhere in their product catalog. The head units were basically just mashups between their car models and handhelds at first. So it kinda makes sense for Garmin to further develop the tech for the growing "overland" market.

Like the GPS that shows group members' positions on your screen? That showed up on their Rino models almost 20yrs ago for the first time. I had one. It was a small handheld with a b&w screen.

They bought a dog collar company and put similar tech into their dog training models somewhat more recently so you can see the locations of your hunting dogs on your GPS screen. I say more recently but that was probably still 10-15yrs ago.

For camera control, that showed up in their fitness/action sports segment with the Virb.

 

[D Fresh]

Garmin has offered models suitable for the off-road crowd since before "overlanding" was a thing. And a bunch of the accessories here found their first use elsewhere in their product catalog. The head units were basically just mashups between their car models and handhelds at first. So it kinda makes sense for Garmin to further develop the tech for the growing "overland" market.

Like the GPS that shows group members' positions on your screen? That showed up on their Rino models almost 20yrs ago for the first time. I had one. It was a small handheld with a b&w screen.

They bought a dog collar company and put similar tech into their dog training models somewhat more recently so you can see the locations of your hunting dogs on your GPS screen. I say more recently but that was probably still 10-15yrs ago.

For camera control, that showed up in their fitness/action sports segment with the Virb.

I get that.

Just saying that this switch setup is is obviously aimed directly at the "overlanding" market. Which is en vogue currently.

 

[D Fresh]

I'm playing with the Sygic GPS app on my phone (works through Android Auto on the truck), since Waze can't navigate when I have no cell signal,

Waze doesn't offer offline maps?

 

[mtbikernate]

Waze doesn't offer offline maps?

At least as long as I was running it when I drove to the spot without cell signal, it does cache the maps so that they load up when I start up again.

but that's not the concern.

it's the navigation that you don't get without cell signal. it can't calculate a route. which can be a pain when I'm in an unfamiliar area and I'm trying to navigate somewhere. or I want to get the navigation going not so much for direction finding, but to get an ETA and navigate around traffic backups along the route.

 

[Deleted member 1634]

yeah, I venture often onto USFS roads where there is no cell signal. multiple times per week, and often for work.

I'm playing with the Sygic GPS app on my phone (works through Android Auto on the truck), since Waze can't navigate when I have no cell signal, but I've been considering a Garmin for the truck instead. depends on how well this app ends up working.

Yeah, same. Not for work, but for recreation, we often venture out of cell range, which isn't too hard around here. Recently (last few months) I've been using the Garmin Explore app on my phone, paired with my InReach communicator to navigate back roads w/out cell signal. It's been working pretty good, but it drains my phone battery bad, even when plugged into the truck charging. My phone isn't powerful enough to run Android Auto, and a lot of the apps I like to use aren't available on there anyways.

The having your buddies locations on the screen with the radio is pretty cool. Since I've been considering getting a short distance hard-mounted Midland radio for that sort of thing. If only I had buddies I went with though. haha

So it's kind of like I said, you can get a bunch of different devices to do all of these things individually, but having it all on one device is pretty cool.

 

[D Fresh]

At least as long as I was running it when I drove to the spot without cell signal, it does cache the maps so that they load up when I start up again.

but that's not the concern.

it's the navigation that you don't get without cell signal. it can't calculate a route. which can be a pain when I'm in an unfamiliar area and I'm trying to navigate somewhere. or I want to get the navigation going not so much for direction finding, but to get an ETA and navigate around traffic backups along the route.

Gotcha.

Haven't used Waze and was unfamiliar with their app.

FYI Google maps will do all that offline, with the exception of traffic updates.

 

[mtbikernate]

Yeah, same. Not for work, but for recreation, we often venture out of cell range, which isn't too hard around here. Recently (last few months) I've been using the Garmin Explore app on my phone, paired with my InReach communicator to navigate back roads w/out cell signal. It's been working pretty good, but it drains my phone battery bad, even when plugged into the truck charging. My phone isn't powerful enough to run Android Auto, and a lot of the apps I like to use aren't available on there anyways.

The having your buddies locations on the screen with the radio is pretty cool. Since I've been considering getting a short distance hard-mounted Midland radio for that sort of thing. If only I had buddies I went with though. haha

So it's kind of like I said, you can get a bunch of different devices to do all of these things individually, but having it all on one device is pretty cool.

sure, I get out for recreation, too. shoot, my job is both.

At any rate, I've been considering a few accessories on and off for awhile. Options are nice. And the integration options with the Garmin bits caught my attention.

 

[mtbikernate]

Gotcha.

Haven't used Waze and was unfamiliar with their app.

FYI Google maps will do all that offline, with the exception of traffic updates.

I'm okay with waiting on the traffic updates for when I have cell reception again (as long as the navigation is already running and can make adjustments on the fly when I have reception again).

With Waze, I can't even start navigation until I have a signal, which means I either have to catch it and do voice commands when the signal pops up again, or irritatingly stop and type in my request (when Android Auto is being annoying and not sending my voice command to Waze)

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