Charging Garmin from radio usb

[Anjie]

Hi folks. I wanted to ask about charging my Garmin DriveSmart through the usb of my car radio. I did find a very old 2008 thread about this and the general consensus seemed to be that this should be doable.

I can't remember what my radio is right now but it's a brand new one with a usb port.

When I plugged my Garmin into the usb port of radio yesterday, the satnav screen went almost totally blank, although I could very faintly see that the charging icon was showing. The Garmin wouldn't come back on at all - not with touch screen or power button. And the header unit display switched over to show usb connection.

Could anyone suggest what might be happening? From what I've read, the usb port on the header unit 'should' be powered, so there should be no reason why it shouldn't be able to power the Garmin.

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

Part of the USB specification states that it must supply power to anything plugged into it, so there will be some power there (some car systems may require the car key to be in place), however the amount of power available may not be enough to charge and power the satnav, in this case only charging will take place.

Also, some satnavs detect that the USB socket has data wires connected (as if it was connected to a computer) and will go into a 'data transfer' mode, in this state it is not possible to use the satnav, the way to get around this problem is to use a 'power only' USB cable, so that the data wires are not connected

So the short answer is that your unit IS charging, although it may be charging slower than it would when using the supplied car power adapter