GPS speedos
 

What a rip off!!!!Come on $500 bucks for a gauge that is really just a display of your GPS!!!! I think i'll spend $600 for a Garmin 180 that has the BIG display and fill the speedo hole in my dash with some other cool gauge.....

what are you saying??? I got ripped off????

IMHO......its your money!

so glad I did not pay 600 for mine :)
it was actually alot less :)

Too bad its still in the box and has never been taken out of the plastic :(

Thats the price from Gaffrig!!!

I think that is the price including the receiver. If you already have a GPS you can plug your speedo into it and you don't need the reciever.

anyone know for sure? I have a GPS!!!!whats the price without the receiver?

My Nordskog digital speedo/tach/compass/volt meter cost me $370 and that included the receiver and the recall/toggle switch. The gauge by itself is like $170.00 and can be used with your existing GPS. It sure is nice seeing an accurate speed on your dash and the tach function is pretty cool also. $600 must include all of the above and a little extra margin.:p

call gaffrig/liv....looking at a digital # takes too much attention...it's worth the $$$...

I hooked mine up to my existing handheld. What a pain- in-the-ass. I had a very hard time finding the corrrect patch cable that would supply both the outgoing signal AND power. Most cables just supply signal OR power. I also had to install a small transformer to reduce the voltage to 3v. Not again. Next time I'll pay 150 for the receiver.

BTW-I now have a glitch and it doesn't work.

Cord who's speedo are you using? couldn't the company help with the cables? sounds like a pain in the ASS....I'd love one with the recall but dont know if its worth the money and the hassel....

Dyno, the Gaffrig/livorsi units retail for $236 for the head unit and $446 for the complete kit....thats for the smaller 3 3/8" cutout models. Which are the same size as the regular speedos. The monster series is only like $40 more and if you wanted them in white just add $3......no bear in mind this is retail pricing...you can find them cheaper....if you want some pricing let me know :)

Oh and as for hooking them up to a hand held GPS.....i think the output of the primary GPS units needs to be a NEMMA output....or something like that....I believe Gaffrig has the patch cords for a few too.

Do most of you use a digital? Do any of you like the analog gps readout??

Wally can you get me a price on a 3 3/8" black face with a red bezel with the sender?

$500 for a speedometer?!?

Man, I'm in the wrong business.

(A bunch of techno – garble to follow: )
I talked to Mike Livorsi this summer about GPS speedometers. Basically I Asked him why he was pushing the speedometers with integrated receivers in them, verse just a speedometer that reads off of an existing GPS. His claim was that the stand alone speedo's (non receivers) were not working with the newer model GPS units.

This is a common problem with a lot of GPS receivers. Up until recently, GPS manufacturers were not really following the NMEA (national marine electronics association) 0183 standard for GPS bus messages all too closely. Basically, the NMEA standards call for RS-485 voltage levels with have an isolated ground bus (since most boats are made of fiberglass, not metal). However, most developers of GPS receivers were transmitting and receiving these messages as RS-232 protocol (+5V, -5V biasing like what is on a PC serial port).

I have a feeling that what happened with Livorsi and other Gauge manufacturers, is that they never really designed the bus interface for the RS-485 voltage levels. Cord, this is why you probably had to put a transformer in line with the bus. Not so much to reduce the positive voltage, but to remove the negative voltage biasing.

I've made a handful of digital readouts that I've connected to GPS receivers. They didn't have a "Monster" face or anodized bezels, but they worked. If I really wanted to, I could make a digital readout for about $10 -$20 in parts (board, case, components, display). I've never personally made an analog gauge, but there wouldn't be that much more involved. With all the automakers using stepper motors in instrument clusters these days, the motors should be relatively easy to find.

If any of the gauge manufacturers have more than $50 worth of parts in their gauge, they are doing something really wrong. However, by getting people to shell out $500 a piece, they must be doing something really right.

-Bayley

I was think it would be nice if GPS manufacturers could add an additional screen into their software that displays the speed only in large numbers, full screen format. That would not be hard for them to do.

Bayley sound like a side job to me!!!! I'll get in line for your first prototype!!!!! you could sell them for $200 and make great pocket money!!!

My old dash mounted Garmin-12 works just fine for both speedo and directional purposes. Paid a whole $100 for the unit and mount 3 years ago. BTW, the speedo on it was tested against the newer Garmin-76 with WAAS and was digit for digit on the money...:cool:

Hey Cord : 150 for the receiver ? Try $269.00 shipped.....
I know....They got me last summer !!!!!

I found out it is cheaper to buy from a dealer !!! No "Factory direct" price break there !!!!!

Sad everybody has to screw us so bad on anything "Marine"

birdog, if the factory gave price breaks then what incentive would deaers have to sell the stuff if you can go to them instead?

Dyno-I'm using a Garmin e-map unit. I spoke to Garmin about the availability of a patch cord with both power and output. The guy that I spoke with said that they used to carry them but were having a problem with them. It seems as if people were hooking up straight 12v (like I was going to-DOH!) and were frying the units. To save the consumer from themselves, the only way you can get external power is with a cig lighter attachment.

The tech was nice enough to point me to a company that made the correct patch cable. I don't recall the name, but I can dig out at home-if you guys want it.

BTW-I noticed that Gaffrig and Nordskog came out with the GPS speeds at the exact same time. Coincidence? I suspect there is only one supplier.

Very True Wally....
I am just so used to going straight to the factory I didn't think
it through at the time. I won't do it again though.:D

Why would you want a GPS speedo??? I like the readings of my "normal" speedo.

If a passenger wants to know how fast we are going, I just point at the speedo. They don't know that it lies on the high side by about 4 mph! :D

4!!!!! **** mines off by at least 10!!!

Bayley & Dave M
 

Bayley, I have a 168 Garmin plus the GPS speedo, the speedo only wiggles when I flip the recall thingy but won't show speed at all, maybe what you said above is my problem, so if ya could say it in english :confused: or just so I could understand it, maybe I could get mine to work like it should.

Dave M, my 168 Garmin in the menu section has a option for sm, med, lrg, and x lrg, so I can make my speed really big so it's easy to see, so maybe just check your settings and you might get some bigger numbers.

here is how my garmin 12CX gps is wired to my gaffrig analog gps speedo using the data/power cable from gaffrig.

the brown wire from the gps data/power cable is connected to the center wire on the smaller connector on the back of the speedo. this wire is white.

the white wire on the gps data/power cable is not needed for the speedo.

speedo large connector
red +12V
black ground
violet center position of clear/recall switch
gray recall side of switch
orange clear side of switch

speedo small connector
center white lead <--> brown lead from gps power/data cable

gps setup screen interface page

None/NMEA
NMEA 0183 2.0
4800 Baud