Garmin GPS Aerial - How do I open it?

awol

awol

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GPS ceased to function but works ok on neighbour's aerial. Found a wee hole in the co-ax at a bend within the pushpit fitting giving no cable to work on. I'm told the aerial is a sealed unit but it seems stupid to replace it when all it needs is a bit of 50 ohm co-ax.
Anyone know how to get into the thing?
 
... and the answer is ... a chain wrench! The domed top screws on but is sealed with a silicone (I think) glue. Cable is soldered through a gland onto a small pcb. Wish I'd brought the rest of the cable home - ah well, it will have to wait until I go down to the boat tomorrow.
There is a bleed screw under the label, presumably to allow filling with dry nitrogen/air. I suppose I'd better seal the thing up inside the freezer!
 
My 128/126 went the same way, except I could not see a problem with the aerial, so wanted to open it up to look for any obvious fault. I could not open the unit so carefully cut the cover just above the base with a junior hacksaw.
I didn't find a fault so fitted a third party aerial (from GPS4LESS) in the Garmin case and resealed it by Aralditing the top back on. That was 3 years ago.

Ian
 
[ QUOTE ]
... I suppose I'd better seal the thing up inside the freezer!

[/ QUOTE ]and why would you want to do that then ?

All that cold/moist air - shiver....
 
'Cos while the relative humidity of the cold freezer air may be high, the specific humidity is low. What you see as damp is the water content of the warm air condensing as it hits the cold air of the freezer. If you know where I can find air with a lower moisture content (easily) please tell.
 
If you've got one of those canned air thingies for cleaning your computer keyboard then you have a supply of (fairly) dry compressed air. Just a thought.
 
Humidity ....

Airing Cupboard ..... Hair Dryer ............. Sorry - bad call that !!

The increased temp. of the air allows greater amount of moisture to be carried and therefore is worst place you could do it in.
The colder the place the better ...

The idea of a silica gel bag though is not a bad idea ... as long as joint is sealed enough to stop bag sucking up moisture from outside.

Tip - For those that have small silicab gel bags from all sorts of objects etc. - keep them. It doesn't matter that they get sodden with moisture ... you can dry them out on radiator top or on very low setting in oven - VERY low !! Once dried ... place in plastic bag wrapped up tight so that it can cool without sucking in moisture from surrounding air. Keep in bag till needed.
 
Re: Humidity ....

Once many moons ago I was involved with an optics system that we found had a cover missing. When we fitted it and the system breathed through its desiccator as designed, repeated temperature and humidity cycling caused it to mist up. With the cover missing no problems!
 
Re: Humidity ....

It was to the designer who had spent £££s on molecular sieve desiccator design and dry nitrogen purging kit.

Anyway, new cable is now fitted to antenna and I'm off to see if I've solved the problem.
 
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