Surgery on the Garmin Edge 305
I’ve been using my Garmin Edge 305 for over two years and am pretty happy with it. Unfortunately though, it seems just like with many other electronic gadgets these days, two years is about the time at which things start to fail. One doesn’t have to be entirely paranoid to assume that they may be just designed that way. Anyways, the first symptom was the device randomly shutting off during bumpy sections on my road bike – looked like a case of ‘battery bounce’. This got gradually worse and worse, to the point at which the slightest bump on my (suspended) mountain bike would kill it; it just wasn’t usable anymore. The thing was long past warranty and I didn’t feel like forking out Garmin’s $100 flat rate for repair – so it was time for some surgery. It’s always fun to try fix things yourself.
A quick round of Googling showed that I wasn’t the only one with this problem, and soon I ran into this helpful thread on one of the Motionbased forums, from which I came up with this plan of attack:
Open up the device; the case consists of two halves which are glued together. You basically have to pry open the rear black section from the front section. Important: a rubber strip runs along the side of the device and covers the switches; it has been molded onto the gray front part and is to be permanently attached to it. The seam which has to be pried open is between the rubber strip and the black rear part, NOT between the rubber and the gray front part. You can use your nails or a spatula, see the picture below (all the photos below are linked to higher resolution images btw, click on them to see these).
The adhesive will slowly come off (and make a bit of a mess), a gap will open up and at some point you’ll be able to lift the black cover off. As usual with these things, don’t force it or you may break stuff.
With some patience, you’ll be able to separate the two halves.
The random shutdown problem is most likely caused by the spring connector (the 8 gold coated pins on the bottom left of the top part, which contact gold coated pads on the bottom part, see image below). When the device is closed up, the leads of the battery (in the top half) run through this connector to the GPS board in the bottom half; the other contacts of the connector contact the mini USB port. The little springs (see pic below) only create a good electrical contact if they’re sufficiently compressed. 
And that’s the heart of the problem: the compression of the springs is determined by the gap between the two halfs. The contact pads on the bottom half sit on a small piece of PCB, onto which the external USB port is directly mounted (see pic).
A spacer underneath the small PCB defines the gap (see the profile shot below) and it is the adhesive force of the glue that holds the two parts together.
So, after numerous cycles of plugging in and out a USB cable and applying significant forces on this piece of PCB, it is not hard to imagine that it can get somewhat wedged loose over time and as a result the compression of the springs decreases or fluctuates, something which only will be aggravated when you have the device mounted on your handlebar during a bumpy ride. The intermittent contact then leads to the device shutting down.
Basically, it’s a design error with respect to strain relief and could have been avoided by not having the USB port directly mounted onto the piece with the contact pads for the springs.
In order to fix the problem and make the connector more robust for a hopefully long future use I decided to combine two fixes mentioned in the Motionbased forum thread: hardwire the battery leads to the GPS board, and add a spacer to the small PCB with the USB port.
First though, you want to properly clean all contacting surfaces to make sure there’s no dirt or other contamination creating trouble – you can use for instance DeoxIT contact cleaner for this – check out the macro-photo I took of the connector tips: it’s easy to see that some dirt on those tips can become an issue.
Detach the small PCB to expose the battery leads – it’s kept in place by two screws on the sides.
Next, solder a wire from each battery lead to the GPS board – this requires some care and a steady hand, but it isn’t that hard. A good type of wire to use here is magnet wire – thin, plastically deformable wire that has an insulating coating on it (and is typically used for coil spools). Because it keeps its shape when you deform it and the thin wire is very light, it won’t move around too much inside the device during use after you’ve closed it up again, and the solder joints shouldn’t come under any significant stress.
The picture below shows where I soldered the wires at the battery/USB connector side (and is also a testament of my sub-par but in this case sufficient soldering skills).
Soldering a wire from the battery leads to the board will pretty much eliminate the battery bounce effect during rides. But to ensure the contacts to the USB port (which you need to download data or recharge the battery) remain in good shape, the additional spacer comes in – this will basically compress the little springs a bit more and create a more robust electrical contact. I took a thin piece of rubber with adhesive on one side (the type you can buy to cut out for instance rubber feet to glue on small furniture or equipment) and cut out a piece that is pretty much identical in shape to the original spacer, then placed it on top of it.
Then put both spacers on the small PCB and screw it back in place. The picture below shows how it goes together. It also shows the contacts on the GPS board where you need to solder the other ends of the battery wires to (as always, be careful when doing this – you don’t want to smolder components or splash solder all over the place).
The trick then is to nicely wrap the extra wires you’ve put in there alongside the board in such way that you avoid them touching the spring connector or getting squeezed when you flip the two halves of the device back together. Practice this a few times, because in the final step you’ll need to do it with glue on the case.
When you feel comfortable with this, it’s time to put new adhesive on (of course, you’ve already scraped the old one off as well as you could). I used some ‘Black Max’ Loctite (see picture) that I applied on the edges of the black rear cover – this adhesive works well with rubber and plastic.
Move both parts now gently together, making sure the wires sit nicely in place and out of the way and being extra careful with the area that contains the spring connector. When the two parts are locked back together, put a weight on the device (see picture) and let the adhesive cure. You want to use this weight and apply a uniform force in order to minimize any gap between the two parts (remember this affects the spring compression and also the operation of the Start/Stop and Lap buttons).
Fifteen minutes later, take off the weight and power on the GPS! Check whether the USB port works as well (you could also do this before applying the adhesive by clamping the halves together and gently plugging in the USB cable in the port.
If all went well, it will stay on, including during the roughest bumpiest rides you can find. (If it doesn’t power on, not all is lost: go back to start – the Loctite adhesive is removable just like the original adhesive). I’ve done this fix a few months ago, and my Edge was working almost like new again – and as to date, it still is.
January 4th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Hi , very nice job and tutorial….
I have this device for 1 year and 6 months. the support from garmin asked me to buy another device for $99. I don´t want to pay it and I think I´ll have to make the surgery as well. Is it currently working now? Did you solve the problem or I need to throw it aging the wall ???? I have the same problem during my road trainning session the devide turn off. It becames often since last month.
Regards
Luiz
January 5th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Luiz, my Edge 305 is currently working indeed (this e.g. was one of the more recent things I recorded), 3 months after I did the fix.
I would recommended testing everything thoroughly before you glue things back together (by e.g. having it clamped together temporarily) – this includes the on/off switch, the lap and start/stop buttons, the buttons on the right and the USB port connection.
I had to redo the procedure because the start/stop button became very hard to operate – the ‘gap’ between the two halves determines how well this pressure sensitive switch works, and the single drawback of using the extra ‘spacer’ at the USB connector is that this gap increases a bit and hence makes the switch harder to operate. However, by cleaning the old glue thoroughly out of the seams of the casing, and by keeping the two halves properly pressed together during the curing/drying of the new glue, it should work. Good luck if you try it!
April 23rd, 2009 at 6:40 am
mtbguru,
Thank you for the very complete tutorial. I am about to begin the process myself, but I am concerned about the type of glue that you chose. From what I have read, this glue tends to be permanently permanent. Have you tried re-opening your 305 after using the loctite glue?
My problem seems to be slightly different than most. My 305 shuts off regularly on rides, but the terrain is not always bumpy. Sometimes it has died on perfectly smooth roads. More frustrating is that I cannot get the 305 to shut off at home. No amount of shaking or dropping will cause it to turn off. That is why I was thinking that I may need to open it up more than once, and I want to make sure the glue will allow me to do that.
Thanks in advance for your help.
-Greg
April 27th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Hi Greg,
I did actually open it up more than once (first to solder the wires, later when I realized I needed to install the spacer) – the 380 Loctite can be removed in pretty much the same way as the original glue. How easy it is depends on how liberal you were when applying it…
April 28th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
you just saved me $89 and my wife thanks you as she was getting pretty fed up w/ her 305 shutting off 4-5 times a ride on the road and not so frequently on dirt. I’m trying the spacer mod first (as i cant find small enough gauge wires to solder yet) to see how that goes.
April 29th, 2009 at 7:00 am
foo,
just be careful and patient – also don’t overdo the thickness of the spacer – and it should work.
Not sure where you’re located but that type of wire can be cheaply bought at e.g. Fry’s (CA etc) or any electronic components store (or online at Digikey)…
April 29th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
thanks mtbguru, i managed to get it opened rather easily i found some foam pieces that were a few mm thick and works so far rather nicely. now the test to see how it works on the road.
May 11th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Thanks you for the very complete tutorial. My garmin edge 305 shutdown frecuently, but now is repaired.
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Yeah, that’s an amazing set of instructions. You’re a king for putting that up.
May 25th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Awesome tutorial! Thanks. BTW- for the spacer, I recommend cutting up any old tire tube.
May 30th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Thanks for the tutorial. While I have mine apart, I also need to fix the mode button. It broke after I dropped it and its rattling around in there. Do you know if this can be done or if anyone has a tutorial on how to do this?
June 1st, 2009 at 7:03 am
@Scott: not sure, but perhaps you may find these buttons/switches on e.g. digikey.com and replace the broken one…
@Alex, good tip on the the spacer – a piece of tube would work well indeed
June 1st, 2009 at 7:19 pm
I got the Mode button fixed. There were three pieces to the switch which just snap together. Once put back together, the button now works. However, Once I put the Garmin back together, the display was a lot darker. I can still read it but just barely. Anybody have any ideas?
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Somebody in another forum told me to try adusting the contrast. Thats what it was and now the display looks fine.
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:56 am
Yes, I was thinking of that… ‘arrow up’ button…
June 24th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Excellent instructions. I just took the 305 out for a cross ride and no problem at all anymore. I used a bike tube for a spacer and the buttons need to be pushed a little harder, but well worth having the 305 working again. I would just add that the board comes out of the grey side (sorry for my lack of technolical lingo). When I realized this it made the solderin much easier. Thanks for this great fix!
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Your information rocks! Followed the procedures as outlined and took it out for one of my bumpy rides. Worked like a charm! Thanks for this information:-)
July 28th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Great instructions. I may have one better. I just got off the phone with Garmin and they have labeled this as a “known issue” and are now issuing replacement units for FREE. You must send them your unit first. They will give you a RA number and send one back.
August 27th, 2009 at 1:44 am
Hi,
Is the FREE unit replacement for the 305 warranty or any ?
My Edge is 2006.
Thanks
August 30th, 2009 at 5:18 am
Worked like a charm! Thanks for publishing this fix.
August 31st, 2009 at 7:35 am
Thanks for the great instructions. I took the actual battery leads and hardwired them to the circuit board. Used Duco silicone glue for the case… worked like a charm!
August 31st, 2009 at 9:20 am
I repaired my 305 myself, and it didn’t go so well for me. I think I used too much glue, and as a result, elevation stopped working, and I couldn’t get the device apart again to fix it. On the plus side, it didn’t shut off anymore…
So last week, I decided to bite the bullet and contacted Garmin to start the RMA process. As Sam said above, Garmin offered to fix my unit free, even though it is way out of warranty. Unfortunately, once I ‘fessed up to fixing it myself, I had to pay the $89 (which is still much better than the $150 that it was last year). The whole process took exactly one week, and my freshly re-manufactured 305 is in much better shape than the used beat up device that I sent them.
Garmin indicated that they have re-engineered the power connection, so I am hoping the intermittent shutoff is gone for good.
Moral of the story – DO NOT TAKE YOUR 305 APART. Call Garmin. Even though I am out $89, I am delighted with the outcome.
-greg
September 2nd, 2009 at 7:50 am
Greg, I think the real moral of your story is “don’t use too much glue!”
September 8th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
mtbguru, when applying the Loctite, do you apply a bead around the entire rim of the black cover? I’m guessing you do, as it wouldn’t be entirely waterproof if it wasn’t. That being said, i’m also guessing that you apply only a thin bead, as too much will render it unopenable (as Greg demonstrated above!)
I appreciate your site…this shut off thing has been killing me for the past year!
September 14th, 2009 at 7:37 am
This is a great resource. Ive got a similar problem but on the other side of the unit and a little bit different. I crashed the other day and cracked my screen. Does anyone know where I can get a replacement screen, or has anyone replaced the screen before, or have any idea how hard it would be?
September 21st, 2009 at 8:03 am
@Alan: yes on both questions. Though to be honest, I don’t think my new seal is really waterproof. Then I personally don’t care too much since where I live rain is pretty rare much of the year
. If you take a lot of care though I think you could make a pretty good seal.
@Jonathan: my memory fails me in trying to remember how the LCD is hooked up. I think if you can get your hands on a new LCD (find a cheap broken unit with good screen on ebay?) you can probably replace it; though I’d guess you’d spend too much time and money on it than it’s probably worth…
October 3rd, 2009 at 7:35 pm
I just put the spacer in. I wrapped it with some electrical tape and it seems to be working pretty well. It does seem strange that they engineered it this way. I was going to do the solders but dang they look pretty darn small.
October 25th, 2009 at 8:17 am
A great blog and helpful instructions and pics. Just taken my 305 apart and put in the extra spacer and all glued back together. Its now sealing nicely with a couple of zip ties and some weight on top. Will test ride in a couple days and hope all will be well…
November 4th, 2009 at 2:59 am
Brilliant. Top marks for your blog and the solution.
HEADS UP GARMIN!!!!! ??HELLO GARMIN?? ANYBODY HOME!!!!
November 28th, 2009 at 11:05 am
My 305 would not switch on so assumed it was the battery as it would switch on with usb. Replaced the battery but still have the fault, followed your instructions to the letter, all connections are fine and double checked them. Any clues to the problem?
December 12th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Had a problem where I had too much salt from sweat build up under the front switches to where they stopped functioning. Flushing with a bit of alcohol restored operation. This would be a bad thing if the rubber membrane is torn.
Haven’t had the power switch off problem yet, but when I do and open it up, I’ll use a tiny amount of LPS-1 lube which is thin film conductive on the contacts before reassembly.
April 4th, 2010 at 9:31 am
Just did surgery on mine and tested it. It solved the problem. THANKS A LOT.
Only thing now is that the altimeter now doesn’t fonction any more. That,s a bummer but I can live with that.
Michel
April 20th, 2010 at 4:24 am
“Greg, I think the real moral of your story is “don’t use too much glue!”” ROFL!
This is brilliant. I am currently waiting for Gramin to repsond to a query before goong down the DIY route. 2 days and no resonse makes me wonder if I’ve hit the wrong contact page on the website – does anyone have a contact email address for them in the UK?
June 4th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
When I pulled my 205 apart, I also found that the little plastic nib(for lack of a better word) that aligns the top of the main board was broken off allowing the it to move inside the case. I suspect this is causing my shutdown issues.
June 17th, 2010 at 7:41 am
If you don’t want to attempt this yourself, I will do it cheap:
Garmin Edge 205 305 Repair, Vibration , Button, Battery
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200472458117&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:24 pm
This worked great! So happy I didnt send my 305 and $90 to Garmin. Thanks for the great fix. It had become unusable and I was ready to throw it in the river but now I can use it again.
July 27th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
You helped me out quite a bit. I was a little unfortunate with my process, but all is well now.
I only had a soldering iron with a tip about .5″ thick…made soldering those tiny little guys extremely difficult! I think I held the soldering iron too long on the lead on the PCB while trying to put my extra wire on and end up breaking the contact on the PCB….UGH!! This was on the ground terminal. I was able to scrape away some of the green covering of the PCB to expose the copper lead underneath. Thankfully the ground is about the majority of the PCB. I was able to solder all that back together then as I was putting everything back together, the positive one broke…UGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!! The lead on the PCB for the positive was tiny. This one took much longer to fix, but I was able to and everything is back together again.
It was strange, the 305 power button wouldn’t work until I had connected it to a power source, but after that it works fine. Going for another ride tomorrow to see if everything is fixed…cross fingers!!
August 16th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Just tried this excellent procedure last month and the Edge 305 has been working great ever since, no more power off during rides..
One difference I made is using window silicone sealant instead of instant glue. This is what the original material seems to be… So far no problem.
Thanks
August 21st, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Great blog.
August 22nd, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Bought my Edge 205 on eBay, where it was sold with a remark that it can shut off sometimes. I purchased it anyway, thinking that if there’s really a problem the Internet will have a solution, without even searching for one beforehand.
My bike has no suspension, so indeed the Edge switched off frequently. Some minutes of research brought me to this great page here, and the problem was solved in barely an hour.
I did just the spacer trick, since my soldering skills are rather crude. I didn’t even use glue, two rubber bands of old inner tubes keep it together for the moment, and there isn’t a lot of rain in sight anyway. And also i will have to reopen it again to replace the battery. Anybody knows if this is just a standard part or some super special Garmin model?
Thanks a lot for this splendid tutorial!
PeeWee
August 24th, 2010 at 7:47 am
Glad you had success with the procedure – I’m still amazed at how many suffered this shutdown issue. If Garmin would be Apple, there would have been a national uproar and everyone would have their device replaced for free. Btw, not sure about the battery, I imagine you could get it from Garmin, or try to find something on Digikey that has the right specs and form factor…
September 5th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Thanks a bundle – the soldering mod has saved my 205 from being stamped on by me, I was really getting fed up with it. Interestingly, although I bought mine new, it already had a rubber spacer pushed underneath the contacts to improve the connection. As it is, if it makes it another 2 months I’ll be happy, as I can then get an Edge 800. Lets hope Garmin have learned some design lessons….
September 17th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Is no one dismayed by the crappy design here? I’m tempted to exercise my consumer rights and ask for and no doubt have to argue for a free repair or replacement as is my right here in the UK….. Oh wait… I can’t be bothered with the hassle.
Crapola.
I’ve fixed my unit my just tweaking up the contacts a little the end of a sharp knife to bring a bit of pressure back into the contacts.
S.
October 1st, 2010 at 9:22 am
I’m thinking of cutting the back out of mine with a hole saw and using it to mount a droid on my bike. Seems like, at least the 305, has out lived its usefulness?
October 2nd, 2010 at 5:23 pm
@george, if you are going to do that, can I have your screen?
My screen is cracked and I have had the unit apart and proved to myself that I can remove and replace the screen succesfuly.
I am getting sick of not being able to read any info and only using it to record for later analysis.
The minister for war and finance wont let me get a 500 just yet.
October 5th, 2010 at 6:02 am
I experienced those frequent shut offs of my Edge 305, and almost trew the Garmin until I came across this post.
I followed the procedure, and my GPS works great now!! Thanks Dirk!!
One fringe benefit of this surgery was the coming back to life of the Start/Stop and Reset buttons. I guess the original gluing of the two case parts expanded over time, which resulted not only in those intermittent loss of the connector’s contacts, but also in dysfunction of these buttons. I had to firmly bite them between my teeth in order to have them work.
Now, after the surgery, I thoroughly cleaned all the old glue residues, applied the new one, and used clamps to firmly close the unit until the glue dried. “Surprisingly”, the buttons no function well, I guess now their “stroke” is able to reach the switches on the PCB.
October 7th, 2010 at 7:17 am
Yes it seems the buttons tend to become increasingly hard to operate over time… good to hear cleaning works, I was considering glueing a little ‘post’ or so on it to extend their stroke.
October 24th, 2010 at 9:42 am
I just completed the repair this morning. I did not have a way to solder the part so I just added the extra spacer and it is working great so far. I used a piece of cork handle bar tape which equaled the thickness of the extra spacer needed and the original spacer. This allowed me to just have to add one piece instead of combining the original spacer and another spacer. It is was easy to cut out with a small knife. Thought I would share.
November 12th, 2010 at 6:50 am
Nice work – I don’t trust myself to operate on gadgets like this. I’ve just acquired one of the new Edge 800 units which is very impressive indeed.
Here are my initial thoughts on the edge 800:
http://www.bicyclecenturytraining.com/blog/garmin-edge-800-review/
December 15th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
Just went the spacer route. Didn’t feel confident enough to do the soldering. I used a piece of thorn proof tire liner. Seemed thick enough. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the tips.
January 7th, 2011 at 1:14 am
Excellent tutorial though your soldering skills need a bit of polishing
I have just completed the mod on my unit and it worked a treat. I used a bit of self-adhesive draft-exclusion tape for the spacer and instead of the cyanoacrilate glue suggested, I used Locktite Black Maxx 5910 silicon gasket adhesive, reason being that it has similar flexible qualities to the original adhesive allowing the unit to be opened in future if required. I also deviated from the instructions by using plastic mini clamps to hold the unit closed while the glue was setting, this allowed more pressure to be applied to the USB connector side of the unit. Thanks again.
January 16th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Using clamps is probably the better idea indeed. Btw, nice to see people still seem to be pretty successful at repairing these units; cuts back (a tiny bit) on the e-waste, and all that…
January 24th, 2011 at 8:09 am
how you connect the batterie ,the orginal hase some small ic on the + and –
can i remove this ic ?and connect the
January 31st, 2011 at 8:48 am
I succesfully performed a light version of the surgery. I simply soldered the battery wires directly to the main PCB. No spacer, no additional wiring. It works fine.
February 2nd, 2011 at 2:48 am
Thanks for this tutorial. What I think is that we pay a lot of money for 3 years. What are garmin thinking? we’re going to buy another when the battery ends its life? Perhaps is cheapest to buy a smartphone…more powerful, same price and you’ll buy another in 1,5 years
February 13th, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Fantastic. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Mine shuts off 2 or 3 times on offroad rides. It was about to be binned when I found this. I will be trying it soon. The annoying thing is I bet Garmin are still churning out this design flaw…
February 14th, 2011 at 9:38 am
i cant recall where the GPS antenna is on the board. Mines been acting up lately where it will not acquired a GPS signal, not sure if it’s a hardware thing (bad connections) or if it’s software related.
Just curious if you know of a fix if any.
March 6th, 2011 at 11:57 am
Thanks for posting this, Guru. I followed your instructions and added a second spacer made from a glueless tube patch. I also followed Jim Carson’s instructions for battery replacement at http://www.jimcarson.com/2009/replacing-the-battery-in-a-garmin-edge-305/. My problems with short battery life and wonky USB connectivity are now gone. $6 invested in a battery and Third Hand tool. I didn’t have any locktite glue so I just used rubber cement liberally and clamped with C-clamp and quick grips. http://billblandford.posterous.com/my-garmin-edge-205-is-rejuvinated
April 10th, 2011 at 4:48 am
mine won’t turn on after a long drive even after charging. put it on the charger again and then turns on. any thoughts?
April 15th, 2011 at 3:59 pm
Thanks for the info. I had a non functional down button with contrast set @ 100%. Once I took the unit apart I was able to adjust the contrast, and when I put the assembly back together the button worked again.
April 15th, 2011 at 5:59 pm
Has anyone tried/considered bending up the contacts on the PCB side a bit so that they make better contact? I’m staring at my dissected Edge 305 right now and considering it…
April 16th, 2011 at 9:16 am
@Andrew: battery acting up / almost dead?
@Matt: I actually did consider or even attempt that but since it’s a bit precarious I figured adding the spacer would be better or have less consequences when you mess it up…
April 30th, 2011 at 10:40 pm
I had this problem a year ago. I took it apart and bent the contacts a little to make better contact. It worked perfectly for about a year and is now shutting off again. I will try again using this method. Sounds promising.
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:33 am
I used rubber bands to hold the case tightly together when I glued it back shut. One on each end pulled quite tight and looped several times provided quite a bit of force and left the device usable while the glue dried – so I could test and verify it was all working.
May 29th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Tried out the additional pad, easy to fit thanks to the instructions. Hope that does the trick, will be out on the road tomorrow, will try the additional wire if not. Thanks for yor help.
June 23rd, 2011 at 1:59 am
I can’t find a replacement screen for my 305 ! has anyone managed ? The Garmin dealer offered a replacement but it is a little bit less than buying the new edge 500
June 28th, 2011 at 7:28 am
If you were a girl I’d come round and give you a big sloppy kiss. Done the spacer mod, my dead 305 which was heading for the bin is now alive again.
July 3rd, 2011 at 6:46 am
Worked for a while and then died. Please note that it is not, repeat NOT, possible to solder onto a part of a PCB unless you have a miraculous soldering ability. Do NOT attempt this unless the spacer trick doesn’t work.
July 30th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
I did this repair (spacer only, no solder) in April ’09 and just now the Garmin is shutting off again on bumpy trails. Looks like I’ll be prying that thing open again.
August 19th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Thanx for the fix, at last I know what the problem is, whoever designed this needs
to be bent over and it shoved up his fukin arse. These things aren’t cheap.
August 21st, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Thanks for this tutorial. I crashed recently and ended up scratching the upper part of my Edge 305 which resulted in no more beeping and failure to chrage and upload my tracks/routes. After reading your tutorial, I opened up my unit and noticed that the contacts were firmly pressed in due to the crash. I just propped them up with a small screwdriver and voila, everything is back online. Thanks!
October 9th, 2011 at 2:04 am
used the spacer as in tutorial, would not recommend tying to solder, it’s a minute spot to solder to and the battery connectors are even more difficult, so wouldn’t recommend. Try spacer first.
October 14th, 2011 at 4:41 am
Just to reiterate what other folks have said here. I had the same problem as everyone else here and was just about to commence surgery outlined above but decided to give UK Garmin Customer Services a call (0808 238 0000) just in case, and within two minutes they agreed to replace my 3 year old head unit with a ‘new’ (refurbished but guaranteed for 90 days) one. It’s just cost me the price of insured postage – £5.45. Maybe some bad design flaws, but in my experience excellent customer sevices)
October 15th, 2011 at 10:34 am
Hi, Thanks for the tutorial, got my Garmin 305 fixed now. Phew! Thought it was a goner.
Had all the same problems; Shutting off intermittently, would not switch on etc.
Just did the spacer mod using double sided foam strip cut to size. Roll of this stuff just a quid from my local pound shop.
Glued together using Loctite power flex gel.
Works great.
Can I add another tip?
Re-mount your Garmin to iether your bars or stem, whatever, but with a piece of pipe insulation cut to length. This foam will act as a shock absorber so should make life a lot easier for your unit. Testing my mod with no problems and will report back on it’s long term usefulness.
Cheers,
Roy the roadie.
October 21st, 2011 at 7:52 am
Yes, it is good to keep this in mind (Garmin customer service).
At the time of writing this article though, the only official fix in the US was a $150 flat rate repair/replacement (and I’m not sure what the current situation is).
January 4th, 2012 at 5:13 am
Hey there, You have done a fantastic job. I will definitely digg it and individually recommend to my friends. I’m sure they will be benefited from this site.
January 12th, 2012 at 4:55 pm
Thanks for this great write-up! All these years later it is still helping people keep their Edge’s on the road. I did the washer fix 3 years ago and it’s worked great until now. I found your site again, cleaned the connectors, and it’s working great again.
January 25th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
You’re the best dude. I totally thought my unit was no good because the start/stop/lap buttons were stuck down. You just saved me from buying a new one.