GPSMap 396 Power Cable

Well, we just broke the first power cable for the beast. I had read that
others were having problems with plug failures so I bought a spare a
while back. The plastic part that is physically plugged into the unit
separates from the back part of the connector molded to the cable. Total
operations until failu about 30.

I had been carefully grasping only the round base "barrel" part of the
connector avoiding the angled part. I always gently wiggle it from side
to side and top to bottom. This time it just separated.

I took a look at the new one to see if we could push it in part way
without bottoming it out. I figured perhaps bottoming it was putting too
much strain on the thing unnecessarily. But, partial insertion will not
work because the connectors on the outside round edge "snap" into place
after it is plugged most of the way in. Unless you reach that point, the
plug will just pop out.

First of all, why did they put a 90 degree angle on this thing? Totally
useless. Second, this cable is TOO SHORT to reach the cig lighter in
most GA planes. H-E-L-L-O! They also put an angled plug on the XM
antenna cable. I suppose they thought they were doing someone a favor.
When used on a particular yoke with a particular placement of the mount,
I could see how straight plugs might be a problem by sticking out the
back. Strange that they used a conventional BNC straight plug. Maybe the
top BNC does not interfere with the yokes they were concerned about.

Other manufacturers use a more conventional method of design with long
pins on the unit, a soft rubber plug, and some soft stays on the outer
round part of the plug to provide some friction against falling out.
Garmin uses 4 short pins, and then puts an additional 4 pins on the
outer barrel part of the plug. The whole assembly is hard plastic, so
they put a round profile on the outer pins that "snap" into place into
the concave receptacle. Nice try, but it does not stand up to normal
use. The spring tension on the outer pins is TOO HIGH.

I am considering putting together a multiplug to circumvent the failure
prone plugs on this unit. Garmin should really do it. At this point, I
would even pay for it... Another option is to REMOVE the outer pins.
They only use 2 and they are for voice data. Hmmmm......

Mike