Interesting new product from Garmin (1 Viewer)

[toyotabill]

Looking for more pics/designs/ideas with this power switch installed... if anyone else has this Garmin switch with light bars installed can you post some pics of the switch installed? I am at the goal line about to install my Garmin Powerswitch with two Baja Design Lights. An S8 40" light bar in the front and two smaller S2 lights in the back. I do not want to punch holes in the firewall and I hooked everything up tonight for testing, but left the Garmin Powerswitch out of the mix for now.

I also have the Grom Vline2 running within the factory head unit (which I highly recommend) and I am going to use the Grom system with the Garmin Powerswitch App to control the lights.

 

[ATwoZ]

Looking for more pics/designs/ideas with this power switch installed... if anyone else has this Garmin switch with light bars installed can you post some pics of the switch installed? I am at the goal line about to install my Garmin Powerswitch with two Baja Design Lights. An S8 40" light bar in the front and two smaller S2 lights in the back. I do not want to punch holes in the firewall and I hooked everything up tonight for testing, but left the Garmin Powerswitch out of the mix for now.View attachment 2754096

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I also have the Grom Vline2 running within the factory head unit (which I highly recommend) and I am going to use the Grom system with the Garmin Powerswitch App to control the lights.
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Following...the grom is the approach I would have taken with this sort of setup...

 

[1world1love]

Looking for more pics/designs/ideas with this power switch installed... if anyone else has this Garmin switch with light bars installed can you post some pics of the switch installed? I am at the goal line about to install my Garmin Powerswitch with two Baja Design Lights. An S8 40" light bar in the front and two smaller S2 lights in the back. I do not want to punch holes in the firewall and I hooked everything up tonight for testing, but left the Garmin Powerswitch out of the mix for now.View attachment 2754096

View attachment 2754097

View attachment 2754098

View attachment 2754101


I also have the Grom Vline2 running within the factory head unit (which I highly recommend) and I am going to use the Grom system with the Garmin Powerswitch App to control the lights.
View attachment 2754102

Im not sure what kinds of pics or ideas you are looking for, but I have the PowerSwitch installed and controlling my air compressor and also a set of Rigid 360 lights with amber backlighting. I don’t have a lightbar but I don’t think there is anything unique about wiring one up.

I am happy to post any pics that you think might be helpful.

 

[toyotabill]

Im not sure what kinds of pics or ideas you are looking for, but I have the PowerSwitch installed and controlling my air compressor and also a set of Rigid 360 lights with amber backlighting. I don’t have a lightbar but I don’t think there is anything unique about wiring one up.

I am happy to post any pics that you think might be helpful.

Oh neat. Just a few pics of the under hood setup with wire routing pics?

Those kinds of pics help me make decisions.

And when I get mine all wired in, I will post pics so others can reference or follow. : )

I bought two Slee under the hood mounting trays, so that is my plan for mounting the Powerswitch. (the ARB compressor mount and Accessory Mounting tray)

Also - for the lights - What did you do with the part of the wire that controls the on/off switches that runs from the relay? Cut them? Coil them up under the hood?
(as you know, typically this part of the cable would punch through the firewall and you would mount the on/off switch in the cab)

This BD S8 light bar wire has two on/off switches, one for the amber light and one switch for the actual LED lights.

Thanks in advance.

 

[KLF]

Im not sure what kinds of pics or ideas you are looking for, but I have the PowerSwitch installed and controlling my air compressor and also a set of Rigid 360 lights with amber backlighting. I don’t have a lightbar but I don’t think there is anything unique about wiring one up.

I am happy to post any pics that you think might be helpful.

I'm curious on your overall impression of the Garmin unit. Has it been working well? What do you use to control it? Your phone, or a dedicated unit of some sort?

 

[1world1love]

Oh neat. Just a few pics of the under hood setup with wire routing pics?

Those kinds of pics help me make decisions.

And when I get mine all wired in, I will post pics so others can reference or follow. : )

I bought two Slee under the hood mounting trays, so that is my plan for mounting the Powerswitch. (the ARB compressor mount and Accessory Mounting tray)

Also - for the lights - What did you do with the part of the wire that controls the on/off switches that runs from the relay? Cut them? Coil them up under the hood?
(as you know, typically this part of the cable would punch through the firewall and you would mount the on/off switch in the cab)

This BD S8 light bar wire has two on/off switches, one for the amber light and one switch for the actual LED lights.

Thanks in advance.

Sure. I fabricated a mount for mine, but it is the same general location as with the Slee tray.

The controller has six switched outputs. If the draw of your lights are less than 30 amps, you can run them directly off of the Powerswitch and do not need anything more. The switch can also control a relay for higher drawing devices. So for my compressor, I have it wired directly to the battery and then the relay is wired to the PS.

For the lights, you should really only have one positive wire for each light output (so one for the main lights and one for the backlights) and one ground. You don't need any of the other wiring. Here is the schematic that came with my Rigids and your lights should be similar. It may have included a harness and switch, but you don't need any of that:

So in this pic, 04 goes to my compressor relay, 05 to my primary lights, and 06 to the amber backlights.

The negative is wired in to a ground bus I have on the battery:

 

[1world1love]

I'm curious on your overall impression of the Garmin unit. Has it been working well? What do you use to control it? Your phone, or a dedicated unit of some sort?

I am really happy with the setup and have had no problems with the unit at all. It always pairs fine and works as expected. I do not ever have to think about to be honest.

I normally just use the app on my phone, but I have it setup on my wife's phone and my ipad as well. I really like it. I like being able to switch things on and off when I am away from the truck. For instance, my air-up connect is located at the tailgate, so I can sit down back there and turn my compressor on and off. I have also been setting camp up and needed a little extra light and was able to turn on the rigids without having to walk all the way back to the truck.

The nice thing is that you can have the best of both worlds. You can have it paired with a dedicated device in the cab and also with your phone.

 

[toyotabill]

Got it... Yup.. that helps a lot and that makes sense, thank you! I checked several times before buying everything. The S8 light bar draws 16A and the S2 is like 1A. So the max of everything running at once is 100A on the Garmin unit and 30A per terminal. Been there done that and made that mistake a few times when buying lights for my other rig etc. LOL

I was out in my shop just a bit ago working on something else and it all clicked and a light bulb came on. Like you mentioned The wire harness that comes with the lights has the relay with the Positive and Negative running into the relay and then wire for the on/off switches coming out of the relay. A couple of options... I can create my own wire harness with a relay and wire up the Amber light, the light bar and the rear lights all to different terminals like you did... or take the wire harness apart that i have and "re-wire" and remove all the switches... either way, just like you did... use the Garmin Powerswitch to control all the lights and eventually the compressor. : )

Thanks again for the help and I will post pics here as I go and get this figured out.

 

[1world1love]

Got it... Yup.. that helps a lot and that makes sense, thank you! I checked several times before buying everything. The S8 light bar draws 16A and the S2 is like 1A. So the max of everything running at once is 100A on the Garmin unit and 30A per terminal. Been there done that and made that mistake a few times when buying lights for my other rig etc. LOL

I was out in my shop just a bit ago working on something else and it all clicked and a light bulb came on. Like you mentioned The wire harness that comes with the lights has the relay with the Positive and Negative running into the relay and then wire for the on/off switches coming out of the relay. A couple of options... I can create my own wire harness with a relay and wire up the Amber light, the light bar and the rear lights all to different terminals like you did... or take the wire harness apart that i have and "re-wire" and remove all the switches... either way, just like you did... use the Garmin Powerswitch to control all the lights and eventually the compressor. : )

Thanks again for the help and I will post pics here as I go and get this figured out.

No problem and good luck.

If it were me, based on your draw and setup, I would eliminate all the extraneous components altogether and run a single (per light) positive directly from the PS to the light and splice in fairly close to the light.

 

[toyotabill]

Quick update... I called Baja Designs this afternoon and a tech (Jeff) jumped on the phone with me to go over my wiring schematic etc. He checked with his lead developer and they told me to remove the relays all together and wire the lights to the Garmin Powerswitch directly. One wire for the amber light, one wire for the main light bar and one wire for the S2 lights on the back. SO... That is good news and I made my wiring harnesses tonight and should have this mod done by this weekend with some pics. Appreciate you guys helping me out. : ) Thanks, Billy

 

[toyotabill]

okay, got it all wired up for testing... I HIGHLY recommend this Garmin if you are sitting on the fence about it... It is the neatest gadget I have seen.... Not really intended for cars... I think it was designed for side by sides... But here are my pics... Tomorrow I will run the wires and hide them and finish up the install.

By the way, I have a feeling more companies will be going this route (bluetooth) as someone already mentioned... you can control this from your phone too.

 

[toyotabill]

more pictures

 

[toyotabill]

also, if you look close on one of the pictures, the screen displays the volts and the amps... pretty cool.... bottom right of the screen.

 

[toyotabill]

So after testing this Garmin and BD lights for a week. I really like the Garmin PowerSwitch along with the Baja S8 and S2 lights. The bluetooth has to be re-connected every now and then with the Grom, which I think is a GROM issue... but that is no biggie. Turns out you can run the app on your phone and the GROM at the same time and they are synced. I can turn the lights on from the console and then get out of the car and turn them off with my phone.

I ran the wires down both sides of the windshield and hid them under the plastic rain gutters/rubber strips so the wires are hidden for the most part.

 

[BigBearBoards]

God I love the Garmin power switch. Works flawlessly, no more drilling into the firewall and having random switches all over the dash. Keeps everything neat and simple. Even easier to mount and hook everything up yourself. I was able to get Siri to control the power switch and set scenes based on time of day through HomeKit. Also since I have a garmin overlander and a kenwood Apple CarPlay head unit with garmin maps everything is a finger touch away or a voice command away using Siri or the “Hey Garmin” features. I currently have my solar panel controller hooked to my plb40, baja squadron lights, arb compressor and my lighted buggy whip all controlled by the power switch. Works flawlessly with a lag time no longer than it takes to slow blink your eyes.

 

[TheGrrrrr]

God I love the Garmin power switch. Works flawlessly, no more drilling into the firewall and having random switches all over the dash. Keeps everything neat and simple. Even easier to mount and hook everything up yourself. I was able to get Siri to control the power switch and set scenes based on time of day through HomeKit. Also since I have a garmin overlander and a kenwood Apple CarPlay head unit with garmin maps everything is a finger touch away or a voice command away using Siri or the “Hey Garmin” features. I currently have my solar panel controller hooked to my plb40, baja squadron lights, arb compressor and my lighted buggy whip all controlled by the power switch. Works flawlessly with a lag time no longer than it takes to slow blink your eyes.

I'm considering this setup now. How do you like the Garmin Overlander? I'll be running two sets of lights, two compressors and Front/Rear lockers from whatever interface I choose. The fact that I can mount a PowerSwitch up front for those mods, and add one in the back for all my other accessories is a nice bonus. My biggest concern is that I won't be happy with the phone control or the Overlander unit. Would you have any hesitation using it to control eLockers?

 

[1world1love]

I'm considering this setup now. How do you like the Garmin Overlander? I'll be running two sets of lights, two compressors and Front/Rear lockers from whatever interface I choose. The fact that I can mount a PowerSwitch up front for those mods, and add one in the back for all my other accessories is a nice bonus. My biggest concern is that I won't be happy with the phone control or the Overlander unit. Would you have any hesitation using it to control eLockers?

Hi Matt. Hope you are well.

I don't have the Overlander but I am pretty happy with the setup on my phone. Because you can have multiple simultaneous paired devices, you have a lot of options.

Definitely being able to chain together many controllers is nice, though I haven't gotten to that point.

So far, my setup has been incredibly reliable. I have had multiple service trips, disconnected my battery many times, etc, and it has never failed to maintain pairing with my devices.

I don't think I would have any hesitation to use it on elockers.

 

[TheGrrrrr]

Hi Matt. Hope you are well.

I don't have the Overlander but I am pretty happy with the setup on my phone. Because you can have multiple simultaneous paired devices, you have a lot of options.

Definitely being able to chain together many controllers is nice, though I haven't gotten to that point.

So far, my setup has been incredibly reliable. I have had multiple service trips, disconnected my battery many times, etc, and it has never failed to maintain pairing with my devices.

I don't think I would have any hesitation to use it on elockers.

Okay, I just ordered one. I'll see how it goes. Given how rarely I use my lockers, and the fact that I have my phone mounted in a very accessible position for using OnX, switching over to the Garmin app to turn on a locker won't be a huge issue. The unit should be here tomorrow, so I'll get stuff wired up this weekend. I've spent months going back/forth on sPOD vs. SwitchPro so the fact that I'm taking a complete left turn to something comparatively few people are using, has me a bit nervous.

If my GROM was still functional and installed, I'd be pretty stoked to use that setup.

 

[1world1love]

Okay, I just ordered one. I'll see how it goes. Given how rarely I use my lockers, and the fact that I have my phone mounted in a very accessible position for using OnX, switching over to the Garmin app to turn on a locker won't be a huge issue. The unit should be here tomorrow, so I'll get stuff wired up this weekend. I've spent months going back/forth on sPOD vs. SwitchPro so the fact that I'm taking a complete left turn to something comparatively few people are using, has me a bit nervous.

If my GROM was still functional and installed, I'd be pretty stoked to use that setup.

Yeah, I was hesitant as well since there was so little info, but it has fallen into the category of "set it and forget it", which is I guess what we hope from all of our gear. Can't complain.

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.

 

[toyotabill]

Been using Garmin for 6 plus months. Not one issue and I use mine daily. I added more lights and an ARB compressor.
Biggest pro of this thing... I like being able to take my phone out of the cab and still control lights and whatnot, even with the vehicle off.

The Grom is getting used more for the JBV1 app and the V1 Radar detector. The Grom has some little bugs in it, but i am able to manage it.

If you call these companies, like Garmin or Baja Designs or who ever makes the E-lockers, they will talk to you and tell you if they
think or know that their products will work with this Garmin Power Switch.