Here is a collection of
free do-it-yourself
take apart instructions, disassembly pictures, upgrade and repair manuals, as well as modding and cleaning tutorials for GPS navigation devices.
If you have written a guide yourself (or if you
know of tips and tricks not mentioned here), please
submit a new entry.
Delorme Tripmate
| Self-start and external power mod (some pin-outs included). |
Delorme Tripmate
| This navigation device is designed to operate on 6 volts DC. You can run it off 4 AA batteries that mount inside it's case. But it's possible to modify the navigation device for a 12 volt power supply and use in APRS. |
Delorme Tripmate
| Installing an APRs TNC directly inside of the GPS device. |
Delorme Tripmate
| Building a tracker from an old GPS. Layout and Wiring diagrams from the MIM experiment. |
Delorme Tripmate
| How to build an adapter to work with the Tinytrak 3 APRS controller. |
Fortuna GPSmart - BT
| Some pictures of the internals. |
Garmin GPS III
| This HOWTO shows two ways to extend the battery life: you can either take apart the housing and solder a better battery in or you can build a battery pack (in German). |
Garmin eTrex
| Pinout of the round connector, being used with the Garmin 12, 12xl, 38, 40, 45, 48, 76, 89, 90, 92, 176, 295, GPS II, II+, III, III+, V and Street Pilot. |
Garmin eTrex
| How to use a piece of credit-card (or any suitable plastic) for hacking the proprietary connector. |
Garmin eTrex
| Dead GPS device? - How to open, disassemble and repair the navigation device. |
Garmin eTrex Vista
| How to fix problems with the click-stick caused by a bad electrical contact. A complete guide with detailed take apart pictures. |
Garmin eTrex/eMap
| How to build a GPS & data cable for the Kenwood D7A transceiver. |
Garmin 38/40/45/90
| Some photos of the internals. |
Garmin GPSmap 76Cs
| Shock-Proof your GPS to prevent unintended power-downs. |
Garmin Map 176/176C
| Schematics for a cable to hook a GPS to a Handspring Visor PDA. |
Gumstix
| Active antenna modification: the GPS Stix daughter board comes set up for passive antennas only, to get it to work with a passive antenna you need to make a small modification. |
Magellan 310, 315, 320
| Due to the high price of the "official" datacable, it´s worth to make an homemade cale to connect the GPS device to a PC. |
Magellan 315/320
| This guide shows how to make a custom data cable (in Finnish). |
Magellan 2000
| A picture of the innards: the 44 pin PLCC in it's socket. |
Magellan Meridian
| Selfmade USB data & power cable. |
Magellan Meridian
| How to build a custom power cable (in German). |
Silva Atlas (aka Lowrance iFinder, Brunton Atlas)
| 9-pin RS-232 cable pinouts. |
TomTom Go 300
| Dismantling instructions and pictures. |
TomTom Go Car Docking Station
| Dissection with take apart pictures. |
TomTom Go
| Quick and dirty connector. Making a connector is quite easy. All you need is a PCB with suitably arranged traces, plus some things to act as spacers. Pieces of a PCB work great for this. |
TomTom Go
| A cheap and easy device stand made from a Printed Circuit Board - PCB. |
T-Mobile NaviGate GPS Mouse (aka Falcom NAVI-1)
| Here are instructions to remove some NMEA protocol restrictions of the GPS mouse for S60 SmartPhones. |