Thread: Nanocom Evo 2 has landed

Originally Posted by bell1975

I started looking at these mounting setups in more detail. It appears that the one I linked to above will not fit the Evo 2. I'll keep looking into it and post back.

Here is a more accurate measurement to let you determine a better fitting mount.

108mm wide (+5mm for connector), 20mm deep, 85mm high.

Gap at centre fins top and bottom is 3.5mm and 1mm deep.

Please share with the rest of us if you find something to suit.

Cheers, Paul.

Originally Posted by PaulP38a

Here is a more accurate measurement to let you determine a better fitting mount.

108mm wide (+5mm for connector), 20mm deep, 85mm high.

Gap at centre fins top and bottom is 3.5mm and 1mm deep.

Please share with the rest of us if you find something to suit.

Cheers, Paul.

I had a poke about on the Garmin site last night to assess whether one of their units is similarly sized to the Evo 2.

This is what I found:

Garmin 1490T - external dimensions are (most critically) Height = 86mm
The others in the 14xx range are the same dimensions also.

So this cradle *might* fit the Evo 2. Or available in Australia from a few places - Prestige is one.

The crux of it will be the spacing on the lugs at the top and bottom of the cradle. If they are a close match to the groove on the Evo's case I think it should provide a great fit. I still haven't gone to the car and measured the gap on the RHS of the instruments to see if the Evo will fit there. That is where I'd be hoping to mount mine.

There are many, many different 'suction mount GPS cradles' out there in ebay-land. Here's 1. And another style.

There are also other Garmin ones that have the same type of groove-lug mounting system but they mate up with GPS units that have more curved bodies and this means that they possibly won't fit as well as the one for the 14xx series as they appear more of a match to the Evo 2's square casing. Like this. And for 3 bucks it's probably worth trying out...but think of the carbon miles as it flies across from Kong Kong in it's own plane...yeah right.

Anyway, it's possible someone who is getting an Evo 2 in the next few weeks will also have a Garmin 14xx series and they can test this out. Hopefully they'll have read this thread and can post back what they find.

I'm happy enough to buy one from the guys at Prestige as I'm also looking at a UHF (tax man was kind this year - a generous amount of LR dollars to spend. If only I'd made a recording of my wife saying "You can spend yours on whatever you like". She may want to retract her statement when she sees how much more than her I'm getting!).

So, completely OT - is the Icom IC-400 Pro a significantly better unit than either of the two best offerings from GME (3440 or 3540) or Uniden (7760)? Yes, I will do a bit of searching later but someone might have a quick link to a review or comparison that helped them decide the same question. Cheers.

Hey Paul

If you are still looking for a Disco2 in Canberra to check it out on...

I won't be at the August meet (I am off work crook at the moment) but we can probably work something out.

you probably still have my email (merchandise at that special land rover club)

John

Hi John
Not sure if I'm going to get to the LRC ACT meeting on Monday night yet either, due to family committments... is that the "special" LR club you meant? What do you mean by "special"?

By all means give me a call or drop me a PM and come on over to check out the Evo 2. Another one of our member came over for a play the other night and it was an interesting learning experience for us both.

Still wanting to play with a V8 too.

Cheers, Paul.

I had a chance to look at the Garmin nuvi 1490T mounting bracket on the weekend as referenced in an earlier post.

The photos show that it is not the perfect fit that was hoped for.

It does hold the Evolution 2 in place pretty well but it may not stand up to the sort of vibrations that a badly corrugated road will induce into the vehicle.

Given that my Dad was reluctant to let me take to his mounting bracket with the Dremel I couldn't check whether it can be made to fit more securely. What is it with fathers and their possessions eh? No Dad, I never took all those spanners and screwdrivers out of your toolboxes when I was a kid...it was your other son.

I do think that this bracket could be made to fit the Evolution 2 better by filing down the small lugs that protrude at the top and bottom. If they were made "sharper" and came to a point as opposed to being rounded they would slot into the thinner ribs/channels on the case of the unit. You could actually take away a fair bit of the the material as the tightness of the overall fit would mean that even a small lug would still engage very well.

One of the pictures shows that both of the lugs can't be engaged at the same time - the tolerance in the sizing is too small. So I started looking at alternatives.

The tried, tested and respected RAM Mount is the pick of the bunch for me.

I bought one of these and will see how it goes. Based on specs alone it looks like it will be perfect. I may have to experiment with the suction cup mounting pad location given that there's a dashmat in the way though - I'd rather not cut a hole in it but it might be easiest.

And the price is about right too. There are no doubt cheaper knock-off RAM copies available but I haven't really attempted to compare with this.

As it happens my Evolution 2 needs to go back to BBS for repair so until I receive both this bracket and the Evo back I won't be able to report what the score is.

These two images (apologies for the camera phone quality) show the RAM mount installed.

It seems very sturdy aside from the suction cup mount developing some 'slop' when the windscreen gets hot. The droop that develops is easily solved by making sure that the base of the whole thing is touching the dash so it can't drop any further. This model of mount is metal and reasonably weighty. They may do a plastic version that would weigh less I imagine.

All that would improve the setup now might be if the Nanocom could have its display rotated 180° - this way that monster connector would be exiting the unit behind the instruments and be out of sight.

The arms that grip the Nanocom are interchangeable so if you had a phone or GPS that was roughly the same dimensions it could be swapped very easily.

So, in summary, this setup should work for you if you want to mount the unit on the LHS of the instruments. If you were going to try for a placement up higher on the screen I'd say it would stick out too much to be practical.

Questions, comments?

Hmmn 180 degrees, now that might just be do-able as it maintains the aspect ratio. I will have to paw over the code to consider how and if it might easily be possible to do this. But i do like a challenge

Otherwise you could get an IDC type male and female which are very low profile and with a bit of ribbon make a little extention adaptor to put the big plug behind the unit

Hello,

I have a '99 D2 V8.
Can someone please confirm for me that the Nanocom EVO can do exactly the same as the faultmate, except that you have to navigate through a 3.5" touch screen rather than a PC? (or the LCD on faultmate extreme)
I read the specs for both and the menu/options etc listed are the same.
Except that the faultmate has the explorer software for PC.
Does the vehicle explorer software allow the faultmate units to actually do more than the nanocom, or is it just maybe easier being on a PC?

And the nanocom will work on any same type vehicle, no extra license.
What about adding a different vehicle type....just an unlock code?
Then would that unit work on two different types of vehicles?

Thanks.