Garmin InReach mounting options..?

Picked up an InReach Explorer a few days ago. Like the title says, Im looking for ideas where to put a powered RAM mount in a 2nd gen. The search turned up mostly 3rd gen guys using the unholy mount which is cool, but doesnt really work for older trucks.

I have the A-pillar RAM mount for my phone which is awesome, but I dont think I could get another device over there without blocking some forward visibility.

Given 50% or more of my adventures are solo, being able to grab the InReach out of its mount quickly is my top priority. Second is not blocking too much visibility while daily driving. If anyone's got any ideas or pictures toss them up!

 

Yeah thats a good point.. Though I dont really plan on leaving it in the truck when Im not using it. Temp swings are probably too extreme anyway

 

I put mine in overhead sunglasses holder last time out and it never lost signal.

 

Besides the "cool factor" is this something that you really need to mount? Aren't they typically used mostly for rare emergency situations?

 

Yes and no.. This will be my primary (and only form) of communication most of the time in the places I end up going. So I would like to be able to see it. But no, I wont be using it for navigation

 

I put my Spot on the passenger side A-pillar. The grab handle RAM ball idea works on both sides after all. I did use the top bolt rather than the bottom so that it sits right at the top of the windshield. But the InReach is slightly different than my Spot, which just needs a view of the sky and beacons positions. There's no screen to watch for incoming messages or anything like that.

I wonder how often GPS tracking locators are really stolen? I mean of all the things to take it's the one single thing is completely useless once stolen. If it's on it tells you exactly where it is every few minutes.

 

Do you really need to receive an incoming message immediately when you are out exploring? That's kind of more connectivity than I'd want...

InReach uses Iridium SBD, so there is no way to "miss" an incoming message. Your device connects to the satellite to check for messages periodically or you can force a check yourself whenever you want. Only once your device handshakes with the satellite system is the message transmitted to your device and removed from the queue on the satellite/ground terminal side of things. If you don't link with the satellite for hours or days you'll just get all the queued up messages the next time you do connect. You won't miss any. It doesn't work like a one way pager, it is always a two way link with message receipt confirmation.

So I'd say don't mount it and just periodically check for messages when it is a good time for you to check for messages.

 

InReaches also can do autonomous periodic position beacons, which don't require you to interact or view the screen but would mean it needs a view of the sky.

 

Yes indeed, so if the OP is looking to leave breadcrumbs as he drives then having it somewhere with view of the sky is important.

Lots of different ways to use these things so definitely want to consider what you are trying to achieve!

 

Well.. like I said this will basically be emergency only comms. Outgoing obviously, or in the case of a family emergency they can reply to one of my messages and get a hold of me. So I would kind of like to be able to see it. Also view of the sky for tracking might be useful

I was playing around with it last night and the topo maps preloaded on it are actually pretty good, so I might end up using those a bit as well.

So basically what Im hearing is theres no good way to mount an InReach in a 2nd gen

 

I think you'd want good sky view if you are going to use it for navigation, breadcrumbs and incoming messages which would favor an A-pillar mount. Perhaps you could move the phone to a different mount location over by the radio so the InReach can use the A-pillar? There are a variety of options for adding RAM mounts over by the radio and I expect the phone would be just fine over there.

Also I don't have experience with the Explorer but I can say that the Mini's GPS front end absolutely sucks nuts. Requires lots of clear sky and frequently I can see Iridium but not GPS which is backasswards. For a given restricted sky view my phone will get a GPS fix in a matter of seconds while the Mini will suck its thumb for minutes on end or possibly never acquire. I think this unique to the Mini though so the Explorer may be less sensitive to sky view for navigation.

 

Comparing an InReach to a phone isn't apples-to-apples. AFAIK the InReach only looks for GPS satellites while most phones are capable of looking for GLONASS and Galileo, so while you still need a view of the sky and have enough satellite in view regardless using multiple systems increases the chances that's going to happen and reduce the time to bring your current location and time to become valid.

Second thing is InReach (and SPOT) don't necessarily continuously receive GPS to save power. They will get a fix when they need one and unless you're doing breadcrumbs that means each time is either a cold start or maybe a warm start. If you're doing breadcrumbs each new fix is at least a warm start and probably a hot start because the almanac, time and location aren't too stale.

Couple that with not having assisted GPS from cell towers and WiFi means it can sometimes take a really long time to become valid. Your phone (or anything with GPS really) would do the same if you left it powered off for weeks and it was in airplane mode. Why an InReach might take longer to become valid compared to other dedicated GPS receivers or devices, not sure. Garmin of all companies should know how to do that you would think.

 

as far as 2nd gen mounting options the few that come to mind are the following:

the tech deck: http://www.birddawgindustries.com/tech-deck.html

the expedition essentials 2tpam: https://expeditionessentials.com/pr...acoma-powered-accessory-mount-2tpam-2012-2015

the balls out off road: https://www.ballsoutoffroad.com/product-page/2nd-gen-toyota-tacoma-accesory-mount

 

I have a Tech Deck but that 2TPAM is a slick idea. Wish it wasn't $162 though. Dang.

 

2nd gen tpam from expedition essentials

@Tigerian has one in his truck.

 

There is this style as well, they are sold out but you might be able to fab something up.
https://www.ballsoutoffroad.com/product-page/2nd-gen-toyota-tacoma-accesory-mount

I use a Ram mount with My InReach SE+, works great. its been really quick when I wanted to send a message. Its good to be able to send off a location occasionally to my wife so she has an idea where I'm at when I'm on a trip.
Boggles my mind how we still have to search for planes that go missing when they could be using some kind of tracking.

 

Indeed GLONASS can help, but I've used GPS only receivers next to the Mini and they acquire about as fast as the phone. I don't think this is a GLONASS vs GPS issue. The InReach fails to acquire when other pure GPS receivers are doing just fine.

Yep, power saving on the InReach is intentional and can cause slower acquisition in certain cases. However my Mini will have trouble getting a position fix just five minutes after having gotten one successfully and the only change is sky view. The phone and other GPS receivers don't have this problem.

You are absolutely correct that naive comparisons between a continuously powered phone and a bare GPS receiver from a warm or cold start isn't apples to apples at all. In this case though I've tested carefully and either the InReach front end is significantly less sensitive or the software design is pathological such that it is warm starting when it really shouldn't and the warm start is extremely slow for a modern GPS receiver. In many cases in which I know the InReach must be warm starting it acquires in less than a minute with a clear sky. So I think the chipset is totally up to the task of running enough receivers to do a reasonably quick (i.e. < 1 min) warm start. Nonetheless I'm often in a restricted sky situation with the InReach getting no fix for over ten minutes and a phone or other GPS getting a position fix quickly.

Again, the InReach Mini fails to acquire in restricted sky views despite having gotten a fix a few minutes earlier with better sky view. The phone in these situations has had no cell signal for at least 24 hrs and has been in airplane mode for multiple days. So the phone really isn't getting any additional cues (besides the potential for GLONASS) than the InReach and the InReach has the almanac along with a five minute old position fix a few hundred yards away. It would be worst case a warm start for the InReach (and really should be a hot/standby start) but still minutes and minutes go by with no fix at all.

Yeah, you'd think. But they aren't doing just a GPS here. They are integrating an Iridium 9603 SBD modem into a very tiny package along with Bluetooth and then doing a bunch of power control and other stuff.

From my early days with the InReach Mini it is quite clear the firmware was full of bugs. It would get into a state in which some part of the GPS system was disabled but the FW thought it was enabled. Because the device never truly powers off it would stay in this state even if you powered it off. You had to force it out of this state by forcing an Iridium transmission despite no GPS fix after which it would almost instantly acquire a GPS fix. It appeared that by forcing it to transmit the FW went and hit whatever power control or signal routing controls to do the Iridium transmission and then when done switched back to GPS properly. Never worked out exactly what situation got it into this stuck state but it happened multiple times. A firmware update appeared to make the issue disappear.

So with the complication of not quite fully baked firmware it is hard to decisively disentangle what is really any sort of deficiency on the actual RF front end for the GPS and what might be the firmware tripping over itself. And you also have to be really careful with what modes you are in because the device just loves to check in with the Iridium satellites when taken out of standby and best I can tell will do nothing with GPS while looking for Iridium. So that can be another way to falsely think the GPS sucks nuts - the device might be spending ages trying to acquire Iridium to check for incoming messages while you are sitting on the navigation page waiting for a fix.

These days though the FW seems better behaved and I can force it into a mode it which it says it is not checking Iridium, it has a position fix less than five minutes old from a clear sky and yet under a modestly restricted sky it will give no position fix for 10 minutes or more. Under the same sky a phone or another receiver gets a fix quickly. Hence my supposition that the RF front end (almost certainly including the antenna) is a bit compromised. And that's totally fine with me. It is a ridiculously small device that does an amazing amount of stuff reasonably well. I know how to work around its foibles, but as far as a GPS device goes it is a pretty poor showing for Garmin.

Sorry to derail the thread!

 

I looked for a long time for a solid mounting solution and this is by far the best thing I’ve found and I’m very happy with it. There are I believe 6 mounting locations on it.

I’ve got my phone currently on it and will have an iPad and inreach when I get around to doing it.

 

Cool Ill have to look into that. Any chance you've got picture(s) you could post?

 

Interesting write up. Ill be excited to really test its performance in the NMW territory in a weekend or two. I have noticed just playing around with it that the receiver seems to be a bit weak. Hopefully that doesnt cause issues down the road. I would expect a GPS fix pretty damn quick from a device like this. Granted theres a ton of other stuff and radios packed in here as you said, but still

Also I did notice that in Sept 2018 they released a new firmware for "Changes to support manufacturing (Units built prior to 9/18 will not have this firmware version and do not require it)" so I wonder what they changed there.