Tony Davis

The control board for these is typically based around a TT6061 touch/timer/control chip, and a BT134 or BT136 Triac to turn the lights on and off or dim at any one of 3 levels. I suspect you will have the lower rated BT134 device, as the bulbs are limited to 40 watts. What often breaks the Triac, is the high current “plasma arc” that happens inside a bulb when the tungsten filament fails. I have found over the years of repairing these, that the best bulbs to use are the Halogen types, as the little Halogen lamp cartridge (28w or 42 watt) that is inside the outer glass (decorative) envelope, has a gas mixture under a slight pressure, so when the filament fails, there is usually NO arc at all, to break the electronics. You CAN get the Triac, and replace it, but sometimes the IC chip get broken too, and they are difficult to get, and to replace, unless you are good with de-soldering and re-soldering techniques. It is often easier to replace the touch module, if you can get one. Check on EBAY or a good...

Bear in mind that the outer red lever is pushed DOWN and AWAY from the body to release the bin, THEN when you can see the little red tab, push that toward the clear bin to release (only moves inwards about 1mm or so). If the big outer lever will NOT move, and the bin is still stuck, see below: FYI: just found a solution that may work for some. On the V11 (maybe V10 and 8 too). When the bin/cylinder is carefully removed (gently pull and rock the bin off the main body until you can see the red release tab, press that and remove the bin), clean the mesh part on the main body with a damp cloth to remove dust particles, wipe the red seal on the bin, and the black rubber seal on the body. When dry, apply a MINUTE amount ( a smear) of silicone grease around both seals. DO NOT let any get onto the plastic parts, otherwise it will attract dust. After I had done this, my v11 undoes the bin just fine now. Many auto spare shops sell silicone grease, and it is useful for many other items around the home and garage too.

There are two common causes for this, that I have experienced: 1) the GTM25 charging unit had a badly assembled batch, that caused the outer braid of the charging cable (power return/ground) to touch the red +5V power conductor, that was stripped too far back to expose the copper wire, making it intermittently short. That does NOT blow the fuse, because the standard 5V regulator chip in the part that goes in the lighter socket, is designed to check for shorts, and just stop the 5V supply output electronically. The symptom is: the green LED goes out, and the Garmin will then not charge. The fix is to cut open the rubber part of the little “traffic FM receiver” part (the little slim black box), the one furthest away from the USB plug end, and insulate the bare copper wires so they do not touch, then cover the repair in more electrical tape. Ugly but it works. 2) the USB socket inside the Garmin has broken solder contacts. These CAN be soldered back, but you need a really good low-voltage miniature soldering...

There’s 2 common causes that I have seen: 1) the GTM25 charging unit had a badly made batch, & the outer braid of the charging cable (power return/ground) touched the red 5V power conductor, that was stripped too far back to expose the copper wire, making it intermittently short. That does NOT blow the fuse, as the standard 5V regulator chip in the part that goes in the lighter socket, is designed to check for shorts, so stops the 5V supply output electronically (the green LED goes out & the Garmin then won’t charge). FIX: cut open rubber part of the “traffic FM receiver” part (little slim black box), furthest away from USB plug end & insulate the bare copper wires so they don’ touch, cover repair in more electrical tape. 2) the USB socket inside the Garmin has broken solder contacts. These CAN be soldered back, but you need a really good low-voltage miniature soldering iron to do this, AND it will need the motherboard removed (it is a major strip-down).