Ruggedizing my s5 active for motorcycle use

[Jim Williams]

I use my s5 active on my dual sport motorcycle with no sim on airplane mode. Android apps are so far ahead of any of the GPS manufacturers it's comical, and you also have the obvious options of the Google play store for other "stuff".

I use a chunky case on the phone. Can't remember the case, but it's tough and allows me to attach a tether so the phone doesn't fly off the ram finger mount. So mounting is covered.

So far, the phone has proven to be 100% rain and mud proof. I've spent the last 3 weeks riding off-road throughout the Canadian maritimes. I feel confident that the phone will survive the weather as long as I keep the charging flap covered.

I can use the phone no problem with motorcycle gloves.

Problems

1)vibration.
i ride a big single cylinder bike that vibrates through the bars quite a bit. I'm concerned that I'm going to kill the phone with vibration. I've got some ideas on more rubber damping on the Mount, but still... When I touch the phone while riding, it is vibrating quite a bit. Problem?

2) charging.
It charges fine while riding. Like above, I'm concerned that the vibration is going to kill the charging port. I'm considering a spare battery that charges in my tank bag and just swap them out, but that just seems like a lot of rigamarole. Is there such a thing as a cable that locks in hard to reduce vibration?

I guess that's it. Charging and vibration are the final pieces to the puzzle. If anyone is interested, locus pro is an unbelievably powerful GPS app. It is "The One".

Cheers

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

[rubrnekr]

Do you ever unplug it, or just leave it plugged in all of the time? If you leave the cord attached all of the time, I'd just dab some clear silicone around all sides of it and call it a day. Silicone is obviously waterproof, so as long as you get complete coverage, you're golden. And once it dries it's definitely strong enough to hold the cord in there, short of you accidentally snagging it in some manner. (zip ties could potentially help remedy that though.)

Another option (albeit a slightly more extreme one) could be to remotely mount the battery elsewhere and run a wire to the phone. I'm not sure if you'd be able to solder to the normal contacts that are exposed in the battery slot (for whatever reason, I'm leaning towards guessing that the answer to that is No.), so you'd have to open it up and solder inside or get otherwise creative... I don't know if that's even a viable idea, but just thought I'd plant the seed...

As for vibration, if you mount the phone to any surface on the bike, you're going to get a hell of a lot of vibration regardless of rubber damping. You need to create some sort of seperation... and as I'm typing this, I just got a goofy-*** idea, but it just might work: How about a balloon? What if you got a small balloon, only blew a little bit of air into it, and put that behind the phone? It would flatten out and conform to whatever shape is behind it, but it would create a soft spot for the phone to lay against. Then use some Saran Wrap, folded lengthwise, to wrap around the phone and the bike frame / tank / whatever...?? That would be some straight up MacGuiver shiznit right there! lol

Good luck! Cheers!