[Xperia Z Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Riceburner:
Hi, I'm pretty sure this is a unique or rare situation I've experienced, so I'm starting a new thread, but will endeavour to find similar issue threads.

On my motorcycle I have mounted a Brodit powered cradle for my Xperia Z. I figured it would be the ideal way of providing power to the phone while I travelled, and would allow me to use the phone as a Sat-Nav, utilising one of the many sat-nav apps (Google's offering, mapquest, copilot etc etc). Using the Brodit allows full use of the waterproof attribute of the phone - no socket ports need to be opened, and the phone doesn't need to be in a transparent case in inclement weather to prevent damage. I chose the Xperia Z (over other phones eg HTC) with this usage in mind.

It's worth nothing that I had a previous similar setup for my HTC Desire HD: without the powered mount, but using the charging socket and a transparent case over the phone for rainy days. It worked perfectly.

However - I currently am experiencing the following issues with the Xperia Z setup:

Firstly - The Brodit mount is 'not' weatherproof. (this is not Brodit's fault - it's not marketed as weatherproof) It provides power to the phone perfectly, until the first bit of rain, and then it starts to fail - either cutting out completely, or not providing enough current to keep the phone charged while the GPS / Mobile Data / Sat-Nav-App systems are turned on. (Previously it would provide enough power to increase the battery charge even while all the navigation systems were active). This is something I shall look into but I'm not really aggrieved about it - the cradle is NOT sold as an outdoor item so I'm not going to blame Brodit for this. I suspect that the issue is water getting into the 'spring-stud' connections and reducing the current flow. I'm going to see if I can adapt these connectors. If anyone has any further ideas or suggestions for better powered cradles too - I'd greatly appreciate it!

Secondly - and this is the main issue - when the power supply fluctuates (see above) the Sat-Nav Apps behave in a highly irritating manner : They instantly kill the viewport (it goes black), and also forget the current GPS location coordinates, and forget the viewport display setting: ie - show my current location in top down or perspective viewpoint and viewpoint relative to 'North'. When the power returns, the viewport, depending on how the app is being used, either returns to the start of the journey, or to a point in the journey where it remembers, but always loses the current location viewpoint settings.

This is obviously highly distracting, firstly you instantly lose your whereabouts which is dis-orienting, and secondly you then have to stop and reset all the settings so that the sat-nav display is back to doing what you want it to do. On a motorcycle this is further aggravated with the need to remove a glove in order to control the phone. On a recent trip to France I had this happen no less than 5 times in as many minutes right at the start of the journey.

It should be noted that I wasn't using the GoogleNav system in full directions mode. I find this mode misbehaves terribly if you're trying to use a customised route (see below for more info), and so I tend to load up my customised route so that it displays over the maptiles, and then I either just center my viewpoint on my location, or utilise the 'Preview' mode and again, center the viewpoint on my location (this mode displays a useful 'current direction of travel' arrow on your location).

Has anyone experienced issues like this, and if so - did you solve them? Or does anyone have any ideas for how to get into the configuration settings so that I can turn off the screen blanking and signal losses when the power fluctuates?

Thanks

Notes on Customised routes in Google Nav:

As I noted in this Google Product forums thread (just in case anyone else is involved) : https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/maps/DwPoT0pklas/sG0-sFYozT4J :

When in full 'Directions' mode, Google Maps a) doesn't poll your location accurately or often enough when slip-roads (off-ramps) are involved, and re-calculates the route to the next/final destination every time this happens - thus abandoning your carefully planned route.