Data Hacking

More Screen Armoring
Chapter 5 — Protecting and Mounting Your GPS
Screen protectors offer you some protection against screen damage, but don’t expect miracles —
all you’ve done is apply a thin film to the screen, which a rock or sharp edge can easily penetrate.
Figure 5-8 shows the damage sustained by a screen protector when it was scratched against a
rock — that would represent pretty severe damage to your unit.
FIGURE 5-8: Screen protectors really do offer good protection against scratches.
The best way to protect your screen is to take steps to prevent impacts from reaching the
screen. The following sections describe some simple steps you can take to help achieve that.
Rubber Bumpers
One way to help protect a screen is to apply a few rubber bumpers to the screen. This won’t
protect it against all forms of damage, but if you use your GPS for work or in extreme sports
such as kayaking, then this can certainly give it a fighting change of survival.
A simple way to do this is to squeeze out a few blobs of silicone sealant onto the corners of the
screen. This is what I’ve done to a Garmin 76 in Figure 5-9.
This is a simple technique that helps to prevent damage. If you want, you can take this a stage
further and add ridges of silicone to the screen, running along the edges as shown in Figure 5-10.
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