Garmin Montana

I have started to notice the past 2 days that when I am driving the the Montana displays 2 roads were the is only 1 or 4 were a divided road is.

I thought I saw this talked about before but have not been able to find it & what the solution was?

I have 4.70 firmware & CNNA2013.30 installed.

When I am currently not navigating, and I click Where To? I cannot select Tracks because it is nowhere on the list. How did I delete that and how do I get it back? :eek1

This is while I am on a custom profile I made. On the standard Automobile and Motorcycle profiles the Tracks is still there, but not on my custom one.

That reminds me of something I have wondered about but keep forgetting to ask. I have also made custom profiles so I would not mess up the default ones.

Do I need to make matching profiles in BaseCamp and use those when creating routes so when I upload the routes to the Montana the upload does not change any of the default profiles on the Montana?

The reason I ask is I seem to remember some talk about making sure we use the same profiles to create routes that we plan to use on the GPS but might be confusing that with something else.

Jon...

There is only a slight confusion here. BaseCamp has Activity Profiles, these allow you to set what Map Display Features you wish to see on whatever map you are using in Basecamp (irrelevant to the Montana), and more importantly, what routing options you want, i.e. faster time, avoidances, etc.

The Montana uses Profiles for much more, like setting which map to use, how you want your dashboard or menus to look like, and dozens of other custom settings.

The key here is to set the activity profile in BC to match the same activity as part of a Profile on the Montana: (setup>routing>activity...calculation...avoidances, i.e. automobile driving, faster time, avoid U-turns.

This, along with identical maps on both, will give you the best chance of having your carefully tweaked route in BC function the same on the Montana without recalculation.

Nothing you do with Activity Profiles on BC will change Profiles, default or otherwise, on the Montana, except that you may have introduced the possibility of a mismatch in Routing Activity. This is only true for autorouting, if you are using direct routing and topo maps on the Montana none of this applies.

I used to see this also, turned out I had a basemap enabled and did not realize it. If you see more than one set of roads, you have another map installed and enabled.

I even went so far as to create a specific profile named BaseCamp. This is ALWAYS the profile I select before I connect to my computer, so any accidental or unintended changes made due to firmware updates etc. will not affect the Profiles I use daily.

I also use this profile to test different settings etc, so I do not need to concern myself with returning my normal Profiles to original configurations.

Excellent...... Thank you!

Jon...

I tested this issue again (seeing double roads post 6962) on the same roads 2 days before. I tried turning off the Base Map & all was good. I then turned on Base Map again (which I have always had enabled previously) & went to the same roads as before, but this time the roads were the way they should be. I even shut the Montana off & restarted & again drove the same roads, all was good...gremlins!

So, I've been looking at getting a Montana to replace my Zumo 450. Every time I'm about to pull the trigger, I look at this thread. Then, my finger goes back to the standby position.

Is the Montana worth all the hassle and babysitting??

When and if you get an answer to this question let me know too.
My finger no longer itches. It's kind of numb right now.

I've had mine over a year and have really had no issues after firmware 3.60 or so. There are thousands out there being used with no issues.

For that matter this thread has lots of issues that have been addressed but they are too lazy to read the whole thread.

If you think it's "lazy" to read a thread of nearly 7000 posts, you need more to do.

I've found that GPS's all have their own learning curve and you get what you put into it.

I bought the Montana a few months ago after reading/skimming most of this thread. I'm happy with it- I was able to set it up fairly easily for my own particular needs because of what I learned here.

I use it everyday either in my car or on my bike- I've had a few things happen with it that made me realize it was worth taking the time to read other's experiences.

just my .02.

...............shu

If you think it's necessary to read all the posts from the beginning then you have a strange view of forums. So many things have changed over the development cycle of the Montana that really only the last 10% is still relevant.

I love my Montana. It's the best gps I've ever had. I have NO problem with it. I don't plan routes on my computer so that whole recent discussion on the subject is of little importance to me.

YMMV.

It was for me, but then I don't have a Zumo.

I wanted a do-it-all type GPS for my first foray into a unit that would autoroute with CNNA, which was also brand new to me.....Car, boat, bike, hiking, bicycle, etc. It was a long learning curve, mostly trying to unlearn 18 years of using plain direct routing GPS's like the 76 or Etrex.

After 10 months, it does pretty much exactly what I bought it for. I had only a few issues with the unit itself, easlily fixed. Learning how to make my routes in BaseCamp do exactly what I wanted on the Montana was a much more involved process, but it now works well. Tracks were never a problem and I have gone back to using them much more often in the boonies, with a topo map just like I always did.

AND.......OOOOHHHH, LOVE THAT DISPLAY!!!!!

This USA Topo 100K mapset is on sale, almost 1/3 off. $70 seems reasonable.

http://www.gpscity.com/garmin-topographic-100k-usa-dvd-with-basecamp.html

Another very satisfied Montana owner.

Prior to the Montana, I used a Zumo 550. It served me well for nearly four years; however, I wanted a GPS that supported using tracks. The Montana had many other features that were intriguing, so I decided to take the plunge and purchased a Montana 650. Yes, there is a little bit of a learning curve, but it is not as daunting as you may believe after reading the posts on this thread. And you have an excellent online resource available to you that I did not know about when I bought my Montana (the Garmin Montana GPSr Wiki at http://garminmontanagpsr.wikispaces.com).

If you have been reading the recent posts on this thread, you have seen the discussions about the limitations of routing on the Montana. I have never found that constraining. Routes have worked fine for me. However, I prefer to create tracks from my routes (in BaseCamp) and load both the routes and tracks to the Montana. Generally, I prefer using the tracks to navigate, since I know they are never recalculated by the GPS. Yes, you lose the turn-by-turn prompts, but I have never found that to be a problem.

The Montana is versatile, but it may not be to everyone's liking. Do your homework so you can make an educated decision. Feel free to contact me via PM is you have specific questions you would like to discuss.

I too got it mainly for the huge display vs. my 60CSx and will largely use it for tracks but wanted to learn how to do routes as well with CNNANT.

For routing I've learned enough that for me I can live with any routing limitations it may have (and I've never used a Zumo to have any expectations beforehand). As I've just learned, BaseCamp is nice for making your route quickly and adding Via Points until you like it, then saving it as a track for use on Montana. I plan on also saving it in Direct activity profile in BaseCamp then transfer it for use on the Montana in a Non-Direct mode, which is handy for things like "Miles to Destination" and "Time to Destination" along with guided turns. So like others I will use Tracks but also Routes at the same time.

But from what I gather, if you want to do tracks you want a Montana because only a Zumo 66x can do it. Tracks will always display accurately as there is no calculations made on the Montana that could alter the track display. If you only care about routing then it may be a harder decision and I don't know enough to compare (see Montana or Zumo thread).

So you may think that all my detailed comments and questions imply it is complicated and I don't like it but no actually I was just trying to understand it all and I think routing is pretty clear to me now and so far I don't find it limiting.

Like anything else your satisfaction is a matter of your expectations, and what you are used to already. And there may be things that are annoying even for tracks vs. the 60CSx but just to have a big bright screen is enough reason for me to love it, honestly!

I've read through this thread once and have started picking my way through a second time as well as spent some time going through the various Wiki's and am going through DRTBYK's annotated owner's manual. I just received my 600 two days ago and followed the advice in the Wiki with regards to taking it out of the box (ie: Archive, update, play). BTW I'm coming to the Montana from a SP2720 running CNNA 2008.

I've downloaded JaVaWa DM and have updated all the Garmin apps and am playing with some of the OSM maps before pulling the trigger on CNNA (am now installing http://www.osmmaps.com/united-states.html). Not sure about OSM right now since I like to use the search feature in CN that didn't work too well with the OSM Ohio routable I was using yesterday. Specifically finding the closest gas station, the OSM map showed the closest at more than 10 miles away when there was 3 that are closer and have been there for at least 5 years.

It appears that address searching is a non event using OSM so I'll be getting CNNA, unless someone can point me in the right direction.

Anyway, back to the this post...

1) I've read in various places where people have suggested different shortcuts and how to use them. Is there someplace where these have been consolidated? I remember something about a drop box that someone was maintaining but haven't been able to relocate it. Maybe a Montana Shortcut Thread like the Knowledge Base thread...?

2) Routable topo maps: Does this mean that BC or Montana will use trails when routing? Having never used topo maps before this may be a really stupid question so forgive me. I've looked at the OSM topo map and there doesn't appear to be any additional "roads" so I'm not sure what "routable" means here.

Initially the Montana seems way over my head but I'll keep plugging along. Thanks to all who have helped out in this thread!

I am the current Dropbox owner, having been asked by DRTBYK to watch over it while he's away. I can invite you if you PM me your email address.

Don't expect a Shortcut repository though. They are easy to create so the sooner you try, the sooner you'll have a set built to suit your own gps. There are many variables with Shortcuts which, to me anyway, mean that they are unique to the gps they are created on. I describe the process of creating Shortcuts in the Wisdom and FAQ thread listed in my sig.

You're right, the Montana can seem complicated, but just use it, and you'll see it doesn't take too much time to figure out the basics.