The Official Garmin 62 and 78 Thread

[Emmbeedee]

Didn't find one, so I thought it was time to start one.

The GPSMap 62 and 78 series are the replacements for the venerable 60 and 76 models which have served us well for many years (and continue to serve well for many people).

I sold my 60 to buy an Oregon when I saw the higher resolution acreen on the more modern unit. Unfortunately it died while on a trip so I ended up getting the 62, and I like it a lot.

It has a more legible screen than the Oregon series, under most conditions, and especially when riding on the bike.

For those who want the 60/76 menu style, the 62/78 has a profile called "Classic" which does the trick.

Mounting the 62 on a bike:

RAM does not have a mount yet for the 62 but the 60 mount works reasonably well. Garmin has gone away from the button on the back which RAM used as part of their mount, so a complete redesign is probably necessary.

But when I bought my 62 I needed something to hold it so we tried the 60 mount and the bottom of the 62 fits snugly into the holder, and a heavy duty elastic band holds the top in very well. In about 1500 kilometers of motorcycle riding so far, it has not come off once. I do have it tethered to my handlebars, though, just in case.

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[SnowMule]

Originally Posted by Emmbeedee

For those who want the 60/76 menu style, the 62/78 has a profile called "Classic" which does the trick.

Nice! I didn't see that one the one I was futzing around with. I didn't much care for the way the "Page" button functioned, bringing up a menu rather than simply cycling through pages.

Do you have the receiver externally powered? How's the USB connector holding up?

[AltRoute]

Originally Posted by SnowMule

Nice! I didn't see that one the one I was futzing around with. I didn't much care for the way the "Page" button functioned, bringing up a menu rather than simply cycling through pages.

Do you have the receiver externally powered? How's the USB connector holding up?

So the 62's don’t have that 4 pin military grade water proof power connection that was on the 60 ? How water \ rock and roll \ jump \ dump \ mud \ fall proof is the power connection now
( tell me its more then just a USB connection )

[SnowMule]

nope, ditched the 4pin round and the serial/NMEA connection that went with it.

Makes it extremely difficult to connect to dataloggers or radios.

[eakins]

so no round attachment knob on the back on the 62? odd.
does garmin provide something in the package to attach it to a backpack?

isn't it primarily a handheld/geocaching/hiking gps that gained following w/ the adv as being rugged? the 60 is and i also use mine for hiking adventures also. the 60 includes that round knob and apropriate clip that attaches to a pack/belt.

bummer to see the round 4 pin plug go away. was useless to transfer data via serial but it made for a robust & waterproof power connection. usb is nowhere as robust unless someone is making some special sealed end cables i haven't found. the more i read about the 62 the happier i am to jumped on the closeout of the 60csx for $195 a few months ago.

how's the sceen? resolution? in the sun?

[SnowMule]

The "belt clip" on the 62's is a slide-in latchy kinda belt clip, similar to motorola pagers/radios. Maybe 1/8" engagement on either side.

Personally I'd like to see a better mounting system for the RAM mounts... the belt clips just aren't designed to hold up to the abuse of motorcycles/snowmobiles/mtb's. Something similar to the 76/78 or Stovebolt's system would be what i'd like to see.

[eakins]

Originally Posted by SnowMule

The "belt clip" on the 62's is a slide-in latchy kinda belt clip, similar to motorola pagers/radios. Maybe 1/8" engagement on either side.

Personally I'd like to see a better mounting system for the RAM mounts... the belt clips just aren't designed to hold up to the abuse of motorcycles/snowmobiles/mtb's. Something similar to the 76/78 or Stovebolt's system would be what i'd like to see.

got it. the 60 series seemed to morph over time into more rugged enviros thus the legacy clip. ultimately touratech's mount is the beefiest.
nothing from then yet either, but the 62 is new. what is stovebolt's? is that the guy on adv making a mount outta kydex?

[SnowMule]

Originally Posted by eakins

what is stovebolt's? is that the guy on adv making a mount outta kydex?

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=550178

[Emmbeedee]

Just an observation on battery life wrt the 62: i have no intention of blowing up this gps as well as the other two which were bricked by my usb power cable, so I've been using the 62 on NiMh batteries, the ones which came with my Oregon 550.

Most days the batteries were pretty much dead after a day of riding but today I turned the light control completely off so even though I was using the controls and navigating with the unit, after a whole day of riding, 788 kilometers, the batteries still had four bars of power!

The display was always very easy to see under all conditions, from sunny to cloudy, so this makes it much less important for me to hook up external power as I did on the Oregon.

Odds are I'll keep the Oregon as well once it's repaired, but the 62 and 78 will be much better than the Oregon on a bike.

[justrider]

I hate to be a " saftey nazi " but why would you mount your spot on the bike instead of being on you? . I only say this from myself being thrown from my sled last winter, spot was in windshield bag. Had I suffered heavy injuries wolf bait

Originally Posted by Emmbeedee

Didn't find one, so I thought it was time to start one.

The GPSMap 62 and 78 series are the replacements for the venerable 60 and 76 models which have served us well for many years (and continue to serve well for many people).

I sold my 60 to buy an Oregon when I saw the higher resolution acreen on the more modern unit. Unfortunately it died while on a trip so I ended up getting the 62, and I like it a lot.

It has a more legible screen than the Oregon series, under most conditions, and especially when riding on the bike.

For those who want the 60/76 menu style, the 62/78 has a profile called "Classic" which does the trick.

Mounting the 62 on a bike:

RAM does not have a mount yet for the 62 but the 60 mount works reasonably well. Garmin has gone away from the button on the back which RAM used as part of their mount, so a complete redesign is probably necessary.

But when I bought my 62 I needed something to hold it so we tried the 60 mount and the bottom of the 62 fits snugly into the holder, and a heavy duty elastic band holds the top in very well. In about 1500 kilometers of motorcycle riding so far, it has not come off once. I do have it tethered to my handlebars, though, just in case.

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[Emmbeedee]

Originally Posted by justrider

I hate to be a " saftey nazi " but why would you mount your spot on the bike instead of being on you? . I only say this from myself being thrown from my sled last winter, spot was in windshield bag. Had I suffered heavy injuries wolf bait

That topic has been debated ad infinitum on the Great Big Spot Thread.

This thread's about the 62 and 78.

[TVic]

I just wanted to throw in my ongoing experience with my two week old 62st. I started a trip last Tuesday with it mounted on my handlebars (using a lowrance mount and zip ties). Went through one rainstorm, a couple hours long though it didn't get very wet due to the windshield/wind. The next day I turned it on and it just hung up in the GARMIN loading profiles screen for about two hours. I finally noticed it had started working again and seemed to do ok the rest of the day. It fired up ok this morning, but I'm a little concerned that either the vibration or the water is doing some damage in there for that to happen on a new unit a week into a trip. I'm glad I bought the service plan.

I'll update when I make it home tonight and let you know if it made it today.

[Emmbeedee]

Originally Posted by TVic

It fired up ok this morning, but I'm a little concerned that either the vibration or the water is doing some damage in there for that to happen on a new unit a week into a trip. I'm glad I bought the service plan.

I'll update when I make it home tonight and let you know if it made it today.

You're not alone in having this kind of issue - there are many reports of slow loading, locking up in use and other issues but Garmin has been releasing updates on a regular basis, so I'm sure they'll fix it eventually.

Almost once per ride, mine just locks up - most often I'm not touching the unit - just have it on the map screen and I see the roads have not changed in a while.

Sometimes I can fix it by turning the unit off by the switch and other times I need to pull a battery out to get it to restart.

[SnowMule]

My 60 used to do that... got progressively worse. Yanked the card out and wiped the unit a few months ago, reboot and reload settings, stuff the card back in. Hasn't done it to me since.

[Migs]

Originally Posted by TVic

I just wanted to throw in my ongoing experience with my two week old 62st. I started a trip last Tuesday with it mounted on my handlebars (using a lowrance mount and zip ties). Went through one rainstorm, a couple hours long though it didn't get very wet due to the windshield/wind. The next day I turned it on and it just hung up in the GARMIN loading profiles screen for about two hours. I finally noticed it had started working again and seemed to do ok the rest of the day. It fired up ok this morning, but I'm a little concerned that either the vibration or the water is doing some damage in there for that to happen on a new unit a week into a trip. I'm glad I bought the service plan.

My out of the box 62s hangs and sometimes just turns off all by itself! I contacted support and they were not their usual Garmin: After making me do a master rest and not resolving the problem they said I should return it to Amazon!
I wonder if the unit will be reliable enough given the updates, but now I have two reasons to be disappointed: Garmin tech support and the unit itself. Never happened to me with a Garmin.