Garmin Montana

I just came back from a weeklong trip dirt/road using v4.50 with tracks and routing without any problems

Yep, she is at full volume. I forgot to mention that I have the audio out from the Montana going through a BoosterRoo (Audio Booster) then to the SM10 otherwise I couldn't hear it with music playing. I still find with this set up that the Audio has to be a lot lower in order to hear the direction through the AUX input (Montana).

Hey Offcamber,

That's an interesting theory about the aux lights causing interference.

I'm really curious to find out what the problem turns out to be.

Thanks for keeping us posted,

Jon...

Wading in at post #5103...

My old Nuvi allowed searching for POIs at the destination of the current route, while navigating. Not seeing this in the current Montana s/w... is it gone?

I do not have my Montana here in front of me, but as I remember, you should be able to select [Where To], Select the Menu Button at the bottom of the screen, and choose [Search Near], then select your current destination from the menu to get POI's near that location.

"It" was never there. The Montana has what I would consider very basic routing & search along route features. You can still search for POIs at a given location but you must provide the location.

Cheers,

Well, Garmin did what they said they would do. They sent me a new battery saying it is thicker and will fix the shut down problems on the bike. I got the new battery moments ago and it is not thicker...it is the same. I put in four ear plugs and can only hope it works. I will give it a try this weekend during a long ride on dirt roads with friends and see what it does. I'll make sure to report back.

If you place one or more of the "canned" Where To? searches (Lodging, Food & Drink, Fuel Services, etc.) on your Main Menu pages you can simply select the POI category you want and then push the Options button to "Search Near". Then, in this scenario, select Waypoint and choose your Destination waypoint. That will yield all of the POI types you selected around your destination.

Cheers,

Which means you would need to have created a Destination waypoint first

Does any one know if there is a way to get the Montana to play a tone before it speaks directions. My Nuvi 660 does it. This would help my SR10 open the channel sooner so I hear the distance to the turn,...not a bog issue but a "would be nice"

Yes, but, not exactly. Since [you] created a Route you did select a destination somehow even if you didn't create a Waypoint. That destination will be in Recently Found, which just happens to be one of the "Search Near" options.

Cheers,

I had the same problem with my Montana 600. I have it mounted on the Garmin rugged cradle and that is bolted to a Touratech locking mount. All mounted to my KTM 500 EXC and wired directly to the bike battery. The problem would show itself when riding over rough terrain. I called Garmin and they told me about the loose battery issue. I shimmed the battery with several layers of electrical tape. But that didn't cure the problem since it the Montana was losing external power. I then checked the connectors to the bike battery and found an ever so slight amount of looseness in the connector which I had just crimped on. At first I did not think that could possibly be the cause of the problem. But I went ahead and soldered both connectors to the wires and went for a ride with the GPS mounted. So far, problem solved! I think that even a slight amount of play in the connection is enough to cause voltage to drop enough for the Montana to shut down....so solder those power connections!!!!!

Yep, it's not there in the Montana, you have to change from the old Nuvi way of doing things.

Search near "waypoints", "recent finds" or "browse map" are the work arounds that I've been using.

The old Nuvi used to recognize alot more "cities" as well, now I get some kind of message like "adjust your search parameters" much of the time. Although it seems to be getting better the more I use it, I wonder if it needs to build a library or something....

Could you provide an example of a City that is not found via City Search and that is actually shown on City Navigator maps? I only ask because there were early issues with City search and if there still are some issues that haven't been reported it would be good to know.

Cheers,

i think it has to be requested of the beta team. I also have the problem, and suggested it some time ago.
it would be easy, the code is already in the Nuvi 660 (as you said).

Good to know, I hadn't spotted "Search Near" in the options menu of "'Where To". I see recent city finds and waypoints are in there, but not via points I used to build my route with Use Map. And I have to Stop Navigation to do it. Bummer. I guess one can't complain about too many options and also grouse about being pushed into a modal navigation mode.

A workaround is of course to make a waypoint for where you want your route to land, and end the route there instead of with Use Map. Or just wait until you get there and then search Just surprised that this often useful feature is not in there, since it's especially great for finding parking POIs near your destination address. Frankly this usage scenario makes more sense when you have a co-pilot to punch the buttons and off-route calculation enabled anyway.

I thought I noticed some failed city searches in northern Italy, but chalked it up to spelling errors. I would get corresponding towns in North America instead. I should have paid more attention to see if those place names were *actually in my mapset*. I'd like to, but can't really declare that there's a problem there; it could have easily been a dumb user.

Sorry, scrap that, you don't have to Stop Navigation if the POI category shortcut is in the main menu, or you use "Find Another". You can search near... for that category, review the map, and save it as a waypoint without interrupting the current route. My bad.

Better still, go straight to Route Planner, Edit route, Select Next point, Search Near, and then tack it on the route and reload it.

Workable, but it's a lot of tapping. Why isn't GO one of the menu options when you select a route in Route Planner? You have to hit View Map first. GO is conceivably a pretty popular thing you might like to do to a route, no?

As I was going to say, searching is more of an art when it comes to City names. Keep in mind that entering less info will yield higher odds of a hit than getting the spelling incorrect. If the search can't find any Cities within the map set you have Enabled it will also search the Worldwide Basemap.

Although I agree with you that a "GO" button after you select a route in the planner would be a nice touch, most of the time I use Routes I want to see it laid out on the map first before I press "GO".

Cheers,

True enough considering that most routes built on the fly are all of the form "Route 009" etc which is not all that helpful. When you're maximizing your day you're not likely to bother giving it a nice name.

True, if you created the route on the GPS via a "Where To", City, Waypoint, POI, etc. But, it you create a route on a computer, download it to the GPS and then select that route, there is no "Recently Found" option for your destination. This is where the "Search Near" destination option would be nice.