New Garmin Montana

[waynegs]

Originally Posted by hanksmybuddy

Question: In avoidance set up if the green check mark is showing does this mean that the system will avoid this or seek it. Kind of confusing.

Thanks

It is confusing. Green means enabled. Red with slash - won't go there.

[DRTBYK]

Originally Posted by waynegs

It is confusing. Green means enabled. Red with slash - won't go there.

Picking the right words to describe this setting is going to be a life long endeavor for us I think. . .

For me to remember how this goes, I use the words "Green Check" = Use in Routing, "Red Not Symbol" = Don't Use in Routing.

Cheers,

[cdavisrosco]

Originally Posted by hanksmybuddy

Question: In avoidance set up if the green check mark is showing does this mean that the system will avoid this or seek it. Kind of confusing.

Thanks

It is confusing. This was addressed in this thread a few pages back. Green means "do not avoid" and red means "avoid."

[DRTBYK]

Originally Posted by R-dubb

So there are some variables

• Major vs. Minor roads
• Avoidances
• Speed

It looks like we can adjust the settings in Basecamp, but not on the Montana.
Things like how the calculation works on auto vs moto are a little mysterious.
If avoidances are the same, the shortest route calculation should be the same in all activity modes. Is this really true? If we don't alter the defaults in Basecamp, will the route match on the Montana if the activity is the same?

BTW, on my recent trip, I got some whacky discrepancies between TTD and DTD. At one point the unit said I had two hours to go with only a mile or so remaining on the route. Bad information was very common. 276 was always spot on. Not this baby. Also, I found that DTN was very slow to pick up an accurate reading to the next turn. When the turns come close together, this becomes an issue. There were also multiple shutdowns. Once the unit did a full on reset without being prompted. Went straight to the language prompt and dump all settings. Not nice. I have my track archive set to daily and it dumped my previous day's ride since the archive is created when the unit first boots. Still pleased with the Montana screen and features, but not the bugs!

I have on several occasions requested, from both the Montana Team and the BaseCamp Team, a detailed description of what we should expect from the different "Activity" routing profiles. I never got an answer. For whatever reason(s) they are keeping this information to themselves.

The Montana's "Avoidances" are very similar to BaseCamps and when I've done Automotive Routing on BaseCamp and transferred that Route to the Montana, the routing is the same as long as I use Automotive mode on the Montana.

What I'd really like to see on the Montana is an "Activity" mode something like "Shared Route" that would just "use" the routing data that is in the GPX/GDB data transferred to the Montana.

I know that the BaseCamp Team is developing a Video Tutorial so maybe we'll get some of these questions addressed but I would prefer to hear from the Montana Team as to how the Montana uses "Activity" routing info in a GPX file.

Without a definitive treatise on the Routing Algorithm and "Activity" modes from Garmin, it will take a long time for the user collective to figure this out and will certainly reduce sales - if that matters.

I haven't seen the discrepancies you have since I updated to v3.60. On my 4200mi trip last month (v3.50) the routing and the Trip Computer readouts were fine although I didn't have a lot of "in city" like direction changes going on. The only shutdowns I've had post-v3.60 were from data I loaded that was suspect to begin with.

Cheers,

[XB12R]

DRTBYK. Since your the go-to-guy on the Montana I think you should consider giving a class for us GPS retards in central WA. I've been following this thread form the begaining and I'm starting to think I may be better of with a 665. The amount of info here is starting to overwhelm me. Maybe it's my age?!

[tbirdsp]

Originally Posted by DRTBYK

What I'd really like to see on the Montana is an "Activity" mode something like "Shared Route" that would just "use" the routing data that is in the GPX/GDB data transferred to the Montana.

Man - something like this is LONG overdue in the whole Garmin lineup. Just execute my damn route as I planned it!

[Riteris]

Originally Posted by tbirdsp

Man - something like this is LONG overdue in the whole Garmin lineup. Just execute my damn route as I planned it!

+1

They could call it "JFDR" mode.

Just Follow the Damn Route

[R-dubb]

Originally Posted by Riteris

+1

They could call it "JFDR" mode.

Just Follow the Damn Route

It's nuts.

The 276 basically did what you are asking. With auto recalc turned off. It would compare the programmed route to the map set on the unit. If the maps matched, no recalc was performed or prompted, and no route to the beginning was inserted. It just gave a crow fly distance, in the DTN field, to the closest route node . Once intersected, the route would execute exactly as planned. If you left the route to go buy gas, it would prompt for a recalc, only if setup to do so. The glitch was that if you did request a recalc, you were screwed . It took you directly to the last point on the route. (You could still reload the route from memory and this problem went away.) So long as you never asked for a recalc (and the maps matched), it would stick with the original plan religiously.

[DRTBYK]

Originally Posted by XB12R

DRTBYK. Since your the go-to-guy on the Montana I think you should consider giving a class for us GPS retards in central WA. I've been following this thread form the begaining and I'm starting to think I may be better of with a 665. The amount of info here is starting to overwhelm me. Maybe it's my age?!

That's quite a spread in "requirements" from the Montana to a zumo 665.

Take a look at this if you haven't been using a GPS - but want to.

When you've decided what's most important to you, in the above thread I mentioned going out to a retailer and "getting to know" the various units you are considering. The guys at Touratech-USA are knowledgable in these devices (although I probably get to spend more time playing with them since I'm retired ).

PM me if you want to discuss further.

Cheers,

[tbirdsp]

Originally Posted by R-dubb

It's nuts.

The 276 basically did what you are asking. With auto recalc turned off. It would compare the programmed route to the map set on the unit. If the maps matched, no recalc was performed or prompted, and no route to the beginning was inserted. It just gave a crow fly distance, in the DTN field, to the closest route node . Once intersected, the route would execute exactly as planned. If you left the route to go buy gas, it would prompt for a recalc, only if setup to do so. The glitch was that if you did request a recalc, you were screwed . It took you directly to the last point on the route. (You could still reload the route from memory and this problem went away.) So long as you never asked for a recalc (and the maps matched), it would stick with the original plan religiously.

Yep - I'm pretty sure my old GPS V is the same as the 276.

I've been able to make do with the routing idiosyncrasies of my 60Cx and Nuvi 500, but it would sure be nice if it wasn't a chore.

Montana looks attractive (in spite of the bugs) but I just can't see dropping the $$$ right now. Part of my problem is my ancient computer will barely run Mapsource 6.13.7, haven't even messed with Basecamp yet.

[DRTBYK]

Originally Posted by R-dubb

It's nuts.

The 276 basically did what you are asking. With auto recalc turned off. It would compare the programmed route to the map set on the unit. If the maps matched, no recalc was performed or prompted, and no route to the beginning was inserted. It just gave a crow fly distance, in the DTN field, to the closest route node . Once intersected, the route would execute exactly as planned. If you left the route to go buy gas, it would prompt for a recalc, only if setup to do so. The glitch was that if you did request a recalc, you were screwed . It took you directly to the last point on the route. (You could still reload the route from memory and this problem went away.) So long as you never asked for a recalc (and the maps matched), it would stick with the original plan religiously.

I can appreciate the benefits of "Activity" modes and profiles. But, I really don't want to have to spend another year discussing with Garmin the merits of not altering a "Shared Route". The zumo brand team finally got the message and added that feature to the zumo 66x (as long as the map data was the same).

I've asked the Montana Team to do this. Have all of you? Oh, and while they're at it, maybe they could do what the zumo does which is to ask "Navigate to the beginning of the Route (YES/NO)?".

I hope the Montana Beta email address get's a lot of requests for this to happen. I'd use routing more if it did.

Cheers,

[dvwalker]

I just started getting a touch screen issue (serial 28U0008xx) . The lower left and middle right are the two screen areas where I'm having difficulty getting the unit to respond to touch. May be a coincidence, but I was not having screen problems until I ran thru the screen calibrator on one of the latest firmware updates.

Called Garmin Support and they immediately issued an RMA to be exchange for a new unit. Kind of a pain to be without for 2 weeks but at least there was no call hold time and the tech said they have plenty of units in stock. He didn't share very much info other than to say it's a known hardware issue.


Dan, thanks for the clarification on avoidances. "CHECK" means NOT to avoid. Kind of a double negative in my old mind based on the screen title so I had this backwards as well.

[Emmbeedee]

Originally Posted by dvwalker

Called Garmin Support and they immediately issued an RMA to be exchange for a new unit. Kind of a pain to be without for 2 weeks but at least there was no call hold time and the tech said they have plenty of units in stock.

Can they not cross-ship one to you? If (when?) mine does this, I'm going to give them a credit card number and have one shipped asap, if they'll do it.

[DRTBYK]

Originally Posted by dvwalker

I just started getting a touch screen issue (serial 28U0008xx) . The lower left and middle right are the two screen areas where I'm having difficulty getting the unit to respond to touch. May be a coincidence, but I was not having screen problems until I ran thru the screen calibrator on one of the latest firmware updates.

Called Garmin Support and they immediately issued an RMA to be exchange for a new unit. Kind of a pain to be without for 2 weeks but at least there was no call hold time and the tech said they have plenty of units in stock. He didn't share very much info other than to say it's a known hardware issue.


Dan, thanks for the clarification on avoidances. "CHECK" means NOT to avoid. Kind of a double negative in my old mind based on the screen title so I had this backwards as well.

Bummer about the touch screen. Same condition of failure I had - all was OK until I ran Calibration. You also had an early S/N in the same range I did.

P.S, When I received the new one, I ran Screen Calibration about 50 times

Isn't the English language wonderful. We were all trained by Garmin by figuring out on our own how MapSource and the Chartplotters worked - there sure as hell weren't any "tutorials" provided. On those systems, Avoidances were selected [checked] to enable Avoids. Now on the Montana we have an "Avoidance Setup" related to Routing. It has an implied meaning of:

"These Avoidances (noun) are used in routing or not used in routing.", based on the symbol applied to Avoidance type. I think if you never used MapSource or an early Garmin GPS it might not be as confusing - uh, sure it would.

[DRTBYK]

In an attempt to avoid spending ALL of my time bitching about things, how about telling others what kind of "Shortcuts" you've created that you think is/are useful when riding.

I'll start:

These are all "one touch" shortcuts

• Display - Portrait Lock
• Display - Auto Rotation "ON"
• Clear Current Track Log
• Reset Trip Odometer (I have this shortcut assigned to the Power On/Off button for one touch)

Unfortunately we can't post the files here but if anyone can't figure a shortcut out PM me and I'll send mine.

Cheers,