Bedrok

Well I had to go buy one anyway. They made an auxillery clip for it like the old Rinos had, so other than being as big as a beer can, it's pocket carry-able. More problems though: There's no such thing as a battery saving mode if it's in your pocket, touching cloth will constantly turn it back on. For the same reasons, if you forget to lock the screen it will stop navigating, start, etc.. Another big minus: You can't turn the GPS off to use the radio only to save battery as you could with other Rinos. All in all, it seems as though the unit wasn't very well thought out or field tested.

I don't want to go on too much about this but the process you just described, which is one of the ways thats SUPPOSED to work, didn't. Niether did saving it as a GMP file, which was the first thing the tech had me try. He said it is probably because Mapsource updates sometimes don't work. I un-installed and re- installed Mapsource and re did the updates but got the same results.

Got it figured out. The whole thing is a big "two thumbs down" for Garmins R&D dept. but credit should go to the friendly tech support people who at least tried to figure it out. The instructions in the email from tech support, which basically told me to update Mapsource, save the data, export or save to BaseCamp, the download to the 655t, didn't work. So I called them and a very helpful guy, who agreed that TRASFERING DATA TO THE NEW MODELS AND USING BASECAMP IN GENERAL IS A MAJOR PAIN, tried to get it done and couldn't. He said I could return it and that LOTS OF PEOPLE ALREADY HAVE FOR THE SAME REASON. Then just for the heck of it, I right clicked on the highlighted data in Mapsource, hit "copy", brought up BaseCamp with the 655t plugged in, right clicked on "internal storage" and hit paste. It worked. If its that simple, why don't they know at Garmin?

I don't know any files common to both BaseCamp and Map Source. But even if there are, it shouldn't be this hard. The two programs sole purpose is to support Garmin GPS devices and they should mesh seamlessly. Garmin gets two thumbs down for putting out this crap. And whereas Map source was intuitive and easy to learn, BaseCamp looks like it will take a lot of studying. If I could get Map Source to recognize the 655t I would never bother with BaseCamp.

I didn't know exactly where to ask this: I have a Garmin Rino 110, 130, and a brand new 655t. I bought Map Source years ago to support the two older models and just downloaded Base Camp to support the 655t. Map Source doesn't recognize the 655t and Base Camp won't recognize the two older ones. How the heck do I transfer data from the two older ones to the 655t?

I finally went to the the store to actually look at one and now I see where the negative reviews are coming from. It's big, awkward, un-handy to use the touch screen with the same hand that's holding it, and the clip was designed by a complete moron. I've used Garmins for over 20 years and Rinos since they came out so I tend to be prejudiced in their favor but I'd give the 655T less than one star. I wanted to update to a unit that accepted SD cards but now I'll wait for a re-design which I'm sure will be coming.

You might try reading the reviews for it on Amazon. One by "Greg E." was very thorough and helpful. I was going to get one but after reading that review and others I'm not so sure now. The reviews weren't all bad, in fact they were generally favorable, but there were enough black marks to make me hesitate to spend $530 on one. If you like the Rinos radio and ability to transmit and receive positions then they're wonderful but for now I'm sticking with my old one.

As a trivial addition to this subject, my old Rino 110 proved to be right when it was disagreeing with all 3 of our speedometers (Ford read 3 to 4 % slow, Toyota and Nissan same amount fast). What I notced was the faster I go, the less accurate it was perpendicular to my course. When traveling N or S, it tends to show 200 to 400 feet E. of actual position. When going E or W, it reads the same error to the N. If I slow down to under 20 mph it comes back to almost right on. I was wondering if the processor can't do the calcs fast enough.

That's interesting. Is that protective cover owner replacable?

For what it's worth---The guys in the know up here say the 60 is more slightly more rugged when it comes to impact and vibration and it has slightly better reception (they were talking about keeping an accurate track when the unit was under a coat to keep it warm) This might not matter in the lower 48 where you have more satelites and better angle through the atmosphere. In general they concluded the 76 better for boating and the 60 for hiking or hunting.

Woah, it's sounding like the X series are really crippled if you can't load tracks and routes directly to and from unit to card. Can you load tracks etc. to a map set on Mapsource, load them onto the card, then open them with the unit, if not as routes or tracks, at least as lines on the nap?

Thanks, that makes sense.

Hi, new to these forums. Used GPSs since they were invented but don't know for sure what geocaching is-gonna find out tho..... Question: Has anyone with a Garmin X series tried to fill up a 1 gig card then tried to fit all that data on a 256meg? Our dealer (who is very knowlegable) says the X units are only capable of using 256megs no matter how big the card.