drunix

It works in media transfer mode, just like my Nexus phone and my Nexus tablet (both of which I find inadequate as GPS devices). The advantage over mass storage mode is that you can have the Monterra plugged in and it continues to work, it does not turn into a slow disk drive with a picture of a computer on its screen like my GPSmap 62. I have not tried the Monterra with Windows, just with a Mac and Linux. I submitted the patch to make it work with Linux, if you use Linux ask me about it or wait for an update. For transferring GPX files, I use Dropbox and Astro Filemanager (over WiFi). I save the GPX into Dropbox on my computer, then on the Monterra I use Astro to navigate to the file. When I try to open the GPX file in Astro it gives me choices, one of which is "Import GPX" and when I select that, Garmin grabs it. Other choices available depend on what you have installed ie "Locus", "c:geo" etc. The Monterra "quickstart" tells how to download caches from Opencaching.com, which is pretty useless. In Novemeber, I wrote to tech support to ask how to do it with GPX files. Still waiting for a response. I am sure they will get back to me any day now. The 62 is still a far better geocaching device, but that's not why I bought a Monterra.

This begs the question "is there a publicly accessible site that has known bugs listed in it?" You are not last. I bought a rugged mount and have pogo pins on order so I can print more docks. I have not installed it yet so I have yet to see this bug. I wonder what it is that the Monterra does not like about the dock? Brian

I assume there will be some problems with it since it's such a big change for them. :-) I ordered one anyway. Ship date for me is purportedly Nov 22 now. The guy I ordered it from sends me an email about once a week saying it's delayed again. I take this to mean they are working hard to make sure it's all good but it probably means the boat was caught in the typhoon. Then again the Nuvi 855 based on Linux worked quite well and I think that was new for them too. If it does not work for me, I will add it to the time capsule storage box in my lab with the Openmoko Freerunner and the Google Galaxy Nexus. In 2113 it will be quite a valuable collection.

Thanks for the tip. I found I was able to put it in airplane mode and then turn WiFi back on. I don't normally use cellular so this should help all the time.

I looked at the Monterra description for all of 10 minutes today, zipped over to GPSCity and placed my (pre)order destined to ship Oct 21 (or so.) It looks pretty much like what I have wanted for the last 5 years. I will probably continue using my beloved 62SC, because it works so well. But this Monterra thing has some real potential, so I ordered one so I could check it out. If you think of the Monterra as a fancy phone with no phone chip, it's expensive and a dumb idea. If you think of it as an alternative to (for example) a Trimble Juno T41 (starts around $1500) or other rugged handheld programmable data collector, it's probably the cheapest in that class by far. I have had 3 Garmin handhelds and a couple Nuvis. I have also had other handhelds including PocketPC and Android and Linux devices and a Delorme PN40. I always want to have flexibility in loading in my own maps and programs, and that's wanting with a GPSmap or a Montana. I live in the Willamette Valley. It rains here, a lot. I have killed 2 cheap cell phones. A friend just killed a 4 day old Galaxy S4. Maybe it does not rain where you live. I don't want to put my GPS away if it rains. I still need to know where to go, even if a hike turns wet. I actually dropped my Garmin eMap and rode over it while bike touring. Nary a scratch. I have dropped my 62SC off my bike once or twice. No problem. I can't imagine that my Google smartphone could take that. I think it would go to pieces. I have found probably 6 cellphones on the roadside while riding to work. None of them were functional. I need rugged. Cell phone coverage is very spotty here. My Google Nexus phone sucks as a GPS receiver when it's out of cell range. The battery is too small. If I leave the GPS on, it won't last through 1/2 of a hike. No, I don't want to carry extra batteries. I gave up on using it for geocaching and got the 62SC. I don't even have a SIMM in the Google phone right now, back to using a cheapie little phone that has 4-5 days battery life and fits in a pocket. The sun comes out here occasionally and when it does, my smartphone screen is worthless. Have to find deep shade to see it. That means it's pretty much useless on the handlebars on my bike. On the bicycle it's either raining (so I have to hide it away) or too sunny (and useless). I currently use the 62SC as my bicycle computer, speedo, cadence, map, and geocaching buddy all in one. I also happen to be an Android developer, so while I hope that the Monterra works as well as the 62SC, if it's not then I think it will still be fun to write code for it. Cheers Brian

re: OregonSAGA web site Your web site appears to be in Japanese and has a picture of a cute doggy. Are you still around?

Unboxed it at work today. Paired it with a Google Galaxy Nexus phone and took it for a walk at lunchtime. It worked great. It was claiming submeter accuracy and 16 satellites in our conference room. Playing with it now, trying to convince my Debian server that it is not a pair of headphones. More chatter after dinner... --Brian

For the last month I have been using a Nuvi 1350 to get to the vicinity and a DeLorme PN40 once out of the car. I use Garmin Basecamp on a MacBook to transfer the PQ gpx file to the Nuvi. Garmin finally released a Mac version of Basecamp that does not crash 10 seconds after launching it about 2 months ago. Still getting the hang of using it but it does allow reading PQ files and sending them to the Nuvi. I send the same PQ file to the DeLorme using GPSbabel