wa2n
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Posts posted by wa2n
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What are your impressions? Solid? Weak? Will it hold the Montana safely through any jolt or jar? It appears rather robust in the photo but you never know for sure until it's in front of you. Thanks.
I bought one too and got it tonight along with the diamond ball mount. Clip the GPS in and it's not going anywhere.
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Like many Montana owners, I'be been searching for a good carrying case. I've found a nice once to attach to my pack shoulder strap, item #0102 from Maxpedition. At $30 it's not cheap, but it works well and is well constructed.
DaveInWNC
I'm using a Lowepro Tahoe 30 case and wearing it on my belt. It's a little tight, but fits and protects the GPS if you happen to drop it. $11 at BestBuy:
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Do you have "Map Speed" set to Fast? (Setup>Map>Map Speed)
Normal.
I looked at the manual and the setting changes the refresh rate of the display. Increasing that setting to "fast" will not improve anything wrt routing. If anything, it will probably slow down basic routing response further by going from Normal to Fast on the display refresh rate.
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I agree that the routing is painfully slow to update after passing a waypoint.
Do you have "Map Speed" set to Fast? (Setup>Map>Map Speed)
What exactly does that setting do? I've tried both settings and haven't noticed a difference.
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A few random shutdowns but only when configuring my unit (i.e. creating shortcuts, customizing menus, adjusting settings, etc.). Still no more or less stable than any other release (including 3.4) in my opinion.
I haven't experienced any shutdowns yet, but then I don't really play around with shortcuts, because I am pretty happy with the default settings.
The freezing map happened again a few times yesterday. I read on another forum someone else noticing the same, freezing was gone, but is back again with v3.60. Maybe it is something map related, or auto route recalculation, which could freeze the unit. I'll have to experiment with that, but when it happened a few days ago, the map froze, then it said that it was recalculating the route, but this went at a very slow pace, instead of the usual few seconds (this was in Auto mode by the way). A manual power-off/power-on reset the unit, and then it found the route again within a few seconds. So it seems occasionally the software goes into a loop or something.
I had this happen during a route yesterday too on version 3.6.
Wayne
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Assuming these recall reports are true, I wonder what exactly the Montana is being recalled for? I wouldn't think that the screen issues would be enough. Perhaps it's the battery and perhaps it's Europe specific (batch, charging voltage). This is of course going of mere hearsay and second hand reports that it's been recalled in some places in Europe
Apparently GPSCity isn't selling Montana's now. I saw another message that somebody talked to a Garmin rep and he said they couldn't stop vendors from selling, but suggested they stop (or requested units be sent back?).
I just exchanged my Montana 650t for the screen calibration issue. The tech didn't mention what he knew about it, but had a checklist (did you do a master reset ...). I managed to get a new one back Monday by giving them my credit card to cover the interim while mine was in transit. Based on the file dates, the new one I have was loaded on Sept 3rd. Serial 28V003xxx, about 800 higher than the one I sent in (which had files loaded from July 19th).
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Back up your profiles directory first as it's going to reset at least one by dropping to an earlier version.
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Long story short and explained in another thread, but I have a new Montana and want to transfer all my settings that I copied on my computer to the new replacement unit. Anyone know how to do this? Just thought I could save time with my profiles and settings if I could copy them over to the new unit somehow. I figured I could just copy the folders and replace them in the new unit, but I'm not sure that it won't mess up something. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. Thanks.
Copy your old \garmin\profiles .gpf files into the new unit and you'll get most of it back. Beware that firmware version 3.5 has a bug where the main menu dashboard cannot be set to small or large data fields or it will crash when changing profiles. You can edit the gpf files to reset values 5 or 6 for MainMenuDashboard to 7 for instance if you're crashing too much to do it from the GPS.
Wayne
Wasn't planning on upgrading to the new 3.5 just yet anyhow. Thanks for the info on the profile folder. Was wondering if I could do the same for my vehicle and wapoint files also without any ill effects. Thanks for the help.
Yes I think you can copy them over too to the respective folders. Or, if they're in basecamp's database, just copy them when you plug in the new gps.
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Long story short and explained in another thread, but I have a new Montana and want to transfer all my settings that I copied on my computer to the new replacement unit. Anyone know how to do this? Just thought I could save time with my profiles and settings if I could copy them over to the new unit somehow. I figured I could just copy the folders and replace them in the new unit, but I'm not sure that it won't mess up something. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. Thanks.
Copy your old \garmin\profiles .gpf files into the new unit and you'll get most of it back. Beware that firmware version 3.5 has a bug where the main menu dashboard cannot be set to small or large data fields or it will crash when changing profiles. You can edit the gpf files to reset values 5 or 6 for MainMenuDashboard to 7 for instance if you're crashing too much to do it from the GPS.
Wayne
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Mine cal just went south tonight after upgrading to version 3.5. I do wonder if it's a calibration firmware issue since the corner that's no longer accessible isn't sampled during calibration (2-oclock position). With a finger or stylus, you can drag a map around and it follows into to that corner end, so the pressure or capacitance is being sensed there. Like others, I've been unsuccessful resetting / downgrading / upgrading firmware to fix it.
I uncovered a 3.50 changing profile crash bug that the beta team replicated by the way. For now with this version (and I suspect 3.4 where I first saw it) don't set small or large datafield as your main menu dashboard.
Wayne
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My screen just started to go wacky right after I upgraded to 3.40. Want to try to downgrade to 3.20 which I was at before with no problems. I know there is controversy over whether its a hardware or software problem, but some people have had luck with a downgrade and then a new upgrade. Problem is, I can't find where to get the old versions. All the links on this forum and others just go to a garmin page selling two SD cards. Anyone know an address to find the older versions of the software? If it works or not I thought it was worth a try before I call Garmin to send the unit in. What a bummer, was working super, super great!!
Take a look here: http://garminmontana.wikispaces.com/Software+Versions
You'll have to change the 330 to 340
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Downgraded to 3.3, calibrated compass all OK. Then upgraded to 3.4 again, still OK. Recalibrated compass on 3.4 to be sure that didn't cause the problem, again OK. Not sure what happened on the first upgrade, but heading/compass/track up appears to be working OK now. I did get a warning "all user data will be reset" when downgrading to 3.3, maybe my particular profile settings were the problem. Disregard I guess.
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Just found a bad problem - the heading jitters all over the place when in motion. With track up as the orientation, the map twists and turns +/- tens of degrees. I'd hold off on installing this one.
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Nothing special about programming a GPS. They aren't testing it sufficiently before release, that's the bottom line. In big companies that make cellphones (or medical products like my company makes) a firmware release is tested via predefined test plan where you check to see you didn't mess up something else while fixing a bug. Usually you expect to spend as much time or more testing than you do making the code changes. Based on what's happening here, I'm sure that type of design process isn't in place on the Montana or other handheld product lines. But then these are not life-critical devices, commercially significant devices, just toys, really. Unfortunately, the Montana was released without a lot of testing and the execs made the call on risk that we'd buy it anyway. For now, I can just avoid those operations that cause it to crash. I'm confident they'll fix all the bugs. Not sure we'll get the ability to turn off auto-recalculation though - that's a feature change that may never happen.
Are there any current or ex programmers out there that could explain to the layman why GPS firmware seems to be so difficult to work on? I'm simply curious and in no way am I blaming any programmer at Garmin for the firmware trial period that seems to take a year. I'm simply wondering if there are any set of circumstances that makes GPS programming more difficult than any other electronic device. Keep in mind that it's not just Garmin but all manufacturers of consumer GPS units that seem to be working out bugs months after release.
What makes GPS firmware more challenging than say a smartphone, or a digital camera's firmware?
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Anyone having any problems with City Navigator staying active? I can not get it to stay disabled on a profile change. All of my other maps work fine.
My map selections appear to stay the same as I change from Motorcycle to Recreational. Although I did get it to crash after a change to recreational profile and select map operation. I also can repeatedly make it crash (power off) by opening the route manager, selecting a waypoint, and view map. So there are bugs in 3.3.
I work in R&D for a medical device company and it pains me how long we spend to validate our software thoroughly. Literally months with several foot stacks of documentation to show for it. But, these kinds of bugs don't show. My guess is that Garmin only has a small staff to do checks after a firmware update, and no written regression test plan to exercise the entire feature set, etc. I'll bet that's not the case for the line of aviation GPS units. When I flew a small plane with a GNS430 and GNS530 a few years ago, there were no bugs either. But we're talking tens of thousands of dollars for both our instruments, and the aviation units.
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Where to > Tides
IF you have tides info in your gps.
How do you get tides info in the GPS, do I need a Marine map? I tried Where To -> Tides and all it does is give me a choice of tide buoys to navigate to.
I found the tables from this link: http://gpsinformation.us/gps60c/g60review.html and installed them as if they were a map. Then the tide data shows up after selecting a waypoint (via the instructions from splashy) then tapping the title block at the top (instead of the GO button), and then the table shows. I had to install the map twice to get it to work, and now that I think of it, I installed it from MapSource rather than BaseCamp the second time. Maybe that's the key, using MapSource as the map installation method.
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The satellite dashboard works fine for me - so long as its on the main menu or on the backlight page (hit the power button once briefly). When the satellite dashboard is on a map page, it just shows two circles and nothing else. If I rotate the unit, as soon as it redraws the map, it briefly shows the populated satellite dashboard and then clears it again (about 1/4 second later). I'll report it to montanabeta.
I see the same thing. I sent a report in as well.
73's!
Wayne
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Someone else helped me find it. I never would have found it either. I need the seconds to set a camera clock to geotag images.
Jim
That was one reason I wanted it as well.
I'm pretty disappointed in the 650t's camera. I didn't expect much, but it's pretty bad.
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Trip Computer>Menu>Big Numbers
Jim
And there it is! Thanks, probably would not have tripped on this.
Wayne
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Is there any way to view the current clock seconds on the 650t? I haven't found a way to show anything other than hh:mm on any screen.
Thanks,
Wayne
Garmin Montana: FW 3.63 Beta
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
Probably your battery rattling around and losing contact while biking. Put some (thick) tape around it or something in between the battery and cover.