team_perro

GPSMap60C Nuvi 350

When going geocaching, I use the Garmin beanbag mount together with a GPSMAP 60C. I use it in a probably somewhat unusual mode, with the holding arm pointing almost parallel to the surface of the dashboard and the GPSr hanging in front of and slightly below the base of the mount (that way it does not obscure the view out of the windshield too much). It's quite stable, however in rare occasions it may move. E.g when driving with high speed on gravel roads it may start to wander due to the vibrations or when I hit a pothole at high speed, it may make a jump and fall off the dash. After I added 1kg of extra lead weights to it, it became more stable, though. I think that the beanbag mount will work perfectly well if you drive on good roads and use it in its normal mode (with the GPSr in the center of the base). When I'm not geocaching I use my Nuvi 350 with the stock windshield suction cup mount. Simple to mount/remove, small and very stable. It's simply the best.

Hi! I noticed that Garmin is now shipping CityNavigator v9 (Europe). Does anyone know if they've reduced the region size since CN8 (for us who have GPSr:s without SD card support?) Regards, Per

Have: Garmin GPSMap60C (for caching) Garmin Nuvi 350 (for the car) Had: A malfunctioning sense of direction...

You can store a large number of waypoints in the Nuvi 350 - probably several thousands (for instance, I've downloaded waypoints for all speed cameras in Sweden into my Nuvi 350). The limitation is the number of waypoints that you can use in a route. Unlike other GPS receivers, the Nuvi 350 does not allow you to make complex routes (e.g. go from waypoint A to B and C to D). It only allows you to select a destination waypoint (in the "Where to" menu), and then it automatically calculates the route which it finds best to take you from your current position to the destination waypoint. Optionally, you can select a second waypoint which is inserted "in the middle" of the route. To do this, when navigating to the destination waypoint, you go to the main menu and select a new waypoint (using the "Where to" menu). The Nuvi will then route you to the middle waypoint first, and then to the destination waypoint. But that's the limit, you only insert one middle waypoint in this way. I've had my Nuvi 350 for a month now and i can really recommend it, it's a great navigation tool with awesome GPS receiver performance. I've also installed the GTM-10 (RDS-TMC receiver) in my car, and I can recommend that too - it works well together with the Nuvi (traffic disturbances, road conditions etc. are displayed on the screen and can be avoided).

That's great! Did you notice any performance degradation (like the map drawing becoming slower) after you loaded 3000 WPs, or does it perform normally even with that many WPS loaded?

I learned that there's an even simpler solution: Just export the waypoints from MapSource in GPX format, then copy the .gpx file to the Nuvi file system at \Garmin\Waypoints. The Nuvi will then auto-import the waypoints (and delete the .gpx file) and the waypoints will appear under "My Favorites".

Ah yes, GPSBabel 1.2.8beta did the job. Thanks!

Does anyone know how to convert waypoints from Garmin MapSource format (.gdb, .mps, .gpx) to the .csv format required by the "POI loader" application? I'd like to define waypoints in MapSource and then send it to my Garmin Nüvi GPS. However, the MapSource program cannot download waypoints to the Nüvi, I have to use the "POI loader" to do this. Strangely enough, these programs seem not to be compatible. Or maybe I'm doing something wrong here?

Just got my Nüvi 350 (EU version) today. It surely is an impressive GPS unit, but I got a little bit dissapointed when I realized that the voice prompts for the Swedish language (which is my native language) didn't support Text-To-Speech. I should have known... It seems like the various voices are stored as regular files on the Nüvi filesystem. If I knew the format of these files, I could create a language file that works for me by modifying the German TTS voice (which produces an acceptable pronounciation of Swedish street names) so that the standard prompts e.g. "Turn left on..." are spoken in Swedish. Does anyone happen to know the format of these files? Is this a mission impossible? Perhaps, but it could be worth a try. Or I'll just have to learn German....