fig

GPS V, and I would like to see an easier way of making the V think that you are in a different location. So that I can use it to calculate routes that I am not heading too, for instance to pass along to someone who might be on the phone. How about a way of filtering out POI's to save some of that precious memory? With CitySelect 4.01, there is no way to get all of Los Angeles and surrounding areas that I might be in during a particular day in the thing. I don't necessarily need every single daycare center, or furniture shop in the state loaded. I would love to be able to select my POI's and add more map. Since I am on the map subject, how about a little better job of selecting areas you want maps loaded in. Right now, the predefined areas work, but I have an area, where I just need the extreme lower left corner, and it's a 3.5mb area. Frustrating to say the least. How about when saving tracks, save all the info? Doesn't make sense to me to drop fields because you want to save the track. I am saving it so that I don't lose it, not to condense it.. I asked Garmin about this, and was told that they won't do this, but I will still request it anyway. I want the backlight to be a sticky option. If you shut the unit off with the backlight on, I want it to come back up with the backlight on. They said (and obviously so) that it's not an option because you could accidentally leave it on during the day and not know. Well, how about make it a little easier to tell if the backlight is on. For pete's sake, the Garmin will tell me when the sun and moon go up and down. How about an option to check if the sun is up or down, and turn it on based on that. Automatic nightlight would be cool as long as you again have the option to turn it off. The reason for this whole ramble is I use my V on a motorcycle, and nothing was more frustrating than having the unit shut off at night (due to vibrations I am assuming, still working on that problem, but I think it's the batteries vibrating) and having to turn the unit back on, in the dark, with gloves, one handed while doing 70mph down a highway with cars around. Once you get it on, which you can never really tell, you have to fumble with the power button again to get to the backlight selector. Like I said, the thing knows the time, knows when the sun rises and sets, give me an option to have the backlight automatically turn on and off. Edit: Almost forgot, how about a page with all of the fields displayed where you could scroll up and down to see them. Make it configurable, where when you change one field on the display it just swaps with the field you replaced. Right now, there are a lot of fields calculated, that I might never see, but being a nerd would love to just stare at. Fig

Ok, I am dying to know. What is "Added Jump Master skydiving accessory." Any ideas, and do we think this will be added to the V? Even with GPS I am still not jumping out of a safe airplane... Fig

Stephen, I just made a comment on another thread about the USB, and hoping that you decide on USB II or Firewire. Since you mentioned Linux inside, I think you would sell tremendous amounts of hardware if you could come up with a GPS receiver mated to a current processor, with generous amounts of memory, and connectivity, and be totally open with the software. You would have people not only using it to do probably more than you imagined, that would boost sales for people who like to tinker with software, like me. Give it basic functionality, and I guarantee you, with open source, people would run with it. Like right now, I would love to get at my Garmin V's code to change up a few screens and make some changes of my own. I don't want to mess with the algorithms, just work on some display things I would like seen. Keep it open, and you will have a following, and people helping out your endeavor in ways you probably haven't even imagined. On the CF/Smartmedia, CF has my vote just because of portability, and price. I picked up two 128mb CF Cards for $40 each, and the price is coming down. If it's everything you have said so far, put me on the list for one.. Fig

Stephen, I just made a comment on another thread about the USB, and hoping that you decide on USB II or Firewire. Since you mentioned Linux inside, I think you would sell tremendous amounts of hardware if you could come up with a GPS receiver mated to a current processor, with generous amounts of memory, and connectivity, and be totally open with the software. You would have people not only using it to do probably more than you imagined, that would boost sales for people who like to tinker with software, like me. Give it basic functionality, and I guarantee you, with open source, people would run with it. Like right now, I would love to get at my Garmin V's code to change up a few screens and make some changes of my own. I don't want to mess with the algorithms, just work on some display things I would like seen. Keep it open, and you will have a following, and people helping out your endeavor in ways you probably haven't even imagined. On the CF/Smartmedia, CF has my vote just because of portability, and price. I picked up two 128mb CF Cards for $40 each, and the price is coming down. If it's everything you have said so far, put me on the list for one.. Fig

Stephen, Please consider making it USB 2.0 or Firewire. For transferring large amounts of data, they can't be beat. I use a firewire MindStor to transfer pictures, and at 1gig in about 2 minutes, it can't be beat. Plain old USB takes almost an hour for the same amount of data. Serial port loading of 19mb on my Garmin V takes the same hour. Why can't we have a GPS with the whole country in detail with POI's loaded!! Can't wait for that one.. Fig

eagleeye, I was experiencing a shutdown on my V, and though I think it was due to vibration and batteries (mounted on a motorcycle), I was given this little tidbit of info by Garmin support. quote: I would first recommend master resetting your unit, as it sounds like the unit has some corrupt data. This reset will erase all user routes and waypoints. The reset consists of holding the OUT and QUIT buttons down while turning the unit ON. The screen will flash and stay black for 15 seconds and then power on normally. Maybe a reset would get it to where you can load it up. Just be sure and download your waypoints, routes, and tracks before doing the reset. Also, you might want to note any screen customizing you have done, since the unit will reset back to the default. Hope this helps, Fig

I say, just go it yourself. It will save you the cell phone minutes too... (Note: This is intended to be a joke, not a derogatory remark toward Anders, or anyone else. Just pretend it's me going off the cliff.)

I say, just go it yourself. It will save you the cell phone minutes too... (Note: This is intended to be a joke, not a derogatory remark toward Anders, or anyone else. Just pretend it's me going off the cliff.)

quote:Originally posted by KD9KC:I concur... except that there is no limit to how cheap some things are made. This probably applies to serial ports as well. I think you might have just had a bad run of hardware, in both cases. I would try another card, possibly from a different vendor. The reason I say this is, you didn't mention blowing out the port in the GPS. It's just a wire you are connecting, and I would think if you blew the port in the pc from the connection, the port in the GPS would blow as well. Just my theory, and since I am not an engineer, take that with a grain of salt. I just know that in my many years of computing, I have hot swapped a lot of serial equipment and not blown anything. I have also run across a lot of failed equipment with no apparent reason other than lack of quality. I had two identical network cards fail, and they were purchased at the exact same time. One failed immediately, and due to circumstances, I just thought it wasn't compatible. When the other failed shortly after, I found out they were both bad. Either bad luck, or bad QC procedures at the company that made them. I would give another card a try and just chalk it up to bad luck. One note though, I would turn the GPS off when actually connecting, just to be safe, and the grounding advice given would be a good safety measure. You just never know.. Fig

I thought I had a problem with the unlock code. Add your code, and then in the top middle of the menu, there is a dropdown box. Mine has 3 options: City Select No Map North American City Select 4.01 Make sure it is set to the new one that you unlocked. For about 30 minutes I thought my unlock code didn't work either.

I know in the waypoint selection screen, I usually go there from the find button, you can hit the menu button and select Delete All. I usually use the Mapsource program to load in all my waypoint, clear out dups, and things like that. Delete all of them from the V, and then load them back in from the pc. I am sure there's going to be plenty of ways to skin this cat. Fig

Scabbers, I have had excellent reception with my V, but I don't have a differing unit to compare to, just another V, so I am afraid I am not able to help in that respect. I did have a problem with mine shutting off on my motorcycle, and was told this by Garmin's support: "I would first recommend master resetting your unit, as it sounds like the unit has some corrupt data. This reset will erase all user routes and waypoints. The reset consists of holding the OUT and QUIT buttons down while turning the unit ON. The screen will flash and stay black for 15 seconds and then power on normally." I saved all my waypoints, routes, and reset the unit. Unfortunately, in my case, it didn't solve my shutoff problem. I think it is vibration and the batteries. I am going to try taping the batteries together before I stick them in the unit, or just wiring up a cig. lighter plug so I can run it off the bike's power. But I digress. I would also upgrade to the latest firmware which is 2.07 as of right now, you can find it here. I haven't seen the garbled display problem and have access to two V's so hopefully a reset and software upgrade will solve it for you. Fig

Here here Chaplain. With a little preparation, it's simply amazing isn't it. I sat down a couple nights before I rode my motorcycle to Monterey, and loaded in the waypoints that I needed to go to, and made sure I had the correct maps loaded in the unit, and headed off to Monterey with neither a clue nor a map. When I got into Monterey I started navigating using the unit, and thanks to my V, I had an enjoyable weekend in a place I had never been before without a single worry about getting lost. And I have to admit, getting lost seems to be one of those things I worry about. My absolute scariest moments one time was getting off a plane in Boston, and picking up a rental car. After discussing my destination with the rental car guy, I now had 3 different sets of directions on how to get to the hotel, and it was past midnight. To this day, I don't know exactly how I stumbled on the road my hotel was on, but it was sheer luck. I would have given body parts for a GPS with maps. My girlfriend just moved in, and she feels a lot less stress about getting lost since I picked one up for her. I just put in some of the key waypoints for her, and she's never lost. Now there's another thread, the different waypoints that men and women have. I'll bet you could find some humor in that, or get yourself in trouble!!

quote:Originally posted by Night Tracker:Wear blaze orange and make human noises ie. Boom box or play a bangio while out caching during the open season. Play Dueling Banjos if you are in the woods. Oh yeah, and squeal like a pig!!!

You know, for the life of me, I don't understand that. It's like punishing the people who made them the initial profit. Why would the date of purchase affect the price for an update. While I am glad I was offered the $50, it does seem backwards to me. On a similar note, I had a Palm VII, which I paid full boat for ($500+). I had unlimited net access with it for a year already at the time they came out with a new offer. You buy a new VII, and sign up for net access (and a plan less that they one I had been carrying) and you got the VII for $99. I was highly irritated that they didn't offer the people who had been making the success of their network possible any kind of offer. Nothing like slap to the face of a long standing customer. Needless to say, that's the month I decided that I didn't need net access on my VII any more. Back on topic though, having the full unlock of the 4.01 is absolutely boggling. I have been goofing around with it for hours now, just checking out places I know I would never have the chance to visit. It's like virtual vacationing. I missed a trip with my GF to her grandmother's in Indiana. Well, I pulled up the address on CS, got the coordinates, and went to lostoutdoors.com, and pulled up a satellite picture of their house. My GF said it was weird looking because she felt like she was almost there, and me, well, I got to see the neighborhood without ever actually being there. Just too cool in my opinion. Fig

quote:Originally posted by bwiebe:Perhaps you can also answer how to do this. Suppose I'm in Edmonton and want to do a route in Calgary. Anytime I've tried, the unit of course gives me the route from *where I am* to the destination. But sometimes I don't want that. The only workaround I've found is a bit clunky. I calibrate the unit to say my new location is where I want the route to start. Then, before the unit can line up with the satellites to realize its not really there, I do the route. There has got to be a better way! Any hints? bwiebe, I think I may have figured this out. To set your V to think you are somewhere else, go to the satellite page, and hit the Menu button. Select - Use Indoors. That will turn off the satellite search. Then hit the menu button again, and select - New Location. Then hit Use Map, and you can point to the place you want to start from. From there, you can have it autoroute to the destination, and save that as a route. Or once you have set your base location with the satellite page, go to the main menu and select Routes, Automatic, and have it navigate to the destination. From the page with the written directions, you can save the route. The key was getting the gps to think you are somewhere else. Hope this helps, Fig

I guess my question has to do with accuracy, so Waas might apply here. I have read all the above post, and yes they are thouroughly fascinating.. My question is, if the accuracy is x number of feet, or meters, how in the world does my unit know when I am moving at .5 mph. I mean when I swing my arm holding my gps, it knows. Now I would think, without putting much brainpower to it, that if it was only accurate to a number of feet, that you would have to move that number of feet to be able to tell that there was movement. How does it have this incredible granularity for detecting movement, yet a much larger (proportionally) margin of error when it comes to pinpointing the exact location. Is it just all of the variables involved, the ones that Waas is trying to compensate for? I am just amazed at how the gps unit I have can sense small movements like extending my arm, yet not be that accurate when it comes to pinpointing your exact location. Are GPS units that accurate as to granularity, but only accurate to exact location based on outside influences, for instance, fluctuations based on atmosphere? Am I making any sense here? In other words, when it says accurate to 12 feet, does that mean that the display coordinates can be + or - 12 feet from your actual location, and not that the unit can only tell where you are within 12 feet? I guess I am trying to determine if there are two different interpretations of accuracy here. Fig (if you think you are confused...)

I guess I should have sprinkled a few smileys on that one. I know that flashing a couple of bills in front of someone doesn't work. At least for me it doesn't. YMMV, and besides I know, it's unethical. Fig

I guess I should have sprinkled a few smileys on that one. I know that flashing a couple of bills in front of someone doesn't work. At least for me it doesn't. YMMV, and besides I know, it's unethical. Fig

Gliderguy - I wonder if you could have just saved the hassle, and slipped a knowledgeable Sprint guy a couple bejamins and had him unlock it for you. Someone has to know the password. I am sitting here at my desk, which is underground, and lookng at an AT&T phone, and a Sprint Samsung phone. The Sprint phone has a full signal, and it does work at my desk. The AT&T phone has no signal. Now, to balance this out, the sprint phone did not always have such a wonderfully powerful signal here in my underground cave. When the Democratic National Convention rolled into L.A. back whenever that was, that exact week was when my phone started working underground. I think sprint spent a lot of money here upgrading their network for the DNC. We peons get to reap the rewards. As for roaming, I have driven from L.A. over to Tx. a number of times, and have to use Analog Roaming out in the middle of nowhere, but I seemed to have a decent signal pretty much all of the time. Could have just been that they keep places like I10 pretty well covered, but for me, it worked out fine. It's too bad they don't give out loaners so you can try out the service where you are going to spend most of your time. But then again, they all might lose customers that way.. Fig edit: Forgot... I absolutely cannot stand the name "Verizon" and their commercials. They just absolutely grate on my nerves when I see them. I don't know why either, but they annoy me. Maybe because I think that since they used to be GTE, they thought they could get away with just changing their name, and voila new company. It's not that simple. Either way, their commercials are horrid.

Just in case anyone was curious, and I was up until last night, I bought a Garmin V, and installed CitySelect. When getting my one region unlock code, I ordered the 4.01 upgrade, and got it in the mail yesterday. While I was going through the upgrade process, it asked me if I wanted to unlock 1 region for free, or all regions for $50. I had been wondering what the final price was going to be, $50 or $100. As it turns out, I guess based on the dates I purchased, it was $50. I stayed up a couple hours just checking out streets and POI's around the country. Fascinating. The even better part is, I got my girlfriend a V as well, and garmin offers a free unlock code for an additional unit. What a deal. Now, I just wish the V had more memory, but I won't complain about that anymore. I have to give Kudos to Garmin for allowing the older version on the maps to co-exist with the newer. This helps with the excessive POI's in the new version. But then again, knowing where the nearest crunchy burger is, might be a good thing.. Fig

Ryan, I an a relative techie, so it was easy for me. The real test was when I handed it to my girlfriend. After some initial explanations, she was off and running. Now, our use is mainly navigation around town, so I am sure we would run into limitations trying to do some real offroad navigation, but as far as getting it up and running, you don't have to do much. I loaded up the City Select software that came with it, and sat at home plugging in all my waypoints. Then I downloaded them to my V, and off I went. The one thing that has caught me a couple of times is actually creating a waypoint with the V by scrolling around with the cursor. You have to move the cursor around, and then press the enter key. It will pop up the location, and then you can select Goto, Map, or Ok. Well, if you want to save this as a Waypoint, you have to hit the menu key. I was holding down the enter key, which "marks" the spot, what I wasn't realizing was that I was marking the spot I was at, not where the cursor was, so I would save where I was, then try to navigate back to the same spot, all while I was thinking I was going to the new location. I hope that hasn't confused you or scared you off, just say that creating waypoints by pointing to them requires one more keypress than I was realizing. Other than that, I made a trip to Monterey as I stated in my other thread, and the V was absolutely incredible. I loaded the Monterey area in before I left, and it had me driving around like I knew where I was. At the end of the weekend, I was even beginning to recognize places. It was amazing. I really wish I would have had something like this on my trip to Boston a few years ago, where I got a rental car, and 3 different set of directions on how to get to my hotel. Midnight in a town you have never been in is not the most comforting of situations. I know that my V would have led me straight to the hotel assuming the Big Dig didn't get in the way.. If you need more specific info, ask away. Fig

Definitely using the autorouting. It's the reason I settled on the V. I used it to ride up to Monterey a weekend ago, and just loaded in the Montery area, and my base L.A. area. The thing I have noticed is that it seems the base map has some inaccuracies. Either the 101 has moved a couple hundred feet to the right in places like Santa Barbara since the map was created, or it's just plain wrong. As I left L.A., I did the autoroute to the hotel I needed to be at in Monterey. As I got closer, the roadsigns were saying Monterey was 30 miles, but the V was telling me I was still 100 miles out. As I got closer, I stopped and told the V to recalculate. That was a wise move as I realized later, since it then stated that I was the correct distance, and navigated me correctly to my destination. When you are in an area you have loaded, the navigation works like a charm. Unfortunately, without having more memory, I have been leaving out a section between mine and my girlfriends house. When auto-navigating, you can definitely tell when you get out of the loaded areas, because for instance, going down I5, the gps tells you to take the next exit, then promptly tells you to turn right and re-enter the freeway. Well, if that had been my first time, I would have been off the freeway, looking for a way to get back on. Minor glitch, but had something like that happened in Monterey, I would have been totally lost. The one key thing for me to note here is that when this happens on my drive to my girlfriends, you can see that you are navigating out in the middle of nowhere, and the I5 is a couple hundred feet off to the side. This is how I recognize that there's a problem. Based on my experience with going to Monterey, and having absolutely no clue where anything was, and my V getting me to every place I wanted to go, without a hitch, I love the thing. I just wish I could load a partial section of the City Select predefined sections, since one I would like to have, I just need the "corner". If that was possible, I could have everything I wanted loaded in. You think 19mb, no problem, till you start loading it up, and the L.A. area must have a million POI's. I am sure that's chewing up some space there. I wonder in Garmin compresses the information? I wouldn't mind being able to unload some of the phone number and other information to make room for more street info. Either way, my V is just the coolest thing since sliced bread. Fig

I love my GPS V, and am using the City Select that came with it. Since I live in the L.A. area, I have found I am a couple meg short of being able to load all the city information for all of the areas I would like. The kicker is, in one of the sections, I just need the very left corner of the section, and the section is 4mb. Is there a way to load partial sections, or am I just out of luck? Or is there another map that could be loaded with smaller sections? Am I dreaming here, and just should have waited for a unit with the navigation capability and removable memory? It fits perfectly on my motorcycle though.. Fig

quote:Originally posted by Anders:Setting the speed for interstates rather low, and autorouting for "shortest time", makes it possible for you to control to what extent you want to avoid the interstates. Shoot, here in L.A., setting the interstates rather low is just being realistic. Good idea though Anders! Fig