Alphawolf

As soon as the Holidays are over and I get a little breathing room, I will re-test a pair of these again(whenever we get some in again) and I will report any changes. Hopefully, with just a couple of minor improvements, Garmin could pull these up to their full potential. We have sold enough now, that I will soon be hearing some customers feedback as well. Merry Christmas everyone! "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

quote: Where do you work? You seem to know alot about GPSr The more you learn, the more you realize you don't know! I work at a large multi-state sporting goods chain (Sportsmans Warehouse) I have sold these things now for 5 years, and owned one for 7. It's like golf though. You only learn enough to humble yourself regularly. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

I share your enthusiasm about the owner's manual. The inability of most folks to sit and decipher what they need to know about their GPSR from the book, is why I am able to charge $20 an hour to teach folks how to use the GPSR they just bought from me! After they spend a night or two confusing themselves, they call me and hire me for an hour (or 2 or 3 or 7) to "show" them how it works! Doing a backtrack is pretty easy. You need to first "save" a tracklog. Hopefully you cleared the tracklog before your journey. After saving it, you can then select it and one of the options will be to do a backtrack. You can repeat the tracklog from front to back or reverse it. It will "condense" your track log somewhat, removeing some of the more minor turns you made. Overall they are pretty good at moving you through the same terrain you went through the first time. Don't expect it to put you right on top of your previous footprints though. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

quote: Any chance they're actually talking about the Rino 110? No, this isn't a unit that is already on the market. This is a new, unreleased model. Got my interest. And rumor has it that this won't be the only new model to hit the streets. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

We just got an in-house memo to drop the price on the basic yellow E-Trex to $104 because "Garmin is about to release a new unit that is smaller than the e-trex with the same functionality. This will slow or kill e-trex sales" (para-phrased) Does anyone have any more current info on this? I'm working on it to see what I can find out. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

O.K...After months and months of reading everyone's opinion about which GPSRs are the "best" at getting and holding a sat. lock, and which are the most accurate, Josh and I (hi Josh) decided to develop a "test". It occured to us, we have access to just about every current model from both big names. We want to put them to a controlled, objective test to analyze both accuracy and sensitivity to sat. lock under tough conditions. We want to do this with good scientific methodology, so as to control as many variables as possible. So....Help us out! Give your ideas as to how to "test" these things. We are on a cheap budget (I could spare some pocket change) so don't design any NASA stuff here! If nothing else this project will be fun. First though, give us your suggestions as to a name for this project....... "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

Well this is just me speaking, but autorouting I use frequently. The compass and altimeter, that, I have no use for. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

Sorry, I keep having after thoughts! I a house, side by side with a Magellan SporTrack Pro, the Magellan was recieving several sattelites, the 120 had 1....Not too much of a test, but maybe indicitive of performance under heavy cover(I guess a roof could be considered heavy cover, huh?) "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

Oh yeah...alarm and calendar...Pretty straight forward. The calendar will let you makes notes or reminders on a given day, then it will alert you on that day(assuming you turn on the receiver that day ) The alarm function is an alarm clock, pretty simple, but I think I remember a lap timer as well. I'll have to look. It also has a stop watch built in. I think it also has the scramble mode on the radio. I never use that on my radios, 'cause it cuts down your effective range somewhat. The sunrise-sunset calculator seems unnecessary to some, I couldn't live without it on my V. I use it to plan photography trips, so I know when I have to be in place and set up (sunrise or sunset). "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

Well, I talked about the peer-to-peer above. It applies to the 120 as well. The only important functional diffeence from the 110 is the 8 mb of memory for mapping, and the database it comes with out of the box. I also mentioned previously the radio issues with it, and the antenna advantage over it's non-radio equal, the Legend. Anything in particular you are wondering about? "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

If you are looking for the best "dual-purpose"(off-road caching etc. and on road navigation)the by all means, the V. The auto-routing alone makes it a standout. The 19 megs. of map memory is adequate for Metroguide, or City Select and more than enough for Topo. I do wish it had expandable memory, but it's still the best, even without it. Being able to orient the screen to landscape or portrait is nice when swithing between your dash and the hand. The fact that it comes standard with the PC cable, the 12 volt adapter, the dash mount and software makes it a vey cost-competetive model. Add up the total cost of any other high-end model with all of these accessories and see where you are. About all you'll ever need to add is perhaps a case and a differrent set of maps if you choose. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

quote:Ok the radio sucks, how did the GPS part perform? Seemed to be flawless. If I remember right(it's been a bit since we tested them) I don't think they have position averaging. Maybe I'm wrong. But I think I remember wishing it was there and it wasn't. But other than that, I don't remember any downsides. With the antenna it has I would expect better performance under marginal conditions than the Legend(it's equal in features)gives. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

quote: Alpha wolf did you try another brand of radios to see just what is the problem on them? You bet...We were trying them against Motorola, Cobra and Midland FRS radios that we had in stock at that time. The other brands of radios were coming through on the RINO with good voice modulation, but the RINOs were still sounding bad on the other radios. This is how we made the conclusion that it thas something to do with the microphones. They received o.k., but wouldn't transmit the voice worth a dang. I doubt is has anything to do with the weatherproofing,many other radios have that as well, but still sound o.k. quote: How about a headset? We didn't try that, but I thinking it wouldn't help, as the RINOs sounded o.k. when listening to the other brands of radios. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

I am in exactly the same boat. I sell the dadgum stuff and do you think they would give me a break on the upgrade? yeah right. I can't count the thousand of dollars worth of Garmin products I have sold for them. I did tell them however, that they are meaking it real easy for me to want to sell Magellans! "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

I plead stupidity to Magellan software, so I ned some help. I know there is an issue with downloading large maps into large Mb data cards. Can anyone tell me the work-around for this issue? I am trying to help a friend get his 128mb card loaded. I will call Magellan if need be, but I figured I'd ask the real experts first! "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

It's pretty cool! The downside is the FCC would only let it happen on the FRS frequencies, so the range is only that which you can squeeze out of the FRS. GMRS peer to peer would've been that much better. In my tests, I could do about 0.7 to 1.25 miles pretty consistently(NOT the voice part!) It updates everytime someone pushes the "call" button or the transmit button, but not more frequently than like every 10 or 20 seconds or something like that. I can see a real use for this technology as soon the voice modulation gets fixed. We have just about decided that the problem lies with bads microphones. They often sound like a cotton ball has been taped over the mike. What we can hope for is that someday, maybe with enough public input, that the FCC will allow us to do this on GMRS as well. Rules can be changed (remember selective availability?). "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

No problem. You can select any combination of MapSource maps (up to the memory limits of your GPSR, of course) and download them. You then select which you want to view under the MapSource info. menu of the GPS. If you leave them all selected, the GPSR will default to MetroGuide only. If you want to be able to see Topo, you'll need to de-select the MetroGuide. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

Cute! Mind if I copy this and post it on my sales counter? It might not help sell Garmins, but it should be shared! "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

I agree the unit is innovative. I too, couldn't wait to get my hands on them. However, look at it from my perspective.....I sell them. I am the one who has to answer to the customer who asks "where is the volume control? I need to turn it up. I can't hear you." This is when we are standing 30 feet apart in the store. I (embarrased now) have to tell him "it's turned all the way up sir. That's how they sound." I am also the one who has had to fill out return forms to send them back to Garmin because of this. I expect a whole bunch of returns after Christmas. I love the concept of the RINO's.... Garmin just needs to get it right. I can't sell them based on a comparative price to the Legend. The customers want it *all* to work well, not just the GPS half. I agree totally that the GPSR part of the unit has a lot going for it. But the Magellan SportTrack Pro or the Garmin GPSMAP76 are also great units and I don't have to explain why the radio sounds like there is a piece of duct tape over the microphone! And, by the way...I don't consider this "getting ugly". This is what the forum is about. I say what I don't like about something. You say what you like about it. Everyone who is looking to buy it then makes up their mind! It's great! "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

quote:All I have heard on these forums about the Rino 110 and 120, is that the radios suck, the radios suck, and the radios suck. Im sick of hearing this. Maybe if Garmin hears it enough, they will do something. The radio is half of the equation! If only half your new car worked would you be happy expounding on the half that was right? Geeezzzz....c'mon! "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

If you can spare the $100 extra, you wouldn't be sorry. Much bigger screen, better antenna, external antenna port, and it floats. I believe also, when the time comes to upgrade again, you'll get a better return for the 76S than the Vista. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

Great unit! WAAS serves no purpose(yet) for geocaching(or anything else really). I have it and keep it turned off. It slows the processing time down measurably. However, for about $25 more, you can get a new e-trex (with warranty) that will serve you well too. You will have less savable routes(1 vs. 20) and no option for external antenna(probably not needed) but you'll have to decide how much a warranty and smaller size is worth to you. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

quote:when I got off this highway onto a road that was on the maps and about 3 miles from the house which I was going to, it still maintained I go back to it's original route and travel 17 miles to make the 3 mile journey. Was it set to calculate the shortest distance or the fastest route? It can make a huge difference in the routes it chooses. It will, for example, sometimes totally ignore a freeway segment if you have it set to "shortest" and wind you through city streets and, as you mentioned, keep trying to get you to go back to a missed turn if it happens to be shorter that way. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

quote:If i create a route in Map Source or Street Atlas or ... and upload it to the III+ and activate that route I get turn by turn Yes, actually this is correct. If you create a route on your computer using someone's street software, you can then dump that route into the III+ and let it route you turn by turn through the route. It obviously won't recalculate the route by itself(like a V or SPIII) in case of detours and such. This is what the term "autorouting" refers to... The ability to create a route, given only a destination. Paired up with the new version of Metroguide that does autorouting on the PC, you could effectively create driving routes with fairly good accuracy. I can't remember how many route waypoints the III+ holds(I believe 30). You might be forced to segment a long trip into several routes, depending on the number of turns you have to make. Also, I'm not sure MetroGuide would set a waypoint at say an interstate off-ramp, where the turn is a gradual one. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

It won't do them. Sorry "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"