JackShaft

Fair enough, I hadn't considered that variable. Easy when you're talking a 276C with a 15 track limit (which is the mode my head gets stuck in many times) but much more complex when considering a unit like the Montana/Oregon/Colorado that can hold dozens.

My apologies, I did perform a search and no direct answer could be seen, thanks for the response. Perhaps they will build that feature into future GPSr's or data manipulation programs such as MapSource or BaseCamp.

Hello All; You have been very helpful in the past, I hope to pick your brain once more with success. I have loaded up a few Oregon, Colorado and Montana units with typical tracks and maps for my area over the past few days and each time I have had to go through the painstakingly slow process of selecting each track and toggling the "Show/Hide on map" status bar to "Show". When the tracks are transferred initially from the PC to the GPSr, the default value is always "Hide". Is there a way to change this in MapSource or BaseCamp prior to transfer? Is there a way to batch "show all tracks" on the GPSr? Thanks!

LOL. That sucks.

Easy question... Montana 650T, powered mount... every time I take it off to grab a pic, the GPSr prompts that "external power has been lost, do you with to stay on or power off"? How can I set this to a default "Stays on" to avoid this from happening each and every time? On my 276 there was a setting under power options... I can' seem to find it on this thing.

This update appears to have solved the random turning off that my unit was experiencing in the powered mount. Good.

It's not like MS and it's not arbitrary. Select two tracks in the table on the left, then RC > Advanced > Join Selected Tracks. They will be joined in time based order. I find I need to open the tracks in MS, first, if I want to join them in geographical order. But BC has a trick that MS does not, BC will move individual track points, MS cannot move points in a track. Neither BC nor MS is perfect for track manipulation. Well put, neither are perfect but BC does have some nice new features. Thanks for the explanation, joining tracks this way worked perfectly for me.

Thanks for the links, I have gone through all of the videos over the weekend and it did indeed help me. Now that I am quasi-committed to using BaseCamp for my track/wpt/route manipulation, can somebody help me figure out how to join two tracks?

OK, very interesting. I may do that on the internal memory and see what happens. I recognize the downfall of having to connect to PC to re-enable the maps but it may be worth committing to one map type if it yields significant speed increases. I will circle back with what I find.

It is set on fast redraw. Also, upon review, I have determined that I do indeed have the maps loaded into the internal memory and the current status is; of the 3.6GB drive, 1.5GB are currently used, this includes 25 track logs that are saved and about 30 wpts. This doesn't seem like a heavy load to me...? I can't see the maps responding any faster if the system has to access them on a micro SD card?

Hello, I am still a little new to the Montana and trying to optimize its performance. I run Ibycus topo, Bluecharts and Topo Canada all on the GPSr but with only one map set enabled at a time. These map files equate to 1.05GB of data and currently I am running it from a SD card. I also have about 25 saved tracks in the device memory, but again, only one or two visible at a time. Considering that the Montana has 3GB of internal memory, would the device speed up or respond faster if I loaded the maps to the internal memory? Just wondering. Of course I will ensure that the map detail is turned down a little as well.

Hello all. I have a Montana 650 and after owning a 60Cx, 276C, an Oregon and several Nuvis, I have to say this is a great GPSr and perhaps the first one able to fully take the place of my 276C in the field. My only gripe is having to communicate with it via Basecamp. I find it quite difficult to use and not particularly user-friendly compared to trusty old MapSource. I still use MapSource upload data from my Montana, to manipulate my tracks, waypoints and route plans but when I go to transfer it back to my Montana, I have to open the file I have created in Basecamp to do so. I hate that. I have figured out that I can transfer map files directly to my SD card through Windows, which is great, is there also a way to do this for tracks/wpts/rtes? Maybe save as .gpx and do a direct transfer onto the SD card or internal GPSr memory as well, like I do with the maps? This forum has always been a great place for accurate and direct information, thanks for your help in the past and I appreciate any guidance you can give on this topic.

I haven't seen a white screen in weeks now - running the latest beta, 3.97 on my Montana, and the latest web updater version on my wife's 650. Power source we use is the Rugged Mount on motorcycles and the Powered Dash Mount in the car. Thanks for the tip, I just installed 3.97 beta and I'll give it a shot this week to see how it responds. Hopefully I'll have the same results as you.

And when you called Garmin to report this "failure" did you mention to them that you were using the USB port to power the unit (a good way to void your warranty). That "fancy Garmin powered mount" was designed to provide a solid, reliable power coupling just so as to avoid issues like you are experiencing. USB connectors were never intended to be "mobile" power connecters. Their contacts are very low force contacts and the connector body itself is designed to be sloppy when mated. If you used the proper powered cradle, you might enjoy your expensive GPS a lot more. Cheers, Seeing as the problem happened today and yesterday when I was in the middle of nowhere, no I didn't call yet, but I will. I will get to the install of the proper powered cradle as I have it right here on my desk, but it seems that people are having the problem using either mount there bud, so I am reluctant to hardwire it in if I'm going to have the same issues. Am I wrong? Have I misunderstood?

Hate to revive an old thread but this one is relevant to what I have discovered with my Montana 650 this past weekend on it's first real try. I am having the same power issues when used with just the regular Nuvi-style 12V-to-USB plug-in power cord in a RAM mount, not the fancy Garmin powered mount. I have been looking for a 276 replacement for some time and I honestly thought I had found it in the Montana. If something as simple and repetitive as external power on/off cycles - and the lack of a setting to choose "Stay on/turn off when external power lost" - is missed, it really is a shame. I am happy with the rest of the features, but this part is very poor. It caused me fits while snowmobiling in some tough terrain this past weekend. I wished I had taken my old 276 instead.

I could see this working for a single map plate, but not for a number of plates thrown together to make a whatever.img file Edit: However, you could be very correct! I am trying this now... I did this and it gave me as output was gmapsupp.img as per usual...? EDIT: With the correct mapset name! Woo hoo! Thanks for giving me a lesson in MapSource that I did not know about before.

I could see this working for a single map plate, but not for a number of plates thrown together to make a whatever.img file Edit: However, you could be very correct! I am trying this now...

OK, I tried this, but it didn't seem to work yet. I opened up GMapTool, opened the .img file that had the Ibycus Topos in it, filename "Ibycus.img". I checked off the Mapset box under the "Write" tab and put in the name "Ibycus Topo", then I clicked "Write All". I then deleted the original Ibycus.img file from my Montana's internal memory and copied over the new "Ibycus.img" file from my "Test" directory, thinking that the new name would now appear when selecting map products. No dice so far, the old name is still there...?! Am I doing something wrong? I appreciate your time, this is valuable information to me, thanks.

Ah, thanks. The GUI is definitely the way to go. I am trying to DL it now but all the site is giving me is spam crap programs, iLivid.exe, setup.exe flippin' toolbars and such. Got it this time: http://www.anpo.republika.pl/download.html

And I really didn't see a link to download GMapTool in that link?

I'm not going to lie, I read that entire thread twice now and it doesn't make any sense to me. It appears that GMapTool has a DOS or Unix style command line area where you have to insert -l or -j in order to get it to create the type of file you want/need. Is there some sort of an easy command that can just take my previously created whatever.img file and give it a name that a Garmin GPSr will display?

How are you sending the maps? As a single gmapsupp.img including all the different map products, or as 3 gmapsupp.imgs which you rename? Also are you comparing the Montana to an older Garmin like a 60CSX or a newer one like an OR or a 62s? I was sending them all as one big gmapsupp.img, which works fine on an Oregon, a 60Cx or my trusty 276C. I since sent them all to the Montana separately and now it works fine. I actually programmed two GPSr's at the same time; I sent the files directly to the MicroSD chip (in it's SD adapter in my PC's card reader) from a new Garmin GPSMAP 62, then copied the three .img files to the internal memory of my new Montana 650. I find it odd that you can't send all three map sets to the Montana at once. Kind of a pain in the arse to have to do one at a time but at least it works now.

It worked well, the only thing that was odd was that the Ibycus Topo maps did not come up under their name. I could easily see "BlueCharts" and "Topo Canada" but the title for the Ibycus Topos was a list of map plates that was truncated once it reached a maximum number of characters. Any advice as to how I can get "Ibycus Topo" to show up? Must be some sort of a tag that the Garmin products have built-in by default...

Ah, I see. I will try that now.

Hello, I normally load my Garmin GPS products (60Cx, 276C, Oregon 550, Nuvi, now the Montana 650) with all three map systems at once and simply select which one I wish to be active through the "Setup map->Select Map" option array. For whatever reason, my Montana won't let me do that. I have loaded up about 512MB worth of blues and topos to the internal memory via USB cable to try it, but it does not show the map products in the "Select Map" menu despite the fact that it displays the BlueCharts over the top of whatever else I have uploaded. This is weird. Other than this, I have also tried loading the three map products to a MicroSD card via my computer's SD card reader slot to see if that would work, but once installed into the Montana, it does recognize that the maps are there, but it just piles all three map products on top of each other so that all I can see are the BlueCharts predominantly, with the topos skirting these map plates. Can somebody tell me if they are having the same problem? This is normally a very straightforward process.