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Garmin GPSMAP 62/78 software version 2.93 Beta


allory

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GPSMAP 62/78 software version 2.93 Beta

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=5071

 

Changes made from version 2.92 to 2.93:

* Improved GPS performance

* Improved JNX file handling

* Increased maximum number of supported JNX files to 250 from 200

* Fixed shutdown when unit had more than the maximum number of JNX files on it

* Fixed shutdown related to topographical maps and land cover text size

* Fixed Glide Ratio to Destination field

* Fixed problem with profiles and the fields on the map page

* Problems with the software may be reported to 62-78Beta@garmin.com

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Here's a pretty big change. The only roads that show up over BirdsEye imagery are main roads and highways. No trails, no "gray" roads at all. I can live with this presentation but one thing that is BAD is that trails, even custom map trails do NOT show up. Could be problematic with mapsets like Northwest Trails and other third party trail maps.

 

Edited to add: It's wierd but only my 62 works as described above. My Oregon 450 still shows seconday roads and trails over BirdsEye. The question is it an unintended bug or is it intentional. My guess is a bug.

 

And after reloading the beta my "About" screen still stays white for a good 20 seconds before information is displayed. Not a big deal until owners call tech support and are asked to go and find out what version they're running or what their unit id is. I would think it was broken.

Edited by yogazoo
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It's not the zoom level for me. 20ft out to 8mi, no secondary roads. I've tried this at every detail level from least to most.

 

Strange, two units with the same version having such different results. Boy, sure would be nice to get a larger sample size in the discussion so we can see what's going on here.

 

 

Edited to add: OK, I took my sd card out and booted up. I then checked to see how long it took the "About" information to pop up and it was nearly instant (about 1-2 seconds). Apparently the "About" information is scanning your map files and perhaps your JNX files before showing any information. I have 8GB of Birdseye images and 10 mapsets. With he card inserted and all the mapsets registering it takes my unit 20-30 seconds to see "About" information.

Edited by yogazoo
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I haven't any birdseye files on my 62s yet, just the sample one. About to re-up the subscription soon. That's likely the problem... the unit is scanning for dodgy JNX files and likely the presence of JNXs mucking with your road view. I only have CN 2011.40 and Topo 24k on this unit.

Edited by Maingray
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All of my maps show up fine. What maps are you using that they don't show up? I've got mostly Garmin maps on my unit. I do have a 10-15 second delay on the about screen and no GPS version showing up.

 

Do you see the minor roads (grey) on City Navigator in areas where you also have Birds Eye imagery?

 

The GPS version was missing with the last firmware, not sure if it's ever appeared on the 62/78 firmware.

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The 'About' screen populates fine on my 62s without any Birdseye installed.

 

Nice to see the profile issue I discussed here... http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=263825 ... is now fixed in this beta release...... however when I select Automotive mode from setup map > orientation, no roads show on Discoverer maps...... an email is on its way to the beta team.

 

Wonder what they mean by 'Improved GPS performance' - maybe the release notes should be a little more specific? I'll mention this to the beta team in my email.

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Do you see the minor roads (grey) on City Navigator in areas where you also have Birds Eye imagery?

I have City Navigator 2011.40 and Topo 24K as well and regardless of what vector map is enabled NO secondary roads are showing up over the Birdseye Imagery. Secondary roads include everything "gray" plus the trails (crappy, hard to see light gray/dark gray).

Edited by yogazoo
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Given the big change in map dsiplay the crowd around here sure is mum. I'm bumping this thread because I want to know if I'm the freak anomoly or are everyones vector "gray" roads gone when BirdEye is enabled. Help a brother out, it will take you 5 minutes to check. Thanks.

Edited by yogazoo
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I dont have Birdseye, so cannot help with that, but I noticed something else wrong with maps today..... the roads are gone on the Worldwide basemap that came with the 62s.... this along with roads missing on Garmin GB Discoverer when in automotive mode that I mentioned yesterday..... I think there is a deeper problem going on with roads showing than just with Birdseye....

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Thank you JanandSteve,

 

Here I thought a gremlin invaded my GPS and was hammering away at my map views. I hope we sent emails to the beta team about this. I know I have. I expect v2.94 to come out any day now.

 

Hi Yogazoo

 

emails sent yesterday and day before to beta team, although no reply at present - which may be good news as hopfully they are working on a quick turnaround for 2.94. Wonder why we are now seeing betas and not a stable alpha release? Are we the new software test team?..

Cheers for now

Steve

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Don't gripe....just think about it logically.....where could a more qualified team be found with a greater variation in opinions, methods, and capabilities ?

 

That's a darned good point. And I'll have to say that they are very responsive to bug reports they can replicate. I've even had them write me about a new feature request of mine. I used to think that the email addresses *beta@garmin.com were a token to appease those who were less than satisfied by making them think their voice was heard. I have come to understand that it's not that at all and they really appreciate bug reports and are receptive (at most) to feature requests.

 

Look for my "Elevation at Destination" field request any release now. B)

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I'll re-up my Birdseye sub for my new unit later today and tell you.

 

Was caching for 3 days with the new beta, unit was very unstable. Day 1, and a similar experience to a friend of mine running 2.92, I had a cache beamed to me and the unit froze halfway... on reboot, re-indexed and half the caches were missing. I did a force page-enter reset, took forever to reload and re-index but all the caches came back (finds reset, but I can live with that).

 

On four different occasions (out of about 60 caches), the unit froze at ~150 feet from a cache. Only a reboot would fix. And on some of those reboots, the unit started to re-index and froze halfway through. other times, quick reboot as normal.

 

Couple of other suggestions going to Garmin, not necessarily new from this beta:

 

If someone beams me the SAME geocache with different co-ordinates than the one on my unit (e.g. they have solved puzzle co-ordinates) my unit will not change the existing geocache's co-ordinates.

 

A "view geocache" menu option on the compass page when navigating to a geocache.

 

Ability to put a profile directly on the ribbon menu.

Edited by Maingray
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Maingray tell me more about "I did a force page-enter reset"

 

Is there a way to tell how many caches are loaded on the 62's, If I send 300 caches via GSAK send to to GPS how would I know if all of them go to the GPSr?

 

Hold down page+enter at the same time. It will ask you do you want to Clear User Data, if you say yes it will reset some settings back to default. All your custom profiles will be maintained, and (importantly) it will re-index your gpx file.

 

Second Q: No way to see how many are loaded. I just search for a cache thats a long distance away to see if loaded correctly.

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Thanks Maingray,

 

The day I loaded this beta i couldn't get the gray roads and trails to show up. I tried for days afterward with the same result. After reading your post I did a master reset and everything is layering as it should.

 

One more thing I noticed is that when you use the cursor to select a point on the map screen and you select that point it takes a coon's age for the unit to process and give you the "GO" screen. At least my layering works now.

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Well, I tried to reload the previous firmware version before this 2.93 rusty pile of shift and the unit locks up on the "Are you sure" screen. Yep, it locks up and when you let the screen time out it resets all your user data to default. WTF

 

Great so now my wireless transfer is broke, My map pointer takes forever when selecting something on the map, my configurations are gone (total HARD RESET) and now I'm stuck with it until Garmin releases a new beta. FnA

 

Someone please verify this before I send a pleasant email to Garmin.

 

PS: on a brighter note, at least the Oregon x50 does the same thing. <_<

Edited by yogazoo
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Well, I tried to reload the previous firmware version before this 2.93 rusty pile of shift and the unit locks up on the "Are you sure" screen. Yep, it locks up and when you let the screen time out it resets all your user data to default. WTF

 

Great so now my wireless transfer is broke, My map pointer takes forever when selecting something on the map, my configurations are gone (total HARD RESET) and now I'm stuck with it until Garmin releases a new beta. FnA

 

Someone please verify this before I send a pleasant email to Garmin.

 

PS: on a brighter note, at least the Oregon x50 does the same thing. <_<

 

After some messing around I got the older version to load. I placed the GCD file from the zipped installer directly onto my unit.

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For my trip yesterday, I loaded a KMZ sat overlay with only 11 'tiles' ( max is 100 'tiles' 'map segments' whatever you want to call them ). Booted the 62s before we went out to make sure all caches there etc. No error messages. Turned off. Got near 1st location. Turned on to nav in car to 1st location. Error came saying too many map segments ( cannot remember the exact message ). Rebooted and it loaded ok this time. Strange behaviour, but one I thought I'd share in case anyone else has had this prob.

Edited by janandsteve
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My thoughts about what is going on here with these wierd and random errors and freezes is this; in an attempt to change the way JNX files are handled, in a response to the hacking that has been going on, the changes have been causing a bit of havoc and slowness throughout. This may explain why my units seems to be experiencing a bit more problems than others because I have a large amount (8GB) of Birdseye imagery loaded on the sd.

 

ADDED: So I reinstalled the current beta and removed all but a single vector mapset and all my Birdseye tiles. The results were completely different. They seemed to have placed some serious checks on the BirdsEye JNX files that messes with certain functions. Thanks to the firmware hackers I'm assuming.

 

ADDED: So without Birdseye on my unit I rolled back the firmware again and, poof, it happened in a flash without a hitch. The new Birdseye JNX handling seems to be the culprit. This is why some folks here aren't experiencing any problems and those with large chunks of JNX files are being frustrated.

Edited by yogazoo
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The new Birdseye JNX handling seems to be the culprit. This is why some folks here aren't experiencing any problems and those with large chunks of JNX files are being frustrated.

 

This may be a contributing factor, but I do not use Birdseye and 2.93 caused major problems yesterday. I ended up keeping the battery case open to restart things when it locked up at various points (the GO button, cache descriptions, cache hints). I nursed it along, using geosphere on the iphone for the paperless features, and then solved the problem by switching back to 2.92 as soon as I got home. Next time I will not be so quick to update.

Edited by mulvaney
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I've updated my unit as soon as 2.93 beta was published.

 

After testing it everything looked OK.

I used it on my motor for one short trip only. The following day when I turned the unit on it couldn't get any satellite fix for 1 hour at a plain with nothing but clear blue skies. When I returned home I left the unit on the garden table for about half an hour. No fix again! Than I gave up and connected the unit to the computer and what! Computer cannot recognize the unit anymore. Above all when I disconnected the unit it was impossible to start it again without removing the batteries and reinstalling them again.

 

I have bypassed the boot by forcing unit to go to USB mass-storage mode by pushing up arrow button during the usb connection. Afterwards I was able to downgrade to 2.92. Now everything works again. During testing with 2.92 I only had 1 crash with the unit while I was in on the plane. I guess fast scrolling due to the traveling speed caused this crash.

 

Anyway I strongly recommend not to upgrade to 2.93 beta if your gpsmap 62/78 is the only unit in the field with you. It is totally unreliable.

Edited by rapieru
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Some more anomalies from our approx 6 mile hike yesterday......

 

1) Still a bit 'sticky' when approaching GZ of caches - compass smooth and coupled with 'distance to cache' led the way for us.

 

2) When using Discoverer UK OS 50k maps - the open treasure chest did not show straight away even though we had 'found' the cache - had to change pages to compass or trip computer, then when came back to map page had to scroll the map for the open treasure chest to appear.

 

3) When using Discoverer UK OS 50k maps - we had 'track up' selected, but the map did not orienteer itself to the straight ahead position when GPS turned. The blue triangle just mapped as though we had 'north up' selected, moving across the screen. Again we had to keep moving pages and then when map page reselected, all was ok..... intill next time when it got stuck. Happened about 10 times or so in 6 miles..... strange behaviour...

 

Anyone else find the above in the 2.93 release? All was well in 2.92 for us ( ref 2 & 3 above ).

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Some more anomalies from our approx 6 mile hike yesterday......

 

1) Still a bit 'sticky' when approaching GZ of caches - compass smooth and coupled with 'distance to cache' led the way for us.

 

2) When using Discoverer UK OS 50k maps - the open treasure chest did not show straight away even though we had 'found' the cache - had to change pages to compass or trip computer, then when came back to map page had to scroll the map for the open treasure chest to appear.

 

3) When using Discoverer UK OS 50k maps - we had 'track up' selected, but the map did not orienteer itself to the straight ahead position when GPS turned. The blue triangle just mapped as though we had 'north up' selected, moving across the screen. Again we had to keep moving pages and then when map page reselected, all was ok..... intill next time when it got stuck. Happened about 10 times or so in 6 miles..... strange behaviour...

 

Anyone else find the above in the 2.93 release? All was well in 2.92 for us ( ref 2 & 3 above ).

 

Reply from beta team....

 

We haven't had time to look into any issues regarding Discoverer maps. There happened to be a couple of major bugs with the latest beta that absolutely need to be fixed as soon as possible. We will look into what is going on with the Discoverer maps soon.

 

If you're comfortable with doing a master reset, you can try that to see if it fixes the roads disappearing issue.

 

62 Beta Team

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