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Garmin Montana 650


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Does anyone else that has City Navigator find that it takes a racoons age to query for stuff while moving? I tried to find a fast food joint on my way across town today and that little green wheel kept spinning and spinning under a blank screen. 5 minutes later I pulled into a Wendys and turned my confused unit off. Hmm.

Yogazoo,

 

I have CN installed on my Montana 650. I haven't searched for POI's while moving... but I do have a thought.

 

Is your Map Speed set to Fast or to Normal? (Setup->Map->Fast/Normal) If it's set to Normal, may I suggest you switch it to Fast and see if there is a difference.

 

Even if I'm standing still the search still takes about 1.5 minutes. If you have city navigator 2012 try searching for a "Food and Drink" category. It doesn't matter which one but lets say "All Categories" and see how long it takes to return any hits.

 

Just tested Where To->Food and Drink, I live in a rather remote area of small towns and it took 14 seconds to display all of the category within 35mi. - six pages of listings. I can imagine at that rate it might take quite a while in a large city/metro area. The search algorithm could use some performance work for sure.

 

Cheers,

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Does anyone else that has City Navigator find that it takes a racoons age to query for stuff while moving? I tried to find a fast food joint on my way across town today and that little green wheel kept spinning and spinning under a blank screen. 5 minutes later I pulled into a Wendys and turned my confused unit off. Hmm.

Yogazoo,

 

I have CN installed on my Montana 650. I haven't searched for POI's while moving... but I do have a thought.

 

Is your Map Speed set to Fast or to Normal? (Setup->Map->Fast/Normal) If it's set to Normal, may I suggest you switch it to Fast and see if there is a difference.

 

Even if I'm standing still the search still takes about 1.5 minutes. If you have city navigator 2012 try searching for a "Food and Drink" category. It doesn't matter which one but lets say "All Categories" and see how long it takes to return any hits.

 

Montana 650 with CNNA NT2012.10 took 109 seconds.

Edited by Cacheoholic
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Montana 650 with CNNA NT2012.10 took 109 seconds.

 

Well, at least I'm not crazy. There has to be something that's causing it. I also have Garmin topo 24K and BirdsEye loaded.

 

Cacheholic, would you mind sending an email to MontanaBeta@garmin.com describing the delay. The good folks there think I'm crazy on this one.

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Will do.

 

I've experienced map freezes. The track line keeps going but the vehicle position is stationary. Nothing but a reboot corrects it.

 

Also have random times when the unit freezes on shutdown in car mount. I get only the backlight when I press the power button. Holding in power button for several seconds shuts it down then I can restart normally.

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Montana 650 with CNNA NT2012.10 took 109 seconds.

 

Well, at least I'm not crazy. There has to be something that's causing it. I also have Garmin topo 24K and BirdsEye loaded.

 

Cacheholic, would you mind sending an email to MontanaBeta@garmin.com describing the delay. The good folks there think I'm crazy on this one.

 

I have CN 2012.1 and topo 24k loaded as well, and I am getting about 10 seconds before it will display the search results.

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Some test results when querying “All Categories” under “Food and Drink”. I deleted all mapsets from my SD card except City Navigator and added the topos one by one. The only map enabled in the active unit profile is city navigator.:

 

With only CityNav loaded it query’s instantly

 

With CityNav and Garmin Topo 24K loaded on the SD card it takes 40 seconds to display any data

 

With CityNav, Garmin Topo 24K and Topo 2008 loaded on the SD card it takes 1 minute and 30 seconds to return any data.

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If you have city navigator 2012 try searching for a "Food and Drink" category. It doesn't matter which one but lets say "All Categories" and see how long it takes to return any hits.

 

4 seconds for a list of All Categories under Food & Drink, and I am sitting at my desk indoors, although I have 5 bars reception.

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In order to test the search speed I am moving about 700MB of .img files from the Montana to the uSD card in it, and it's VERY slow... it's estimating about 14 minutes to do the transfer.

 

Looks like a good reason to not keep maps on a slow device, and if using a uSD card, it needs to be an expensive, fast one.

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My maps (I have each one in a different .img file, ie: ctnav.img, topo2008.img, catopo11.img and califtopo.img) are fairly small in area, because I don't get very far away from San Francisco. They cover from the Pacific coast to about Lake Tahoe (California / Nevada border) and maybe 200 miles north to south. If I don't need huge maps I don't see any reason to have them loaded all the time. If I go somewhere not currently covered, I will install what maps I need for the trip.

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Here it is! I removed my external memory with 10 – 11 gb of maps and installed CNNA NT2012.10 (all) in the internal memory. The search that took 109 seconds now takes less than 1 second!

 

Ah, interesting.

 

I have CN NA2012.10 on a 16gb class 4 micro card. I'm going to put CN NA in internal memory also.

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Glad to hear you solved it. I wonder if getting some smaller but really fast uSD cards and splitting up the load amongst 'em might help, then you could install whatever ones you need when you need them.

 

Doesn’t matter to me ‘cause I’m still using my nuvi for searches. The Montana will never take the place of my nuvi unless it can play mp3’s over my FM radio. The nuvi allows me to drop my satellite radio subscription.

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Here it is! I removed my external memory with 10 – 11 gb of maps and installed CNNA NT2012.10 (all) in the internal memory. The search that took 109 seconds now takes less than 1 second!

 

1) No one has to "remove" mapsets from their cards to test this. All you have to do is create a folder inside your Garmin folder on your SD and name it whatever (I named mine "disable"). Simply cut and paste your mapsets into this folder. The unit will not see them.

 

2) Wait a second Cacheoholic, the unit memory has nothing to do with it. If you only have City Navigator on your SD card the query results will also be instant. It's not the transfer speed of the card. It's something else.

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Finial test. I left the City Navigator on internal memory and removed it from external memory. I put the external memory back in and the same search is now about 90 seconds.

 

It's the total size of map data causing it.

 

My Topo 24K .img file is 2.6GB. I'll bet your right about map size Caheoholic. I'm going to do some more tests tonight rendering smaller topo maps to see if this fixes the problem.

 

I wonder why it only does this with "Food and Drink" categories???

Edited by yogazoo
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Finial test. I left the City Navigator on internal memory and removed it from external memory. I put the external memory back in and the same search is now about 90 seconds.

 

It's the total size of map data causing it.

Well, I took CN NA 2012.10 which is on my micro card, and I copied it to the internal memory of the Montana. I then disabled it on the micro card. Unlike Cacheoholic, the time it took to search the same search parameters when CN NA was on the micro card is just about the same... a second slower when the map is in internal memory

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Finial test. I left the City Navigator on internal memory and removed it from external memory. I put the external memory back in and the same search is now about 90 seconds.

 

It's the total size of map data causing it.

Well, I took CN NA 2012.10 which is on my micro card, and I copied it to the internal memory of the Montana. I then disabled it on the micro card. Unlike Cacheoholic, the time it took to search the same search parameters when CN NA was on the micro card is just about the same... a second slower when the map is in internal memory

 

What happens when you remove the MicroSD?

Edited by Cacheoholic
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Look, the way I see it is that the search for "Food and Drink" is busted somehow under the right conditions. I'll keep reporting this issue after every firmware update until they fix the darn thing. Until then I'll just have to use my cell phone GPS to find restaraunts which takes about two seconds.

 

Every other query works within a reasonable few seconds it just defies logic that this one doesn't. It should search within a perimeter around my current location and it shouldn't take almost 2 minutes to do so. I don't care how big my .img files are.

 

Here's another bug; try placing the search by "Coordinates" "Where to" button on the main menu. Yeah, now go ahead and tap that shortcut on the main menu page and hold on to your hat! Poof, nothing happens.

Edited by yogazoo
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WHOAAA PARTNER!!!

 

Check this out, me findy new hidden trick! :) Try holding down one of the icons on the main menu pages. After about two seconds the icon breaks free and you can move it around to wherever you like. You don't even have to go to the Main Menu setup page to move things around anymore! Pretty sweet function! Works the same in the "Tray".

Edited by yogazoo
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It was a cheap one. I think it was a "Low Class" Transcend card. No matter, I don't need it and I took it out. I am only using about 1/2 of the internal storage anyway.

Without any other reason, sticking with internal is probably best. For uSD cell phone photos and audio, they've been selling mostly (mostly) cheap Class 2 cards. Easy to come by - to slow for decent map redraws, etc. Experiments with the Oregon showed significant improvement with Class 4, and just a skosh more with Class 6 -- if you ever find the need for some more space. The TomTom units that employ SD and uSD card behave similarly.
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It appears that the Montana looks thru all .img files for its search even if they are not enabled?

 

Yes it does, but so does the Oregon and the Colorado. You can see this by disabling all maps in the setup and then searching for the same poi's, you will get the same list even with no active maps.

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I am still wondering about cheap options for my cheap Montana. :laughing: Money is tight and times are hard. What would be a cheap speaker system to add to a cheap mount? How about antennas? Do They help? What is the connection type? I reckon I can run some wire to my backpack and set up something like a PRC-25. Would it help?

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WHOAAA PARTNER!!!

 

Check this out, me findy new hidden trick! :) Try holding down one of the icons on the main menu pages. After about two seconds the icon breaks free and you can move it around to wherever you like. You don't even have to go to the Main Menu setup page to move things around anymore! Pretty sweet function! Works the same in the "Tray".

 

Oh well, I thought it was cool. Anyone else think this is cool or is my "new" trick old news? I know I know, you could do this with the Oregons three years ago right?

Edited by yogazoo
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WHOAAA PARTNER!!!

 

Check this out, me findy new hidden trick! :) Try holding down one of the icons on the main menu pages. After about two seconds the icon breaks free and you can move it around to wherever you like. You don't even have to go to the Main Menu setup page to move things around anymore! Pretty sweet function! Works the same in the "Tray".

 

Oh well, I thought it was cool. Anyone else think this is cool or is my "new" trick old news? I know I know, you could do this with the Oregons three years ago right?

Yes, that is WAY COOL...really.

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Finial test. I left the City Navigator on internal memory and removed it from external memory. I put the external memory back in and the same search is now about 90 seconds.

 

It's the total size of map data causing it.

Well, I took CN NA 2012.10 which is on my micro card, and I copied it to the internal memory of the Montana. I then disabled it on the micro card. Unlike Cacheoholic, the time it took to search the same search parameters when CN NA was on the micro card is just about the same... a second slower when the map is in internal memory

 

What happens when you remove the MicroSD?

That is an excellent question. I just removed the Adata 16gb Class4 MicroSD from the 650. I rebooted and did the same search I did previously when the MicroSD was installed. The search took approximately one second without the MicroSD as compared to approximately 8 seconds when the MicroSD was installed.

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Montana SW version 2.60 (Webupdater)

Changes from version 2.50 to version 2.60:

Improved camera Low Light Mode (650 and 650t)

Improved route recalculations with 24K TOPO maps

Fixed intermittent voice issues when navigating

Fixed issues with orientation lock after a power cycle

Fixed intermittent issues with Address and Intersection searches

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Anyone having a problem with waypoints showing up? My waypoints and geocaches are both missing when searching on the gps but basecamp shows them when the Montana is plugged in. This happened just after upgrading to 2.60 grrr

 

 

Edit: Okay after mounting/unmounting a few times both waypoints and caches are back. Not sure what the problem was.

Edited by lensgrabber
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Anyone having a problem with waypoints showing up? My waypoints and geocaches are both missing when searching on the gps but basecamp shows them when the Montana is plugged in. This happened just after upgrading to 2.60 grrr

 

Sorry, i'm not having the problem you describe. All of my waypoints, tracks, and geocaches (anything .GPX) is still there.

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