Etrex 30 - extremely slow to draw charts

[jgf310]

I just received my new Etrex 30.

 

I have been a very happy user of the Etrex Vista HCX, for many years.

 

I have been using the Vista with Bluecharts, and it works very well.

 

Along with my new Etrex 30, I purchased the G2 marine charts.

 

The Etrex 30 is so slow to draw the charts, that I will probably return everything, and just keep using the Vista.

 

Zooming (in, or out), and panning the charts is painfully slow on the Etrex 30.

 

The Vista HCX with bluecharts is quite good in this respect - absolutely no lag in drawing the charts, either while zooming, or panning.

 

I'm not sure if the processor is slower, or the chart files are bigger, or perhaps it's some other issue...

 

The Bluecharts were loaded on the Vista via Mapsource, from a CD, whereas the G2 charts are only available on micro-SD. I wouldn't have thought this would be a problem though.

 

Anyway, the Etrex 30 seems a real step backward in this regard.

Edited October 15, 2011 by jgf310

[gps_dr]

It's also quite slow in displaying the HuntingGPSmaps.

[jgf310]

has anyone tried the garmin topo maps in one of the new etrex units yet?

 

how do they render?

[+Chilli Pipers]

I am new to all this but my etrex 30 I got today is ridiculously slow at displaying an ordnance survey map I created in mobile atlas creator which was made up of just under 90 tiles. Was taking over 15 seconds to render am not happy at all

 

anyone have any ideas if we are doing anything wrong?

[+Woodstramp]

I too would be curious about how fast it works with Garmin (and free) vector topos.

 

I assume the slow draw rates are with raster maps.

[jgf310]

I too would be curious about how fast it works with Garmin (and free) vector topos.

 

I assume the slow draw rates are with raster maps.

 

No, the G2 charts are the Garmin brand vector marine charts.

 

I spoke with a customer service guy yesterday, and he said he was going to make some sort of notification to the tech people, to see if perhaps it is a software issue, that might be fixed by improving the code.

 

The reason I was interested in hearing about performance with garmin vector topo maps, is that I don't believe that they have changed much recently, while the G2 charts are (supposedly) a big change from the older Bluecharts which i used on my Vista HCX.

 

I am wondering if perhaps the G2 charts have much bigger file sizes than the Bluecharts, and if that is why they render so slowly.

 

One thing I learned, was that apparently I can use Mapsource to load older bluecharts on to the Etrex 30 - that would provide an interesting test of the rendering ability. I had been under the impression that Mapsource could not be used with these newer units.

 

The problem is that I don't have any unlock codes left on my Bluecharts.

 

I do have the old topo maps, which had no limit on the number of units they could be installed to, so i plan to try to use Mapsource to put them on my Etrex 30.

[+fklama]

I had similar problems when I first got my eTrex 30. But I have now solved this problem.

I used to have my maps on a 16GB micro SDHC (Class 4) which I have now replaced with a Class 10 microSDHC, a map that used to take about 15-20s now draws within 2-3s. The internal memory also seems to be rather slow, which is a bit sad, but since SDHCs are available up to 32GB I don't see a significant problem there.

The Basemap is still in internal memory for my device, and it is quite noticable when it switches between the EuropeNT to the Basemap, since the Basemap renders relatively slowly compared to the EuropeNT map

The only thing that I really miss compared to my Vista HCx ist the nice diagrams that the Vista HCx displays when using turn-by-turn routing. I also miss things like "Stop Navigation" and "Recalculate Route" in the menu on the map.

But overall I am quite satisfied with the eTrex 30, especially now that I have solved the painfully slow map-drawing.

[tr_s]

no problems with the map draw speed of the 30 here. Not that I have anything to compare with, the Gpsmap 6X/7X are faster I am sure.

 

Before v2.70 it was horribly slow though. Update the device to 2.80 if you haven't.

[Forkeye]

V2.80 is still a little slow compared to my 76csx which has no lag ,I suspect a slow processor which is too bad as I am sure all the newer maps and charts being more detailed need fast processors.When I pan with my etrex 30 I see a white screen until the cpu finishes writing to the screen,on my 76 I see the map as it moves with no delays just a moving map as it should be.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Forkeye

[tr_s]

Oh ok no whitescreen at panning? Yeah, then it's far much faster than the 30.

 

Comparatively slow map drawing is probably the least of the 20/30's troubles though... - it could be motivated as well - choice of a slower chipset/CPU to save on power.

Edited July 15, 2012 by tr_s

[Forkeye]

The 30 actually has very slow redraw times if you zoom way out,not really too bad when you are zoomed in closer ,changing the detail level of the map helps big time on both my 30 and my 76csx,normal detail on map setup seems ok when zoomed out ,most detail seems slow,my 76 slows down abit also when zoomed way out but just a brief hesitation,I am using Garmin topo maps that are at least 3-4 years old perhaps newer maps and Marine g2 charts require alot more processor time though.A little dissapointing though,newer electronics are always expected to be faster and better,not problematic.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Forkeye

[yogazoo]

The discussion back when the GLONASS/GPS chip came out (Tesio II) was that the processing speed of the chip, then the only chip for dual constellation reception, was very slow. I had purchased an eTrex 20 when they came out but returned it because the rendering of map information was painfully slow. I'm used to the Montana which has the snappiest draw of any Garmin handheld. Because I use a lot of custom maps and load my screen up with data, I'll wait for the second generation of eTrex with a faster chip.

 

Garmin may be able to speed up the screen redraw via firmware but only to a point.

[Forkeye]

The Etrex 30 also has a slow boot up time as well.

[tr_s]

The Etrex 30 also has a slow boot up time as well.

 

Which though isn't as serious as the fact that the boot up procedures are done blatantly incorrect.

[+chip01]

I am new to all this but my etrex 30 I got today is ridiculously slow at displaying an ordnance survey map I created in mobile atlas creator which was made up of just under 90 tiles. Was taking over 15 seconds to render am not happy at all

 

anyone have any ideas if we are doing anything wrong?

Try putting your MOBAC kmz file into OkMap. It is free and there is a utility to optimise for garmin custom maps.

Edited July 15, 2012 by chip01

[+fklama]

Class really refers to the write speed, so I suspect the increase in draw rate is down to some other factor, more likely problems on the original card.

 

Although the class rating refers to the minimum write speed in a fragmented case in MB/s, it does tell a bit about the read speed as well. Since reading flash media is faster than writing it, there are only a few factors that can increase the 'Class' rating without increasing the read speed. Mainly the garbage collection algorithm used by the SD controller chip.

[Fangamon]

Yep still as slow as even after four years of spin doctoring... It's not the firmware, it's the 4th rate technology the chipset is.

 

I mean USB v1.0, like who do they think they are kidding!

 

[Forkeye]

The unit does have very good battery life, which is great for hiking trips, but still I wonder if the chipset was chosen for its inexpensive cost or if it was the best they could do and still maintain very good battery life. Its very slow when panning or zooming but ok when just viewing the map walking. Now my 62sc, yea that's how it should be speed wise anyway.

Edited June 7, 2014 by Forkeye

[Fangamon]

Granted, battery life is exceptional...

[robertlipe]

Please don't bump threads from years ago with unrelated content.