Montana 650 - Slow to pan?

[JackShaft]

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.

[+Atlas Cached]

What is your Map Draw Speed?

[yogazoo]

Things I notice effecting draw speed-

 

Map Detail Level: I find in most situations that "Most" is too much for zoom levels from 5 to 50 miles. Try lowering map detail level to "More" or "Normal".

 

Enabled Mapsets: if you have too many transparent maps enabled over your basemap you can slow screen redraw speeds.

 

Aerial Imagery: aerial imagery takes more processing to render.

 

Zoom Level: zoom levels from 8 to 50 miles seem to be slower to render than closer zoom levels.

[JackShaft]

What is your Map Draw Speed?

 

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?

Edited December 7, 2012 by JackShaft

[+Atlas Cached]

That does not sound like much of a load to me either. I keep all my maps on the uSD card... at lower zoom levels, my map screen is jerky at times also with only CityNav and a transparent trail map enabled.

[Barrikady]

I have most of my maps on a 16gb micro sd card. They were all in a folder named 'Garmin' initially. However, I found that even if I only had one map set active, the Montana attempted to load all of the map sets located in the folder named 'Garmin.". Garmin devices automatically look for a folder named Garmin, and attempt to make the maps ready for use. When you have a goodly number of maps in the 'Garmin' folder, the GPS device bogs down and becomes less responsive.

 

This is what I did to alleviate that problem: I put a new folder on the micro sd card and I named it 'Disabled Maps.' I put the maps that I had no intention of using on the trip in the disabled map folder. The Montana boots up quicker and is more responsive. Here is the downside: The only way to activate the maps in the 'disabled maps' folder, or inactivate maps in the 'garmin' folder, is by attaching the Montana to a computer via a USB-Micro USB cable.

Edited December 8, 2012 by Barrikady

[JackShaft]

I have most of my maps on a 16gb micro sd card. They are in a folder named 'Garmin.' However, I found that even if I only had one map set active, the Montana attempted to load all of the map sets. This slowed down the Montana and made it less responsive.

 

This is what I did to alleviate that problem: I put a new folder on the micro sd card and I named it 'Disabled Maps.' I put the maps that I had no intention of using on the trip in the disabled map folder. The Montana boots up quicker and is more responsive. Here is the downside: The only way to activate the maps in the 'disabled maps' folder is by attaching the Montana to a computer via a USB-Micro USB cable.

 

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.

[yogazoo]

The number of maps loaded on either the SD card or the internal unit memory have no effect on screen re-draw times, none. My 16GB card is FULL of maps and aerial data and my screen redraws are extremely fast. The only factor in screen redraw on the Montana is what maps are enabled, map detail level, and zoom level.

 

Only unit start-up times are made slower with increased data loaded into memory.

[Barrikady]

The number of maps loaded on either the SD card or the internal unit memory have no effect on screen re-draw times, none. My 16GB card is FULL of maps and aerial data and my screen redraws are extremely fast. The only factor in screen redraw on the Montana is what maps are enabled, map detail level, and zoom level.

 

Only unit start-up times are made slower with increased data loaded into memory.

I always have had a great deal of respect for yogazoo's knowledge of 'all things gps.' I acknowledge the likelihood that his above statement is correct, and defer to his opinion.

[+Cacheoholic]

I have most of my maps on a 16gb micro sd card. They were all in a folder named 'Garmin' initially. However, I found that even if I only had one map set active, the Montana attempted to load all of the map sets located in the folder named 'Garmin.". Garmin devices automatically look for a folder named Garmin, and attempt to make the maps ready for use. When you have a goodly number of maps in the 'Garmin' folder, the GPS device bogs down and becomes less responsive.

 

This is what I did to alleviate that problem: I put a new folder on the micro sd card and I named it 'Disabled Maps.' I put the maps that I had no intention of using on the trip in the disabled map folder. The Montana boots up quicker and is more responsive. Here is the downside: The only way to activate the maps in the 'disabled maps' folder, or inactivate maps in the 'garmin' folder, is by attaching the Montana to a computer via a USB-Micro USB cable.

I do the same thing but I do it to avoid the ~4000 map segment limit.

[+splashy]

I have most of my maps on a 16gb micro sd card. They were all in a folder named 'Garmin' initially. However, I found that even if I only had one map set active, the Montana attempted to load all of the map sets located in the folder named 'Garmin.". Garmin devices automatically look for a folder named Garmin, and attempt to make the maps ready for use. When you have a goodly number of maps in the 'Garmin' folder, the GPS device bogs down and becomes less responsive.

 

This is what I did to alleviate that problem: I put a new folder on the micro sd card and I named it 'Disabled Maps.' I put the maps that I had no intention of using on the trip in the disabled map folder. The Montana boots up quicker and is more responsive. Here is the downside: The only way to activate the maps in the 'disabled maps' folder, or inactivate maps in the 'garmin' folder, is by attaching the Montana to a computer via a USB-Micro USB cable.

I do the same thing but I do it to avoid the ~4000 map segment limit.

 

Many people say it's not important, still my opinion is;

Total maps space should not be more than

4000 map tiles

or

about 4000 GB

[+Atlas Cached]

I have most of my maps on a 16gb micro sd card. They were all in a folder named 'Garmin' initially. However, I found that even if I only had one map set active, the Montana attempted to load all of the map sets located in the folder named 'Garmin.". Garmin devices automatically look for a folder named Garmin, and attempt to make the maps ready for use. When you have a goodly number of maps in the 'Garmin' folder, the GPS device bogs down and becomes less responsive.

 

This is what I did to alleviate that problem: I put a new folder on the micro sd card and I named it 'Disabled Maps.' I put the maps that I had no intention of using on the trip in the disabled map folder. The Montana boots up quicker and is more responsive. Here is the downside: The only way to activate the maps in the 'disabled maps' folder, or inactivate maps in the 'garmin' folder, is by attaching the Montana to a computer via a USB-Micro USB cable.

I do the same thing but I do it to avoid the ~4000 map segment limit.

 

Many people say it's not important, still my opinion is;

Total maps space should not be more than

4000 map tiles

or

about 4000 GB

 

Definitely do not want to exceed 4000 map segments/tiles....

 

But....

 

4000 GB ? :blink:

 

That's like, almost 4 TB - I didn't think they made uSD cards that big yet...

Edited December 8, 2012 by Atlas Cached

[yogazoo]

... the GPS device bogs down and becomes less responsive.

 

This is what I did to alleviate that problem: I put a new folder on the micro sd card and I named it 'Disabled Maps.' I put the maps that I had no intention of using on the trip in the disabled map folder. The Montana boots up quicker and is more responsive. Here is the downside: The only way to activate the maps in the 'disabled maps' folder, or inactivate maps in the 'garmin' folder, is by attaching the Montana to a computer via a USB-Micro USB cable.

 

I do the same thing but mostly to keep the list short in the map selection (map information) menu. I have 26 individual .img map sets loaded on my unit, mostly custom maps made up of biological and geological data to facilitate field work. In the off season I rename the .img to .DISABLE so the unit doesn't see them. The amount of map data on the card has never effected "screen redraws" in my experience (shold have added that qualifier). I've noticed it taking longer to boot up because the Garmin has to verify each mapset before operation. That isn't to say the unit couldn't experience sluggishness if asked to do other tasks like feature searches in which the unit searches for items in all the mapsets, but I haven't experienced it myself.

[+Atlas Cached]

I do the same thing but mostly to keep the list short in the map selection (map information) menu. I have 26 individual .img map sets loaded on my unit, mostly custom maps made up of biological and geological data to facilitate field work. In the off season I rename the .img to .DISABLE so the unit doesn't see them. The amount of map data on the card has never effected "screen redraws" in my experience (shold have added that qualifier). I've noticed it taking longer to boot up because the Garmin has to verify each mapset before operation. That isn't to say the unit couldn't experience sluggishness if asked to do other tasks like feature searches in which the unit searches for items in all the mapsets, but I haven't experienced it myself.

 

Excellent option! I used to keep all my extra maps in a separate directory, but now I just rename the maps I don't want indexed to *.zip - leaving them in the Garmin directory. Same with *.gpx files, just change them to *.zip in the GPX directory.

[yogazoo]

Many people say it's not important, still my opinion is;

Total maps space should not be more than

4000 map tiles

or

about 4000 GB

 

It could very well be important and may result in sluggish operation once you hit the 4,000 tile mark, I simply have no experience with hitting that limit. However in the custom mapsets I make (editors choice on GPSfiledepot for Montana, just sayin!) I usually shoot for larger tile sizes so I can load many mapsets without worry. I live in Montana and usually only load Montana data so it takes alot of mapsets to hit 4,000 tiles. I have about 10GB of maps and 3GB of BirdsEye and the only operative impairment I have noticed is when I enable too many maps on the map screen and have the terrain shading (from Garmin 24K) turned on.

[+splashy]

Bit over the top, must be about 4 GB.

 

Sorry about that.

Edited December 8, 2012 by splashy