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New Garmin Oregon 600 Series


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There might be a screwup between launching the Oregon 600, a new model called Monterra (should be working on Android) and a coming Garmin Android app.

Maybe all 3 have to work together in one way or another, maybe they want to launch them at the same moment, maybe they want Android on the Oregon 600, who knows.

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When I sent an email to Garmin support a week or so ago they replied:

 

"From what I understand the devices should ship in the month of April. It was listed as first quarter which means between April and June."

 

So no, I don't think they know that Q1 ended in March! :blink:

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Re: Monterra

 

Item Weight 1.5 pounds

Product Dimensions 6.4 x 3.3 x 6.4 inches

Item model number 010-01065-00

Batteries: 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included)

Display Size 4

Battery Life 16 hours

 

This thing sounds like a small cinder block.

 

edit: Ah... The Oregon 650t lists at 1.3 lbs and 5.5 x 3.4 x 6.5 inches, so this is clearly about packaging size.

Edited by DragonsWest
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I contacted Customer Services at Go Outdoors in the UK to find out when they expected the 600 series to be available and they responded with.

 

'We are expecting the Garmin Oregon GPS systems to be delivered to customers approx mid April going on towards the end of April.

 

They have been delayed due to an unexpected problem with Garmins shipping and distribution.'

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I contacted Customer Services at Go Outdoors in the UK to find out when they expected the 600 series to be available and they responded with.

 

'We are expecting the Garmin Oregon GPS systems to be delivered to customers approx mid April going on towards the end of April.

 

They have been delayed due to an unexpected problem with Garmins shipping and distribution.'

 

so what is it ? distribution issues ? firmware issues ? manufacturing issues ? waiting on Monterra ?

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You probably didn't notice they don't show as caches. The 650 has a 12K limit. You use GSAK to make a POI file and load that.

Is that a 12K limit for geocaches, as in caches in GPX files?

 

--Larry

 

Apparently so. The Montana has the same limit. I was hoping there'd be some info on a GPX>GGZ tool. GGZ so far remains a mystery.

 

Yeah, that's the basic reply I got back from a Garmin Rep. 12K GPX file limitation still applies, but hey you can do 4M caches in our new proprietary standard .ggz that nobody knows what the heck it is, but if you go with our Opencaching which has like 50 caches on it for your area, you can download up to 4M caches to put on our GPS unit. Trust us. :blink:

 

Ok, a bit of paraphrasing in that, but dadgum this is a bit of bait and switch until they have a way for others to create .ggz files. The folks at GSAK said they would PROBABLY be able to do it if Garmin releases the spec's/definition for .ggz files.

 

Until there's a tool for generating .ggz files then this isn't working for me. Sorry POI's only don't cut it for me when geocaching on a GPSr. :unsure:

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I contacted Customer Services at Go Outdoors in the UK to find out when they expected the 600 series to be available and they responded with.

 

'We are expecting the Garmin Oregon GPS systems to be delivered to customers approx mid April going on towards the end of April.

 

They have been delayed due to an unexpected problem with Garmins shipping and distribution.'

 

so what is it ? distribution issues ? firmware issues ? manufacturing issues ? waiting on Monterra ?

 

If it looks like a fish and smells like a fish it's probably a fish.

 

All I can think is some logistics company, somewhere is pulling the units from packages, loading some updated firmware, repacking end putting in cartons to send out to distribution.

 

I worked in logistics and this is what it "feels" like is going on -- Garmin identified a serious problem and is reloading firmware before shipping. Serious enough they'll suffer the delay now rather then the slings and arrows of critical reviews later.

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If it looks like a fish and smells like a fish it's probably a fish.

 

All I can think is some logistics company, somewhere is pulling the units from packages, loading some updated firmware, repacking end putting in cartons to send out to distribution.

 

I worked in logistics and this is what it "feels" like is going on -- Garmin identified a serious problem and is reloading firmware before shipping. Serious enough they'll suffer the delay now rather then the slings and arrows of critical reviews later.

 

ok garmin, can you please send my unit right away ? I will be happy to upgrade the firmware myself :ph34r:

Edited by gulo
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Don't worry.... I'm sure Mr. Lipe will have a converter built for the new format once he gets a sample file to look at.

 

Assuming it's some sort of xml or similar script, I'd agree with that line of thought. If there's some sort of encoding or encryption on top, that may prove to be a different matter.

 

I'll bide my time, twiddle my thumbs and keep caching w/ c:geo on my phone and Oregon 400t until I see something working from him, before I buy a 600 series.

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If there's some sort of encoding or encryption on top, that may prove to be a different matter.

I really don't think that will slow him down considering he already has converters for every format out there....

I've seen informal specs and frankly, I hope they revisit some of their decisions before it's final. That's probably about all I'm likely to say until it's public since I'm already on record as being skeptical.

 

It wouldn't be terribly hard to create a PQ->GGZ converter with tiny little standalone program. I'm not at all sure that it belongs in GPSBabel and right now (it would be an architecture problem as it would require multiple passes over the output file - not impossible, bue definitely weird and it would be a problem for things like pipes and network sockets.) I'm not chomping at the bit to bear the engineering cost to implement it. Of course, the whole point of Open Source is that if someone ELSE wants to do it and get it into GPSBabel, they're welcome to bear that cost and I'll help integrate and support it.

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I contacted Customer Services at Go Outdoors in the UK to find out when they expected the 600 series to be available and they responded with.

 

'We are expecting the Garmin Oregon GPS systems to be delivered to customers approx mid April going on towards the end of April.

 

They have been delayed due to an unexpected problem with Garmins shipping and distribution.'

 

so what is it ? distribution issues ? firmware issues ? manufacturing issues ? waiting on Monterra ?

Link to comment

I contacted Customer Services at Go Outdoors in the UK to find out when they expected the 600 series to be available and they responded with.

 

'We are expecting the Garmin Oregon GPS systems to be delivered to customers approx mid April going on towards the end of April.

 

They have been delayed due to an unexpected problem with Garmins shipping and distribution.'

 

There are times when I'm sorely tempted to step in and say, "I could get this done faster than their team." This is one of them. Who is running their logistics, Larry, Moe and Curly?

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Here is a short preview of Oregon 600. Nothing new really, it says "Small drawback: the delivery of the new Oregon has been postponed to early May."

 

the scary part is " Namely, if instead of normal batteries batteries are installed, they could destroy with an applied charge current the entire device." :laughing: :laughing: :unsure:

Edited by gulo
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Here is a short preview of Oregon 600. Nothing new really, it says "Small drawback: the delivery of the new Oregon has been postponed to early May."

 

the scary part is " Namely, if instead of normal batteries batteries are installed, they could destroy with an applied charge current the entire device." :laughing: :laughing: :unsure:

 

The very next sentence says "Garmin solves this problem with a small switch". Specifically, there is a switch that the NiMH battery pack triggers that AAs (or other NiMH batteries) won't trigger. You can see it in the image. It looks like these models are setup to only allow USB charging when the switch is toggled.

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Here is a short preview of Oregon 600. Nothing new really, it says "Small drawback: the delivery of the new Oregon has been postponed to early May."

 

the scary part is " Namely, if instead of normal batteries batteries are installed, they could destroy with an applied charge current the entire device." :laughing: :laughing: :unsure:

 

The very next sentence says "Garmin solves this problem with a small switch". Specifically, there is a switch that the NiMH battery pack triggers that AAs (or other NiMH batteries) won't trigger. You can see it in the image. It looks like these models are setup to only allow USB charging when the switch is toggled.

 

I know, I meant it as a joke at google translate.

 

On a serious note - I wonder if simply ducktaping 2 rechargable AA batteries would trigger the switch and work as opposed to buying specific garmin pack

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Here is a short preview of Oregon 600. Nothing new really, it says "Small drawback: the delivery of the new Oregon has been postponed to early May."

 

Review published on April 5th, when did we heard about June 24th being the day? The 9th was it? So still looking like late June? I may cancel my order and give up my place in line. I ordered one hoping to have it before Geowoodstock. Garmin need to learn not to even disclose a product availability until they are shipping to distribution. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. Not quite the thing to make customers happy. I wonder what stockholders think.

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On a serious note - I wonder if simply ducktaping 2 rechargable AA batteries would trigger the switch and work as opposed to buying specific garmin pack

 

Probably. The battery pack is just two NiMH AAs bound together. Although I suspect that the charge rate while plugged in would be fairly slow (would the 600 be able to draw more than 500mA from a USB port?). A good charger will beat the sort of charge that could be provided this way, somewhere around 200-300mA. While it is a nice feature, and some will like it because it means you can treat the Oregon like any other USB-charged gadget, it just feels like a waste of money if you buy the pack, or good batteries if you tape a pair together.

 

Although, I am looking at a 600/650 to replace my 450. I am just not sure the extra storage and camera are worth 80$ (I probably wouldn't even use the included NiMH pack), and I mostly am interested in the ruggedized 8MP camera.

Edited by Kolenka
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Yesterday through Amazon I did the pre-order for the Oregon 650. I hope the device will ship soon as my first ever geocaching event I will get to attend falls on my birthday and I really want to take along this new unit. I've been using my iPhone 4 and it's time to step into a GPSr that I feel more comfortable with in the woods and much longer battery life to boot. I've emailed Amazon and Garmin both to see if there are any updates to the release date. *fingers crossed*

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Yesterday through Amazon I did the pre-order for the Oregon 650. I hope the device will ship soon as my first ever geocaching event I will get to attend falls on my birthday and I really want to take along this new unit. I've been using my iPhone 4 and it's time to step into a GPSr that I feel more comfortable with in the woods and much longer battery life to boot. I've emailed Amazon and Garmin both to see if there are any updates to the release date. *fingers crossed*

 

I've emailed Garmin, but have yet to hear back from them. I hope someone in Olathe, Kansas, is learning something here about product announcements and roll-out dates. Steve Jobs, love him or hate hime, the iPhones shipped when they said they would.

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Yesterday through Amazon I did the pre-order for the Oregon 650. I hope the device will ship soon as my first ever geocaching event I will get to attend falls on my birthday and I really want to take along this new unit. I've been using my iPhone 4 and it's time to step into a GPSr that I feel more comfortable with in the woods and much longer battery life to boot. I've emailed Amazon and Garmin both to see if there are any updates to the release date. *fingers crossed*

 

I've emailed Garmin, but have yet to hear back from them. I hope someone in Olathe, Kansas, is learning something here about product announcements and roll-out dates. Steve Jobs, love him or hate hime, the iPhones shipped when they said they would.

I have already received an email from Amazon. The reply goes something like this: I understand your concern on ship date for Oregon 650, etc etc.... Rest assured we are working with suppliers to have the unit shipped at the earliest possible date. To help you, I've upgraded the shipping date to one day shipping free of charge ( I had previously selected the free super saving shipping). "I can confirm that we still expect to ship your order in time to be delivered to you by Thursday, June 13, 2013. Also states that the order could be shipped anywhere between now and the aforementioned date of June 13th. I hope that's the latest date to be expected.

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I'll settle for April 19th. May is pushing it and June 7th is my birthday and Pioneer Palooza in Marietta, so we can't be having any of that. I too am getting pretty antsy.

 

I really want this thing before heading off to GeoWoodstock. I'll fly to Atlanta, travel a bit through Georgia and then have lots of time to mooch around central Florida. That's a lot of area and I want to have a bucket load of caches loaded, with my trusty old Oregon 450 as a backup, for the trip. Not having it in time means relying solely on the Oregon 450, with its 5K cache limit.

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So it says in the manual to record the track log push this button.

 

Does it only save the tracklog when you chose the option or is it constantly recording like 60csx?

 

Looks like the feature is the same as the Oregon 4xx/5xx, except you can pause/resume tracking from the current track menu.

 

So if you never pause the recording, it will constantly record to the current track file. When you save the track, it will save it to a different GPX file like on the 4xx/5xx. The guide also kinda says "turn it on, walk around, profit".

 

I can see pausing being useful when breaking for lunch during a hike, for example.

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I can see pausing being useful when breaking for lunch during a hike, for example.

 

Not really useful, tracks take very little space on an Sd, so the best thing is to have it on and not bother about it.

The gps will close the track (and start a new one) once it reached it's limit, this can go on for many many month.

 

Being on a trip the less settings on the gps the better, if you set the track off every time sooner or later you will forget to set it on again.

Edited by splashy
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I can see pausing being useful when breaking for lunch during a hike, for example.

 

Not really useful, tracks take very little space on an Sd, so the best thing is to have it on and not bother about it.

The gps will close the track (and start a new one) once it reached it's limit, this can go on for many many month.

 

Being on a trip the less settings on the gps the better, if you set the track off every time sooner or later you will forget to set it on again.

Not sure I agree here, and it has nothing to do with how much space the track uses on the unit.

 

In my typical scenario, in the middle of my caching day, I break for lunch at some restaurant, and I leave my GPS unit on, hanging from my belt. Satellite reception goes way down or goes away entirely inside the building. When I look at the track for that day's outing, I see this one big ugly random blob, maybe a hundred feet or more in diameter, centered on my table at the restaurant. Not pretty, and it sure does mess up things like total track distance for that day.

 

I'm looking forward to being able to pause the tracking when I get my 650.

 

--Larr

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I can see pausing being useful when breaking for lunch during a hike, for example.

 

Not really useful, tracks take very little space on an Sd, so the best thing is to have it on and not bother about it.

The gps will close the track (and start a new one) once it reached it's limit, this can go on for many many month.

 

Being on a trip the less settings on the gps the better, if you set the track off every time sooner or later you will forget to set it on again.

 

Too true. How many times have you got up from a spot and found an hour later your hiking pole or something else was left behind.

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I'll settle for April 19th. May is pushing it and June 7th is my birthday and Pioneer Palooza in Marietta, so we can't be having any of that. I too am getting pretty antsy.

 

I really want this thing before heading off to GeoWoodstock. I'll fly to Atlanta, travel a bit through Georgia and then have lots of time to mooch around central Florida. That's a lot of area and I want to have a bucket load of caches loaded, with my trusty old Oregon 450 as a backup, for the trip. Not having it in time means relying solely on the Oregon 450, with its 5K cache limit.

 

I hear you. I'll be traveling overland from Houston to Lakeland (about 14.5hrs driving + caching along the way - we hope to make it in 24hrs :blink: ) I'll have my Oregon 400t with me (1.5K limit), and my phone and tablet (both w/ c:geo - got 30K caches in it right now - not sure what if any limit there is) and two fellow cachers w/ both phones and handheld GPRs units as well, so we'll be stocked up, but I'd really like to put the 25K or so caches that I've located in area's we'll be in my GPSr and familiarize myself with the unit.

 

Not to mention, show it off at Geowoodstock XI.

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I can see pausing being useful when breaking for lunch during a hike, for example.

 

Not really useful, tracks take very little space on an Sd, so the best thing is to have it on and not bother about it.

The gps will close the track (and start a new one) once it reached it's limit, this can go on for many many month.

 

Being on a trip the less settings on the gps the better, if you set the track off every time sooner or later you will forget to set it on again.

 

Too true. How many times have you got up from a spot and found an hour later your hiking pole or something else was left behind.

 

2 Cache's later when you're thinking, "I should poke that hole with a stick before I reach my hand inside." DOH!!! I left that #$%@ hiking pole back at that cache while signing the log.

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[

 

In my typical scenario, in the middle of my caching day, I break for lunch at some restaurant, and I leave my GPS unit on,

--Larr

 

Why should you keep the gps on in a restaurant? Just curious.

Because I'm sitting there with one or more geocaching buddies, and we're planning our next targets. Or I'm using the unit to show off caches I've already found in the area (I have my finds stored as POIs). Or I'm having lunch with a geocaching newbie and showing him how to use features on the unit.

 

If I'm not doing any of the above, I might turn it off. It depends.

 

--Larry

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