Zumo: gps for dummies ?

berta said:
From Garmin Blog: http://garmin.blogs.com/my_weblog/2006/08/with_the_overwh.html


"Will the zūmo 550 have a setting to *ask* you to recalculate instead of automatically recalculating?

No, the unit will automatically recalculate the route to the next point. It will not ask you if you wish to recalculate"
Click to expand...
Well that isn’t good is it; I often go ‘off route’ without wanting the GPS to re route me. I can’t believe there isn’t a setting to offer the option ‘re calculate or not’
I’m sure its something Garmin could put right with a firmware update, we’ll have to see what we get…
 
I'd wait and see or ask him a question on the blog. he may have interpreted the question wrongly.
Can't see why it would be any different from the current software they run on Gamrins...............
 
Garmin are constantly "dumbing down" their GPS units, to try and crack the mass consumer market, and compete with TomTom. Clearly they think that most people just want a device that tells them how to get from A to B, and nothing else.

(IMHO of course)
 
Mouse said:
Garmin are constantly "dumbing down" their GPS units, to try and crack the mass consumer market, and compete with TomTom. Clearly they think that most people just want a device that tells them how to get from A to B, and nothing else.

(IMHO of course)
Click to expand...


This is why, i have a Garmin GPS60CSmap for my off road, with all the extras sensors and great maps, and im now going to get either a Tom Tom rider (once the faulty cradle has been sorted) or Garmin Zumo, the Zumo looks like the one, and i prefere to stay with garmin, as thats what ive always used, but how can garmin justify the double in cost over the Rider :nenau
Both will be mounted side by side on my GS.
 
I've posted and asked the question. Wait and see if it appears on the site with a reply............
 
Wasn’t the Tomtom Rider near £600 when it was launched in early 2005?

Dutchman was offering the Zumo 550 on pre-order for £439.95 inc VAT (£499rrp), I don’t think that’s a bad price for the latest technology, you could always buy a Tomtom Rider while the price comes down ;)
 
ebbo said:
Well that isn’t good is it; I often go ‘off route’ without wanting the GPS to re route me. I can’t believe there isn’t a setting to offer the option ‘re calculate or not’
I’m sure its something Garmin could put right with a firmware update, we’ll have to see what we get…
Click to expand...

Why not turn the GPS off for an hour then it won't keep recalculating?
I thought the idea of the GPS was to help get you from A to B? If you want to ignore it, then turn it off.
 
Dillinger said:
Why not turn the GPS off for an hour then it won't keep recalculating?
I thought the idea of the GPS was to help get you from A to B? If you want to ignore it, then turn it off.
Click to expand...

cos you might want to know where you've been for that hour, for use later.
 
Dillinger said:
Why not turn the GPS off for an hour then it won't keep recalculating?
I thought the idea of the GPS was to help get you from A to B? If you want to ignore it, then turn it off.
Click to expand...
I don't think you have understood at all!

Taking you from A to B is only one of the things a Garmin GPS can help you with.

You may not have noticed but there is actually a road map inside the thing. :eek: This can for example be used as a co-driver to warn you for a sharp bend comming up.

There is no way that you can prepare a route on "nice biking roads" on the GPS itself. This you do on the PC and then upload the route to the GPS. If you let the GPS recalculate the route it will be destroyed - you loose control over which roads it selects. Also, when driving along a route you may see something interesting, maybe a sign pointing to a butterfly museum 8.6 km away or whatever. Maybe you drive up there and afterwards follow another road on the map on the GPS screen back to your original route. To do this one MUST be able to switch off automatic recalculation.

Useful is also the logging feature in the GPS, you know where you've been. So, what can a Garmin GPS do for you today (in order of importance):

- Take me along a nice biking road.
- Take me from A to B (B can for example be the nearest gas station).
- Warn me for sharp bends.
- Tell me where I've been today.
- Show me on the map where I am now.
- Show me on the map where the road I am on now leads.
- Etc.

Within a year or so one can expect that the GPS also will show your biking friends as red dots on the screen - and more!
 
Jon said:
I've posted and asked the question. Wait and see if it appears on the site with a reply............
Click to expand...
The reply was:
And the most important question is: can the zūmo navigate a route I uploaded from Mapsource without recalculating the route (proviced it was created on the same map product as loaded on the zūmo, of course)?

Yes, the zūmo 550 will allow you to create routes in MapSource and then load them onto the device. It will keep the via points in the exact same order that they were arranged in MapSource.

Still no proper answer. :spitfire I've posted the question again. Let's hope for a real reply this time. :eek
 
HMR said:
Within a year or so one can expect that the GPS also will show your biking friends as red dots on the screen - and more!
Click to expand...
For the benifit of others, the Garmin Rino can already do this, it is a GPS with built in radio (walkie-talkie) a nice little feature for an outdoor GPS, but it relies on the radios always being within range of each other and also that your mates will buy in to the system (Ha! some hope :rolleyes: )
 
ebbo said:
For the benifit of others, the Garmin Rino can already do this, it is a GPS with built in radio
Click to expand...
I know about the Rino. It can't do the trick. It's radio range is not enough and I suspect that it's not legal in Europe.

Seeing your friends on the screen is a GPRS/3G/Internet thing. Requires a mobile phone combined with a GPS. You and your friends publish your coordinates once per 5 or 10 seconds on a webpage from where you dowload the info and show it on the screen. Rather similar to ICQ or MSN Messenger. One interesting feature is that also your wife can se where you are on her PC at home... :eek:
 
ebbo said:
Well that isn’t good is it; I often go ‘off route’ without wanting the GPS to re route me. I can’t believe there isn’t a setting to offer the option ‘re calculate or not’
Click to expand...
A friend of mine just laid his hands on a Zumo and som very preliminary answers are coming from there.

- No, you can't stop the Zumo from recalculating. No way.

- But it's even worse. It seems that one can't even upload a route from MapSource to the Zumo. :confused: It uses only the uploaded waypoints/viapoints, recalculates everything, and creates a route from where you are to the destination including the all viapoints. Makes it indeed tricky to upload a route running in south Spain while still in Sweden....

This means that the Zumo is probably not fit for anything but taking you from A to B. I have a set of 20 routes for one week of travel in the Alps that was used at a couple of organized tours. Total number of bikes was 40 out of which 2/3 had GPS navigators. The routes proved to work fine on SP3, SP2610, SP2720, Quest, Quest2 and 276C. Map versions used where 4, 6, 7 and 8. There where some issues when compiling the routes for the map CN4 but in gereral all worked fine.

But there are huge problems when uploading the 20 routes to the Zumo. :nenau Due to the rather large number of map bugs one needs the power of MapSource to fix all issues. The Zumo seems to work fine only when the map has a perfect coverage of the entire area. And that is seldom the case in Italy.

Maybe, given time, we will sort out how to force the Zumo to follow the uploaded routes but for the time being the (premature?) conclusions are:

- Zumo is not a good choise for vacation travel.
- Zumo is useless where the map is poor. Portugal, Slovenia, Off-road, etc.
- An old SP2610 is a far better MC-GPS than the Zumo. :thumb
- Even a stoneage SP3 is a better MC-GPS than the Zumo. :eek:
- The Zumo is a better MP3-player than the SP3. :eek
- The Zumo is, by far, a better MC-GPS than the TTRider. :bow
 
HMR said:
A friend of mine just laid his hands on a Zumo and som very preliminary answers are coming from there.

- No, you can't stop the Zumo from recalculating. No way.

- But it's even worse. It seems that one can't even upload a route from MapSource to the Zumo. :confused: It uses only the uploaded waypoints/viapoints, recalculates everything, and creates a route from where you are to the destination including the all viapoints. Makes it indeed tricky to upload a route running in south Spain while still in Sweden....
Click to expand...

If this is correct then Garmin have seriously ballsed up. It seems like they've no idea what riders need :nenau

I can't consider the Zumo as a serious proposition for use when touring on a bike or even for a one day ride-out :(

I'll hang onto the Quest until they come up with something better, the Zumo certainly isn't.
 
Whoevers going to the bike show needs to print this thread out and take it to the Garmin stand and get some definite yes/no answers...............
 
Jon said:
Whoevers going to the bike show needs to print this thread out and take it to the Garmin stand and get some definite yes/no answers...............
Click to expand...
Bike show starts in a few days, if someone can take this forward to the Garmin stand and report back, good. I’m going next Thursday, if there is an issue they’ll here it from me.

I still can’t believe Garmin would do anything so daft
 
ebbo said:
I still can’t believe Garmin would do anything so daft
Click to expand...
Well, we can only hope that what we have found out so far proves to be wrong and that Zumos delivered later are equipped with the magic "Automatic Route Recalculation = OFF" setup option.

If Garmin also added the outstanding but very simple track save feature present in 60CX and 276C they would have created a real killer.
 
I've found out a few more things about the Zumo. At least about the pre-series version. Production devices may be different.

- The Zumo has, it seems, unlimited storage capacity for routes, waypoints & track logging. It can read/write this data to/from the SD card. This makes the Zumo a winner for long time & long distance travel. :thumb

- You can't switch off neither AutoZoom nor Off Route Recalculation. This makes, in my opinion, the Zumo useless for all kinds of active riding. It can't be used as a Moving Map nor as a Co-Driver showing up-coming bends. :(

It seems as Garmin with the Zumo aims only at taking customers from TomTom. This means aiming only for the dummies. Pity since the only feature the more active bikers needs is the option to switch off a few automatic things. :(

I'm very disappointed and I'll be very carefull with my 276C in the future. It's old technology yes but it's doing the job. Someting the Zumo isn't able to do. :( It's very disappointing to see that Garmin is going backwards in usability and GPS-functions. Instead they are adding nonsense as MP3-player and photo album.

Maybe one should consider buying a Nokia N95 GPS instead. It has much more features than the Zumo. At a lower price! 5 megapixel autofocus camera, 7-band cell phone, FM radio, video camera, calculator, alarm clock, web browser, MP3-player, USB-memory stick, etc, etc.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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