- Joined
- Oct 10, 2004
- Messages
- 3,580
- Reaction score
- 47
I've returned from a 6-7 week 8,200-mile trip with my Zumo 550 through the Alps, then to Morocco. I noted down points on the Zumo as they occured. Firstly the good bits:
- Thank god for the Zumo-specific forum at http://www.zumoforums.com. Without the advice I found there I would have had severe problems on the trip.
- The Zumo display is very good, no problem even in very bright sunshine. Great improvement on the 2610.
- It's not so quick to report loss of satelite signal and is very good in long tunnels (sometimes junctions are only a few metres from the end of the tunnel) so long as you maintain the same speed as when you entered the tunnel.
- The latest firmware includes a tracklog archive system, so when you've used the 10,000 breadcrumb limit, it archives the tracklog to the SD card which means you could probably save many months of tracks without having to carry a laptop with you.
- I deliberately rode as much as possible in unmapped areas in Morocco and have fed 2,400 km of new roads/tracks into the Marokko Topo project (http://www.island-olaf.de/travel/marokko/gps.html). Olaf is now working on a new release to incorporate these and feedback from other contributors.
- The ability to compose a route on one Zumo and then share it to the SD card then load it to another person’s Zumo is brilliant. Though I quickly learnt that the best way to do this was to put the other person’s SD card in my Zumo and share it to that so that I didn’t have to wait for the load process to finish on the other Zumo and to remember to retrieve my SD card.
However there were several areas where I think Garmin could improve things:
- Swapping between 'track up' and 'north up': this was my number one complaint. I don't think Garmin realise how often you need to do this in a complex area. With the 2610 I could switch views with a single 'click'. On the Zumo it takes a minimum of seven 'clicks', which then makes it a dangerous thing to try to achieve whilst riding. I would like to see the +/- on screen buttons removed and the space at the top left used instead for a compass/switch like the 2610.
- Retrieve coordinates of a waypoint: incredibly it's not possible to retrieve the lat/long data for a waypoint. So when I had a text from another biker asking for the coordinates of a waypoint in my Zumo where we were meeting I was unable to oblige. This is crazy and needs to be fixed asap.
- Force saving lat/long data in a waypoint: however it's possible to get around the problem above on waypoints you are creating on the road if you save your waypoints using 'where to> coordinates'. It then saves the lattitude as part of the waypoint name, and if you select the waypoint it shows the longitude as well.
- But how can I force the above to happen with Mapsource-defined waypoints??
- Avoidances: deciding whether the cost of toll roads is worth the time saving is a long process in the Zumo. There needs to be a quick way to change toll road/no toll road preferences. It's currently a minimum of 8 clicks.
- ‘no toll road’ preference: this was not always obeyed, big fine in Switzerland if you use their motorways without first buying a vignette.
- Size of map symbols: when you try to change the symbol on a waypoint the list is practically unreadable due to the small size. These should be bigger! Developers should have to view their work perched on a rolling platform in half light whilst buckets of water are being thrown at them.
- Timezones: the concept of selecting a timezone by scrolling through an alphabetic list of random cities is flawed, as you first need to know whether any of the cities in the list are in the same timezone as you! So it really needs the ability to select a timezone by GMT offset. I never did work out how I managed to get the unit on the right time for Morocco which is on constant GMT (winter and summer). I achieved it somehow, but can't remember how.
- Tracklogs can’t be turned off (no problem), however you can't force the start of a new one. I tried to start a new tracklog by rebooting the unit at the appropriate place, but this only worked if the unit was switched off for a period of time.
- Boot delay: I quickly learnt that the first thing you do when you are about to start off is to switch on the Zumo. Then, by the time you've put your earplugs in, put on your helmet and glasses, put on your gloves, and switched on the bike, the Zumo will be about ready for use. Boy is the boot process slow!
- The offroad route has a fixed start point, rather than the constantly adjusting startpoint of the 2610. If you are zoomed in to see track details the offroad route is sometimes then not visible on the screen and the only option is to force the unit to recalculate the route which then creates a new start point of the current position. This is awkward. Yes I'm aware of the arrow which points in the direction of the next via point, but this is an inferior solution, you really need to see the line overlaid on the map. Bear in mind the map might be track up or north up.
- Screen layout: I guess most people will use the unit with 'track up' or the 3D equivalent, so it really wasn't a good idea to use space at the top and bottom of the screen for system stuff as this effectively reduces the visible screen by one-third.
- Turn announcements: I really liked the way the 2610 announced the turns on screen. I found it's possible to display the turn info in a similar format on the Zumo by pressing the bottom right bit, but this is a manual operation. It would be very useful if there was an option for this to automatically display per the 2610 logic.
- The unit is quick enough to let you know you've gone off route, but then covers the map with a massive dialog box asking you whether it should recalculate the route. Often the best answer to this is no, but if I could see the map (or at least some of it) rather than a blank screen, I would be in a better position to answer the question!
- Managing new waypoints: this is awkward, and I got into the habit of giving them a numeric prefix so I could identify them later when I uploaded to Mapsource.
Tim
- Thank god for the Zumo-specific forum at http://www.zumoforums.com. Without the advice I found there I would have had severe problems on the trip.
- The Zumo display is very good, no problem even in very bright sunshine. Great improvement on the 2610.
- It's not so quick to report loss of satelite signal and is very good in long tunnels (sometimes junctions are only a few metres from the end of the tunnel) so long as you maintain the same speed as when you entered the tunnel.
- The latest firmware includes a tracklog archive system, so when you've used the 10,000 breadcrumb limit, it archives the tracklog to the SD card which means you could probably save many months of tracks without having to carry a laptop with you.
- I deliberately rode as much as possible in unmapped areas in Morocco and have fed 2,400 km of new roads/tracks into the Marokko Topo project (http://www.island-olaf.de/travel/marokko/gps.html). Olaf is now working on a new release to incorporate these and feedback from other contributors.
- The ability to compose a route on one Zumo and then share it to the SD card then load it to another person’s Zumo is brilliant. Though I quickly learnt that the best way to do this was to put the other person’s SD card in my Zumo and share it to that so that I didn’t have to wait for the load process to finish on the other Zumo and to remember to retrieve my SD card.
However there were several areas where I think Garmin could improve things:
- Swapping between 'track up' and 'north up': this was my number one complaint. I don't think Garmin realise how often you need to do this in a complex area. With the 2610 I could switch views with a single 'click'. On the Zumo it takes a minimum of seven 'clicks', which then makes it a dangerous thing to try to achieve whilst riding. I would like to see the +/- on screen buttons removed and the space at the top left used instead for a compass/switch like the 2610.
- Retrieve coordinates of a waypoint: incredibly it's not possible to retrieve the lat/long data for a waypoint. So when I had a text from another biker asking for the coordinates of a waypoint in my Zumo where we were meeting I was unable to oblige. This is crazy and needs to be fixed asap.
- Force saving lat/long data in a waypoint: however it's possible to get around the problem above on waypoints you are creating on the road if you save your waypoints using 'where to> coordinates'. It then saves the lattitude as part of the waypoint name, and if you select the waypoint it shows the longitude as well.
- But how can I force the above to happen with Mapsource-defined waypoints??
- Avoidances: deciding whether the cost of toll roads is worth the time saving is a long process in the Zumo. There needs to be a quick way to change toll road/no toll road preferences. It's currently a minimum of 8 clicks.
- ‘no toll road’ preference: this was not always obeyed, big fine in Switzerland if you use their motorways without first buying a vignette.
- Size of map symbols: when you try to change the symbol on a waypoint the list is practically unreadable due to the small size. These should be bigger! Developers should have to view their work perched on a rolling platform in half light whilst buckets of water are being thrown at them.
- Timezones: the concept of selecting a timezone by scrolling through an alphabetic list of random cities is flawed, as you first need to know whether any of the cities in the list are in the same timezone as you! So it really needs the ability to select a timezone by GMT offset. I never did work out how I managed to get the unit on the right time for Morocco which is on constant GMT (winter and summer). I achieved it somehow, but can't remember how.
- Tracklogs can’t be turned off (no problem), however you can't force the start of a new one. I tried to start a new tracklog by rebooting the unit at the appropriate place, but this only worked if the unit was switched off for a period of time.
- Boot delay: I quickly learnt that the first thing you do when you are about to start off is to switch on the Zumo. Then, by the time you've put your earplugs in, put on your helmet and glasses, put on your gloves, and switched on the bike, the Zumo will be about ready for use. Boy is the boot process slow!
- The offroad route has a fixed start point, rather than the constantly adjusting startpoint of the 2610. If you are zoomed in to see track details the offroad route is sometimes then not visible on the screen and the only option is to force the unit to recalculate the route which then creates a new start point of the current position. This is awkward. Yes I'm aware of the arrow which points in the direction of the next via point, but this is an inferior solution, you really need to see the line overlaid on the map. Bear in mind the map might be track up or north up.
- Screen layout: I guess most people will use the unit with 'track up' or the 3D equivalent, so it really wasn't a good idea to use space at the top and bottom of the screen for system stuff as this effectively reduces the visible screen by one-third.
- Turn announcements: I really liked the way the 2610 announced the turns on screen. I found it's possible to display the turn info in a similar format on the Zumo by pressing the bottom right bit, but this is a manual operation. It would be very useful if there was an option for this to automatically display per the 2610 logic.
- The unit is quick enough to let you know you've gone off route, but then covers the map with a massive dialog box asking you whether it should recalculate the route. Often the best answer to this is no, but if I could see the map (or at least some of it) rather than a blank screen, I would be in a better position to answer the question!
- Managing new waypoints: this is awkward, and I got into the habit of giving them a numeric prefix so I could identify them later when I uploaded to Mapsource.
Tim
TTR 1 replaced with TTR 2 under warrenty: fecking crap is in drawer and won't even be able to map its route to the landfill dump next week cos it wont start up
