No more Zumo 660, no more Garmin

[AdamK]

Its not the operating software that causes all of the problems, its the map updates that continue to get larger and larger and consume all of the devices limited memory resources. Its not actually the maps getting larger its the POIs. The continue to add new ones but dont clean out the old ones. Off loading the ever increasing map update file to a large sd card did wonders for my 550, which used to crash and freeze before doing that.
It may be a matter of semantics, but, in my mind at least, the Garmin memory isnt really firmware. It works more like a solid state hard drive. When I saw how full that ss hard drive was after a map update it gave me the idea to free up space on it by moving the giant map update file.

Im still using mapsource because basecamp has always sucked. It does crash during route building occasionally, so I do a lot of saves while making routes. The key to using mapsource with later version devices is to not use it to transfer to the device using it. Instead, create your routes and waypoints then save the file as a .gpx file on your PC. Transfer that file with windows file manager to the GPX directory on the device and import the data from there. You can use the same technique from basecamp.

I never saw any reason to move the map files and waypoints out of the gps' internal memory until it was full. This never happened on my 660 or on my 595. I was also never instructed to do this by Garmin support either?? I assume the internal memory of the unit is faster than the external SD card anyway, so why move it. That would be the equivalent moving the programs on my PC out or RAM and running them from the swap file on my C: drive, or even worse, on an SD card!? <If> the internal memory, which I also assume is were the firmware is stored, never fills, why move these files? I did have this issue on some of my earlier Garmin devices where the maps grew to be larger than the internal memory, but that hasn't happened in years. In that case, yes, I moved the map files to SD storage.

I do store a LARGE quantity of mp3s on my gps SD card. That is an appropriate use of SD storage. The streaming of music won't be effected by the slower SD memory access speeds. I did have locking up issues when I had thousands of mp3s stored in folders which was the result of copying them directly from my home audio system drive. I have over 1TB of music stored in a DIR hierarchy of \band\album\mp3 structure. The Garmin chocked on the DIR structure. After simply dumping the mps3 in a common folder those lockups ceased. I'm figuring these issues were attributed to the length of the path\filenames exceeding a coding limit in the media player.

 

[RBEmerson]

Agreed 100% The wild west ain't called wild for nothin'. Get out in the places where all is dark... not so much Google Maps fun. We've encountered some places that were dark. Maps has the option to download maps for use when there's no contact with the mother ship. They can cover a surprising large area, which got us through the darkness, as it were. They can only do so much. The files are relatively small, under 200 Mb. But if the phone's already in a place where the data rate is only slightly higher than smoke signals, 200 Mb can take a while.

 

[RBEmerson]

I'm going to start a new thread for a running account about meeting and using the TT 550.

 

[RossKean]

...I never saw any reason to move the map files and waypoints out of the gps' internal memory until it was full. This never happened on my 660 or on my 595. I was also never instructed to do this by Garmin support either?? I assume the internal memory of the unit is faster than the external SD card anyway, so why move it...

The current full North America mapset will not fit on my Zumo 665. This is in spite of the fact that I have removed all the excess "voices", languages, help files, vehicles etc. Choice is to go to a separate SD card for maps or be more selective about what I load. I wish Garmin would allow the user to be selective about what types of POI files they want to load.

Not sure whether the internal memory is faster than the SD card or not.

 

[RBEmerson]

SD speed depends on the SD specs. As an example, SD's that support 4K need to be wicked fast. It will help with the problem. But the issue also hangs on the device the SD plugs into. If that's not fast, well done, whatever, a fast chip will probably be squandered. Typically, internal memory is faster, but if you put stuff that doesn't demand fast access, meh. No point worrying about it.

Hoping for choices for options that Garmin hasn't already come up with? Don't hold your breath waiting for life to get better...

 

[AdamK]

...I never saw any reason to move the map files and waypoints out of the gps' internal memory until it was full. This never happened on my 660 or on my 595. I was also never instructed to do this by Garmin support either?? I assume the internal memory of the unit is faster than the external SD card anyway, so why move it...

The current full North America mapset will not fit on my Zumo 665. This is in spite of the fact that I have removed all the excess "voices", languages, help files, vehicles etc. Choice is to go to a separate SD card for maps or be more selective about what I load. I wish Garmin would allow the user to be selective about what types of POI files they want to load.

Not sure whether the internal memory is faster than the SD card or not.

It's been a while since I had my 660. I either had it long ago enough that the maps fit, or I'm just not remembering correctly?? I'm too old and have had too many Garmin devices to remember for sure!

In either case I never saw a benefit from moving the maps unless I had to due to space constraints. The units were never more stable for me with the maps loaded on the SD card.

 

[Fred W]

Whatever. My point was that people have found ways to use these old garmin gps devices reliably.

If you are hankering to jump ship to a TomTom, go for it. Ill just keep running my old zumo 550 because it still has the best screen visibility, and the most visual information displayed, of any made for motorcycle GPS Ive ever laid eyes on.

Also, I know for a fact that the zumo 660 has an A2DP Bluetooth profile that will pair to your headset as well as a mono headset profile. I owned two different 660s in the past and remember it switching between higher fidelity stereo and crappy fidelity (and louder) mono at times. I would have kept the second one for thosebluetooth capabilities, except the display was so bad I found it annoying.

 

[AdamK]

Whatever. My point was that people have found ways to use these old garmin gps devices reliably.If you are hankering to jump ship to a TomTom, go for it. Ill just keep running my old zumo 550 because it still has the best screen visibility, and the most visual information displayed, of any made for motorcycle GPS Ive ever laid eyes on.

Also, I know for a fact that the zumo 660 has an A2DP Bluetooth profile that will pair to your headset as well as a mono headset profile. I owned two different 660s in the past and remember it switching between higher fidelity stereo and crappy fidelity (and louder) mono at times. I would have kept the second one for thosebluetooth capabilities, except the display was so bad I found it annoying.

The 595 has a 'GPS' socket but I've never used it. I've been using the HFP and A2DP with good results once I figured out the mp3 DIR structure I had was the cause of the Garmin Media Player locking up the unit.

 

[RBEmerson]

Interesting. I never found the A2DP connection. It's moot now, my TT 550 is up and running.

 

[Fred W]

Whatever. My point was that people have found ways to use these old garmin gps devices reliably.

If you are hankering to jump ship to a TomTom, go for it. Ill just keep running my old zumo 550 because it still has the best screen visibility, and the most visual information displayed, of any made for motorcycle GPS Ive ever laid eyes on.

Also, I know for a fact that the zumo 660 has an A2DP Bluetooth profile that will pair to your headset as well as a mono headset profile. I owned two different 660s in the past and remember it switching between higher fidelity stereo and crappy fidelity (and louder) mono at times. I would have kept the second one for thosebluetooth capabilities, except the display was so bad I found it annoying.

The 595 has a 'GPS' socket but I've never used it. I've been using the HFP and A2DP with good results once I figured out the mp3 DIR structure I had was the cause of the Garmin Media Player locking up the unit.

GPS socket? Not sure what that means. There is generally a GPS antenna connector. Though Im not sure on the 595. That isnt a fix for anything important. I almost pulled the trigger on the newer zumo 59x but I looked at it closely and decided against it for two reasons, which were the same ones that caused me to ditch the zumo 660s: unreadable screens in bright light, and lack of information on the screens at all times. The former cant be fixed. The latter is a software problem, and I dont think Garmin is even working on it.

 

[BOAN]

The term is "topic drift". It's not uncommon, for good or bad, on forums. Please note the matter has come to an end here.

The term is not "topic drift", it´s just not taking the shit about the topic...just close this one, I´m just discusted by how you disregard the topic...

 

[Fred W]

Ha ha...

I sure hope you are kidding. Because nobody here gives a damn that you are disgusted.

 

[RBEmerson]

The term is "topic drift". It's not uncommon, for good or bad, on forums. Please note the matter has come to an end here.

The term is not "topic drift", it´s just not taking the shit about the topic...just close this one, I´m just discusted by how you disregard the topic...

36 posts to date and somehow you think that makes you king of the forum. If you don't like what you see here, don't read it. And don't slam the door on your way out.

 

[AdamK]

Whatever. My point was that people have found ways to use these old garmin gps devices reliably.

If you are hankering to jump ship to a TomTom, go for it. Ill just keep running my old zumo 550 because it still has the best screen visibility, and the most visual information displayed, of any made for motorcycle GPS Ive ever laid eyes on.

Also, I know for a fact that the zumo 660 has an A2DP Bluetooth profile that will pair to your headset as well as a mono headset profile. I owned two different 660s in the past and remember it switching between higher fidelity stereo and crappy fidelity (and louder) mono at times. I would have kept the second one for thosebluetooth capabilities, except the display was so bad I found it annoying.

The 595 has a 'GPS' socket but I've never used it. I've been using the HFP and A2DP with good results once I figured out the mp3 DIR structure I had was the cause of the Garmin Media Player locking up the unit.

GPS socket? Not sure what that means. There is generally a GPS antenna connector. Though Im not sure on the 595. That isnt a fix for anything important. I almost pulled the trigger on the newer zumo 59x but I looked at it closely and decided against it for two reasons, which were the same ones that caused me to ditch the zumo 660s: unreadable screens in bright light, and lack of information on the screens at all times. The former cant be fixed. The latter is a software problem, and I dont think Garmin is even working on it.

Sorry, I got that reversed. The Sena has a gps connector/socket in addition to being able to pair with the gps in HFP/A2DP. I've never tried connecting the Sena to the my gps in the Sena gps mode. Note sure there is even bi-directional audio in that mode??

 

[Ignacio]

The term is not "topic drift", it´s just not taking the shit about the topic...just close this one, I´m just discusted by how you disregard the topic...

36 posts to date and somehow you think that makes you king of the forum. If you don't like what you see here, don't read it. And don't slam the door on your way out.

Lighten up Francis....plural.

And everybody, stick to the topic.

Thanks.

The Management

 

[RBEmerson]

Good point about avoiding topic drift. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. NTL I stand by my last post.

 

[RBEmerson]

Whatever. My point was that people have found ways to use these old garmin gps devices reliably.

If you are hankering to jump ship to a TomTom, go for it. Ill just keep running my old zumo 550 because it still has the best screen visibility, and the most visual information displayed, of any made for motorcycle GPS Ive ever laid eyes on.

Also, I know for a fact that the zumo 660 has an A2DP Bluetooth profile that will pair to your headset as well as a mono headset profile. I owned two different 660s in the past and remember it switching between higher fidelity stereo and crappy fidelity (and louder) mono at times. I would have kept the second one for thosebluetooth capabilities, except the display was so bad I found it annoying.

The 595 has a 'GPS' socket but I've never used it. I've been using the HFP and A2DP with good results once I figured out the mp3 DIR structure I had was the cause of the Garmin Media Player locking up the unit.

GPS socket? Not sure what that means. There is generally a GPS antenna connector. Though Im not sure on the 595. That isnt a fix for anything important. I almost pulled the trigger on the newer zumo 59x but I looked at it closely and decided against it for two reasons, which were the same ones that caused me to ditch the zumo 660s: unreadable screens in bright light, and lack of information on the screens at all times. The former cant be fixed. The latter is a software problem, and I dont think Garmin is even working on it.

Sorry, I got that reversed. The Sena has a gps connector/socket in addition to being able to pair with the gps in HFP/A2DP. I've never tried connecting the Sena to the my gps in the Sena gps mode. Note sure there is even bi-directional audio in that mode??

I think this refers to Sena's wired audio source port. Useful for jacking in Walkabouts, cute little MP3 players, etc. The Garmin motorcycle mount wiring includes an audio jack. String a male/male audio cable between the Garmin mount and the 20S (or whatever) and the sound shows up as a jacked-in sound source. IIRC this source has the lowest priority in the audio stack. Which means playing music from a phone will suppress the Garmin audio. Having used the 660 mp3 player function, no great loss for music (cranky file organization, weird folder/album listings, and other mysteries too obscure to spend time on). Unfortunately GPS directions are blocked out, too. Overall, all GPS audio or phone tunes, but never both.

 

[AdamK]

Whatever. My point was that people have found ways to use these old garmin gps devices reliably.

If you are hankering to jump ship to a TomTom, go for it. Ill just keep running my old zumo 550 because it still has the best screen visibility, and the most visual information displayed, of any made for motorcycle GPS Ive ever laid eyes on.

Also, I know for a fact that the zumo 660 has an A2DP Bluetooth profile that will pair to your headset as well as a mono headset profile. I owned two different 660s in the past and remember it switching between higher fidelity stereo and crappy fidelity (and louder) mono at times. I would have kept the second one for thosebluetooth capabilities, except the display was so bad I found it annoying.

The 595 has a 'GPS' socket but I've never used it. I've been using the HFP and A2DP with good results once I figured out the mp3 DIR structure I had was the cause of the Garmin Media Player locking up the unit.

GPS socket? Not sure what that means. There is generally a GPS antenna connector. Though Im not sure on the 595. That isnt a fix for anything important. I almost pulled the trigger on the newer zumo 59x but I looked at it closely and decided against it for two reasons, which were the same ones that caused me to ditch the zumo 660s: unreadable screens in bright light, and lack of information on the screens at all times. The former cant be fixed. The latter is a software problem, and I dont think Garmin is even working on it.

Sorry, I got that reversed. The Sena has a gps connector/socket in addition to being able to pair with the gps in HFP/A2DP. I've never tried connecting the Sena to the my gps in the Sena gps mode. Note sure there is even bi-directional audio in that mode??

I think this refers to Sena's wired audio source port. Useful for jacking in Walkabouts, cute little MP3 players, etc. The Garmin motorcycle mount wiring includes an audio jack. String a male/male audio cable between the Garmin mount and the 20S (or whatever) and the sound shows up as a jacked-in sound source. IIRC this source has the lowest priority in the audio stack. Which means playing music from a phone will suppress the Garmin audio. Having used the 660 mp3 player function, no great loss for music (cranky file organization, weird folder/album listings, and other mysteries too obscure to spend time on). Unfortunately GPS directions are blocked out, too. Overall, all GPS audio or phone tunes, but never both.

Look at page 18 of the Sena 20s manual. 'GPS Navigation pairing'. Go to second mobile phone pairing, then hit the phone button again and you will hear 'GPS pairing'. This is different than 1st or 2nd mobile phone pairing. Note: if you pair your gps in this manner gps instruction will not interrupt your conversation, but will overlay them.

I don't think this kind of pairing will allow you to pair your phone with the gps and use it in the typical manner most people use.

 

[Fred W]

Youd have to know what Bluetooth profile this GPS link employs. It should be somewhere in the specs. If it is a headset profile it would support bi-directional mono audio. That would make more sense than it being A2DP profile, which would be stereo unidirectional. It has to be one of those two because thats all the GPS can use.

 

[RBEmerson]

AFAIK the Zumo 660 only uses HFP. It would be interesting, if someone wants to try it, to find out that the 660 can use A2DP if it's offered. I'd do it with mine but it's in storage and I won't be able to get to it until February.

However... it turns out I've hit the same problem with the Rider 550: there's no volume control on the 550 during an active BT link to my 20S. I'll try the HFP vs A2DP test with it. If the 550's volume control returns, well, there we are. It's the protocol's fault.

That's all good news/bad news if the A2DP hack works. But, bad news, the Sena 20S, at least, only offers one A2DP connection; no hope of A2DP to the 550 (or 660) on top of A2DP to a phone. Bad news/good news: the 20S won't do it but, good news, the 20S EVO does offer two A2DP links. Good news/bad news The EVO does the desired thing, but I don't own one. Good news/bad news. The EVO is on the market and isn't the dread 30, a piss poor implementation of mesh intercom functions. The bad news: the EVO costs about $250. $250 to get volume control? That is bad news. The good news: I'm done with good news/bad news. Bad news: I couldn't resist a last good news.