Re: 76CS -- not my favorite GPSR (a bit lengthy)

From: Roger Mundy (rmundy_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 06/15/04 

Date: 15 Jun 2004 08:38:18 -0700

"Bob Longo" <none@none.com> wrote in message news:<739zc.71330$Sq7.49620@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com>...
> Well, I just got my 76CS yesterday. It does make an attempt to display the
> Next Street (but it works very poorly). Let me explain and compare with how
> this feature worked on my old GPSmap 76S.
>
> On the 76S, the Next Street would always be shown and would show the
> distance to the street. As you passed that street (or off-ramp), the
> display would change to show the next street. This worked very well.
>
> However, on the 76CS, enabling the "Guidance Text" usually shows the road
> you're traveling on. For example, "East on I-210". If you watch very
> closely, you may see it breifly show the name of the next off-ramp before
> switching back to the road you're traveling on display. I watched this
> today traveling several miles down the freeway. Of the 5 or so off-ramps I
> passed, I think I saw it display one briefly just before the indicated ramp,
> one after having already passed the indicated ramp, and the rest were not
> displayed at all. Pretty useless!
>
> The unit seemed to perform this function much better when traveling on
> residential streets. It actually showed all of them prior to reaching the
> upcoming street and didn't miss any that I saw. Don't know exactly what the
> difference is - maybe the processor isn't fast enough to keep up with
> upcoming off-ramps while trying at the same time to keep determining what
> direction/road you're traveling on?
>
> Maybe the performance of this function could be improved on the 76CS if
> there was a way to turn of the "what road/directiion your currenly on"
> feature while still leaving the upcoming ramp enabled.
>
> Other comparions between the 76S and the 76CS:
>
> 1) The 76CS doesn't have tide tables. I miss that feature!
>
> 2) Granted I've only had it for 2 days, but so far I haven't seen any
> indication that WAAS is working on the 76CS (even though it is enabled). I
> used to see that little "D" on the Satellite view on the 76S quite
> regularly. I'll give this a few more days before really deciding that the
> 76CS has a problem with this...
>
> 3) The 76CS has hung requiring the batteries to be removed twice so far -
> always when "working..." shows in the Map screen. I'm sure they will fix
> this in some future version of firmware and am not too worried about it.
>
> 4) The default for track logs on the 76CS is 3000 points. I was on a hike
> today and relatively quickly 50% of the track log was used up. So I went
> into setup and changed it to 10000 (the maximum), but the track log still
> showed 50%. Something wrong here - maybe you can't dynamically increase the
> side of the active track log storage? 3000 (and even 10000) seems like
> very few points for track logs. With so much memory, why can't the number
> be MUCH bigger?
>
> 5) The 76CS is much faster when scrolling maps. This is a great
> improvement.
>
> 6) The battery gauge on the 76CS is pathetic compared to the 76S. Four bars
> up in the status bar make it very difficult to accurately determine how much
> battery life is left.
>
> 7) The 76CS still does not have a way to convert track logs into routes!
> Neither did the 76S, but at least the 76CS can store 20 track logs (compared
> to 10 on the 76S). For what I do track logs are much more useful than
> routes (hikes, bike rides, etc.). I wish Garmin would either provide a way
> to convert track logs into routes, or to store a lot more track logs.
>
> 8) There are no names on the waypoint symbols page when picking the symbol
> for waypoints on the 76CS. So you have to guess what the symbol means.
> However, on another screen where you can find all waypoints by symbol, the
> names associated with the symbols are shown! So the only way to really know
> what a symbol indicates, you have to set it on a waypoint, then go into the
> "find waypoints by symbol" and look at what the name is for the symbol you
> used. I expect this is an oversight that will be corrected in a future
> firmware version.
>
> More later as I spend more time with the unit.
>
> -Bob Longo
>
>
> "Jack Yeazel" <Jack@FinalApproach.net> wrote in message
> news:40CC9A7D.D0DB692E@FinalApproach.net...
> >
> >
> > Roger Mundy wrote:
> >
> > > > Oops. Sorry.
> > >
> > > That's OK, some of the review covers some of the same features the
> > > 76CS has. Just got mine on Thursday and LOVE it. The only feature I
> > > would like to see added would be the "NEXT STREET" feature that the
> > > old E-Map had. It comes in handy when you are going throug
> > > subdivisions at night looking for a particular street, and also when
> > > going down the road looking for a street that the 76CS does not have a
> > > name for on the screen.
> >
> > This is puzzling, since the 60C announces each upcoming cross street...???
> > It's "Guidance Text" on the Map Menu...
> >
> > --
> > Jack
> >
> > Get general GPS information at: http://www.gpsinformation.net/

Thanks Jack for the correction. I had seen the Guidance Text feature
and turned it on but all it said was the GPS was off. Now if the
feature had only said "Next Street" instead of Guidance Text I would
immediately have known what the feature was! Im still getting used to
all the NEW features.

By the way, Bob, the 76CS does have tide tables. You must go to find,
marine points, and choose the tide station you want to look at.

You can also hold down the Enter key and Start up key at the same time
and get the diagnostic screen which will give you the battery voltage.
 Much more useful then the gauge.

I also experienced for the first time the loose battery problem
yesterday. I use 2200ma Nmh batteries which fit real tight so I had
not experienced the problem until I installed some 1600ma Nmh
yesterday which do not fit as tight.
This problem can be fixed.

Enjoy

Roger

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