Hardware Question - Nuvi has These Features?

Get a Nuvi 3597 for your needs...

Hi folks. I have a hardware question.

I own a Nuvi 680 and it's quite limiting. No routes, no tracks.

Is there such a thing for automotive? I want to use Basecamp to shove in routes I want to follow, and I want it to remember where I've been, as a memory of where I've been. I'm frustrated by the lack of insight into Garmin products. I'd like the Garmin people to think about applications and not offer me 3 different items to take care of what I need. Same goes for their confusing collection of software pieces.

Cheers

yes, get one of the Nuvi 3597 series GPS units... http://sites.garmin.com/nuvi/ As my sig line below indicates, we have for a couple of decades done our route planning on a windows computer, and then down load the routes into the GPS for each day's routing and, at the end of the day, upload the track data for the route actually taken on 6 - 9,000 mile road trips around the country..

There was a period of time that I too was concerned about Garmin's earlier generation Nuvi units being dumb'ed down to the point of no longer supporting this type of operation..and I waited a long time before buying another Garmin GPS to replace my aging Garmin 2610. I actually wrote the Garmin marketing people when the 3597 series first came out, as it wasn't clear if even that unit would support the functionality of their earlier generation advanced units. ..

Long story short the 3597 supports route down load and upload of routes, waypoints and trackpoint data.. and I believe it's less costly (but members of the same model series) will do the same.. It supports all aspects of waypoint data down load and upload except for one thing, the actual icon image displayed on the map... I used to use the selected icon image displayed on the GPS screen as an additional fast glance indicator of what course change would occur at the waypoint.. I been told that functionality will eventually be supported in the 3597..

The one thing that keeps me coming back to Garmin is that over the life of product ownership whether it be Basecamp or the GPS unit firmware itself, (at least in the higher end units like the 3597) they do keep adding new functionality to the software over time.. e.g. as seen here for the 3597 series.. http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=5967

And BaseCamp keeps getting better over time..

Hopefully the vast choice of waypoint icon images available in Basecamp will become downloadable icon images that display on the GPS screen.

Hey there. Thanks for the reply.

You know what's truly strange? I've reviewed that top model about 5 times now and nowhere did I find any information about programmable routes nor tracks. But they talk about all this fluff which really has little meaning. 3D buildings, Digital Traffic, yadda yadda.

OK, good to know this does the trick.

Cheers

yep.. I know what you mean.. I had the same concerns when the 3597 first came out, I don't think it supported the upload/download functionality it has today.. I wrote Garmin marketing asking how is it possible that their flagship unit does support the route planning functionality in MapSource, and now BaseCamp. Perhaps it would be good to acknowledge, at least on the PC computer side, that the MapSource code and architecture was simply too obsolete to support these newer generation units.. And Base Camp also had to come into being and evolve down it's own functional enhancement curve.

I would hope the marketeers would appreciate there is a smaller segment out there that will pay the premium prices for advanced function units such as the 3597, only because of it's ability to fully integrate with Basecamp and, in the marketing literature they need take advantage of this fact. As you mentioned there is not visibility of this functionality on their product description page. It's the "trip planner" application on the 3597 that gives you the ability to select, modify and activate routes down loaded into the GPS. At this point in the 3597 firmware I'm quite happy how it works for these more advanced route plans..

Again, I think you will be happy with where the functionality is today....

Their mass market for PND's (i.e. the dumbed down personal navigations devices) I sure is being impacted by free navigation (only basic functionality) smart phones, but as long as the stay in the high end GPS market and support the functionality we want, I'll stay with Garmin. Just hope there are enough of us to keep the high end product line going...

LOL they wrote their own, and it's pretty much free. $20 for maps. Viago.

See here: http://www.gpscentral.ca/products/garmin/nuvi-comparison.htm for models that allow for routes. Basically all of the "advanced" series. All current models save tracklog information and archive the tracks to GPX files, as far as I know. None allow track to be sent to the device.

The newest models also have a lot of changes that make them a lot nicer to use than the older ones (IMO).

Hi there. Thanks for the reply.

How can the 2014 Essentials have Multipoint Routing but no Routing?

Nice chart. It's a shame Garmin doesn't provide this.

Cheers

How can the 2014 Essentials have Multipoint Routing but no Routing?

Marketing jargon.

By definition you need at least 2 points to make a route. All nuvi's support "goto's" which is a route from where you are to some other point. "Multipoint routing" means you can have more than 2 points in a route. That also implies that you can save routes, in the unit, for future use.

As has already been said "Multipoint routing" is seen as an advanced feature by Garmin and thus is typically only present in higher-end (i.e. expensive) units.

BTW most units released in the last few units don't support traditional Garmin routes. Instead they provide a "Trip Planner". That may or may not bother you. There are numerous threads about "routes" and "trips" on this board.

Yeah, see I'm used to the GPSMap 62stc which I use on my bicycle with Basecamp.

Designing a route on a laptop then sending to a Nuvi is probably the best way anybody can go. Otherwise it's a chase from current location to a single destination, allowing the unit to make the route instead of having any input other than destination.

Cheers