GPSMAP 62s, Questions

RE: GPSMAP 62s, Questions

I recently bought a 62s and can't be happier with it.
As far as the squeaks go, the zoom out button does squeak if I don't push it down straight, but frankly my 60csx does the same thing on more than one button. It's such a minor point I wouldn't worry about it.

It's not a car navigator GPS so don't ever expect voice directions. Frankly I'd rather that this range not have it and they bung in more coolness as a trail GPS, exactly as they have done.
The turn by turn nav works a little differently as far as selection of destination goes. The 60csx asks if you want to "Follow Road" or "Off Road". You longer get that question. This new model has "profiles", so the display and available views using the "Page" and "Quit" buttons as well as menu items are configured differently in each profile. If you have the "Recreational" profile selected and "Find" a waypoint you get a bearing directly to the waypoint and distance on the compass, no turn by turn or list of turns page. All you need to do though is change to the "Automotive" profile then the map becomaes a fully detailed 3D perspective map, unlike the crappy "Highway" mode on the 60csx. Not sure about 3 hills being rendered on the go, I use a Tom Tom road navigator when I'm on the road so I've not tested it. Maybe you can turn on a layer to of detail to show it, I'll test that one day.
In automtive you also get the Active Route screen which shows the turns in the route and distances etc, but no voice, just beeps like on the 60csx range. By the way I'm using the 20m Garmin Topo Aus and NZ 2010 maps, which have the streets as well as topo.

One thing I love is that you can customise the page sequence you get with the "Page" and "Quit" buttons. You can add many of the pages found in the Main Menu to the sequence, so if you want the "Active Route" page for turn by turn list with distances in the "Recreational" profile then you can add it. You can also create an entirely new profile from scratch and add the pages you most use without disturbing the in built ones. Very handy!

I don't know where you get the 2gb limit idea from. My understanding is there's not really a limit on these devices on how BIG the card is, but rather how much data can be stored on it. If you have a device that has a 2gb limit then it must be formatted to FAT16. It's pretty likely that you can shove a 32gb card in these devices without an issue, but the problem is that for compatibility they only read FAT32 for which the spec is publicly available. FAT32 is a 32bit file system which allows a maximum file size of 4.00gb. If the devices stored multiple map tile files on the device then you could use the full capacity, but the fact is that if you have a Garmin Map DVD then upload tiles using Map Source, all the tiles you select get compiled into a single .img file on the SD card. Garmin (and every other device manuacturer) use FAT32 because it's a known standard and compatible on Mac OSX, Linux and Windows. If they go with NTFS which is 64bit and massive file sizes then they lose write compatibility with Macs. If they go Hybrid file system then they lose PC read and write support. If they go ext3 then only Mac OSX and linux and read it. Of course all these options can be handled on each system by purchasing 3rd party software to allow read and write on each platform, but Gamin would be forcing an extra purchase on the user. So they use FAT32 for simplicity, but they have the issue of the maximum map data ever being 4.00gb. They really should create a segmented .img file format that splits into 2gb pieces to allow for greater than 4gb card support, we can only hope...

On other points, if you have the device connected to a computer via USB, as soon as you unplug the device switches straight off, kind of annoying to not get the option to leave it running.
Also I liked the 60 range as the backlight only becomes active if you press the power button, then every key press is backlit. On the 62, it's always backlight on every press. Maybe these are configurable, but I've not found it yet.

In terms of speed, it's awesome, with high detail on the 2010 Aus & NZ Topo maps with "track up" set, the map rotates quickly, much better than the the 256 colour display and lag on the 60 range.


I love it so far, wouldn't go back, but I'll always keep the 60csx as a backup on the trail in case something happens to the 62s.


I hope this answers your questions ;)


Steve