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Garmin 66i

1558609
over 2 years ago

As a geologist, I have used a Garmin gps for almost twenty years, first a gps60 and later the gps64. Although these instruments had their quirks, they performed well and kept me safe in the remote locations in which I work. Earlier this year, I felt the need to upgrade to a new gps and purchased a gps66i. I chose the gps66i because Garmins website advertised that the instrument “takes pictures”. After purchase, I found that the gps did NOT take pictures, but it could accept downloads of air photos and satellite  imagery. Ok, stupid me. But I did spend about $800 on the instrument, considerably more than the cost of the gps60 and gps64.

 

So imagine my disappointment when I took the gps66i into the field and started to use it. Following is a list of several complaints.

  1. It does not take batteries. How is this helpful?

 

  1. When I navigate to a waypoint, the gps tells me it is calculating. Normally this does not take long but sometimes it goes on and on trying to do this calculation. Previous Garmin gps did not tell me it was calculating. It just gave me an instantaneous bearing and distance to the selected waypoint.

 

  1. When I want to select a target waypoint for navigation, I have to type in the number or name of the waypoint using the cumbersome type writer. But then, having typed in the waypoint and pressed go to, I am taken to the end of the waypoint list, not to the selected waypoint. Instead, I have to scroll back to the waypoint I selected.

 

  1. MOST EGREGIOUSLY, after I selected a waypoint that I wanted to revisit, the gps told me it was 6.5 km from my present position and that I should go via “Wongawol Road”. I knew that this road was somewhere in the area but had never been on the road or knowingly viewed the road since I had arrived by helicopter. I knew that the point I wanted to visit was only about 600 metres away, not 6.5 km and reverted to my compass to get there. This sort of misleading response from your product has the potential to put my life in danger, so it made me very cross.

 

  1. On several occasions, my attempt to mark a waypoint (Mark, Enter) generated a duplicate of the previous waypoints coordinates, even though I have walked several hundreds of metres from the previous waypoint. This has happened numerous times. Such errors lead to loss of work effort, or having to retrace my steps, leading to lost time.

 

Finally, Garmin does not appear to offer any help line - telephone or online chat. In fact, it seems to deliberately avoid customer contact. Instead, we are encouraged to view “helpful videos”, none of which address the numerous problems I have outlined. This is why I resorted to leaving a rude message on your Facebook page. I admit to being surprise that you responded.

 

 It is a good thing I took my gps64 to my remote worksite location, as backup. Elsewise, I could have lost a weeks work, or even perished.

 

Sincerely

Walter Witt

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Wombo24

    Who do you think the target market is?

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to atlas_cached
    atlas_cached said:
    Seems very simple to me.
    atlas_cached said:
    simply exit the map page first!

    Simple maybe in an armchair or coffee shop.

    Garmin marketing at least here is focused on "adventure", promoting the inReach & expedition mode with copious images of hikers and mountaineers in extreme environments such as alpine ridges.

    In situations of low visibility, brief use of one hand only and eyes primarily on waves some things are not so simple and extra button presses highly undesirable.

    And when bushwalking off track in heavy scrub I find the rocker switch particularly vulnerable to vegetation. It occupies relatively larger real estate and protrudes further forward and requires less force to trigger than the other buttons. As I'm primarily using the map page & harness mounted I often find it's inadvertently scrolled and catches me out.

    I never had that problem with the implementation in the 76 & 78. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Wombo24
    Wombo24 said:
    harness mounted I often find it's inadvertently scrolled and catches me out.

    You may find the Battery Save function useful here.

    Wombo24 said:
    I never had that problem with the implementation in the 76 & 78. 

    Those are marine models, the GPSMAP 66 is not. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Wombo24

    I use the lock keys function and never had any issues hiking and trail running, power button one tao and select lock keys , required simple single tap of power button to unlock keys , hope this helps

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    On the gpsmap62s unit I have just double checked and pressing mark is at your current location regardless of cursor location, lesson learned do you test with satellite lock.

    If you do move the map cursor on the older gpsmap62s you mark the location at that point by pressing enter them pressing the menu button and selecting the option to mark at location you have moved the cursor to 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to atlas_cached
    atlas_cached said:
    Those are marine models, the GPSMAP 66 is not
    Not correct, it's a hybrid that includes all basic marine functionality and is fully intended for kayaking.
    For example, there is a config menu specifically for all the marine & nautical chart settings, MOB is built into the Find button, the compass page menu includes option for marine Course CDI etc.
    That's one of the reasons I bought it. The dedicated marine 86i is bigger (presumably for flotation), heavier, larger, more expensive, and the additional functionality is only related to upmarket large vessel ChartPlotter & Autopilot features and streaming. Funnily enough I don't have either of these in my kayaks. 
    The keyboard layout of my 76 & 78 is identical to 66i and the functionality is the same. 
    So looking at it the other way, the only real difference is which of the functions should require the extra key presses.
    On the 76/78 the extra presses are needed to save a location when scrolled on the map.
    And the straw poll here indicates this would be a better option as the general user response here (other than simply defending "that's the way it is") is that extra keystrokes are "simple", and the suggestions for other workarounds used also require extra key presses. So it apparently doesn't matter to the average user which of the functions need the extra presses.
    So the 76/78 style implementation would satisfy all users, both extreme environment "adventurers" with the particular Long Press need, as well as all others.
  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to AndrewRuns
    AndrewRuns said:
    lock keys function

    Thanks Andy, yes I'm aware of lock but found it took a lot more button presses, two to select (power button & then enter) and one to remove (power button). And a couple times while crashing around in heavy bush I inadvertently pressed too long and turned it off.

    So I just to try and remember to look for the white bar that appears at the top of the map screen to see it's scrolled and if so press one Quit button to cancel the scroll. Still annoying but for the moment I live with it.

    I mark a lot of general points with the 66i while using other mapping devices so the extra presses add up as does the distraction.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to AndrewRuns

    Re: “…… been looking at my old gpsmap62s unit from 2010 and the process of marking a waypoint is exactly the same as the GPSmap66 units with regards to if you move the cursor on the map it is there to mark a remote waypoint, ……”

     My longtime mountain companion has a GPSmap 62 (not 62s, software version 7.20).

    Pressing buttons in map panning mode results in:

     MARK  

    sets waypoint at current location.

     ENTER

    selects cursor location on map for navigation. One press at the default “GO” starts navigation.

     

    For my GPSMAP 66i (Software version 9.00) it is:

     MARK  

    sets waypoint at cursor location.

     (This difference from GPSmap 62 is what I consider dangerous. It is not covered in any Garmin instructions I have seen so far).

     ENTER

    just like GPSmap 62.

     (No need for the MARK button to start navigating to a point on map).

     Neither device is sensitive to length of press.

     Any explanation of our different experience?  ENTER versus MARK confusion? I went to my friend's house to verify his results.

     Villi

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 8096484

    Hi Villi apologies, the 62s I have requires the enter button pressed then menu button pressed if you want to mark a waypoint at a point on the map that you have moved the cursor to not my pressing the mark button as I thought. Lesson learned so not press the mark button inside with no GPS signal and then wonder why it has marked the waypoint away from where you are.

    Apologies will make sure I test outside with a satellite signal the next time Slight smile

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to AndrewRuns

    Apologies gladly accepted Andy Blush

    At first, I thought your saying " ... requires the enter button pressed then menu button pressed if you want to mark a waypoint at a point on the map that you have moved the cursor to ... " would solve all problems. Being able to do 2 things at once, start navigation and create a collocated waypoint, couldn't be simpler than just pressing ENTER and MARK in that sequence. That would satisfy everybody's needs, I am sure.

    Perhaps too good to be true? At least for my 66i. It turns out that pressing ENTER, for addressing navigation mode, turns off panning (to keep current location mid-screen as you walk, I assume). That makes pressing MARK create a waypoint at current location, not where you had moved the cursor to before. 

    I have more to say on this, but before I do that, I would like to ask you to confirm how this works on your 62s (my friend and his 62 not available just now).

    Villi