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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 8096484

    Hi Villi, I am away from home at the moment but can double check when back, I had not used my gpsmap62s for ages hence a bit rusty , I use a gpsmap86i now.

    From memory what I managed to do on the GPSMap62s to mark a waypoint at a location that I had moved the cursor to on the map was to first move the cursor to the point that I wanted to save a waypoint at - pressed the enter button the word go appeared on the screen - I then pressed the menu button and there was an option to mark a waypoint at the location , this location is where you have moved the cursor to.

    Pressing the mark button on the gpsmap62s always marks the waypoint at your current location ( make sure you have satellite lock not like my error of trying indoors)

    On my GPSMap86i as you have found with your gpsmap66 device pressing Mark button marks your location at wherever the cursor currently is on the map if it has been moved, I was aware of this and it does not cause me an issue , but I suppose we all have different needs and do understand where you are coming from.

    I did find an article on another forum going back a few years ago, where the opposite to your request was being asked, someone was asking why on their marine GPMap unit could they not move the cursor to mark a point there by pressing mark after moving the cursor.

    I still find the Gpsmap66 / 86 series great units and far easier to use than my old etrex 10 and vista hcx units that I also own. The gpsmap86i does have some similarities from my old 62s but I have found lots of improvements.

    Hope this information helps Slight smile

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to AndrewRuns

    Thanks Andy, now we are even Blush

    When you wrote " ... requires the enter button pressed then menu button pressed …..", I read menu as mark! And tested that way as can be seen from my reply. Please accept my apology!

    So, your good news are in fact true. One can both start a navigation to a point on the map and make it a waypoint, using a quick and logical sequence:

                                              ENTER   >   MENU   >   ENTER   >   ENTER   >   ENTER  

    The 3 last ENTER pushes can be executed as a triple press, because all are just to accept default values:

                                              Save as Waypoint   >   OK   >   GO

    The situation is this:

    The GPSmark 76 series, around 2 decades ago, had MARK as a secondary feature of the ENTER button. Quick press or long press separated the functions.

    Somewhat later those two functions were split up by adding a dedicated MARK button as a fail-safe way to set current location as a waypoint, exemplified by the GPSmap 62 series.

    Later still, in the recent GPSMAP 66/68 series or before, a hidden and dangerous departure turned up. Waypoint set with MARK would either use current location or coincidental cursor location, without any warning to the user.

    That this simply is a bug, is supported by the fact that it is not mentioned in the User’s manual. Other documents from GARMIN also support that view, see the beginning of: 

                  https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=5seDcVXeNb2xWfyyPkyVFA

    Note the words “from any page”. Also note that the heading is telling the user that 62, 64, 65 and 66 series work identically setting a waypoint.

    That the change in the function of the MARK button is intentional to facilitate setting a map point for navigation is not likely. Tests reported on this thread show that the ENTER button of the 66i does just that as before. Also, it is now clear that a collocated waypoint can easily be set without involving the MARK button.

    It seems that GARMIN needs to choose between 2 options:

                   1)          Keep the anomaly and, for the safety of its customers, rewrite their literature.

                   2)          Fix the bug.

     Villi

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 8096484

    And I would like to add:   Just stop the MARK button using cursor location is all takes.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 8096484

    Nope.

    They need to update their literature, and you need to update your workflow.

    You clearly understand how it works, so use it that way.