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Getting Started with Montana 700?

sbsyncro
over 2 years ago

Can anyone recommend a concise and easy to understand (i.e. not written by Garmini) guide to using the Montana?   I have watched dozens of Youtube videos and feel like I need a basic primer on some of the lingo and basic design features/intended usage scenarios of the device.  For example the difference between "Route" and "Course" and "Track" and which *^#!#$&^ apps to use to manage the device (Connect, Explore, Basecamp, Map Manager, etc etc).   I have to say that the official documentation is the worst hodge-podge collection of gibberish I have ever seen.  I feel like I am using this as a very big, heavy, and expensive inReach Mini because I find all the features so impenetrable to use.

1. I cannot get third party maps to stick to the device, even when using an SD card
2. I cannot get GPX routes from Gaia into the device via Explore except manually copying them to the SD card

3. What is the "Adventures" app?  ("No adventures found" - OK, fine, what is an "Adventure" and how do I create one?

And so on

I hope there is a simple guide somewhere!

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    My advice is to ignore adventures. It's always been a bit of a solution in search of a problem (IMO). It's a way of creating a sort of "multimedia" thing (routes, tracks, waypoints, geocaches, photos, etc.) into a single "adventure" that you can share.

    You can try the Montana 7x0 section on gpsrchive.com https://www.gpsrchive.com/Montana%207x0/index.htm

    The site is good reference material, but sometimes assumes that you know more than you do about the Garmin handheld universe.

    You should be able to import the GPX into explore.garmin.com (Map tab). You probably do not want to create a route, though. For reasons that nobody understands, routes are limited to 200 (or so) points. A long track (or even a detailed route) will be "thinned" to reach the 200 point goal. Sometimes that's OK, sometimes not. Depends on the topology of the route. In any case, at least for the Montana 7x0 and the 66i, you should do it as a track. Those devices can route along a track - and it does not have the weird 200 point limitation. 

    Disclaimer: I haven't tried any of that lately. My preferred solution is like yours - let's just drop the .gpx onto the device directly.