Anybody else bought one? So far (three days in updating and testing in the car) and I have to say I think it’s pretty poor. How come my phone can calculate a route in seconds but it takes this at least two minutes to do the same? The screen then freezes so no visual guide to roads and turn offs whilst the vocal guide continues and when it does ‘work’ it’s totally useless at updating anything above 30mph so can’t see how it would ever update in time to keep up with the multi.
Can see where you’re going with that but no, standard windscreen. Might try re-installing the the last firmware update (if I can do a factory reset and be bothered with the two hours this takes) and see if it’s the same.
Hope you get to the bottom of it, like you say, not much use if it has a slow map cycling rate. I'd try the factory reset, nothing to lose
A bit weird, cause I use a 390LM, and its been faultless and fast to calculate etc for the 2 years I have used it. I'd take it back and get ya wedge back.
Interesting. I’ll try the firmware update again I think as it is truly poor as it stands. Thanks for the positive on the older model Wayne
No problem, hope you get it sorted. Over the years, I have had a TomTom (truly shite), a couple of the old Zumo 660's (good but a bit slow) and now the 390LM, which I find does everything very well. Base camp is shit, but I have now found out that alternatives exist. Good luck getting it fixed.
Yeah, found Tom Tom shit previously too, had a 550 which was built like a tank and always reliable. This unit has just been so disappointing and incredibly slow to actively update I just can’t see how it would ever work safely on a bike. I’ll try the firmware update again but tomorrow. Today was a food tour and a rake of gin. Surprised I can still type... or auto correct is amazing
Should work no problem. Had 350 lm, great device, Tomtom rider POS, another 390lm, great again. Sounds like a faulty unit or software issue.
Do you mean Google maps is faster? Think of it like this... That little box has all the maps installed and you tell it where you want to go and it looks up and figures all that out without calling for backup. It's got a processor, radios and screen that sip battery. Google maps (or Apple maps for that matter) fires X and Y co-ordinates at a datacentre bigger than you can imagine, full of computers faster than a stabbed rat, and the only constraint is how fast your network connection can fire off and slurp back data to put on the screen. If your phone isn't plugged in it'll be flat very soon. I don't think the Garmin does so badly when you put the job in context. If yours isn't keeping up then you either have it in a complex mapping mode like "Garmin Adventurous Routing" where it'll recalculate at slow speed indefinitely if you're moving, or there's an issue. I have a much lower spec Garmin and it's absolutely fine for TBT navigation.
Well well. Couldn’t find how to re-install firmware anywhere. Did find that holding the power button for 12secs resets the unit, so did that. Thought I’d run it up without hooking in to my phone in case there was some kind of miscommunication there and lo and behold it works great! Then I discovered that it was already linked and active with my phone too. Faith restored.... ...until I try Basecamp by the sound of things
Basecamp isn't so bad once you take the trouble to learn how to use it. Intuitive it ain't. I tend to use an arsenal of route plotting tools; Basecamp, ITN Converter and now MyRouteApp (subscribed version).
All this navigation tech seems to be more trouble than it's worth. I use a £160 Garmin Smart Drive 51 car sat nav in a waterproof case and plot routes on paper maps. They're easy to load onto the sat av using via points. All computerised mapping systems I've ever tried are useless because they're generally based on Google maps whose idea of a map is a green desert with a single blue line across it. It tells you absolutely nothing about the landscape and you have to zoom in tight to get any detail which is disorientating because you lose your wider geographical fix. It's like looking at the world through a letterbox when with a big OS touring map on a table you can see the whole thing. I don't need annoying voice directions every few seconds. The car nav screen has Junction View which is very useful in busy and complicated places and stacks of information. Its easy to use, updates quickly and is very accurate with camera alerts. My only criticism is it can take rather too many steps to add a destination. You can't skip a screen and just press Done, it wants to pin you down to the exact street name or number, which you don't always know, but otherwise it's excellent. The last thing I want when I'm riding my bike, especially touring, is to be connected to a mobile phone inside my helmet or have call alerts coming up on the sat nav screen. I want to get away from the bloody thing. It's in my pocket switched off until I need it.
I have the 395LM and use base camp and google. Basecamp is a faff, but once you suss it out, it becomes easier. But the learning curve is a tortuous one at times. TBH, I only need it within the last few miles of where Im going as I have a mental picture in my head and a good instinctive compass. Its only when in France I really need it as French road signs are weird. Oh and to find a maccy d when out of hours for food in Franco. Fuel too. But in UK, I dont need it at all much. If ever. ( I use google in car as my phone is also my DAB for BBCR6) There is a problem with Garmins that it will not charge from the cradle, you can send it back to Garmin and theyll fix it for 92 sobs. Mine stopped doing it 2wks before Alpine adventure. Typical, but Garmin did it very quickly and I got it back a few days before we left. I too have mine on silent. I only need to glance at it occassionally. I just need general direction cues. The rest I use my exquisitely evolved brain for, which is normally reliable enough but its an excusive model and does have its own shorcomings.
