General Garmin Grumbles that don’t warrant a thread of their own.

[yoav]

My 810 Garmin used to do this on a regular basis - freeze or switch itself off during a ride. I had no idea what caused it.  The only correlation was that I switched from using Garmin city navigator maps to Openstreetmaps from the now defunct garmin.openstreetmaps.nl website. Since I started downloading maps from other sources, it has stopped happening.

I have no idea if issues in map data can cause the Garmin to misbehave but that’s all I have to go on.

[TPMB12]

My fenix 6 altitude is all over the place since I found out you could calibrate the altimeter/barometer function on holiday.  It was reasonable before that but I can calibrate it manually to known height then next day you're 100 plus metres higher than the actual set the previous day, what's happening and can it be sorted easily?

[drossall]

My Edge Touring Plus turns off when the external charging source is disconnected. So, if you connect it to a USB battery pack on a longer ride, every time a bump rattles the connection, the GPS wants to shut down. There is no option to disable this behaviour

[Zed43]

I have learned the hard (read: expensive) way that it is a bad idea to charge a Garmin over its USB port while riding. Eventually the shocks and vibrations, amplified by the lever of plug and cable, will tear the connector from the PCB. Murphy will see to it that this leaves you with a dead GPS in the middle of a BRM600 on a Sunday in rural Italy.

Another rant on Garmin charging: their watches. I have a VivoActive 4s that uses their ubiquitous proprietary (did I mention expensive?) cable to charge from USB. After a few years it becomes a pain to connect the plug so the watch will charge (and yes, I did clean both connector and plug with a brass wire brush). But the really annoying bit is when you seemingly have connected it properly, the bolt symbol on the watch indicating it is charging, but when you come back after half an hour the battery level still shows the same. In fact, when you disconnect the plug the battery indicator drops 10% so it has actually been discharging.

Now, I'm not going all EU on them and demand USB-C on their next watches (I have the 4S model for a reason), but wireless charging seems like a worthwhile improvement for the next model.

[Kim]

My Edge Touring Plus turns off when the external charging source is disconnected. So, if you connect it to a USB battery pack on a longer ride, every time a bump rattles the connection, the GPS wants to shut down. There is no option to disable this behaviour

This was one of the things that they lost the plot with after the eTrex HCx series (which had a configurable 'stay on' option).

[Kim]

I have learned the hard (read: expensive) way that it is a bad idea to charge a Garmin over its USB port while riding. Eventually the shocks and vibrations, amplified by the lever of plug and cable, will tear the connector from the PCB. Murphy will see to it that this leaves you with a dead GPS in the middle of a BRM600 on a Sunday in rural Italy.

I've always been sceptical of Mini USB in this sort of environment - it was designed for transferring data from digital cameras and similar devices (including GPS receivers), in the days when they were powered by AAs or charged through a DC barrel jack.  The assumption was it would experience a lot fewer mating cycles than Micro-USB (which puts the springy part in the plug, rather than the socket) was specified for.

Not that subsequent connectors really solve the stress-on-the-solder-joints problem either...

Another rant on Garmin charging: their watches. I have a VivoActive 4s that uses their ubiquitous proprietary (did I mention expensive?) cable to charge from USB. After a few years it becomes a pain to connect the plug so the watch will charge (and yes, I did clean both connector and plug with a brass wire brush). But the really annoying bit is when you seemingly have connected it properly, the bolt symbol on the watch indicating it is charging, but when you come back after half an hour the battery level still shows the same. In fact, when you disconnect the plug the battery indicator drops 10% so it has actually been discharging.

Interesting.  Barakta has a VivoAcvitve something or other, which has gone senile and sporadically fails to hold a charge, crashes, forgets its alarms, etc.  I thought this might be due to charging it from a USB host rather than dumb charger (or vice-versa), but perhaps it's due to the broken clip on the charging cable which only grips one side of the watch...

[Kim]

While we're having Garmin grumbles, can I nominate the eTrex32x for having 'reset all settings' in the position where 'clear track log and reset counters' was on the eTrex30?

[Canardly]

received yesterday.

Action required: your account will be deleted in 60 days

So much for lifetime updates.

[lissotriton]

Another rant on Garmin charging: their watches. I have a VivoActive 4s that uses their ubiquitous proprietary (did I mention expensive?) cable to charge from USB. After a few years it becomes a pain to connect the plug so the watch will charge (and yes, I did clean both connector and plug with a brass wire brush). But the really annoying bit is when you seemingly have connected it properly, the bolt symbol on the watch indicating it is charging, but when you come back after half an hour the battery level still shows the same. In fact, when you disconnect the plug the battery indicator drops 10% so it has actually been discharging.

I think the cables do wear out. You can buy cheap copies, seem to work OK for while. Or can get little adapters with a USB-C port, not tried them.
At least most modern Garmin watches seem to have standardised on the same sort of plug. It is a lot less fiddly than the old style charging clips.

Now, I'm not going all EU on them and demand USB-C on their next watches (I have the 4S model for a reason), but wireless charging seems like a worthwhile improvement for the next model.

I notice the EU rules don't include watches. Presumably as they are too small for a USB-C port.
Wireless charging would be nice, though not sure if it would be much bigger/heavier, and less efficient. And hopefully it would be compatible with the Qi standard.

[drossall]

Leather straps actually. My wife bought me a Fenix 5 as a birthday present. I had problems with the strap, which gave me a rash on my wrist, so splashed out £50  for the Garmin leather strap. It was rubbish. Split quite quickly. Then I found some cheapo ones on eBay at a fraction of the price. Much better quality, still look like new after at least six months, maybe a year.

[Polar Bear]

Clearly Garmin realised that they were being generous as straps on later Fenix models are a good deal more expensive.

I don't buy genuine Garmin straps or charge leads for that matter.  Daylight robbery is an insufficient explanation.