New Garmin Oregon 300

[frankly frankie]

What I'd still like to manage to do is plot a route on BikeHike which has a couple of coursepoints (i.e. cake stop, lunch stop) which I can then follow on the Oregon, with a field which is "distance to next coursepoint".

I'm not familiar with the 'Course' concept (though as described it sounds quite useful!).

If you plan say a 50km Route - it will have (on a typical UK road network) around 50 Points (give or take quite a few) and your "Distance to Next" would count down to each of those.  Not quite what you describe.
Or you could adopt 'Follow Road' mode in which case your 50km Route would only need 5 points (give or take a few, again on UK roads) which sounds closer to what you want.  But personally I'm not a fan of 'Follow Road' - but some people here like it.

Basically if you're a control freak into planning you would go for the 1st option and define your Route turn-by-turn.
If you are lazy think that's too much faff, you would go for the 2nd option and let the GPS do the work.

Tracks are not only about recording where you go - if you follow a pre-recorded Track (by you or by someone else, eg downloaded) using "Where To" then it becomes a virtual route and behaves somewhere in between the two scenarios described above.  Typically there will be several intermediate points, with countdown available.  Its a workable method, and probably requires less preparation than any other.

[Auntie Helen]

So... more on the Oregon.

Yesterday was the Christmas WARTY for which I had a track duly loaded on the Oregon.

Before I left home for Chelmsford I was faffing around a bit with downloading some more OSM maps (I'm trying to find a good one of Germany and Benelux for my tour next May). Anyway, I realised I was running out of time so stopped what I was doing and set off in the car to the WARTY.

I had this fab plan of parking near Chelmsford, marking a waypoint "Car" which meant I could find it again, and then heading to Chelmsford Station using the waypoint I had previously created "Chelmsford Station". All grand.

However, when I switched the Oregon on after parking the car and reassembling the trike I discovered that I had accidentally disabled the UK map (it was on the SD card but no longer in the 'Garmin' folder as I was preparing to put the Europe map in there to check it out). So no maps, no auto routing to Chelmsford station.

Fortunately the station was easy to find, but it meant that I was following the track all day without actually seeing any roads or fields or points of interest. It also meant that I had to rely a bit more on my memory to find the car.

Today was a non-bike day but I decided to take the Oregon in the car to see how it worked in Automotive mode. I had loaded a Europe map from Cloudmade, plus AndyGates' UK map, and thought that would be interesting. I had already used the 'Where To' feature previously when cycling and using a different UK map but discovered when trying to use these maps that the unit got into a circular 'Calculating Route' and beeping mode and couldn't make a route for me at all. The only way to stop it going round in circles trying to calculate was to switch all the maps off, at which point it would stop trying and I could then get it back to normal. Even switching the unit off didn't stop its circular routing. My husband and I tried lots of different variables but it kept getting stuck. Since returning home I've re-enabled the previous UK map I used and that can do the routing, but if I use AndyGates' map only it doesn't; if I use both maps then it seems to work. Odd, but I'm glad I found it out before I needed to use the routing feature in anger.

Still think it's a brill gadget, had great fun playing with various options today and used the calculator feature yesterday.

[tonycollinet]

Hi AH

1 - On maps, if you turn off topographic display, the maps become higher contrast.

2 - Where do you make the display contrast adjustment - can't find that option on mine. Has it been introduced on a later firmware?

[Auntie Helen]

Erm, how do I turn off topographic display?

To change the contrast, press the on/off button on the side quickly and you get a contrast and screen lock page.

[delthebike]

Erm, how do I turn off topographic display?

I see that Garmin are still making magnificent user manuals with all of the information easy to find and understand!   

[Auntie Helen]

I have actually read the user manual but am none the wiser.

[dasmoth]

Assuming you mean you want the white background for the map display...

           Setup -> Map -> Advanced Map Setup -> Shaded Relief -> Do Not Show.

I agree with others that this does make the map a fair bit easier to read by daylight.  And no, the manual wasn't a great help!

[delthebike]

Rumour has it Garmin are going to rename the Oregon to the Louisiana. The manual will then be changed to read "Jus' push the buttons and pray boy!"

[tonycollinet]

Erm, how do I turn off topographic display?

To change the contrast, press the on/off button on the side quickly and you get a contrast and screen lock page.

Ah - OK - you confused me by talking about the backlight, and contrast. As I understand it, that control is the backight brightness. (But it does change the contrast).

[tonycollinet]

Incidentally - for future reference, Ive just had a problem with USB connectivity which has taken  me a couple of hours to resolve.

USB mass storage mode (when you get the oregon as a disk drive) was painfully slow. A couple of minutes to show the drive icons, frequent "not responding" messages. 5 minutes to delete 40 files.

Fixed it by
1 - deleting all the gpx files from the gpx folder. (Copied them to PC first)
2 - removing and replacing my mmc card.

I think it was 2 that fixed it - because after deleting the gpx files there was no improvement, and copying them back afterwards did not make the problem come back.

[Keeff]

We've had our 400 for a couple of months, and now we're nearing the top of our learning curve we are at last very pleased with it. We'd not used gps before, nor had we ever even seen one close up.

The first couple of days were very frustrating - almost to tears.  We hadn't bought a mapping system for the PC and had to wait for that to arrive.  When we loaded it, pc and gps wouldn't interface, so we were still stuck at first base. It took half a dozen sessions of trial and discard to get the settings we needed for our activities.  We bought the Oregon primarily for walking, but we do cycle occasionally.

The main problem areas for us have been the inadequate user manual and the distinct lack of available knowledge about the machine generally. We did feel we were something of pioneers in trying to get the thing working.  Now we are getting into it, we can see that it's fault is that it tries to do everything for everyone, which makes it far too complicated for our small brains.

Keith

[Jord]

So how is the Oregon after a few months use?

I have a Edge 705 but was thinking of a more general GPS as the 705 is very bike specific.

Owe and a course is a Garmin training file so only available on the fitness based GPS like the edge 405 ect.

[dasmoth]

I still think mine is fabulous.

There are a few minor things that (in the absence of proper scriptability) I hope will get patched in via future firmware updates -- showing a full-screen alert as I approach a waypoint would be nice, for instance -- but that's it.

[Auntie Helen]

Yep, I'm still really enjoying it.

Undoubtedly I'm not using most of its features - I just tend to stick with the trip computer (to watch my average speed and try to increase it) and maps if I'm going somewhere new. I plot Bikehike routes sometimes and follow them.

I think it'll really come into its own on my tour in Germany this May. The German OSM map I have found is excellent and has loads of useful cyclists' points of interest, such as bike shops. I look forward to exploring using the features on that map.

I like the touch screen as I can press it as I'm cycling along, even with gloves; reflectivity is the downside but I can live with it - I can always see the map, even if it's fainter than I'd like. Battery life seems excellent too!

[frankly frankie]

I must say screens like this are pretty neat (this is Dakota but they're pretty much the same, the Oregon is just a bigger better screen - which does make the touch buttons more usable)





However I do find my Dakota very flakey in use, compared with my Etrex C - for any serious project I would always revert to the Etrex.

[Jord]

The main thing which worris me is the 'dull' screen - just how dull is it?

Also does the Oregon prefer a route or a track to follow? And is there a track point limit - the 705 is really good at following a track and very poor at following a route.

[PloddinPedro]

However I do find my Dakota very flakey in use, compared with my Etrex C - for any serious project I would always revert to the Etrex.

That's a worrying comment. Not getting lost is pretty much always a "serious project"  for me!

Could you expand a bit perhaps, on what you mean by flakey? Are we talking lock-up, shut downs, duff trip data - what I'd call important stuff - or just some of the fancy gimmicky features (if any)?

[tom_e]

I don't find it that dull, but it's difficult to describe a display without actually seeing it. I use the backlight on a timeout during the day.  If you twiddle the angle as you ride along you can usually set it so you can read it without backlight, but it depends on conditions.

It can do either route or track.  Both seem ok - I'm not sure I'd say it favours either over the other, but I'm not sure what you mean?  Personally I prefer a track if I can get one.  Track limit says 10000.

The track mode now shows a distance to any waypoints as you go along the route too, and the upcoming name, as you go along the track.  The idea is to have the best of both options.  But it doesn't light up or anything as you approach those points, like it does in route mode.

You can however make a stored track visible without 'following' it.  So you can be in route nav mode whilst having a stored track showing on the map in a different colour.


I've only had relatively repeatable flakiness whilst mucking with new features.  Nothing that'd concern me when using it for real.  (but I wouldn't be without a backup map in the bag anyway)

[PloddinPedro]

The main thing which worris me is the 'dull' screen - just how dull is it?

Also does the Oregon prefer a route or a track to follow? And is there a track point limit - the 705 is really good at following a track and very poor at following a route.

I agree that screen visibility is very important - I ruled out the Colorado completely on this ground.

When you say "poor at following a route" if you mean it often picks an illogical route despite your preference settings, I suspect this weakness is common to many Garmin models - the auto routing on my Map 60 CSx is so unreliable I never use it and that on my Edge likewise.

[nashd]

I’ve spent a bit of time over the past couple of days on Garmin’s website trying to decide on which model of GPS to buy.  I noticed they’ve posted a new (Beta) release of firmware (2.61) for the Dakota on Monday 15th February.  It might address some of the flakiness – or make things worse!

[tom_e]

If you want to poke firmware versions, dig into either of these:

http://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/
http://garmindakota.wikispaces.com/

[frankly frankie]

v2.6 is already up to v2.7 by the way - these seem to be bug fixes for bug fixes ...

Regarding the 'flakiness' - I emphasise this is the Dakota I'm talking about so strictly speaking off-topic - the Oregon is a more mature model - though they are similar enough that software updates are being issued for both models  in parallel.  I'm still using v2.5 and its possible v2.7 improves some or all of these things.  Or not.

Compared with the Etrex Legend Cx, I'm getting:
* Much slower boot time.  Related to having multiple maps on board I think - which to be fair the Etrex can't do.  [edit, + 2 weeks] Was a map problem - much quicker now
* Occasional lock-up, only rebootable by removing the battery.  This only happens in autorouting mode I think.
* Slightly more jittery at walking speeds - so that the map display cants alternately slightly left/right - also the recorded track is a drunken stagger rather than a smooth line.  Not a problem at cycling speeds.  [edit, + 2 weeks] v2.7 has improved this
* Autorouting (follow road) is much more wayward.  Not really a problem since I'm happy enough to do without it altogether.
* 'Next Waypoint' field displays incorrectly.  Definitely a bug, so may get fixed one day I hope.

Regarding track-following - with the recent software updates installed, these models are much nicer for track-following than the Etrex C.  If tracks are your thing, then the Oregon/Dakota is definitely worth considering.

Screen - most of the time its no worse than the Etrex C -not saying a lot! - it is dimmer and low contrast, but OTOH it is bigger and better resolution/colour depth.  These just about balance out, for me.  I don't like the font rendering though (see screenshots upthread).  NB the Dakota screen is generally felt to be slightly brighter than the Oregon - very little in it from what I've observed.  Neither is as good as the Colorado.
Pictures of the dim screen in my review in Reviews/Accessories.

Battery.  Using the touch controls hammers the battery.  In normal use just following a track or route, its fine.  Again, Dakota is said to have better battery life than Oregon (because of the smaller screen).

[Jord]

Do you get turn by turn directions on a track with the Oregon?

Also for handle bar mounts I noticed on Ebay that a third party is doing mounts which are much more flexible (judging by the photos) on the bars than the Garmin ones.

[Auntie Helen]

I usually don't ride with turn-by-turn instructions (i.e. a route) as it's faffy to program in - I tend to just use a track which works OK for me. But no turn-by-turn instructions for this.

With regard to the mount, I've been very impressed by the solidity of this mount - particularly as my previous Edge 205 had a ridiculously flimsy thing that snapped. My Oregon is mounted on a handlebar stay at the front of my trike and that works well - presumably the thing would be just as good on a real handlebar on a normal bike.

With the Oregon I got a carabiner mount too - never worked out quite where I'd use it though. It's sitting by the computer looking forlorn at the moment.

[Jord]

My Oregon turned up today - and it looks a lovely piece of kit. The mount does seem very stiff? is this normal? I've put the city navigator maps from the 705 on it with the transparent contour overlays from http://sites.google.com/site/talkytoasteruk/ukmaps these people.

The other mount I spotted was this one
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260564919995&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT I have however purchased Garmin's own but looking at the one on Ebay I'd think it would be easier to position the unit to avoid reflections? Without the back-light on the screen is dull - on the 705 the back-light being on had very little effect on battery drain.

The 705 does turn by turn directions on a course that why I ask.

The carabiner does look very impressive - I think i may take it down the pub to improve my street cred