Garmin'S MONTANA

[colebatch]

This sounds like what I have been waiting for ...

- 4 inch touch screen
- 3000 waypoints (not 1000 like the z660 or 500 like the z550/500/450/400)
- Dual battery system - swappable lithium battery pack or AA batteries
- Dual orientation - works in 'portrait' as well as 'landscape' modes (not always fixed in landscape mode like existing units)
- 3GB of built in memory (not 500 MB like the z550 series)
- portable - useable on or off the bike
- battery life off the bike - 22 hours
- A barometric altimeter
- A compass
- A 5MP camera with geotagging.


Garmin | Montana™





What it doesnt yet have is Bluetooth.

[fraser2312]

Add some mobile phone software in there and you've got Garmins answer to the iPhone.

Looks the buisness, how much is the question?

[srace7]

Originally Posted by framkay

Add some mobile phone software in there and you've got Garmins answer to the iPhone.

Looks the buisness, how much is the question?

Google is your friend...

Using said search engine I found it for £500 this side of the Atlantic and $650 or thereabouts t'other...

Simples

[*Touring Ted*]

Wow.. This does look great !

They also do a 600 model without the camera and i've seen it for £360.00

http://www.mesltd.co.uk/garmin-montana-p-13244.html

Not sure how handy a camera would be on a bike but if you used it for hiking too, it would be nice !

It's knocking about for about £420 from what I can see.....

http://www.mesltd.co.uk/garmin-montana-p-13245.html

[Toyark]

Awesome- doing a wee review shortly - I have the 600 as have no need for a camera-
and the compass is a 3 axis compensated one so even Ted can't get lost!
BTW Ted...where's my keg?

[oldbmw]

3gb internal ram sounds odd because the nuivi western European maps are a 3.5Gb ( 19 hours download) or they would be if Garmin website did not disconnect you after 12-14 hours.

[*Touring Ted*]

Originally Posted by Bertrand

Awesome- doing a wee review shortly - I have the 600 as have no need for a camera-
and the compass is a 3 axis compensated one so even Ted can't get lost!
BTW Ted...where's my keg?

I will deliver it in person... But with my sense of direction, it may take a while !!

[mattcbf600]

Originally Posted by Bertrand

Awesome- doing a wee review shortly - I have the 600 as have no need for a camera-
and the compass is a 3 axis compensated one so even Ted can't get lost!
BTW Ted...where's my keg?

Looking forward to that... it's been tempting me for a few weeks now.

[spooky]

OOhh yeah..

I'm another pleased and exited victim of Bert's recommendation... bought a Montana 600 as well and dumped my 60Cx including the TT bracket

well not regarding this post's over here, (found this afterwards).. but yes thanks to Bert's great emails and skype efforts with personal touch and of course my own analyses, experiences about what I'm expecting from a modern GPS... yes I must admit, the 600 covers all needs for bike travellers.. it's near perfect

I was so feed up with the 60cx regarding all it's bugs, freezing the maps, painful slow, that I was playing with the thought to get a z660... but hey yea the Montana 600 got everything needed.

After deleting most of the crap, stored on the 600, like all sorts of voice files, manuals, pictures, wallpapers, demo files and so on, which I would never use anyway, I found all the space I need for all my maps, POI, waypoints... and I found use for storing special JPG's for on the road without a PC...
As I did scan in my passport, driving licence, V5, and so on, it's actually very useful space to sore short infos like short notes, conversion tables and else that can be useful for a quick view see the Arab-Latin number image for example...

the 600 is even able to zoom this images as well...

yes special thanks to Bertrand

ahh yea and I'm wonder about the next HU meetings, where little circles of Montana 600 owner doing WiFi-WP-exchange partys and sending each others there latest WP via air around... great future isn't it

[Fantastic Mister Fox]

This looks the buisness

I have had the Colorado and Find it great for off the beaten track nav and in some ways prefer it to the zumo 500 I have on my road bike.

Apart from the fact that Zumo is designed to work with gloves on.

I do like the music player function on my Zumo mind (does the montana have one??).

This looks the buisness for my next trip

Thanks

[Toyark]

small correction

Originally Posted by colebatch

- 3000 waypoints

Walter it's 4000! even better!!

I've loaded over 300 thousand Custom POI's and still cannot get the unit to 'crash' - things just keep improving- I'm still looking for where the limit is!

Dual battery system - swappable lithium battery pack or AA batteries

It's clever to have the option of using AA's but an oversight on Garmin's part- that could have won them even more brownie points if they had wired the unit to charge those as well. Sadly, the unit cannot recharge those when it is in its powered cradle- That's a shame- hoping for a future fix on that.

[mark k]

From memory i'm sure all i did was copy the waypoint gpx file into the subfolder called gpx on the garmin and i automatically loaded up the waypoint.
Have you tried that?
Mark

[TravellingStrom]

If you highlight all the waypoints you want on the device, drag them(or right click and copy), then drop/paste them onto the device. If you are doing that correctly, you should see a little green progress bar under the device as it is copying

[colebatch]

Have you checked the waypoints manager? Are they definitely not on the device? or just not visible on the map?

If not visible on the map it may be the level of detail you have set for the waypoints. they only show up at a level of zoom that is preset quite detailed.

For going somewhere like mongolia, I would set the waypoints to show up on the map at a zoom of 20 km (maybe even 30). Check it by going to Map, setup map, advanced setup, zoom levels, user waypoints. Set it to 20 or 30 km. The waypoints should then be visible if you are that zoom or closer in.


Other possibility is you are full on waypoints. The unit takes 2000. If you are full, and try to load more, it will not (from memory) show an error message when you try to load more.

Easiest way around that is to clear all waypoints and reload them all. You might want to save any personal waypoints into your own GPX file before you delete the lot, so that you can reload them as well as reloading the public waypoints from the wp file. In any case, i should able to take a look on Tuesday.

[motoreiter]

HarryG, thanks, I'm trying that, won't know if it works till the morning.

colebatch, the waypoints aren't on the device. weird... hopefully harryg's tip will fix the problem, otherwise I'd greatly appreciate any help on Tues, cuz I leave on Thurs!