Garmin 705 questions

spasypaddy

I have a 205 and im very happy with it, but im planning on upgrading in a few weeks to a 705.

My two questions are:
how big SD card do i need?
does it automatically start and stop?

a_n_t

erm, well there's a 2 gig one in mine - not had any issues.
auto start / stop - yep.

spasypaddy

excellent because i keep forgetting to turn my 205 on and off even after a year of owning it...

another quick question about it if you could please.
Which maps are better? I have both on my computer but neither unlocked for GPS but looking at them the topo is better but thats because the other one hasnt been unlocked via gps yet. Could i put a 4gb memory card in and then get both sets of maps?

pjm-84

I believe the units comes with 500mb of memory built it.

I use European Metro Guide. If I select all of England and Ireland the size of the data is only 106mb.

northpole

I just bought a 705 and it doesn't matter what size memory card you put in - the thing doesn't work!

Basically it won't accept charge. Spoke with Garmin yesterday who advised this is a known fault and I should drain the battery following which Hey Presto it would magically accept charge.

Well I successfully drained the battery and now I have a completely dead 705 with or without charger connected!!

On top of that, I noticed when I first got home that the cadence magnet was missing from the box. Went back to the shop yesterday and they kindly opened a new unit's box in which there was neither the cadence magnet nor the spoke magnet for the speedo! Nor had Garmin mentioned anything to them about there being a problem with charging new units.

Has anyone else shared this type of experience?

I'm very tempted to get a refund and leave it at that rather than persevere with what so far has been utter rubbish.

Peter

NWLondoner

With my 605 it would not charge at first. I then left it on overnight to drain it's battery and since then has charged properly. Also make sure you download the latest software as this will rectify many of it's faults.

I find that if i try to load a saved route etc before it has found all available satellites it will crash.

So i have to sit on my bike on the car park waiting for a satellite fix. Trust me in my area all dressed up in my lycra gearis not a good place to be.

pjm-84

So far so good but I've noticed a few faults:

1) The Metro guide Garman map I have works fine as a base map but try and navigate with it and it throws a fit. Garmin's website seems to imply that the two are not compatible. Why?
2) Trees have an effect but only at speed. Seems to work fine in dense woodland at slow speeds but start tanking along on a tree lined road and it seem to cut you speed by a least a third.
3) Can't seem to find the abilty to display an imported track that I've drawn in MM. I need to use navigate. Now most roads are not straight so it provide directions and beeps for every bend in the track / road
4) Changing the recording mode to every second helps but I've noticed differences between history data and exported data tracks read in MM software. Speed and distances vary.