Garmin 705 question

weedy1

Hello,
The missus is after a sat nav so this could provide me with the perfect excuse to get a 705

Thing is could you use a 705 like a car sat nav (turn left 100 yards blah blah) enter a postcode and it'll get you there or is it just for training?

feedback from owners most welcome

cheers and ciao

turnerjohn

you need the OS street map (about £60) which fits on a micro SD card in the front.
yep the 705 does full satnav (can also search for points of interest etc as well as your usual postcode and street search). I've not used mine for actual navigation (as a turn by turn feature at least) so can't say exactly how good it is.
Now thing is the screens not as large as a car satnav (use a TomTom for that!) so it could be quite hard to see if you fixed it in a car....youd also need an adapter (a PDA one would probably do) as well as a USB car adapter to keep it charged (Amazon do loads!).
All in I recon its do-able, just as long as the wife doesn't want to use it all the time so you never get a look in :shock:

weedy1

cheers for the reply,
its more for one off days out kinda stuff for the car (or f'ing will be heheh)

HonestAl

I've used my 705 for navigation on the bike and it works fine (but I've always plotted a course beforehand using Mapsource or the like) However going along on a bike is a bit slower than a car, as turnerjohn suggests, the screen isn't huge - plus you're out in the open on your bike - I've never tried my 705 in my car. They do like a decent "line of sight" to the sky, and I'm not sure if the roof would obstruct it too much.

Give it a whirl, you could always get one, be disappointed that it doesn't work, and get a car satnav too!!

sungod

i've got a 705, with the city navigator europe map

in the uk it certainly gives postcode navigation, works well enough, the route and your position is highlighted on the map. it goes beep to let you know a turn is near and more beeps when it's time to do it, so you can pay attention to the road rather than the garmin

i don't use it a lot for this in the uk, for me the advantage of the cne map is that it covers europe, so great for going on holiday with the bike, even in the deep sticks of portugal and spain it still seems to have all the lanes that aren't even on the local paper maps

if you are buying now, the newer 800 is probably a better option, albeit more expensive

weedy1

I'd love an 800 but the cheapest I've seen is £300 where as the 705 can be had for £200 now.

Cheers for the replys its helping me out a lot

turnerjohn

dont forget you need to buy the maps which dont come as standard !

Canny Jock

It doesn't talk to you - just beeps then you have to look at the onscreen map. Really unsuitable for car navigation!

Butterd2

turnerjohn wrote:

dont forget you need to buy the maps which dont come as standard !

No you don't, download the Open Source Maps (Google it), they are free and many of them are also routeable. I think the lack of voice commands and small screen would not make the 705 good for regular use in a car though.

turnerjohn

Butterd2 wrote:

turnerjohn wrote:

dont forget you need to buy the maps which dont come as standard !

No you don't, download the Open Source Maps (Google it), they are free and many of them are also routeable.

Openstreetmap ? which format do you use to export to a Garmin ? some options say the file is to large ? not exactly straight forward !

ianlash

This has been asked in the past and replies say that it doesn't update quick enough for in-car, as 70+ MPH is a lot different to 17+mph. It has a much slower processor than a car one, which is required for the battery lasts longer.

Buy a proper satnav for the car, as they don't cost much these days.