Garmin software designed by an Orangotan?

brindlescoops

Now.... I'm pretty self sufficient when it comes to PC's and Software, but I bought a Garmin 605 recently off the bay and I cannot believe what a load of pants the software and the operating system is. It may just be me, but its so unintuitive and clunky to try and get it to do what you want it to. I have downloaded the maps from Open MTB and I have folder full of files I have no idea what to do with, I have a card in it with the Garmin Road maps on which also seen pretty useless. I cannot for the life of me see how you can get it to upload any decent trail maps etc, or find a clear website that shows how to us the thing without trawling through 100 pages of guff before I get to anything useful!!

Finally it seems you need about a dozen pieces of different software to actually make it a useful piece of equipment, a TomTom it certainly is not!

Please please please if you have one, can you point me towards the most useful relevant piece of software for a MTBr and if possible a useful guide of how to use the bliimin thing before it goes straight back on ebay and I buy some more paper and printer cartridges.

Cheers!! :roll:

bails87

Don't know how close the 650 is to an 800 but:
http://hillfarmhouse.wordpress.com/2011 ... 00-course/

http://frank.kinlan.co.uk/garmin-edge-8 ... -edge-800/

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin

freezing77

BrindleScoops wrote:

Now.... I'm pretty self sufficient when it comes to PC's and Software, but I bought a Garmin 605 recently off the bay and I cannot believe what a load of pants the software and the operating system is. It may just be me, but its so unintuitive and clunky to try and get it to do what you want it to. I have downloaded the maps from Open MTB and I have folder full of files I have no idea what to do with, I have a card in it with the Garmin Road maps on which also seen pretty useless. I cannot for the life of me see how you can get it to upload any decent trail maps etc, or find a clear website that shows how to us the thing without trawling through 100 pages of guff before I get to anything useful!!

Finally it seems you need about a dozen pieces of different software to actually make it a useful piece of equipment, a TomTom it certainly is not!

Please please please if you have one, can you point me towards the most useful relevant piece of software for a MTBr and if possible a useful guide of how to use the bliimin thing before it goes straight back on ebay and I buy some more paper and printer cartridges.

Cheers!! :roll:

First things first, do you want to do all your route planning online/offline or both?
If offline you need to get hold of garmins free software basecamp for route planning. No other software needed.
The maps you downloaded should include an executable to load the map on your pc for use with basecamp and also an img file for use on the device. Do you have these?.

MJP

freezing77

Useful links
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/
http://frank.kinlan.co.uk/garmin-705-knowledgebase/

brindlescoops

Thanks Guys, I'll give them a whirl. A million thanks if they work, if not there will be a cheap Garmin in the for sale section later this evening!

Briggo

bails87 wrote:

Don't know how close the 650 is to an 800 but:
http://hillfarmhouse.wordpress.com/2011 ... 00-course/

http://frank.kinlan.co.uk/garmin-edge-8 ... -edge-800/

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin

It's miles apart from the 605. I had the 605, took a while to get used to it but it's not too bad, then got the 800 and it's a whole load better IMO, much more usable.