Garmin GPS V
 

Anyone managed to get hold of one of these yet?

If so worth the extra money?

Ta

Julio

I have the GPS III+ which I've used extensively on and off-road. I just got the GPS V and used it on a x-country trip the Reverse Pony Express. (www.dhpmoto.com/reverseponyexpress).

The V was much better than the III+ in this situation as it had more memory space for detailed maps and also had auto-routing to major destinations in the US.

This came in handy when coming to a city and needing to find an address. I rarely looked at a map using the GPS to guide me to every destination on the fly.

Regards,

David H. Park www.dhpmoto.com

I have one to.

The autorouting works good.
Just fill in a city or adress and it will leed you there.
It came with the European basemap and a cityselect CD (to autoroute on streetlevel)from The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and France. for a $ 160,-- extra you become the cityselect from whole Europe.

I use it both on my KTM and in my car.

Freek (netherlands)

I have a StreetPilot III mounted on the handlebars of my motorcycle. The StreetPilot III provides the same autorouting functions as the GPS V, but it has a colour display that is much larger than the GPS V.

My recommendation to anyone considering a GPS for a motorcycle would be to purchase the StreetPilot III, not because of any difference in features, but because of the larger display. I think it would be difficult to refer to the smaller display of the GPS V if it was handlebar mounted and you were depending on it for 'close-in' navigation through intersections, bypasses, etc.

It is also important that you consider your own visual acuity when making a selection of a GPS for motorcycle use. I'm over 40, and because of that, my vision does not adapt from infinity (looking at the road) to 60 cm (looking at the GPS) as fast as it used to. I can compensate for this by zooming the display on the StreetPilot III to a larger setting. On the GPS V, the display is pretty small to begin with - if you zoomed it in, you would not be able to see very much of the map around you for orientation.

Note also that digitized map coverage of areas outside of Western Europe and Canada-USA is quite limited. Garmin has a product called "World Map" which has reasonable coverage of all major roads (e.g. national highways) in the world, but this product is over 5 years old now. I found it was quite satisfactory this summer when I toured through Slovakia and Poland. However, looking at the coverage of, for example, Algeria south of the Atlas mountains (an area I am very familiar with from my work), there is not much there at all, just the N1, N6 and N3. Better than nothing, but certainly not sufficient to navigate by.

You can preview what coverage WorldMap does or does not have of your planned route at Garmin's website. Go to this link: http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/ and choose "MapSource Map Viewer"

There are some good ideas for how to mount the GPS on various types of motorcycles (with pictures) at this link: http://www.cycoactive.com/gps/gallery/default.htm

Lastly, these GPS units eat batteries - the StreetPilot III is only good for about 2 or 3 hours on a set of 6 AA batteries - therefore it is essential that you purchase an external power plug and supply the unit with 12 volt power from your bike.

I just got my GPS V set up today. I used to use an eMap, which I loved, but the GPS V is a MUCH better piece of equipment.

I would spend the extra money for a GPS V or GPS III if you're going to be in the city and can use MapSource, otherwise I'd stick to something simpler to just mark waypoints.

The routing features of the GPS V are amazing, the screen drawing is much faster compared to my eMap and the screen is much higher res than the eMap as well.

As for battery usage, all you have to do is get the proper cigarette lighter adapter for your GPS, snip off the cigarette adapter and wire it in to your bike. Or better yet, fit the female end of a cigarette adapter on your bike to get usage of anything that plugs into a cigarette lighter. If you get a cable from CycoActive, the guys there can show you how to do it.

Wright

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Wright Bagwell http://www.geocities.com/wwbagwell/



[This message has been edited by wbagwell (edited 04 January 2002).]

Hi Guys

Bit the bullet and bought a GPS Garmin V last month for my trip to Morocco. Got a Touratech version with rally mount as was going to be doing loads of riding on the Pistes. I problems with it freezing on screen before I left the UK. Tried various things to the power supply to see if I could find out what the problem was. Eventually even tried running it from my plug adaptor but would still not work for long before it crashed.

Eventually I removed the Power cable completely and run it on batteries which was a pain on the piste as when you hit a large bump or corruation it would switch off and they did not last for long.

When it was working it was great, anyone else had any problems with their. Will take it back to Brackens this week to get it changed.

Cheers

Julio

Wondered if anyone else was having issues with their GPS V as I am.

Using the base map only the unit shows me running on average .1 miles paralell to the road I'm on, I realise that positional errors are to be expected but surely not to this degree!? Also I got the impression from the manual that the 'lock onto road' function of the unit compensated for this by planting you on the nearest road in the map rather than your true calculated position... this doesn't seem to work or happen on my unit. Does the accuracy improve and the 'lock onto road' function start to work with the more detailed maps from Mapsource uploaded to the unit? Anyone else found the same issues, or have any ideas or could my unit be faulty?

Help & advice gratefully received

Paul

Hi Paul,

I have the GPSIII (not the +). It also has the base-map.
Just like yours, I seem to be driving beside the road sometimes. gues those guy's that build the road made a little mistake http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif

The base-map is a referance-map only and not absolutly correct. So it's not a problem if you camp in the middle of a lake, or drive beside the road.

Also, even without SA (selective availability, the random error) your receiver is only acurate up to about 15 to 30 meter's. This becourse of the (non) acuracy of the internal clock. Also the "spread" of satelite's in the sky can course deviation's.

Only with D-GPS and a (really) expansive receiver you get an acuracy of about 1 to 3 meters.

So: Nothing to worry about.

I don't know about the "stick to road" function, but I can imagion this only works with the loadable maps since the base-map is (like said before) just a base-map. No grid's etc...

I hope this helps.

Maarten

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- www.maartensworld.tmfweb.nl -

Thanks mmaarten

I'll percevere! travelling round the Pyrenees in a couple of weeks so I unlocked France from the MapSource discs.... I think I will just put up with the errors as $178USD is an awfull lot of money to unlock the UK as well, perhaps will do that next year when planning starts for my trip round west & east europe in 2004.

I spoke to Garmin and they said the same as you, the base map is only a reference, they told me that once I upload the mapsource data to my unit all the problems will dissapear.... well without spending $178USD I'm not going to find out until I get to the south of France, I will let you know whether what they say is true when I get back http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif

If that is the case though, Garmin should have had the foresight to fit the GPS V with removable data storage as even 19mb of memory will only hold a few maps. When I was planning my route through the mountains and back up through France I only had space for 6 maps...... less than 50% of my intended journey! That means that when I do the much longer route in 2004 I will probably need to carry a laptop as well if I want the GPS to do any more than tell me where I am!

Regards
Paul

Well... I percevered.... Used my GPS V round the Pyrenees and through a couple of large French cities with the mapsource city select maps uploaded... couldn't fault the unit... stayed locked onto the road i was on without exception and the accuracy was unbelievable!!! rode into Toulouse and GPS V took us straight to the motor rail terminal without any missed turns or nav errors, met up with another couple of groups of bikers there who were rather upset as they had ridden round the city lost for a couple of hours before finding the station, it took us around 10 mins from the edge of the city!!

Mind you.... I don't think my suspension will ever fully recover from the way my bike was strapped to the train.... I could hear her wimpering in pain as they COMPLETELY compressed her suspension front and rear........... OUCH!!!!!!!!

Looks like I'm gonna have to splash out and get the rest of europe unlocked!!

Paul

I had problems with the routes I'd made.
They were too long. The software was 2.02
Now I have the 2.04 downloaded, it works fine.
You can download it for free on the Garmin site.

Freek

Hi All

Have got It back and will hopefully test it out. Apparently it was a software problem with the unit.

When I checked the Garmin site I was surpried to see how many fixes they have had to put in place for the unit. I wish i would have been told about the limited number of waypoints problem before I left fro Africa.

So fingers crossed it won't switch off or lock when I used the power supply off my bike. Saying that though it was really handy when it worked.

I may try it on my trail bike CRM 250 when I'm off roading to give it a good test. The bike does not have a battery, so would it work off the electrical supply when the bike is running.

When you use the unit with only batteries,and hit any large bumps etc it either switches off or locks.

cheers

Julio

Hi All

Loaded the latest software upgrade and used it this weekend.

Still locking or switching itself off with batteries or power direct from Battery.

Will send it back to Bracken again to see what they say.

Will keep you posted

julio

Hi Julio,

Try this: Remove the batteries and run it from the power-socket.
Vibration and bump's couse the batterie-contacts to fail and even burn-in after a while. When this has happened (after a few hours driving) they will even fail when standing still. (and they are very hard to clean!)

If you absolutely need to run on batteries on the bike, try to increase the spring-presure by placing a shime underneath it. Also taping the batteries together (increase mass) might help. Also cover the contact's with accu-greese (vasaline) to prevent the burning-in.

The freezing could be coused by the frequent (many times per second) fluctuating (and therfore switching) power... but here I am just guessing. The older models had no problem with "freezing". Just burning and switching off.

Hope this helps
Maarten

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- www.maartensworld.tmfweb.nl -

Just a quick reccomendation for the GPS V. I bought a ruggedised version from Cycoactive (http://www.cycoactive.com) in the US and use in my Land Rover and F650. And I find the screen size just right. I could do with something bigger in the car though. The only gripe I have is that there's not enough memory on this unit. As soon as I load the New York maps (of course I live write on the join) I've used half the memory.

I took a little tumble last week of a bridge 6ft vertically down into a river (lesson learned: heavy bike, thunderstorms, gravel roads, and small bridges on sharp corners don't mix!). The GPS was partially submerged and got a bit beat up when I fell. But as soon as I dried it out and powered it up, it worked! Which saved me $400 for a new one. Now if only the same had happened to my brand new $2000 laptop which was padded and sealed in a waterproof conatiner http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/frown.gif

Cheers,
Nick.

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www.nickt.com
96 BMW F650
96 Defender 90 300TDi
97 NAS D90
98 Camel Trophy 110

The GPS was partially submerged and got a bit beat up when I fell. But as soon as I dried it out and powered it up, it worked!

Ofcourse. If you check the spec's you'll see it's waterproof to industrial standards and also quit shock and impactproof (don't know the exact figure, but I think 6 G)

Nice... isn't it?

Maarten


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- www.maartensworld.tmfweb.nl -

Just to continue the saga, the GPS has been returned to Brackens who are sending it back to Garmin.

So hopefully, they'll solve the probelms with it.

One thing that I don't understand, is that you have to go through the online registration process. Why does it not prompt you to load the latest software upgrade onto your unit?

If you look at the fixes in a few of the realeases it is alarming how many problems have been identified on the unit.

Cheers

Julio

Hi All

Have been waiting over three weeks for my GPS to be fixed, chased up Brackens who spoke to Garmin.

Apparently they are very busy at the moment and don't know when they are going to be able to fix mine.

Lucky I don't need to use it at the moment or I'd have been stuffed.

For the price I have paid for this unit I feel that it is a real poor show.

Julio

julio

It's been a while since you posted problems but stay with it. I have nothing but praise for the unit in all weathers it has never let me down but must confess never had heavy off road abuse,,yet...

My GarminV came with a little plastic figure of eight spring gizmo that you should insert between first two and second two batteries. Never needed it yet but sounds like a fix fot the problem you mentioned.

GPS4less sold me mine and they have been very helpful with all sorts of enquiries.
eg. sending me a backup copy of mapsource software while my faulty discs were returned to mapsource usa so I could use the unit, then new ones turned up a couple of weeks later. excellent product and retailler 10/10

alan

Hi all,

Just a quick question...

I've just bought a GPS V and want to find out how I check what software issue it is running. Any ideas?

Thanks

B

I've had a GPS V for a couple of months now, and in general I'm impressed. However I do have some issues with it. But first I liked the screen as it's big enough to read on the bike and in the car, the user interface is intuitive enough for first time users, and it's got more features than I possibly need at the moment.

However... Garmin have had this problem with batteries vibrating for a while now. I had a GPS 2+ with the same problem, and they haven't engineered a solution yet. I tend to run the unit off of the vehicle electrics, but it's a pain to carry batteries around loose for those times you want to go hand-held.

I've had a number of occaisions when I'm on the move and the map starts to continuously redraw itself. This usually happens after finishing a calculation, and by flipping pages it can be stopped. But it's an annoying software fault.

Also, when route finding, it doesn't give clear instructions at roundabouts. Instead of saying, 'take the 4th exit' it says 'turn left/right'. If you're going straight over at a roundabout it randomly selects to tell you 'right' or 'left'. This is probably because the Garmin software developers in the States don't have a lot of experience with roundabouts! http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif Again, this could be fixed with a software update.

Other than these, I'm impressed.

Iain


BenW; read the manual! I don't remember exactly what to do off of the top of my head, but it's something like hit Menu twice, then select System, then hit Menu again. Anyway, I've done it, and I found out how to in the small spiral bound manual that came in the box.

about the batteries;

Ask your dealer for the small coil springs witch you can put between the batteries.

Freek (NL)

I have a Garmin etrex vista. It is comparable to the V but it has a larger memory. 24 meg if I remember. The down side is that it has a smaller screen. I don't mind this since I prefer to watch the road instead of the GPS and pull over to check it out. I also use it for backpacking and hunting so the smaller size and lighter weight works better for me. Just an option.

Does anyone know what Cycoactive does to the GPS 5 to make it more rugged? Ebay prices are attractive compared to theirs. Is it worth the extra money to buy from Cycoactive? I would get the Tourtech mount from them. It loks like the best one. What do others think. Bill.

Bill,
The Touratech mount for the GPS V is very good. I've used them in testing desert conditions week in week out. No problems with vibration or losing the unit.

The only bit I dislike is the weak Perspex U-shape which protects the antenna. I've replaced a broken one with identically shaped aluminium.

Bill:

I am not aware that Cycoactive does anything at all to the GPS V to make it more rugged than a conventional GPS V. I am in pretty tight with Garmin (long time beta tester) and the engineers there are not aware of anyone who is "ruggedizing" their GPS units. I think all Cycoactive does is manufacture (or resell) a bicycle/motorcycle mount.

Stephano: You might experience some degradation of antenna performance if you put an aluminum support near it. My suggestion would be to fabricate a new antenna support out of plastic or perhaps balsa wood.

PanEuropean

Hi Bill,

I've talked to Tom at CycoActive before I bought my III from him. He explained how he modifies the GPS to make it less susceptible to vibration. I used that GPS through South America with a Touratech mount on my G/S with no problems.

Later I upgraded the III with a III+ from Garmin. I've used that III+ GPS on dirt and roads with no problems. Note that the III+ has not been modified but has still been reliable.

I've since upgraded again to a 176 with a Touratech mount. I needed more memory than the III+ or V have. We'll see how that one works on my next much longer trip!

My advice it to call Tom at CycoActive and talk to him (if you can get him when he's not riding!) He's very open and will tell you what he does to the units.

Story

Paul:

I just noticed your post of May 30, way higher up on this thread, about GPS accuracy when using the basemap or WorldMap.

Here is some information that might help you understand things better: All the Garmin automotive GPSR's have a 'road lock' feature that will pull the cursor onto the roadway unless the position calculation (from the satellite data) suggests that such an action would be inappropriate.

All the maps that the GPSR's use (built in basemap, WorldMap, CitySelect, whatever) are vector maps. To keep the size of the built in basemap and WorldMap products within reason, there are fewer vectors per unit of roadway describing the roadway than you will find in the CitySelect product. Therefore, the depiction of the roadway on the screen is not as accurate as with CitySelect. Whenever you see the words "overzoom" appear in the lower left corner of the screen, you are pushing the boundaries of what the GPS can accurately display.

The precision of the position shown on the map (cartographic display) is a function of several things: Map accuracy (free of human errors), map precision (number of vectors per mile of roadway), quality of satellite reception, and accuracy of the GPSR itself. When you see positional errors when using the basemap, it is almost always due to map precision. When you see position errors when using WorldMap, it can be a combination of map precision and map accuracy (WorldMap data is now about 5 years old, new roads may have been constructed since then).

If you are using the most recent release of CitySelect, then errors will only be caused by map accuracy (human errors that slipped in when the map was constructed - rare, but it still happens), or quality of satellite reception.

GPSR accuracy is the least of all the concerns, all the modern Garmin units are 12 channel devices, and can calculate position within about 4 meters if all other conditions are ideal. None of the automotive GPSR's have WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation Service) capability, because this is not needed in an automotive unit - the road lock feature would cancel it out anyway, and besides, if the car itself is on average about 4 meters long, what do you need more precision than that for? To determine if you are in the front or back seat?

You can determine the combined accuracy of the GPSR and the satellite signals being received by going to the display screen that shows satellite reception status, and looking at either dilution of precision (DOP) or accuracy indication. Typically, with unobstructed signals such as we get on motorcycles, the accuracy will be within 10 meters.

Note also that although the road lock feature will magnetically snap the cursor on the displayed map to the roadway, the actual latitude/longitude displayed on the GPSR data page (using numbers) will be accurate, and unaffected by the road lock feature.

Errors caused by deliberate degradation of the satellite signals by the US military are very uncommon now, unless you happen to be in an area of the world where the US military wants to degrade the signal for their own purposes. It is no longer necessary for them to degrade signals on a global basis, improvements made to the last generation of satellites that were launched now allow them to degrade signals only over specific geographic areas.

Hope this helps.

PanEuropean