Article 44187 of sci.geo.satellite-nav: Path: matra.meer.net!news1.best.com!nntprelay.mathworks.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!en.com!not-for-mail From: planner@future.net (Bob Hawbaker) Newsgroups: sci.geo.satellite-nav Subject: Re: Does anyone have experience with a Garmin map175? Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 19:49:30 GMT Organization: Exchange Network Services Lines: 77 Message-ID: <33f20cd1.1924604@news.future.net> References: <33EE6D16.1DC2@fuse.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: dial015.future.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.0/32.390 Xref: matra.meer.net sci.geo.satellite-nav:44187 I bought a 175 in March, partially based on Jack Yeazel & Joe Mehaffey's review (which can be found at then proceeded to accessorize. Antenna, cables, battery & charger, mount, a couple of G-Charts. The design of the equipment seemed sound, although the 175 is a bit bulky & heavy -- Not the kind of think you'd take jogging. The 175 being my 2nd GPS unit (Tripmate was my first, used for an entirely different purpose), I was pleased with the speed with which it acquired satellites & displayed position. Using maps obtained from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources I planned a trip to Pipestone lake in Northwest Ontario. This is a lake reachable only by boat & portage I plotted the entire route based on the map, and entered it using UTM coords. My worst estimate was 400 meters off; close enough to get me to the neighborhood. Garmin doesn't yet have G Charts for Canada My basic need for GPS in this situation was that the lake is large, mostly undeveloped, and complex. To me, all islands look alike. I wanted help finding my way to specific areas on the lake, and, more importantly, back to camp. When you fire up the 175, after the initial splash screen, the following message appears, and stays displayed until you hit the EDIT/ENTER key: "The electronic chart is an aid to navigation designed to facilitate the use of authorized government charts, not to replace them. Only official government charts and notices to mariners contain all information needed for the safety of navigation, and, as always, the user is responsible for their prudent use." Believe it. Two days into the trip the 175 failed. Plenty of power, it was wired into the boat's electrical system, which had 3 batteries, one recharged by the engine. The problem was that the screen intermittently went black. Now, I know that in one of the myriad menus the user can adjust the contrast. I'd made that mistake before, accidentally turning the contrast all the way down so that the screen data is unreadable. Even if this happens, I know the command sequence: (MENU/MENU/UP(arrow)/UP/UP/UP/ENTER/ UP/UP/ENTER/RIGHT/RIGHT/RIGHT .... RIGHT until the display clears up. It didn't work. A radiophone call to Garmin's 800 tech support number confirmed that there was no field fix for this problem. They did offer to exchange it on the spot if I could find a dealer. Right. After the trip, my dealer (BOAT/US) did exchange it, no hassle. I subsequently used the second unit with the northern Minnesota G-Charts on Leech and Vermilliion Lakes. The charts were very accurate. You WILL want the external antenna for fast lock-ins and accurate tracking. I still like it; it works with Waypoint+ on my notebook. I'm just wondering why it waited until the most inopportune moment to crash. There must be a newsgroup about this behavior somewhere... Good Luck, Bob On Sun, 10 Aug 1997 21:38:30 -0400, Wuerdeman wrote: >I tried to post this before but never saw it so here I am again. Any >one have one of these expensive little boxes? > >Thanks, >todd_wuerdeman@fuse.net > >