My 76Cx report

First, many thanks to Jack Erbes for his help and keeping me from going

So far I love it, and it fills the GPS needs of both me and the wife.

Two surprises. I can't believe the battery life (2600mAh Ni-MH) even though
last night the backlight was purposely used quite a lot, and the quickness
of satellite acquisition. I can turn it on in the car and drop it on the
seat, and by the time I've left the drive the map is ready.

I had a bear of a time figuring out how to get the waypoint proximity deal
set up on the unit itself, so I figured out how to set everything up on the
city navigator map on the computer and simply zap it over to the unit. YES!

The only issue I had was the city navigator map (DVD) as I couldn't unlock
it with the supplied number. Gave a call to Garmins 800 help line and after
no waiting whatsoever, a lady figured out what was going on which turned out
not to be a simple matter, and things were finally a-ok. My hats off to the
help department.

I'll probably be back with some questions, but in the


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Lee wrote:

Yep, the sat. acquisition time were cut dramatically with the "x"
systems and the sat. sensitivity was significantly increased. Prior to
my 76CSx I had the 76CS. It was a good unit but I use them in some
pretty heavy woods and the CS would sometimes lose signal. I haven't had
the CSx lose signal once. Well... unless you count going through 1/2
mile tunnels through the mountains on Oahu (which I don't)


It's really not that bad once you hit a few key points like each screen
has it's own menu. Change screen displays, press enter - different menu
for each.


Their support team is tops. I had an issue with mine recently. A battery
contact broke. I've had it for about 1 1/2 years so the warranty had
expired. But I called 'em anyhow and asked about getting it repaired.
The guy said there was a flat $150 fee to repair a 76CSx no matter what
the problem was. (basically an exchange fee for another unit). I said:
"for a 29c battery connector!!?!???? I'll fix it myself, thanks" and
then he said since it wasn't that far out of warranty, they'd do it at
no charge. So he gave me a return number, I mailed it off and had a
replacement unit in about 1 1/2 weeks. Is it a brand new unit? I can't
tell but it sure looks like it. The only other company I know of with as
good of customer service is Weber (grills and smokes).

That's the key. Sit down with the manual and actually read it (usually
violates my most basic rule) along with playing with the unit at the
same time.

GL and enjoy your new "toy"

This is just to confirm that Garmin support is outstanding: a couple of
years ago, I dropped my GPSMap 60C and fractured the plastic piece that
is just under the battery cover, the result being that the cover would
not lock in place. Otherwise, the unit was still in working condition.
Garmin first quoted the fixed price for repairs, but when I described
the damage, they offered to do the repair at half price.

Herb





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Lee wrote:

You're more than welcome. Glad to hear that you're happy with it.

Here is a text file that you can download that has the settings as I
have them on mine:

http://www.vom.com/jack/misc/090227_GPSMAP%2076Cx%20Settings.txt

I made a list of the setting as a precaution against them getting reset
to defaults or something. It took me a couple of weeks to come to grips
with all the settings and get happy with them. There a lot of settings
and they are a little arcane it you don't mess with them all the time.
So the file also serves as a back up for my memory too.

Some of my settings go to my using it in boats and cars. If you read
through that it will give you a feel for some of the options.

I bought a back up for mine last week, Amazon has them down to about
$175 now (brand new, non-refurb, retail packaged 76Cx). In the course
of checking that out I noticed that the current unit software is 3.70
and the GPS chip set software is 3.00 so you might want to see if you
have the latest software.


There is another post here that tells you where you can get the GPS chip
set V3.00 software if you are not using WebUpdater.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jacker at midmaine dot com)
(also receiving email at jackerbes at roadrunner dot com)

        Well, when I read 2600 mAh NiMH then I can see that you haven't heard of
the newer NiMH battery called Eneloop/Hybrid yet.