Nuvi 500 series and Snowmobiling

1st off I want to appologize for not finding out the following on my
own.
I was on hold with Garminyesterday for way to long and never eneded up
talking with anyone. I searched here o the `net and did not find the
answers
But many of you have already spent Too Much time answering my
questions!!

Ok - somehoe I misse that some of the Nuvi's take memory cards until
someone n the generic GPS forum point that out to me.
What I found is that the Nuvis 50 series take memeory card, are water
proof and the 500 comes with Topo maps preloaded (which would save me
about $80 over the 76CSx)
But... someone mentioned somewhere else that the 510 has bluetooth?? I
can't find on Garmin's site that any of the 500s have blue tooth -
Yes? No?
the Nuvis 500 series in comparision with the 76/60CSx would be thatthe
500s lack a barimectric altituts, compass - anything else of import?
The larger screen on the 500s is what I need - though I wish it wa at
least an inch bigger in both directions.
The 500s will record almost unlimitted (bassed on the size of the SD
card) track - right?
What chip set do they have? will the lack of the possiblity of an
external attena hurt recption much?

Thanks yet again!!

Oh yes - I saw thw BlueTooth option n a Nuvi 510 in the downloadable
PDG owner's manual - but could not find a 510 at Garmin or on the
`net.
(yes Yes - I can't typ or speel!! ;-)

Chull13 wrote:

The easy way to see a list of the features on a receiver or to compare
two or more receivers is to go to a page like this one:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134

and check the ones you want to see. That list is not infallible and
does not always have all the answers you want but it is generally a good
starting point for sort them out.


There is no 510 model as near as I can tell, here is a comparison on the
500 and 550, neither of which is bluetooth capable:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/compare.do?cID=134&compareProduct=13424&compareProduct=27442


Unfortunately, Garmin compare feature does not work across two
categories of receivers. You can't compare On The Road models with On
The Trial models on one screen. But you can open two instances of a
browser like Firefox and put them in narrow side by side windows and do
a half-assed comparison of sorts.

As far as the difference in the two they are really apples and oranges.
The 60/76CSx are very versatile and sophisticated go anywhere and do
anything hand held GPS receivers. Arguably they are the world's best
handheld GPS receivers. There is virtually nothing you would want to
know or no element of data you would want to see about navigation that
you cannot get from the these. And they will do that under heavy cover
and very trying conditions for up to 18-24 hours at a time on a pair of
AA cells.

In comparison the nuvis are intended to be used dash mounted in a car
and to provide help with automobile navigation. They have the essential
navigation features that go to traveling by the road. And they have
been embellished with a number of features that go to providing
additional information from external sources to help drivers gt around
in heavy traffic. And beyond the over the road navigation role, they
have features that support other activities that people might want to do
while in their cars. These are things like the bluetooth phone
interface, the photo viewer, etc.

The fact that the 500 series is waterproof, has a battery good for a few
hours of use, can be taken in hand and walked around with is pretty much
incidental. Beyond that it has little in common with the 60/76Cx/CSx
models.

The 60/76Cx/CSx models will do an adequate or even good job at providing
navigation assistance while driving a car. It can use the same
excellent highway mapping that the nuvi uses (an optional purchase) and
it has a a couple of screens that will provide excellent, easily seen at
a glance navigation instructions and it will make an assortment of
simple beeps and buzzes to get your attention when maneuvers are
upcoming. But it will not follow spoken instructions, speak street
names aloud, tell you which lane it thinks you should be in, answer your
phone, show your photos, or do many of the other things the nuvi 500
series will do.

So I don't view there being much basis for comparison in the two. If
you want a handheld for out of the car use the 60/76Cx/CSx cannot be
beat. If you want any of the nuvis features, you really need to own one
of each. If you want to do all the navigation related stuff with one
receiver the 60/76CSx can do it all, the nuvi 5xx cannot.


Look at the models like the 5000 if size is what matters. The things I
say above about the comparison will, for the most part, still apply.


Not that I know of. Where did you get that impression? The nuvi 5xx
have a feature (TracBack) that will let you see, save, and retrace your
recent travels. But I don't see anything that tells you anything about
how much track data can be saved or where it is saved to.

It is is like some of the other nuvis, if you dig in and look for *.gpx
files when you have the nuvi connected to a PC (the nuvi's main memory
and memory card will be seen as removable drives) you can probably
figure out the track point collection scheme for yourself. Garmin does
not make much or any mention of it in the user's guide.

The 60/76Cx/CSx are the absolute champions of track point collection in
comparison to the nuvis. You can set the collection rate based on time
or distance, you can see the tracks as they are collected, or not see
them if you prefer, you can have up to the last 10,000 trackpoints in
main memory at all times if you want, and you can save up to 20 tracks
to a saved tracks memory location and use those for creating routes.
While all that is going on, you can also have every track point it ever
collects saved to a *.gpx file (one file for each day) on the microSD
and that will continue for as long as there is any free space available
on the microSD card.


The 60/76Cx/CSx have the SiRF III chip set and a very good quadrifilar
helix antenna. The reception is unsurpassed by any other consumer grade
handheld GPS receiver. I have occasionally had the fix quality
momentarily drop to 2D (still have a fix, loss of the elevation value)
while in the woods and under very heavy cover. But, for the most part,
it takes a metal roof or heavy concrete buildings/tunnels to kill off
the reception. I have an external antenna but have never felt a need to
use it with my 76Cx.

The nuvis have Garmin's not further described "high performance" chip
set. They will have a small rectangular patch antenna, and will not be
able to maintain a fix in many places where the 60/76Cx/CSx will be
doing fine.

My advice? Buy one of each.

Jack

...
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My advice is don't by Nuvi by 60/76csx.Why ? Because any gps sold for
consumer market don't work very well in the cold. your title say
Snowmobiling.To me that is very cold. When I use my 60csx in the
Canadian winters it is hanging around my neck under my coat warmed by
my body heat. I take it out only for the brief periods of time
otherwise they FADE on you.I use Eneloop AA rechargeable batteries,and
they work fine down to -5c. If snowmobiling is important use for your
gps than Nuvi is out.

        I agree with you on the Nuvi and cold weather that won't go well together.
And I am not talking about very cold but just around like 65F and windy
(like using on motorcycle) then it won't last for 20-30 minutes.

        I tested my Nuvi 680 with the internal bettery.