Garmin IQUE M5

I recently purchased the Garmin IQUE M5.It is great for traveling on
the road. However, I was disappointed to learn that this system will
not display coordinates in UTM or MGRS.UTM is good to have to display
grid coordinates, especially on terrain/ topographic maps. MGRS is
used for military topographic maps. I'm currently in the Army and I
know it would be extremely useful. A lot of soldiers are interested in
this product but the lack of this feature is a breaker. I tried to
find other software from Garmin that would supplement this feature but
I had no luck. I also searched for third party software but there is
nothing available. I called Garmin to recommend that they add this
feature in their next update. They told me it is possible to add this
feature through updates. Hopefully enough people complained about the
lack of this feature or told Garmin they would buy this product if this
feature was added. If you are also interested in using UTM or MGRS for
the IQUE M5, please make you voice heard.

wrote:


It's even worse: the Que software displays coordinates
ONLY in hdddº mm.mmm' with mapdatum WGS84.
This cannot be changed.
I can't think of a sensible explanation for this omission.
When I asked Garmin on their web site how I could change that,
the reply was:
"Unfortunately the m5 only displays lat/long"

Since then I have reported other problems/bugs, but Garmin seems
to have stopped answering me altogether :-(


For handling maps I use OziExplorerCE and this gives me all the
mapdatums and coordinate systems I need. I'm not sure though
if this is what you are looking for. It's on www.oziexplorer.com
The Que-software I use only for autorouting and searching addresses.


I did, I asked where to find it.

IQUE-M5 wrote:

There is quite a bit available. The M5 does produced NMEA data on com2
as well as its internal formats for the Garmin software. Thus any PPC
capable software should work on the M5. MapTech is one company that make
topo maps. There are many others.

I called Garmin to recommend that they add this

I would agree, this would be nice for topo maps.

--
_ _ Dale DePriest
/`) _ // http://users.cwnet.com/dalede
o/_/ (_(_X_(` For GPS and GPS/PDAs

IQUE-M5 wrote:


I'm not certain but I think you can install other applications on that
and use the SD card slot for additional data storage for those
applications.

If that is the case, I would download the trial version of Ozi
Explorer-CE and install it. It is complete with a few example maps and
you should be able to fully test it for function before you purchase it.

If the NMEA data from the built in GPS receiver is on a system COM port
and available to other applications, Ozi-CE should be able to find and
use it. But if the GPS data is only output in the Garmin protocol that
may be a problem.

Topo maps for use with Ozi-CE can be found for free in most cases.
Those would be the USGS 1:24K and 1:100K DRGs (Digital Raster Graphics,
bit-mapped raster images).

To prepare those maps for use on the handheld, you can use the trial
version of Ozi Explorer PC. That will convert the maps to the format
used by Ozi-CE, set them up for the zoom levels, and compress them into
smaller files than you started with. The conversions are a one time
deal, it takes only a little time and is a little technical but easy
enough to do.

After the conversions are done you can store the topo map images on a SD
card and use them with Ozi-CE. That is a good program, it is as full
featured as any Pocket PC navigation application I have seen. It will
save waypoints and tracks, create routes, display in various coordinate
systems, use various datums, etc., etc.


I'm retired Navy, spent a tour as a "purple suiter" at Ft. Bragg in the
80's. I can visualize the conditions you will probably want to use
this in. The primary shortfalls will be battery life, lack of
ruggedizing, and waterproofing. But it can certainly be useful,
especially in the less "tactical" places.

There are handhelds on the market that have the ruggedizing,
weatherproofing, and portable DC power efficiency of the typical
consumer handheld GPS units. But they are priced up around $1,500 and
up. If you are looking for more info on those, here is a link to the
Magellan models that may be more suitable for outdoor use:

http://products.thalesnavigation.com/en/solutions/mobilemap/


Jack

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

OziExplorer works fine on the M5

In fact, Ozi and Que work fine at the same time



On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:32:49 -0400, Jack Erbes