Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[porthole]

close up, showing the "marine view" and my marina, the red line (hard to see in the pic) is the tracking line of me riding  to the boat before switching to the marine view.

[Twolanerider]

Porthole, does that unit have an onboard audio output, or the ability to take it via aux connector to a player, or not have an audio function at all?

[porthole]

Porthole, does that unit have an onboard audio output, or the ability to take it via aux connector to a player, or not have an audio function at all?

2Lane,

A speaker is part of the included cigar lighter adapter, and it can be adjusted loud, but I have not yet tried it on the bike.

The "hard wire" power cord does have an audio output, but it is designed to drive a speaker, not as a pre-amp into the aux input, so that option did not work. I am still looking into some type of adapter that will allow it to be used with the aux input, that way volume adjustment would be real easy.

I did try (temp wire-tied on) a small marine speaker, but it was not loud enough at speed, any you have to go into the units menu to change the volume when you slow down. Would have been nice if they added a speed relative volume setting. In fact I am going to email Garmin after this with that suggestion. The unit does have the option of an automatic night-day setting base on the sunset-rise times.

Garmin lists a “Motorcycle Power Cord” on their website, but the sales department could not tell me if it is a preamp output.
BTW, the audio directions are so good you can turn the display off and use audio only to navigate!

In the past I have not been a fan of Garmin equipment, thought they were too hard to operate, but this unit has changed my opinion.

1. Easy to use

2. Really is water resistant, designed to be used on the open console of a boat. From Garmin’s website “Water resistant to IEC 60529 IPX7 standards (submersible in one meter of water for 30 minutes“

3. Built in Lithium-ion rechargeable battery has a pretty good range to it, can be used all day without a charge.

4. Garmin has free downloads for software upgrades, a real nice feature. I have several Northstar GPS units and their upgrades are a minimum of $150.00.

I bought the Land & Sea package, around $1100.00, includes all US street maps and your choice of 1 marine chart area, auto and home charger, hardwire power cord, auto and boat mounts. Auto only packages without the boat mounts and charts are available.

External antennas are an option.

The 276 uses proprietary Garmin memory chips, which are a little expensive, could be bigger.
Duane

BTW Don, thanks for the brochures.

[porthole]

Something to add regarding GPS speed.

I always wondered how accurate the speed display was. Most GPS units update speed display about once per second to average out the reading and some units, especially marine GPS’ allow you to set that parameter.

In a recent Power & Motoryacht (I think) test, a police radar (the Stalker ATS radar gun connected to a PC), Garmin 276C and a $20,000 GPS were compared for speed accuracy.

The Garmin below 30 mph was slightly off, but above 30 it was dead on with the 20K unit. That said, my SEEG speedo reads about 3-5 mph higher then the Garmin at a “Garmin” speed of 65.

[Twolanerider]

The "hard wire" power cord does have an audio output, but it is designed to drive a speaker, not as a pre-amp into the aux input, so that option did not work. I am still looking into some type of adapter that will allow it to be used with the aux input, that way volume adjustment would be real easy.

Duane

BTW Don, thanks for the brochures.

Sounds like that unit compares favorably (or more than favorably if you've got the dual use marine application as well) with the 2620 I've been using.  The various power and audio hook up options are identical in every way.  Though this difference is likely just a differnce in use styles I found the screen display to be so intuitive and so good that I could do without the audio.  Really liked having interchanges mapped for me before I got there so would know what they looked like well before ever having to commit to a lane choice.  While it can be tough to tell from the pics it looks the screen display on yours might be a bit larger as well.

I'd also been unimpressed with a Garmin unit I had in a boat a few years ago.  Lots of time for the tech to evolve in three or four years though so I had higher hopes now.  Seems like both of these units are good ones.

Glad the SEEG brochures got there ok  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[Rsantucc]

I would recommend reducing the estimated speed.  I travel faster on the highways but slower on the city streets.  ETA is usually off do to these factors.

/Bill

Actually ETA is calculated consitantly on the 26 series units as you drive. If you speed up and drive for 10 minutes at the higher speed you will seee your ETA drop if you slow dow you will see the same. I can only speak on the 26 series Garmins as I know the units continoulsy calculate throu the entire mapping and movement or non movement.

[WFP]

Actually ETA is calculated consitantly on the 26 series units as you drive. If you speed up and drive for 10 minutes at the higher speed you will seee your ETA drop if you slow dow you will see the same. I can only speak on the 26 series Garmins as I know the units continoulsy calculate throu the entire mapping and movement or non movement.

It can't use only that info...it takes into account the fact that you will be travelling slower on the city streets...until you are travelling them, it cannot adjust your estimated speed.  It calculates with the entry in the table.  My argument is that the entry in the table for the upcoming roads that are designated city streets, for city streets is too high and too low for the highway.

/Bill

[Bungy]

Porthole;

Now I understand our previous discussions brother! (http://flhrsei.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=eg_gen;action=display;num=1111454710;start=24#24) Get that motorsickle cord! That's the one I used & my unit works perfectly. I even got bored a few days ago with all the rain we've been getting that I pulled the radio out & hard wired the unit to the aux jack. Now I don't have that ugly plug sticking out the front anymore!

[porthole]

Hard wired?

Care to elaborate? [smiley=1syellow1.gif]

[Bungy]

I pulled out the radio, took off the front face to access the aux port. There was some trial & error to figure out which contact points to solder to. I did this by inserting the jack & using a meter to check conductivity. I then soldered two pieces of wire about a foot long to the contact points, ran them out the back of the radio, did everything back up  & voila - hard wired. The hard part was when I hooked every thing back up I discovered that the aux feature only works when there is physically someting pushing the contacts apart inside the port. I solved this by using a short (1/8" long) piece of 1/8" wooden dowling, it holds the contacts apart & I discovered that if I ever need to use the jack for someting else, the dowling will actually fall out the bottom of the radio. There's nothing electrical that it can touch, the port assembly is actually outside of the radio chassis itself.