Garmin Nuvi about to be reprogrammed with a 7lb sledgehammer

hamsterlord · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 09, 2008 Posts: 5

I've got an old garmin nuvi 610 which i bought in 2008. It works fine in central London, but out in the sticks (Wales or Cornwall) i find it utterly useless.

It will try to take me miles out of my way up muddy tracks only a 4WD could tackle in preference to shorter routes along main roads. Take me in endless circles around housing estates - again totally ignoring really obvious and shorter routes along main roads (and this is housing estates and roads that have been there since the 60s).

It often doesn't know the difference between a left/right turning and straight on, telling me to turn right when there isn't a right turn, or coming out with the dreaded "recalculating" because it thought a left turn was actually straight on.

Updated it with the latest map in May which has made absolutely no difference.

So, are the latest satnavs a big improvement? Would a TomTom be more reliable or are Garmin a lot better now? I just need basic features to get from A to B (plus POI for the camera database). Don't have a smartphone at the moment...

Any recommendations from people who use satnavs out of town?

Andy_P · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 4:04 am Post subject:

Most satnavs will have some tendency to use minor roads *if* they think they will get you there quicker (if you've asked it for the "fastest" route) or by the shortest straight-line route, if you've asked for the "shortest" route.

But I don't see why or how any of them would "take you miles out of your way": they are simply not clever enough to do anything other than look for "fastest" or "shortest...

So you have to look at the routes it offers very carefully to see why it's doing it.
I presume that model doesn't have any live traffic function where it avoids jams? Or does it?

As for the left/right/straight on issue... No satnav has every junction and its priorities programmed in, all they do is offer a small selection of words and phrases depending on the layout of the roads and the angles between them.... They'll say "bend left" "turn left" "sharp left" etc. but they can only choose which one depending on the LOOK of the road on their map.

So they may say "turn left" when the road on the map looks like that, but the white lines define it as just a bend with a turning off to the right.

Without massively increasing the on-board storage to handle all the extra data of every single junction, you just have to accept that's the way they work, use your common sense and look at the road itself.
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sussamb · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 8:06 am Post subject:

While Andy_P is spot on, you have a very old model there. As well as updating the maps have you updated the software? See here for the latest version:

https://www8.garmin.com/support/agree.jsp?id=1923

Whether you upgrade the software or not, your 610 may benefit from a hard reset. Note the part in the thread about backing up your favourites.

Too late now of course, but IMO you'd have been better buying a new satnav rather than paying for a map update. However a software update followed by a hard reset may improve the performance you're getting.

Also if you can give an example of the wierd routing (start, finish etc) I'll run it on my nuvi and see what I get.

hamsterlord · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 09, 2008 Posts: 5

Thanks for the helpful replies, much appreciated.

Yes, updated the firmware when i bought the navigator map - there's a later version now though.

The satnav is now starting to stutter when reading out directions and the battery lasts only a couple of minutes after a full charge, so definitely time for new one...

Think what i really need is the ability to manually create routes on a PC and store
them in the satnav.

Andy, seriously - down in Cornwall i've come across side roads that are 90 degrees to a dead straight stretch of road which the satnav thinks is straight on. This has got to be a bug in the map data.

Can't see why correcting junction/map data would massively increase the storage - it knows there's a junction, its just connected the wrong way...

Andy_P · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 1:04 am Post subject:

Oldboy · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 7:28 am Post subject:

Andy_P · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 11:37 am Post subject:

Exactly

There are presumably a set of very simple rules that govern what one of the audio phases are used in a given situation.

There's no way for us to know exactly what they are, but it must be down to the angles the roads meet at and how the individual road segments are mapped.

I know it's not done by road name, as the nearest main road to me changes name half way along and a small side road continues off to the left with the original name.
But the TomTom "knows" the main road is the "straight on" one even though it still says "bear right".
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Oldboy · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 12:26 pm Post subject:

Andy_P · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:09 pm Post subject:

OK... ignore everything I've said so far. I'm obviously talking out of my a**e. Crying or Very sad

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hamsterlord · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 09, 2008 Posts: 5

aggghh! fed up reading reviews, even the latest satnav autorouting in country areas seem to take people up dirt tracks, round housing estates ignore main roads etc..

Sod satnavs, what we need is one of these - no need to worry about roads, just take a compass bearing, floor the accelerator, close your eyes and pray...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yHl24QynOM

Kremmen · Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:31 am Post subject:

I'm sure the latest units have improved considerably.

I would suggest a new Garmin 30/40/50 which will have the latest software and maps.

These entry level units don't cost the earth and will be better than nothing (hopefully)
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hamsterlord · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 09, 2008 Posts: 5

OK, after a bit more research and a phone call to Garmin i'm going for a nuvi 2445LMT with lifetime map updates and 100 route capacity. Thanks for the suggestion Kremmen, but Garmin told me the Nuvi 30/40/50 models don't support routes.

I've downloaded and played around with Basecamp this evening which allows me to plot and edit my own routes and export them to the 2445.

Bit crap that Basecamp doesn't support postcodes, so i'll have to convert them to grid references: http://gridreferencefinder.com/

timlofts · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 07, 2006 Posts: 16

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