So after careful deliberation, and a week's research, I proceed to buy a Garmin 390LM. Must be honoust, I'm not a Garmin fan, have 2 units laying in my cupboard, one with a faulty battery > which "cannot be repaired / replaced", and one that switches on and off by itself ( usually in a strange town at exactly the point you need to choose a specific turn at a fork. )
Anyhow, I choose the Garmin over the TomTom, as I believe Tracks for Africa, which I intend loading, only works with Garmin.
So here's how my Friday evening fun and excited with my latest purchase, installation on my GS went :
1) The one M4x20 panhead screw that fixes the cradle to the ram "bolt mount thingy", has a deformed head, so I'm a bolt short. Which I off course now have to go and source myself. I proceed with the 3 bolts only nonetheless >
2) I complete the installation ( pretty good job if I may say so myself ) but there's no power at the cradle points. I have a ND Electronics Engineering, so I put my skills to use :thumleft: There should be 12V at the regulator input - wired directly from battery, and 5V at the 2 prongs on the cradle. So first I check the inline 2A fuse, which is fine, and proceed....Long story short ( guess it's already a long story ), the red fly lead which was soldered to the in-line fuse module had a conductor failure inside the insulation, which does happen with cables, fair enough BUTTTTTTT : Had this unit been tested before packaging this fault would have shown. Which means I bought the most expensive GPS / product on the market, which doesn't get tested before packaging ?? So I replace the piece of cable > Guess I should have returned it at this point, but wasted an hour routing the cable under the tank, next to the existing loom, and needed the GPS the next day///
3) Get the 5V on the cradle, and the unit turns on, so I start to play with it, and yes you guessed it : The unit works, but the message "GPS is OFF" remains at the top info bar. YES I was outside and YES there was sufficient satellite signals. So Google the error message and YES. You have to enter the freakin developer page of the unit, and disable to DEMO mode ( it wouldn't untick in the "normal menu" ). F-all about this in the Quickstart manual, and at the time of writing this, haven't picked up anything in the full manual either > only started reading it now though. ( Any half decent user friendly product wouldn't even require a Quickstart. Now would my best friend, the interior decorator with a FF in Science, have managed this? Or would he have had to visit Garmin in his valuable time on Monday morning, waited his turn in a line, and have been without his new GPS for the weekend ??
F%^&CKKK me, get it together Garmin, may I suggest a page out off a certain Mr S Jobs' book.
I'll wait for the Apple I-Navigate ( joke ) before I buy again...lol
:deal:
Anyhow, I choose the Garmin over the TomTom, as I believe Tracks for Africa, which I intend loading, only works with Garmin.
So here's how my Friday evening fun and excited with my latest purchase, installation on my GS went :
1) The one M4x20 panhead screw that fixes the cradle to the ram "bolt mount thingy", has a deformed head, so I'm a bolt short. Which I off course now have to go and source myself. I proceed with the 3 bolts only nonetheless >
2) I complete the installation ( pretty good job if I may say so myself ) but there's no power at the cradle points. I have a ND Electronics Engineering, so I put my skills to use :thumleft: There should be 12V at the regulator input - wired directly from battery, and 5V at the 2 prongs on the cradle. So first I check the inline 2A fuse, which is fine, and proceed....Long story short ( guess it's already a long story ), the red fly lead which was soldered to the in-line fuse module had a conductor failure inside the insulation, which does happen with cables, fair enough BUTTTTTTT : Had this unit been tested before packaging this fault would have shown. Which means I bought the most expensive GPS / product on the market, which doesn't get tested before packaging ?? So I replace the piece of cable > Guess I should have returned it at this point, but wasted an hour routing the cable under the tank, next to the existing loom, and needed the GPS the next day///
3) Get the 5V on the cradle, and the unit turns on, so I start to play with it, and yes you guessed it : The unit works, but the message "GPS is OFF" remains at the top info bar. YES I was outside and YES there was sufficient satellite signals. So Google the error message and YES. You have to enter the freakin developer page of the unit, and disable to DEMO mode ( it wouldn't untick in the "normal menu" ). F-all about this in the Quickstart manual, and at the time of writing this, haven't picked up anything in the full manual either > only started reading it now though. ( Any half decent user friendly product wouldn't even require a Quickstart. Now would my best friend, the interior decorator with a FF in Science, have managed this? Or would he have had to visit Garmin in his valuable time on Monday morning, waited his turn in a line, and have been without his new GPS for the weekend ??
F%^&CKKK me, get it together Garmin, may I suggest a page out off a certain Mr S Jobs' book.
I'll wait for the Apple I-Navigate ( joke ) before I buy again...lol
:deal:
