2) Why do some people seem to be getting longer battery life on the G-III than others. Is there an updated hardware platform responsible for this?
Joe, There was no quantum leap in battery performance in the GPS III. Newer parts with better than specified performance yielded lower current consumption. If we get parts with nominal performance, battery life will be back where it was, so we will not advertise longer life battery in the GPS III. Best Regards. Garmin Engineering
3) LEG NOT SMOOTHED > What does this Garmin Error Message Mean?
GARMIN units incorporate Turn Anticipation when navigating a route. With turn anticipation, the unit calculates a tangent intercept from one leg to the next (cutting the corner), so as to minimize overshoot onto the next leg. This is perhaps most useful in aviation.
If the leg angle is too sharp, and/or the closure rate is too high, the unit will provide a Steep Turn Ahead message, indicating that turn anticipation is not possible and there will be a sharp turn with no smoothing and overshoot may occur.
If two legs closely spaced are upcoming meeting the same above conditions, the unit may not be able to establish navigation onto one leg prior to the next leg change, in this case the Leg Not Smoothed message is presented.
4) When I put in waypoints and they are named AUTOMATICALLY 001, 002, 003, 004, and 005. If I delete <say> 002 and then put in ANOTHER automatic waypoint, it is numbered 006 instead of filling in the gap at 002. Why did Garmin screw up and make it work in this crazy manner?
Answer:
Well.. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In this case,
Garmin's design engineer thought you would like it if it worked this way.
If you are out putting in waypoints, you can put in your home waypoints
in the <say> 000 to 099 range and hiking waypoints in the 100 to 199
range and your car rally waypoints in the 200 to 399 range and keep them
cataloged.
You do this by NAMING a given waypoint that you just MARKED as <say> 342. Then the next waypoint you put in will be 343, then 344, etc. A lot of people think this is a GREAT feature and would be quite irritated if Garmin made the waypoint system act as you suggest.
5) How can I get a display of ALTITUDE on my StreetPilot?
Answer: They hid it away nicely did they not? Try this procedure.
a) Go to the SP Map page.
b) Select OPTIONS.
c) Select CUSTOMIZE MAPS
d) Select GENERAL SETTINGS
e) Turn LON/LAT to ON.
This will also turn on the Altitude display.
6)I understand that the Streetpilot tracklog can hold 500 points (bread
crumbs). How often are the points dropped? I
would like to know which method is being used (Resolution, Time,
Distance, Other) and a little more about how the chosen method works in
the case of the Streetpilot.
My experience this past weekend with the track log on was that on a fairly long trip the log was used up and the new points began pushing the older (beginning) points out of the log. So the effect was metaphorically like my car dragging a long piece of string behind it. How "long" (in time or distance) can I expect the string to be?
Answer:
The StreetPilot track log is set to resolution mode with a track deviation
threshold of 50 meters (the GPS III defaults to 25 meters).
This means that if you are traveling along a road and your actual track
deviates from the straight line track projected by the StreetPilot by more
than 50 meters, SP will log another track point and project another
track along the direction of travel. The track log recording is a
little bit better than what's in the III - it doesn't round off corners
as much. The track log will log up to 500 points. The length of the
track log (miles) will vary tremendously depending on how many curves and
turns are on your track. Typically you might see a log of from half
an hour of driving to several hours or so depending on road curvature along
your route. Obviously, if you are on a curvy mountain road
SP will log more waypoints per mile than if you are on a straight road
in the flatlands.
(Send me your FAQ questions suggestions
and I will add them here.
Joe Mehaffey