Oregon 450 and road travel

[46er]

Anyon use the 450 for road travel directions? I have a car without any plug in's. The NUVI battery does not last long enough for realistic use, just a couple of hours. How useful do you find the Oregon without the spoken directions. Will just be used for exploring country roads; no suicide rides on parkways, turnpikes, etc. Rather not get the City Navigator if its not useable nor upgrade to the Montana or Zumo for just that feature if I can avoid it. Thanks!

 

[Boyd]

People report that the free routable openstreetmaps have gotten pretty good, although I've never used them myself. You can download here: http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl

4 or 5 years ago, when I first got my Oregon 400t, I tried using it in the car. After one trip I gave up. Screen was just too small and dim for me. I don't care about the lack of spoken directions, I hate those anyway. So I think it's a personal thing - try it and see what you think. You will need some kind of mount however, although maybe you can make something homebrew until you decide whether you like it.

You could also try something like this with the Nuvi: http://forums.gpsreview.net/viewtopic.php?t=26114

 

[46er]

People report that the free routable openstreetmaps have gotten pretty good, although I've never used them myself. You can download here: http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl

4 or 5 years ago, when I first got my Oregon 400t, I tried using it in the car. After one trip I gave up. Screen was just too small and dim for me. I don't care about the lack of spoken directions, I hate those anyway. So I think it's a personal thing - try it and see what you think. You will need some kind of mount however, although maybe you can make something homebrew until you decide whether you like it.

You could also try something like this with the Nuvi: http://forums.gpsreview.net/viewtopic.php?t=26114

Thanks Boyd. I'm liking the Nuvi and external battery idea. Perfect together and I don't have to learn anything other than where to plug it in

 

[Teegate]

Skip the Oregon for driving.

 

[46er]

Skip the Oregon for driving.

I tried the Oregon today, for what I need it is useable, but I like the external battery on the Nuvi option a lot better, just need to order the battery. The Zumo would be perfect. It has a curvy road feature on one model that will find them for you, but I don't need it $700 worth. Would be nice if Garmin made it an option for the nuvi's, or perhaps someone could hack it, eh, Boyd?

 

[Boyd]

I think you would need to run the Oregon at full brightness in the car, and in that case the battery probably wouldn't last much longer than a nuvi.

No idea how the curvy road feature works, perhaps a special database included on the zumo? Or data embedded in the map that other devices don't use? Sorry, not interested. There is a site where people who hack gps hang out. I think I read that people have flashed Nuvi's with Zumo firmware. I will not post any links because I have a problem with their attitude about piracy.

 

[46er]

I think you would need to run the Oregon at full brightness in the car, and in that case the battery probably wouldn't last much longer than a nuvi.

It really wasn't too bad. I only referred to it if I needed too, had it velcro'd to the steering wheel. For a longer trip I think I would prefer the nuvi solution. The spoken directions probably would not work as it is very loud in the car, so much so that I took out the radio long ago, as it was useless unless we are stopped. And for that I prefer my Orig-Audio Rock-It

 

[46er]

I'm about to order the external battery for the nuvi, a New Trent Powerpak+ with 13500 mAh, which should last longer than I would need it between charges. But from reviewing posts on other sites, it appears a special USB cable is needed so the nuvi does not enter computer connect mode and goes to navigation instead. None of those posts explain it thoroughly, just something about pin X. Spoke to Garmin support, no joy. Might anyone know what type of USB cable I should look for?

http://www.newtrent.com/store/external-battery/powerpak-nt135t.html

 

[Boyd]

Sorry, can't remember which model Nuvi you have. The older ones use a proprietary multi-pin connector that plugs into a cradle and the GPS gets its power from it. They also have a mini-USB connector on the GPS itself which is used to transfer data to the computer. You can power the Nuvi from that connector, but the type of cable will determine whether it goes into mass storage mode. There are other issues with this kind of Nuvi however. Most of them will not attain full brightness when powered by a USB supply. This has something to do with the design of the device - the menu will show that brightness is set to full but the screen will be really dim - borderline usable during the day.

The Nuvi 600 and 700 series are are like that for example. I would not use a USB style power supply with these devices, I don't think you'll be happy. The way to power them externally would be with some kind of battery connected to a cigarette lighter plug. That would allow you to use the standard auto cable that came with the unit.

The newer models all use the standard mini-USB connector for power, and I have not yet run into a problem powering them with any kind of generic cable. So what model do you have? I'd suggest buying your power supply from a place with a liberal return/exchange policy, just in case.

 

[46er]

I have the 750 and recently bought a 2555 and will soon put the 750 on the shelf. I saw the cabling difference and will try the external battery with the 2555 before buying. Thanks again for your help.

 

[46er]

Just an update in case anyone is interested. The New Trent battery, 13500 mAh, came yesterday, solid unit; charged it up and attached the nuvi 2555, worked with no problems. Tried the 750 and, as expected, it goes into PC mode, but it does work with the secret handshake thing; bit of a pain though. Also worked fine for charging my wifes phone.

 

[Boyd]

That is pretty cool. Will be interested to hear what kind of run time you get with the 2555, since it has a big bright 5" screen.