Garmin Nuvi 850 initial impressions

[Graybeard]

OK guys I've had the Nuvi 850 a few days now and have played around with it on a few local trips. Matt came over and got it set up for me and mounted in my Sequoia. It is set up using the suction cup mount just to the right of the rear view mirror. In that position it's out of my line of view while driving so not a distraction but is close enough I can when stopped reach over to punch the screen to input locations. It's handy to Faye so she can watch it for me and help advise me of video info not being given as voice prompts or before the voice prompt.

I have noticed a real strange quirk it has that is consistent it seems. If off highway as I am as my house sits back about 200 yards or so from the state highway out from it initially tells me to navigate to the highlighted route. So I drive up my driveway to the state highway and stop. Even if I wait it will NOT give me a voice prompt to turn right or left but does show an arrow with correct direction to turn on the screen.

Then when I turn onto the highway and begin my journey it very shortly afterward tells me to "turn onto the highway" but ALWAYS without exception the direction it tells me to turn is 180 degrees from the turn that was needed to get me to my direction and again I repeat this never comes until I'm already on the road it is telling me to turn onto. Weird. I noticed the same when I left the doctor's office the other day.

Other than that it seems to do a great job of directing me to where I am heading around here locally which gives me confidence it will do the same on our trip. Yesterday I played with it by giving it a voice command to GO HOME and it selected a route that would have taken us back the way we had come to where we were at that time at Winn Dixie. I planned to go a different route home tho so as to not go back thru town. It kept trying to route me back the way I had come and once even told me to make a U-TURN in 200 yards. I continued to ignore the directions and go where I knew I wanted to go and was wondering if/when it would ever figure out that route and direct me to it. It did when I turned off AL 21 at Wal-Mart and did OK for almost two miles but then made one more attempt to get me back into town. When I refused that right turn and went left instead it finally recognized my planned route as the best route and guided me where I was gonna go anyway.

That gave me a lot of confidence that if on a trip I get truly turned around that eventually it will manage to get me back on route to my chosen destination regardless of how often I made a wrong turn.

I wish I'd gotten one with a correct lane feature for keeping me right on interstate highways but I think it will work OK in spite of the lack of that feature. It does show on screen whatever is next long before it gives the voice prompts so Faye can advise me if it's a right or left turn next and how far away it will be without me having to look at the screen. It does seem to give voice prompts for turns either 0.8 or one mile ahead pretty well when on highways as opposed to being on city streets which even in large cities on interstates is likely enough notice to safely change lanes if needed and with the screen info even further ahead than that it should do OK keeping us heading down the right path.

The really nice thing tho is that when I do mess up and get lost as I did my first trip thru Memphis to the first PD shoot it will tell me how to get back on track rather than me having to figure it out all on my own with maps. That worked that first time but not very well and not at all quickly.

I'm still a long way from learning to use it effectively to find points of interest as it calls them but am learning. For instance I found that to locate a burger joint you don't select American from the restaurant choices you instead select ALL. I know now how to locate a grocery store should I need to as well.

I wasn't able to figure out how to get it to locate my doctor's office without an address but do have a better idea now how to should I try it again. I'm sure it was in the POIs I just didn't properly figure out how to select the categories to get me to it as an option.

I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with it tho and have learned to push the button on the steering wheel and talk to it and it does mostly recognize the names I give it but not always. It thought when I said ANNISTON that I had said DISON the first try and I finally had to touch ANNISTON before it would recognize me saying but after that it seems to recognize my spoken word for the town.

Over all it seems a good choice that should do what I need it to do for our upcoming trip.

[Siskiyou]

I have noticed the same issue a few times when starting out it gives me the incorrect direction.  A question comes to mind.  Do you park under a tree canopy which blocks the sky?

I have had this happen a few times, when I am in a hurry and I have not allowed the unit to acquire a satellite lock.  It sounds like your unit is in a good location for reception.  I had to place mine at mid dash level to comply with the new law.  This decreased the speed of satellite lock, which effects accuracy.  Because of the high thief rate of gps units from vehicles I stash mine when I stop anywhere.  A smash and grab takes seconds.  If I leave the unit powered up most likely it has maintained its satellite lock.  If I have to power up it takes a minute.

 I start driving before it locks it is a moving target and takes longer.  If the road is under tree canopy it takes longer yet.  The cure is to take a minute and let the unit obtain a lock.  It should maintain the lock under canopy after that.  I still have the amplified antenna from my Garmin 76C days.  It speeds up locks, and maintains the lock under tall firs and Redwoods.  I will have it on a planned trip to Yosemite N.P.

I recommend this outfit; I bought my antenna and other products from them. I believe this is the model for your unit.  I normally call them direct with an order.  They are happy to answer question.  http://cgi.ebay.com/Garmin-Nuvi-350-370-660-680-750-760-880-GPS-Aerial-MCX_W0QQitemZ120416751194QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGPS_Accessories_Cables?hash=item1c0965ce5a&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262&_trkparms=%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A30

866.GILSSON (866-445-7766)

If you call them tell them you want the gpsgeek price from ebay.  They market the same item via a number of outlets.

Planning a turn from the right or left lane:  Touch the TEXT BAR at the top of the screen.  It will display your next three turns and display a right or left turn arrow.

Sounds like your taking all the right steps.  One day I was going out for a haircut and check the menu and my barber was in the system.

Last year I was on the way home from a two week hunting trip and I check the menu for a place to eat.  I found Home Town Buffet and it navigated me to the door.  I would have never found it otherwise.

I have gone into my unit settings and selected NO U-TURNS, I rather not get wacked, from a legal stand point if you get in an accident the turning driver loses in court.

Are you having fun with your new toy?

[Graybeard]

No I'm not under a tree canopy there is but one tall tree in the front yard and the other trees aren't that close. It has plenty of sky and shows a full signal of all green bars sitting there. By the time I get around to telling it what I want to tell it for sure it has a lock each time. It clearly shows me there and when I get to the highway that's where it shows the little car. It's just a weird quirk of some sort of the unit. Since I am aware of it I don't see it being a problem as it's fine except at initial take off.

I'm not sure if that's the same remote antenna mine would take or not as the 850 isn't listed and I'm not sure the differences between it and the 880 other than bluetooth. Looking at my antenna plug in point it looks like it needs a male type tip and that one seems a bit improper but it might be correct I dunno.

I don't really think I'm gonna need a remote tho at least I've not seen the need yet. The country I'm heading to is not exactly known for trees and even around here with lots of trees it's doing fine.

Fun? I dunno if I'd call it that as learning new technology for me is a real chore these days. Still it is something I hope helps me greatly on the trip and I know that for it to do so I need to learn as much as I can about it before then. I'm not up to the challenge of them like you are. To me it's just a tool to help me along on trips far from home. I cannot read maps, navigate and drive thru large cities on interstates all at the same time. Faye can't read a map period and can't navigate to the end of our driveway so I need major help and am depending on this unit to provide it. So far I believe it will.

[Siskiyou]

According to Garmin the 800 Series which includes the 850, 855, 880, and 885T use the MCX connector.  A large number of Garmin gps units take the same connector.  It is short, barrel shaped with a slight flange on the lower lip.

The right left issue shows that it is not perfect and cannot replace the brain behind the steering wheel.

Sounds like you are getting a handle on it with your practice runs.

[Glanceblamm]

The right left issue shows that it is not perfect and cannot replace the brain behind the steering wheel.

I am not sure if we are talking about Bill turning the wrong direction when going from his lane to the highway or if we are talking about a unit with the correct lane feature.

On the former, units like my hand held can be notorious for having to make one walk at least 20ft in any direction for the unit to orient itself after locking on to the satellites while in the latter, the Tom-Tom seems to be dead accurate on those lanes. We had exited the Interstate once with the Tom Tom and had a couple of those do or die "Y" turns to make and the unit did not miss a beat.

I suspect that the Garmin Nuvi 850 would do this easily but you may have to watch the on screen highlighting as said.

[Siskiyou]

My experience with my Garmin 76Cx and the Garmin c550 is that they are accurate “MOST of the TIME.” In an earlier post I described one of problems I ran into.  The State re-aligned a State Highway and created a new intersection.  The State also installed a street light at the new intersection.  In conjunction the County shut down another intersection which was a quick shortcut going in, but many times deadly coming out.  This modification was not in my year-old mapping software.

Normally private driveways are not identified in software.  The gps units come with a number of options in the programming.  I believe it is set as the fastest route to get to a location.  This is based on the class of road, not local knowledge.  Normally there is more than one way to get to a location.  I might have a preferred route over the default route to get to my destination.  Like Bill I know where and how I want to get there and it may not be in agreement with the gps. 

Most of my deer hunting is done on two or three different National Forest.  I was amazed that most of the older main logging roads are in City Navigator software which is pre-installed on Garmin Automotive units. 

My c550 has successfully guided me on the correct route into and out of freeway enter changes.  I am impressed with the job it does.  The verbal and screen directions have been right on.  Most of the Garmin automotive units use a similar format. 

The unit is good at giving prompts regarding upcoming turns. After I have plugged in a destination it almost immediately tells me how far to the next turn.  Example turn left at “Bill Street, .2 of a mile.  Before in hit the next enter section off the highway it tells me to turn left of X-street .7 mile.  The box in the lower right corner (Turn IN) gives me a countdown to that turn.  The box in the lower left corner can be setup to give you Arrival time or Speed.  I like Arrival time.

If you touch the Turn In box you will give a display of your upcoming turn in a large pop-up graphic.  You know whether to go right or left.  It has guide thru a couple of complex intersection where I was wondering what the heck next.  The unit kept me on the correct path.

The Map Page has a text bar across the top.  The user can touch the Map page Text bar and get display showing the next three turns.  It displays an arrow, name of street, and the mileage will show like 2.9.   If you touch the down arrow at the base of the display you get your next series of turns with arrows.

The bottomline is the unit gives plenty of information in a timely manner that I should be in the correct lane with time to spare.

Bill’s unit will tell him where to go, and show where to go.  My wife does not want me to install a base in her Jeep.  The unit lies in the back seat where I cannot see the screen and I follow the verbal directions.  No problem!

The user can change the Navigation Setting to fit his preferences.  A friend of mine lives near a freeway.  He has two options when goes to town, the freeway or the old State Highway.  The factory settings will put him on the freeway.  He prefers the old State highway.  A change of setting from the fastest route will put him on the old road.

[Graybeard]

My frustration level with this thing is about to max out. I'd love to toss it against a wall as hard as I can and then stomp on it when it hits the floor. I am just about ready to give up trying to figure it out. Me and modern technology just do not get along.

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to set a waypoint with it. Matt set my home as a waypoint named home and today when we were driving down the driveway to home Faye noticed it had been renamed to Jax Walgreens which is a way point I tried to set while there getting a prescription filled earlier in the week. Some how rather than setting a new way point I renamed HOME to that. It still takes me home and recognizes it as home but shows it as JAX WALGREENs.

I need to be able to set waypoints so when we go on the trip I can set the motel, Dan's house and any prairie dog towns we go to as way points so I can find my way back to them from where ever we might be at the time.

I've tried about all I know to do and just cannot figure it out. Hopefully next time Matt is here he can show me and maybe if I see it done I can retain it in my head. I am running into a problem tho. My brain's storage capacity has been reached I think. To add a new item to it I seem to have to forget something already there. What I need badly is a memory upgrade to my brain. Anyone know where to get that done?

[Siskiyou]

Bill,

It is 2400 HRS here so my eyeballs are ready to fall out.  Hang on and tomarrow I will get back with step by step directions if needed.

Go to Page 5 in your manual, you will see the address Icon on the screen.  Go to that screen on your gps select the address Icon and put in the address.  Save it in you Favorites.  Treat a Favorite as a waypoint.  After saving the address in your favorites you can return to it and add a phone number for refrence in case it is needed.  Good night!

[Siskiyou]

Touch the Where to?  Icon on your screen.  If you have not already selected the USA option do so. 

Touch the Address Icon.  I assume that Matt set it up to have Alabama as your default State.  If the address is in a different state touché the “Spell State/Province Icon.  If you hit AL, you will get a page giving the following options:

Alabama, Alaska, and Alberta.

The next page that pops up ask me what city is the address.  I type in Gad, and Gadsden, AL pops up.  I select it.  I have not been to Gadsden since 1953 and do not know addresses there so I am faking it.  I select 123.  The next page that pops up is asking for the street name.  I enter LO and two options popup, Lookout (Ave, Cir, Rd, St) and Lookout Mountain Pky.  I select Lookout Mountain Pky, and a page pops up says Lookout Mountain Pky Gadsden, Al 35904.

The page gives me four options, Go!, Back, Show Map, and Save.  I save it. A new page shows up and it asks for a name.  I plan on visiting Ed at that address, and I enter Ed, and select Done.  The Save to Favorites page pops-up with an OK button.  I select Ok.  Now that I have saved it I was to see what it looks like and I select the Show Map button.  In my case I am not going to hit the GO! Icon.

Later on I come up with Ed’s phone number and I want to add it to the address information.  I select Favorites, select spell, and I have three options in my favorites with Ed in them pop-up, I select Ed which is 1970 miles from my current location.  I select Edit; I select the Change Phone Number option.  I enter Ed’s phone Area Code and phone number.  When I am done Ed’s phone number is listed on his page.

This has worked out for me.  I was given an address where a lady has a load of cut firewood for the hauling.  I entered her address, and phone number.  When I had to follow-up with a phone call I knew where to find the number.

When I return to the Where To Page and it’s Icon’s there is a Recently Found Icon.  I select the Recently Found Icon and the page that comes up gives me a list of address I recently found.  Ed is at the top, I decided I never plan visiting Ed and I select Edit. The page gives me a number of options and I Delete Ed.  The Delete this Favorite? Page comes up and I select Yes.

Clear As Mud? 

[Graybeard]

No not really, it's not quite as clear as mud to me, well OK maybe that thick black gumbo mud we were in once in Texas on a hog hunt. I'll print it out and see if I can get to those pages next time I mess with it.

BUT....one of my primary problems is I'm seldom going to know the address of the location I'm wanting to save. Out in the far reaches of the OK panhandle most addresses are RR box numbers only not real street addresses. Prairie dog towns aren't going to come with street addresses ever.

What I need to be able to do is when I am somewhere, anywhere even out in the middle of nowhere is to be able to give that spot a name and to save it as a way point and give it a name. Few times will I know a street address and likely not even a street or road name. I'm looking for the ability to do what I always did with my GPS12XL when saving a hunting spot out in the middle of the woods. Can these automotive units do that?

[Siskiyou]

A big change in vocabulary! Favorite=Waypoint in your Garmin Automotive 850 Series.  You create Favorites in your Garmin Automotive Gps.  You can transfer waypoints from a Garmin Software product on to your 850.  Once it resides on your 850, it becomes a Favorite.

I transferred Waypoints created on my gps76Cx to my Map Source US Topo 2008 software on my computer.  From there I loaded them on a card and installed the card in the card slot on my Garmin Automotive GPS.  I powered up my Automotive GPS and the Waypoints migrated to the Favorites storage area and can be found by touching the Favorites Icon.  They are no longer waypoints, they are now Favorites.  It is a Bill and William relationship!

You want to save your current location and name it.  Easily done, you are parked out on Dog Mound #1.  Your vehicle is displayed on the Gps screen.  Touch your vehicle displayed on the screen.  A screen will pop-up asking you if you want to save it as a Favorite, tap yes and you can then name it.

I have been meaning to ask you, did Garmin include the Trip & Waypoint Manager CD in the box with your 850?

[Graybeard]

I have been meaning to ask you, did Garmin include the Trip & Waypoint Manager CD in the box with your 850?

No. They included nearly nothing in the box not even an instruction manual, owners manual or operators manual or whatever one would want to call it. Nuttin nada no help whatsoever from them not even a phone number to tell me how to contact them. No warranty registration no nothing.

Your last instruction on how to name a waypoint when I'm there sounds simple enough. I'll also print that out and keep it with me.

I found a manual online but it is in Adobe Acrobat Format and I do not understand enough about using it to know how to print less than all of it and it is seriously long with 85% or more of it useless to me.

Hopefully what you've posted here will help me figure it out.

[Glanceblamm]

Siskiyou...I was paying enough attention to hear Sam say (If you know a coordinate, you can punch it in) Does this mean a Lat\Long coordinate? if so, it may be a feature that I am interested in as far as the automotive GPS units go.

Quote from Garmin.

“Entering Coordinates If you know the geographic coordinates of your destination, you can use your nuvi to navigate to your destination using the latitude and longitude coordinates.”

Page 12 of the Manual.

Graybeard, I hope this helps out some. It will be interesting to see how the unit will handle this, specially if you ran out of roads!

Graybeard, If you were wanting to take a very short walk you could punch in
N33 49.446
W85 53.565

To check out that feature.

This might make for a quick practice session for you Bill. If it works out, you could Pm the shoot locations to Siskiyou and he could convert the Datum (if necessary) to one that your Nuvi understands.

[Graybeard]

What language was that you were speaking? 

Guys you really don't understand just how technology challenged I am. I can read the directions and all I can say afterward is HUH?  No matter how many times I read it this new fangled technology just runs right over my head.

So far I've figured out how to tell it to take me to Jacksonville the nearest town to me and to take me home from where ever I am. I did figure out how to input a street address but it had two similar one with a south in it and I selected the wrong one.

I think I have it figured out how to find food so likely could find gas or motel the same way. I can tell it to take me to some city and state I'm pretty sure so I guess if nothing else while on the trip I could just tell it some point further along on my route and it should get me there and then I could give it a new one.

Hopefully with the new touch the little car icon instructions above I'll be able to set and name a waypoint and if I get that figured out I think that covers a lot of what I desperately need it to do for me.

[Glanceblamm]

I found a manual online but it is in Adobe Acrobat Format and I do not understand enough about using it to know how to print less than all of it and it is seriously long with 85% or more of it useless to me.

It cost to create Adobe Acrobat Format (software purchase) but the Reader is free!. You just have to open the .pdf file and if you dont have the reader, the PC will prompt you on whether you want to download it which is very fast. I would not be suprised if you had a reader already though. If so, you just open the file, see the index, and then scroll down to see the pages.

For the subject at hand, you would just select Print then from page 12 to page 12.

[Glanceblamm]

Hopefully with the new touch the little car icon instructions above I'll be able to set and name a waypoint and if I get that figured out I think that covers a lot of what I desperately need it to do for me.
 

Excellent Practice!....Perhaps you can use your ATV to run on down to the pond and shooting range to give this a test?

[Siskiyou]

Matt is your computer guy so best you run this by him.  This is the link to the free adobe reader download page.  http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Try it you might already have adobe reader installed on your computer and not know it.  It comes stand in many computer software packages and it needs updating every once and while.

I have downloaded the manual for the 850 (800 Series) to my hard drive.  I can view it on my desk top.  I have factory manuals for my units but I have also printed out the manual from the Garmin site.  I prefer the ones I printed out for use at home.