Garmin Oregon screen visibility issue solved

[DaveH]

This is a blog post from http://2-epic.com/?p=981.  Since it covers issues we've recently discussed here I thought y'all might like to see this.

Gizmo addiction.   If you have it like I do you've already looked at the Garmin Oregon or Colorado series of GPS units - and learned from reviews they suffer from poor screen visibility in varying light conditions.  Well, I'd read the Oregon visibility was improved, and the 500 models also had a camera - that was enough for me.  I bought one 2 days before the CocoBob ride, uploaded the route track and set off for AZ.

That cost me a good 5 hours in navigation issues.  Doh.  It turns out the screen is not so visible after all...

But all is not lost.  Based on a <a href="http://gpstracklog.com/2009/10/garmin-dakota-20-review.html" target="_blank">review[/url] of the Dakota series (same touchscreen interface) and my experiences with the unit in AZ, a change of system settings and a custom mount have made it much more readable.  In fact, I think it's as good as the vista series now - but I'll have to save that observation for the next race.

Here's what the screen looks like under factory settings.



The difference is shocking - and legible in the field without having the backlight turned on.

So that's half the equation.  The other half is glare.  The shiny screen needs to be oriented "just so" in order to be legible.  The standard bar mount only rotates in one plane, much too limiting to get good results.  Here's what I came up with.  Add rubber bands to the list of my bike accessories now



Rotating right.

[Slowerthensnot]

What no hose clamps?  and not enough zipties dave

cool tips! neato that it has a camera....   

[ScottM]

Great info Dave, thanks for the post and background work.  I may try to rig up a similar mount for my Dakota.

Any thoughts on battery life?  Garmin's estimates aren't necessarily worth much, and testers that leave their unit on on the back porch may not be legit either.  I should have a good estimate on rechargeable life on the Dakota soon.

Land cover and shaded relief off are good calls.  I hadn't tried navigating the track to make it thicker -- will do next time.

Last question -- do you like (or prefer) the touchscreen for use on the bars?  I think I'd rather have tactile feedback (I get missed button presses enough that it's kind of annoying), but it's not a deal breaker.  The touch screen is definitely fun to use when you're not focused on staying upright on 2 wheels, that's for sure.

[DaveH]

Battery life:  I was getting about 20 hours on CocoBob.  I also had the backlight on most of that time and was running lithiums.  I haven't yet used rechargeable NiMHs.

Touchscreen preference:  hmmm, that's a tough one.  I was also getting missed button presses on cocobob - one of them gave me the "pin" instead of a zoom level when the screen visibility was crap and that led to a looong period of going off route.  On the plus side, it sure makes moving through features fast and easy.  The jury is still out on this one, but I think I'd prefer tactile feedback as well.  That said, the usability of the new software is so much better than the old stuff (and speed of the processor is no small part) that it's not a big deal.  I don't fiddle with it much while moving anyway.  300 ft zoom level (or wider if I know the route well) and forget it.

I did learn that gel smeared fingers really become an issue!  Alcohol lens wipes to the rescue.

[stevage]

Oh, I really wish you hadn't posted this. I was just thinking how much money I was going to save by not getting the Oregon

(Actually I may really have to get a cheaper option. Local outdoors shop was having a sale, and I blew $400 on a jacket, technical shirt and two tshirts, hat, space blanket, dry bags...)

[Done]

Hi Dave,

Do you think that some type of screen protector with a less-shiny surface might help with glare, or is it more a problem with the actual panel?

Cheers,
Toby

[DaveH]

I couldn't say without trying one.  Might work a charm or it might diffuse the light too much and render it useless.

Have you used one before that you'd recommend?

[Done]

Hi Dave,

Sorry, I wish that I had one that I could recommend. I generally add screen protectors to cell phones, etc., to protect from keys and other pocket goodies, but I've never done so to reduce glare. Next time I'm at Best Buy, I'll take a look to see if they sell anything that looks like it might have a matte finish. I don't currently own an Oregon or Dakota, and I've been thinking about buying a Dakota--but I've been conflicted about the glare issue that so many people are reporting. Your solution looks great, and it would be cool if glare could be even further reduced with something as simple as a screen protector.

Cheers,
Toby

[bmike-vt]

You'd have to be sure it worked with touchscreen...
Something for a Blackberry Storm or iPhone would work.

http://www.boxwave.com/products/cleartouch/cleartouch-screen-protector-blackberry-9550_3734.htm


Never mind - they make one for the Oregon:
http://www.boxwave.com/products/cleartouch/cleartouch-screen-protector-garmin-oregon_3282.htm


I've used similar products from another manufacturer... works well enough, and even the plain old screen protectors (no antiglare about them) cut enough of the shine off to make my BB far more visible in the sunlight.

[DaveH]

Never mind - they make one for the Oregon:
http://www.boxwave.com/products/cleartouch/cleartouch-screen-protector-garmin-oregon_3282.htm

Brilliant!  Review forthcoming

[Done]

Right on, looking forward to the review!

[Done]

I've purchased cell-phone protectors from ZAGG, and they also make them for Garmin GPSs. Their material is super-grippy, and slightly dull. Might work.
http://www.zagg.com/invisibleshield/gps/garmin

[stevage]

Interesting. I thought I read somewhere about laptop screens that matte aren't necessarily better. You tend to always get diffuse glare, whereas with a glossy screen, you either get a massive hit of glare (if the sun is right on it), or nothing. So the theory goes.

Looking forward to the review!

[Done]

I've got two laptops. The matte one has far less glare than the glossy one. I have no idea if this holds true with GPS screens, with or without screen protectors. But I'm hoping that a screen protector will help, since so many people have reported that the glare is a problem. I'm pumped that Dave is going to do a test for those of us who don't have new touchscreen units!

[stevage]

Well, I think I'm pretty much decided on getting the 550 now. Especially since I discovered this:

http://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/Custom+Maps

Load any image into Google Earth, calibrate, then load into Oregon. I dig that.

Your custom mount looks sensible too. Yesterday I went for a long ride and managed to have the sun reflecting pin-point perfectly off my speedometer for hours at a time. It was amazing - I could see the perfect disk shape of the sun the whole time. Had to tilt my whole body to one side to be able to read it.

Seems like now there are almost no downsides to the Oregon 550 other than price, and since I've worked out I can get it from Amazon (with a bit of trickery) for about $530 AUD instead of $700, even that's not so bad.

Or do I get the Dakota? Pretty much same features (minus useless camera), smaller, much lower screen resolution, slightly better battery life.

[DaveH]

I'd probably go for the Dakota.  The camera was the key selling point for me and it is as basic as they come.  Pics are not very good, you have to take the GPS off the bars and navigate to the camera functions to use it, so I find myself taking my regular camera on rides where I want pics.  A smaller unit with longer battery life would be nice. 

FWIW, I used my Garmin 705 yesterday and was surprised how legible it was.  The classic Garmin screens (vista, 705, 60cs) are certainly more viewable and less dependent on light angles.

[stevage]

Good points. But the screen resolution of the Dakota is 2/5 that of the Oregon. I'm big on good user interfaces, and I love pixels. In return, the unit is a whopping 1.4cm shorter, and 50g lighter. And a couple of millimetres narrow in the other two directions. It doesn't seem worth it.

I'm a bit ho-hum about the camera, but I think I'd use it. Already my photo downloads directories are full of photos that aren't meant to be pretty: signs, maps, identifying locations etc. Didn't think about having to remove it from the mount, though.

At Amazon, there's only $93 between them. So...I think Oregon.
(whoops, this post sounds very argumentative. I'm just thinking it through...if you'd voted Oregon, I'd be making an impassioned defence of the Dakota )

And yeah...there's appeal in a very simple GPS with a simple, but very readable screen. But for now I want gadgetry.

[DaveH]

If you want gadgetry by all means go Oregon!  That I fully understand   The other super cool thing about Oregon pics aside from the limitations, each shot is geotagged.  So uploads to picassa or panoramia and perhaps other sites give the location of where it was taken. 

Screen size is more relevant than resolution.  Dakota user please chime in here...but I know when I save a screenshot from the Oregon, it displays much larger (on my computer screen) than the size of the Oregon screen.  Wasted resolution probably just serves to require more resources?

[stevage]

>The other super cool thing about Oregon pics aside from the limitations, each shot is geotagged.

Seems to me that in theory at least, it ought to be easy to retrospectively geotag every photo you take, assuming that you have a constant GPS trace, and that the camera and GPS are time sync'ed. Presumably there is software that does this.

The camera would probably still be useful for geohashing and taking on day trips where I wasn't expecting to take anything nice. It would take me up to 5 photographic devices though: DSLR, compact, phone, laptop, and now gps.

[DaveH]

Yep, you can geotag photos in picassa but do have to hunt and peck for the location.  With the Oregon you can upload 100 pics and see them on a map instantly online, and get a slideshow with a balloon marker to the location on the map.

Hey, you said you like gadgetry!