Garmin Monterra
First impressions
It is a big change from a Garmin handheld, it's almost more like using a Nuvi in some ways.
I expected rough edges and it actually works better than expected. Nothing crashes except the program a co-worker is developing. (To be fair, for phones, not for Garmin) :-)
Maps
What I have tried so far:
Street maps
Openstreetmap, in the Velo and MTNBIKE versions. These are GREAT for hiking and geocaching, because we've worked hard to get local hiking trails in. It will route you _on trails_ to caches. Unfortunately OSM still needs addresses, so routing to an address DOES NOT WORK. Hence I broke down and bought City Navigator again.
Topo maps
So far using the free topo map is just as good for me as the Garmin 24K topo that I bought for the GPSMap 62.
I am also going to try using Avenza PDF viewer with US Forest Service topo PDFs one of these days. All loaded up but have not tried.
(I wonder how many times I have paid for City Navigator now.)
- First attempt: Macintosh running Mavericks and latest version of Firefox
- Purchase City Navigator at Garmin.com
- My.garmin.com, log in, go to myMaps.
- Click "Add to device" on dashboard. Get error:
Failed to get the latest software for DLC download for dl part num 010-D0035-00
- Send request for help to Garmin. Get instructions to clear browser cache etc.
- Repeat with Windows 7 + Firefox. Install Garmin Communicator Plugin. Same error.
- Repeat with Windows 7 + Internet Explorer 11. Install Garmin Communicator Plugin.
- Quick install of plugin fails. Downloading and running .EXE version fails.
- Follow instructions send in email (below). Try again. Still can't use Garmin Communicator.
- Repeat with Windows 7 + Chrome. Does not complain about missing plugin. Does not find device either.
Finally, the real problem: I had turned on USB debug mode in Developer Options. I turned it off and things were fine.
Conclusion based on above -- don't ever use Internet Explorer, it is a waste of time and crashes a lot.
Click "More Options" in the install page and select SD card. I put a fast (class 10) 32 GB card for map / data storage in the Monterra. I intend to keep the Garmin's internal storage as open as possible.
42%, 11 minutes remaining... then I will know if it works...
