New 3790T has arrived - first comments

Wazza_G · Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:02 pm Post subject:

My first impressions of it...

Useless.

Took an age to find any satellites whatsoever, when in a large open back garden under clear skies.

The slow start up of it.

You can't add the cameras to it despite what has been said, you check the Custom POIs box, go back and it's unchecked the box, so they don't show. Twisted Evil

Shame lovely small & light unit, beautiful screen, but it seems yet again that style has come before substance! Rolling Eyes

It's going back to handtec.

p-brain · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 17, 2008 Posts: 30

Oh dear, you don't sound impressed!
Re your custom cameras: I read this reply on another forum:

"Un-check both Garmin and your own camera file. Press save.
Next check only the Garmin file, leaving your own un-checked. Press save.

Now enter the sub menu again and look at the activated files, in my unit both are suddenly checked! I have tried to drive past one of the user defined cameras and it gives a warning, so it works."

As for the satellite fix...that seems rather odd, as my impression so far is that the satellite lock is fairly quick - have not timed it, but in the car it doesn't take more than a minute or so, from a cold start.

Wazza_G · Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:35 pm Post subject:

Too late, it's all packed up & ready to go back.

I don't think I can be a*sed to unpack it, reinstall POILoader again (It crashed twice), besides why should you do workarounds when it should work straight out of the box!

I guess I'm going to be stuck without a decent sat-nav. Sad

BigPerk · Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:45 pm Post subject:

jdgwinnell · Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 8:39 pm Post subject:

Took the 3790 for its first proper outing yesterday - no rebooting problems* but one worrying phenomenon was its sudden unwillingness to give any (PocketGPSworld) POI speed camera alerts, in a particularly camera-ridden section of the A10. Every time I went to the Settings - Navigation - Car - Proximity Points - Alerts it had put a green tick in the Garmin Safety Cameras box (I have disabled these for the UK by renaming the file) and removed the tick from the Custom POIs box ... I would attempt to change this but it then either showed Alerts Disabled in the next menu up and/or changed the ticks back... I tried a forced reboot but it was no better - but later in the day it started giving the alerts again. Puzzling.
*Various of my previous Garmins would occasionally reboot at random, so it's not a phenomenon unique to the 3790 - unless it happens a lot I wouldn't worry about it.

Another peculiarity is that the text-to-speech engine is different from, and not as good as, the one in the 1470 - 'British English Daniel' stutters on common words like 'road'. Also the sound quality is not as good - even the speaker built in to the mount is tinny and lacking in bass.

The chrome-plated edges reflect distractingly in the windscreen - and, like others, I have found the included GTM 35 traffic receiver to be much less sensitive than the GTM 25 which came with the 1470T, and I'm using the same aerial so the comparison is a direct one. It picks up traffic info quickly at my home, but then the icon was greyed out all the way into London. Not that I rely on traffic info - it's so often wrong or out-of-date that I won't let it divert me on the basis of supposed congestion ahead. In the next day or two I will see if the GTM 25 works with the unit.

As far as saving routes is concerned - if you plan a route using the Trip Planner icon (and you could put in via points while doing it to ensure it's the route you want) it will save it, but not if you just tap Where To? and give it a destination. I'm not expecting to see MyTrends in action until I've covered the same journey quite often.

I emailed Garmin support last week about the transferring routes issue ("The 3790 does not recognise waypoints or routes sent from MapSource") and got the following reply this morning: "There will be a software update to address the compatibility with Mapsource/ Basecamp and the POI loader. At this time we do not know when it will be released." In fact once I stopped using my Windows 7 64 bit machine to attempt the transfers, waypoints from MapSource went over without a problem. I think the routes did too, but the difficulty is that there is no menu item in the 3790 to allow extracting them and transferring them to the internal route list, as there is on the 1470. This will need a unit firmware update. Of course as with all nuvis you don't get a map on DVD (which is a bit mean given the price point of this model) so you have to obtain your MapSource mapping some other way... I got mine by buying a OneTime update for the 1470 on DVD. It's essential to order the DVD to get MapSource and the map onto your PC(s), as the download version no longer comes with an option to install the map data on your PC, and just transfers it direct to the unit. The micro SD card of course was not until recently ever visible on a PC, but later versions of BaseCamp (free download from Garmin in the 'On the Trail' section) will load map images stored in a unit so they can be seen on screen as long as the unit is attached.

This is all very negative so far - there is lots about it I think is a huge improvement: the vertical format; the detailed map view (not since the StreetPilot 2820 have I seen the railways and so many of the town, village and road names) in high resolution; the new UK colour scheme which has trunk roads in green and other main roads in red, minor roads in yellow or grey and motorways in blue; the 3D rendering and terrain shading; the fact that waypoints/favourites now show their name - and doubtless other features I have not encountered yet. Often these are discovered by serendipity as they are not mentioned in the handbook - for instance you can (it needs a bit of persistence) see the satellite location/ accuracy/ position/ signal strength screen by tapping the strength bar indicator on the opening menu screen. There is no way I can discover to enable WAAS/EGNOS.

alan_sh · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:18 am Post subject:

No 2 depends where you are. Up in Rochdale, I get a good signal within about 30 seconds. If I go down to Bracknell and try from there, it can take 20-30 minutes before I get a signal.

Alan

Wazza_G · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:31 pm Post subject:

It's been sent back, useless thing. Evil or Very Mad

Sent a rather miffed email to Garmin about it too. Not a happy person to say the least.

BAVC10 · Lifetime Member Joined: Dec 20, 2005 Posts: 750

Apolologies I have used this pic elsewhere but it shows a few custom POIs as well as speed camera POIs (Gatso yellow and Mobile blue). All alerts apart from the Red Light cameras work without any issues.

_________________
DriveLuxe 51 LMT D - Firmware 6.70
Previously owned: DriveLuxe 50 LMT-D, NuviCam LMT-D, Nuvi 3598 LMT-D, Nuvi 3490LMT, 3790T, 1690, 765, 760, 660, 610, 360, 310, 300 and Streetpilot i3

p-brain · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 17, 2008 Posts: 30

Further to my previous post regarding trafic reception (amongst other things):

The supplementary FM antenna that connects to the power cable via a jack plug: There is no mention of this in the manual. I have always had it connected...but is it necessary? What is its purpose if not mentioned in the manual? Can one get a longer version....and might it improve reception? Is there an external antenna that would be compatible?

Thanks

jdgwinnell · Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 10:45 am Post subject: GTM traffic receivers

The only hint Garmin give about the presence of the external aerial is in the picture of the GTM traffic receiver on page 39 of the 3700 series manual. They keep quiet about it because it's only needed in Europe because our traffic FM broadcasts are weaker than the US ones, and they don't want to confuse the US customers... (This is not difficult; witness many of the questions asked on the alt.satellite.gps.garmin newsgroup!) In what is becoming typical Garmin incompetence, they have labelled the 3700 receiver picture wrongly, having made an inaccurate copy of the one in the 1400 series manual. What they mean in the key to the 3700 picture is (2) External antenna connector (3) Internal antenna (4) Power LED.

There used to be a traffic receiver available which piggy-backed on the car radio installation, so perhaps a better aerial would improve performance. However past experience of traffic receivers with the wire aerial have been much better than what the GTM 35 achieves. When I got the (amazingly expensive) add-on traffic receiver for the StreetPilot 2780 a few years back, its instructions said the plug-in wire antenna should be vertical; I used a horizontal antenna for the GTM 25 that came with the 1470T without problems (it's much less obtrusive parallel to the dashboard) - perhaps the GTM 35 with the 3790T is less sensitive and needs a vertically-mounted antenna? One of the things to try out over the weekend...
_________________
J D Gwinnell
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nuvi 3598LMT-D
Montana 650, Oregon 650

mikealder · Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 11:33 am Post subject:

Have a read through This Thread where I detailed how to connect an RDS receiver to the car aerial, I might be coupling the Garmin unit to the splitter when I mount the PND on the dash (waiting for a Brodit Ball) as this way all the wiring gets hidden - Mike

Wazza_G · Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 4:45 pm Post subject:

It could still mean damaging the trim of the car which will have a negative effect on trade in values, when it comes to getting a new car.

Wazza_G · Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 5:03 pm Post subject:

Request to those who've got a 3790T.

Can you let me know when Garmin pull their finger out & get the firmware glitches sorted out on this unit, as when it actually allows you to do custom POIs (speed cams + others) & proximity alerts correctly then I may order another 3790T.

That's if I don't order a TT 750 beforehand (depends on how my 720 holds up)

However as it stands at the moment with all of the glitches in the unit, (I'm not willing to part with my money for it) the 3790T is not fit for purpose.

alan_sh · Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 6:24 pm Post subject:

Mine is going back as well.

I was planning a route today and it decided to reboot half way through calculating. It was only 180 mile route down the M62/A1.

So, returns number got from Amazon and it'll go back on Monday.

Like Wazza - when they've got beyond the beta stage, I'll buy another one - but not until then.

Alan

Wazza_G · Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:30 pm Post subject:

Just make sure you do a master reset to erase all user data from the device before returning it. I did, I don't want someone else to know where I live or what routes I drive!

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