New 3790T has arrived - first comments

[BAVC10]

Wazza

Yes, you enter the destination first from Where to, then add subsequent destinations and the Nuvi asks if you want to Start a new route or add to current route
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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

[Wazza_G]

So you do it backwards?

Enter final destination, then the required calling points. How bizarre!

[alan_sh]

Yes, it is bizarre and is why we need the Mapsource stuff working.

The "Trip Planner" was done by a 5 year old, I think. I could never get it to work as I was expecting.

When they fix this, I'll think about buying another one.

Alan
[PS - Amazon were very good at refunding all my money]

[jdgwinnell]

Garmin manuals get less and less informative ... often you only know how to do something because it worked on a previous model which did have a proper manual. On the 3790 the on-unit route planning possibilities are quite limited.

To save a route for later use/re-use: first, for speed and ease of constructing the route later on, check/add as favourites your chosen end and via point(s) by selecting "Where to?" on the opening screen. This will ensure they are easily accessed later as Recently Found.

Next, in Tools - Trip Planner, touch the top + sign on the left. It asks you to select a Start location, and if you don't want "Home" and you have already checked/added this it will be near the top of the Recently Found list. Otherwise, the down arrow takes you to the second screen where Favourites is the top option - this lists them in geographical-nearness order (to where it thinks you are), so if you have many nearby Favourites, there's a lot of scrolling to do before you reach the more distant ones.

Next, add your via points in order by touching the + sign again. Enter your ultimate destination last - because unlike all other routing Garmins I have used, there is no easy facility to insert a waypoint into a route once you have started - it will only add new ones at the end, so you have to get your intermediate via points in the right order when entering them (but see below). The 'optimise order' option is only available if there are four or more waypoints/favourites in your route, and even then it ignores the last two so; it can construct a route that has you returning to an intermediate point as your destination if you entered it last. The quickest way to correct this is to delete your destination from the list and add it again, when it becomes the end point.

However I have recently discovered another undocumented feature - once you have your list of waypoints/via points in "Create Trip", it is possible (it needs much practice!) to 'pick up' a point and re-order the list by pressing the faint grey symbol at the RH end of the bar - sort of an equals sign with arrows above and/or below - and moving your finger to the left which should 'free' it from its position. This intermediate point can then be dragged-and-dropped to a different place in the order. It's often reluctant to work...

Then 'Next' will bring you to the screen to name the route to be saved. Once you have entered a name it calculates the route according to your NuRoute saved preference and displays a list with intermediate times between points, total time and total distance. The menu symbol (three lines on the top left) gives options to edit destinations - return to the previous screen, where it's still possible to move the points with drag-and-drop - or optimise order, which does not work on the last two points... There's a Map button to see what route it's chosen for you - full zoom possible on the lovely 2D map.

The green Go button gives you the Select Next Destination screen, with your first via point highlighted. If you select one of the later points, it will route you straight there and ignore any intermediate points you have saved! A minor irritation is that the arrival time shown on screen is for the next point, not your ultimate destination; but at least once you have reached the immediately next point it seamlessly moves on the taking you to the subsequent one. With the 2.20 firmware it was possible to recalculate each saved route as shortest or fastest, but that's gone in 2.50 (or I can no longer find it) so you have to delve deep into the settings menu to change the preference while on the route, at which point it will recalculate.
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J D Gwinnell
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nuvi 3598LMT-D
Montana 650, Oregon 650

[Wazza_G]

Do you know what? I think I'm going to stick to a TomTom 750 Live.

The maps on a Garmin maybe slightly better, but the way the unit operates seems to be far from user friendly & totally mad when you compare it to the TomTom.

A TomTom is also £75 cheaper to boot.

Well I would do if Amazon didn't keep moving the damned goalposts.

[alan_sh]

I really liked the vertical layout and the screen resolution of the 3790. I already have a Go730 and the Garmin was (for me) a useful upgrade. A Go750 doesn't seem that much better for me.

Alan

[Wazza_G]

Well I don't know if I've done the right thing or not, but now that they've issued an update that's meant to resolve the issues that I and others have had previously, I've ordered another one.

If this one doesn't work properly then I'll dump Garmin permanently.

[DennisN]

[alan_sh]

[Wazza_G]

Well my replacement unit arrived & it'll be returned.

Utterly disappointed by it, I gave it to my old man to try so thought we'd try getting it to plot a trip to Cité Europe in Calais from Chilworth (Surrey), could it get it right? NO. It routed us all the way through Guildford & on to the A3, when we know that the shortest & by way the fastest is to go E on to the A25, A218 Reigate Hill or via the local lanes & onto the A3.

So just tried to get it to go to the Channel Tunnel, could it do it? NO!

Well, it could provided you knew & went to the trouble of looking up the CT's post code (CT18 8XX).

Tried a simple route, Chilworth to Guildford Station, did it get it right? NO. It put us on the completely the wrong side of the station for the booking office/dropping off point & car parks.

Tried getting PGPW cams to appear. Not a chance of it.

I've come to the absolute conclusion that Garmin sat navs are the biggest pile of crap I've ever come to meet, seriously flawed & utterly useless.

[Wazza_G]

I forgot to say...

Custom POI's - Still don't work, so don't bother with any of your own it won't show you them, even if you use POILoader & put them into the POI folder.

Detach the unit from the PC & it shuts down & needs rebooting...

Voice command - This would be hilarious if you didn't want to go there.

I Tried to get it to go to Exeter via voice command, what did it do? Exited the route planner & shut down! Tried again & it this time just exited, you can't use the VC system to go to Exeter as all it will do is either Exit & shutdown or just Exit.

It doesn't know what Guildford is or Folkestone, you need to say to it Gill d ford or Gilldford otherwise it offers you Milford, Ilford, Tilford & god knows how many others with "ford" in the name. Folkestone you need to say to it Folk S tun & it still won't get you to the port/harbour or CT Terminal.

I've therefore come to & stand by the conclusion that Garmin sat navs are the biggest pile of C'mon, we don't do that here! - DennisN going, I've never had any problems with a Tom Tom & that's exactly where I'm going back to!

[mikealder]

Still no real issue with mine it just works as intended, the 3D mapping is a real delight in use when you get in to the Lake District or even better the Highlands of Scotland, 360 miles each way and it never missed a beat:





- Mike

[jdgwinnell]

I enjoyed the 3D mapping and high resolution on a recent trip to Wales. I'd prepared a route in TripPlanner to my (familiar) destination, but ignored its suggestions when I 'knew better' or rather, had a section of the route where I prefer an alternative. Looking at the memorised route afterwards, it seemed to have learned most of my choices and revised the saved trip - is this the "nüRoute™ technology with myTrends™" in action, learning my route after just one iteration?

On the way back, however, my planned route had brought me as far as a complicated roundabout with the M40 near Warwick. For no obvious reason it tried to recalculate a couple of times, and then gave up with the message 'cannot calculate route'. Not helpful at that point! The only remaining destination in the trip was 'home' so there's no obvious reason why it threw up its hand in defeat. It didn't re-boot, and was happy to calculate me a route home a few minutes later.

I'm still getting to grips with the voice command function, but it seems promising. PGPSW Speed camera alerts seemed to be working but possibly not 100% of the time.
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J D Gwinnell
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nuvi 3598LMT-D
Montana 650, Oregon 650

[Wazza_G]

I've said it before & I'll say it again, it's all style no substance.

I don't need silly 3D pictograms of buildings etc, I don't want silly 3D graphics.

I want a sat nav unit that understands ENGLISH not frciking Yanky English,

I want a sat nav that's user friendly & not user hostile, a user interface that's not designed by a kid.

I want to be able to use voice commands to tell it where to go be it the Chunnel, Dover Port, Folkestone, Exeter, Liskeard, Barnstaple etc without it throwing a hissy fit.

I don't want to save a once only trip, I want to plan it then forget it.

If I want to plan it Via several places I expect to be able to do so in a logical fashion, not Ultimate destination then insert the rest at the end.

The colour scheme is obviously done by a Garmin employees child, whereas it should bear some resemblance to the colour code of the country you're in!

Still, I should know better is an American thing.. They're so easily pleased, like more than a few here!

[jdgwinnell]

3D buildings I can happily live without, but 3D representation of the landscape ahead is definitely useful.

I've had no problem getting it to recognise the voice command for towns such as Barnstaple, Dover, Folkestone (pronounced normally) and Exeter, though it can't manage Guildford or Channel Tunnel and when 'British English - Daniel' reads it back he does indeed make a hash of Folkestone. It's much simpler if before setting out you have searched manually for Channel Tunnel under the Transit category, when it will be at the top of your Recently Found list which Voice Command can easily find. If you ask it for Favourites it lists them in order of distance from where you are, which can result in a lot of scrolling down.

I can find no way of saving a once-only trip that it calculates on the fly; logically, it's necessary to use Trip Planner for planning a future trip, which enables you to make sure it's taking you the way you want to go - and you more or less have to plan it in a logical order, with the destination as the last entry. You can always delete it afterwards.

Under Settings - Navigation - Car - Map Theme you can select United Kingdom which - for the first time in a Garmin - uses standard UK conventions: blue for motorways, green for trunk roads, red for other major roads, yellow for ordinary highways, and white for minor roads.

I'm not easily pleased - until Garmin have sorted out the transfer of planned routes from MapSource, in my view it's not really fit for purpose and I may run the hugely-flexible if ageing (and small-screen) StreetPilot in parallel for when I need a complicated pre-planned route, and just use the 3790 for the pretty map...
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J D Gwinnell
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nuvi 3598LMT-D
Montana 650, Oregon 650

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