Zumo 220

[slofox]

After a quick trip to Tauranga this morning for a visit to Bay Marine Electronics, I discovered that indeed, the Zumo 220 Motorcycle GPS doohicky would talk to my Blueant Interphone...now I hadn't meant to buy it on the spot, but...ahhhhh...well one thing an another an an an....I'm a sucker for toys..and bankruptcy it would seem...The old man always said I was a spendthrift and a wastrel...An' besides, I got a tax rebate...

So it's now on the desk, battery charged and awaiting a real trial.

What's in the box?

Lots. Battery (rechargeable - claimed 8 hour life IIRC). Car mount. A RAM bike mount (handlebar) with quite a few RAM bits and bobs and the cradle to hold the unit. Power cable for car (ciggie lighter job). Hard wire loom for bike - just hook it into your handy distribution block (here). USB for connection to puter. CD. A round thingy that I don't know the use of...

Setting up. Quite involved really...hook up to puter via USB to charge battery. While it's doing that, connect to website, register product - which requires you to open a Garmin access ID and password - the usual yadda on that one - update maps...put CD into puter and load Aus/NZ city stuff...try to register my "free lifetime map upgrades" offer which didn't work...ring helpline to ask about that and get an endless repeating voice (about every five seconds - really!) that says the usual shit about how important my call is but they haven't got time to bother answering it all the same...until I got totally effed off with it and hung up. Thereby putting my place in the queue back by seven months...gone back to the seller on that one - he's gonna ask them about it himself. Best of luck with that ...

Eventually took it outside so it could find some satellites. Which it did after a few minutes. Have to say the display is pretty hard to read under bright conditions - as LCD's tend to be...we'll see how it works out on the bike. I spose if its talking to you, this is less important. Personally I don't usually go blasting along staring at instruments anyway...

From there on in, it's pretty intuitive - touch screen with a bunch of options to choose from. Not too hard to operate. Although, when you need to type stuff in, the keyboard is in three sections - requiring you to swap between sections for different parts of the alphabet ...now THAT is gunna piss me off eventually I'm sure. EDIT: Wrong. There is an option in the menu that allows you to use different sized keyboards. I have opted to use the one that shows the whole keyboard at once. The other option is for use with gloves no doubt...

Will update after a real trial on the bike...

Incidentally, the guy at Bay Marine Electronics was tops to deal with. He actually got me the unit in so I could check it out, rang me when it arrived, knew enough about it to make it easy for me to test what I wanted to test and was generally very obliging and helpful. I'd definitely shop there again.

[wysper]

How much was it Mr Fox?

[shafty]

I bought my Garmin from Bay Marine Electronics as well and was happy with the service, very happy with the price - they trade often on Trade Me anbd will match that price...

[Gremlin]

Don't bother with the garmin maps slofox. Download a mapset from www.nzopengps.org. Open source maps that are more accurate. They only work with garmin GPS

[NordieBoy]

"zūmo 220 has a bright, glove-friendly, colour touchscreen display"

The only difference between the Zumo 220 and the Nuvi 500 is the Zumo has blueteeth and the Nuvi does geocaching.

Ohhhh...
Wonder if a Zumo 220 update would work on the Nuvi?
Must research more...

[slofox]

How much was it Mr Fox?

$781. More than I wanted to pay but then, hey, I got the tax refund, eh..? Remember too that that price includes quite a lot of RAM mounting gear plus leads etc etc as outlined in the OP.

Don't bother with the garmin maps slofox. Download a mapset from www.nzopengps.org. Open source maps that are more accurate. They only work with garmin GPS

In the process of doing that. I have downloaded the mapsource bit but have yet to pull the map down...trying to decipher the method to use...


Road Test: Tried it out in the car on the way home last night. Worked like any other GPS...

Bike test this morning. Bluetooth connection to Interphone works fine as long as I have the volume right up on both devices. At highway speed it is a little hard to hear over wind noise and through earplugs but very audible round town. A quick glance at the screen gives you a good idea of when you next need to take notice of it anyway.

The routes it chooses are not always what i would choose - tends to go direct without worrying about traffic loads etc but then I daresay it doesn't know that info anyway. Pretty quick to recalculate when you ignore its advice. Mind you, it's bloody persistent in trying to get you back on its original route...I reckon the little lady inside who does all the talking is probably a bit of a cow...

Screen was very visible this morning under overcast sky. Will have to check it out under bright sunlight next time we have some.

Entertainment Value: The text to voice model comes up with some really amusing pronunciations - most especially of any Maori place or street names...It struggled with Kakaramea Road..."Car car RAMmier" is what it came up with. It appears not to know what the street abbreviation TCE means. It says "street" for St, "road" for Rd, "avenue" for Ave but says "tee see" for Tce...

A couple of english words also get a little screwed around..."recalculating" come out as "re cal kew la TING" with the emphasis on the last syllable...there are more that made me LOL as well...

So far so good. Can't really fault it thus far.

Still have to figure out how to stick routes into it and get logs out of it. That's today's project.

[Gremlin]

In the process of doing that. I have downloaded the mapsource bit but have yet to pull the map down...trying to decipher the method to use...

Download an exe from here: http://www.nzopengps.org/public/Late...exing_Mapsets/

Install, select the maps in Mapsource as the active map. Then you can select the maps and send them to the GPS etc etc... Ask away, I taught myself a couple of years ago...

Make the GPS route on fastest, not shortest. Roundabouts slow a route selection down, it doesn't know about traffic lights, so it often explains certain choices. If there are still issues, and you're using the open source maps, you can ask them to make improvements

[slofox]

Download an exe from here: http://www.nzopengps.org/public/Late...exing_Mapsets/

Install, select the maps in Mapsource as the active map. Then you can select the maps and send them to the GPS etc etc... Ask away, I taught myself a couple of years ago...

Make the GPS route on fastest, not shortest. Roundabouts slow a route selection down, it doesn't know about traffic lights, so it often explains certain choices. If there are still issues, and you're using the open source maps, you can ask them to make improvements

All good - got it sorted...turned out I had yet to get mapsource installed...

Just at present, I can't get the unit to connect to the computer. Checked out a zumo forum and found a guy who had had the exact same problem...which goes like this.

Connect via USB cable. Zumo starts up, computer icon appears, progress bar just starts to move and the whole thing resets to square 1. Does this over and over again.

Tried all the obvious things - used a different cable, rebooted computer, reset zumo, took out and replaced battery, downloaded latest USB drivers, cursed, swore, threatened violence - all to no avail.

So what is that about I ask myself...

Will try home puter tonight.


EDIT: All worked fine on the home computer...weird.

Still can't make my imported routes work though...


SECOND EDIT: Garmin help suggested I download all software updates. Seems to have fixed the problem. They also suggested a warm reboot (hold on/off button down for 15 seconds while still plugged in to the computer) as another possible fix.

[slofox]

Just figured out how to do this...

1. Open the route you want to put into the Zumo on Motowhere.

2. Go to the "Share" tab and click on "Download .GPX". This sends the file to My Documents/Downloads (on my puter anyway).

3. Open MapSource and the downloads folder mentioned above. Drag the .GPX file from the downloads folder to the left hand pane of MapSource. The route will appear in the right hand pane. You can access it later in the file menu if you need to.

4. Click on the "route tool" icon in the top toolbar (third icon in from right - three dots joined by a line).

5. Go to the start of the route in the right hand pane. Click on it and then move along the route a bit more and click again. This works exactly as does Motowhere when you are drawing a route. The route between your click points will come up in solid colour and will follow the road by itself as does Motowhere. Continue to click at intervals until you get to the end of the route. Be aware that if you space your clicks too far apart, the solid line you are creating might jump across a short cut and miss out part of your route. If this does happen, you can erase the point you have just created...somehow - forgotten just how. At worst you can just close the program without saving and start over.

6. Once you have completed the route, save it from the "file" drop down. It will now be a .GDB file, not a .GPX.

7. Connect your zumo to the computer. Once it has connected, use the "send to" icon to send your new file to the zumo. Just follow the directions that come up.

8. You will find your new file in "MyData" on the zumo. Click on "Import route from file" to set it up. Again, just follow instructions.


Now THAT took me three days to work out...

[Gremlin]

When creating longer routes, I suggest you create a new route and put in start and finish. Insert a mid point to nudge the route onto the road you want to do, then continue to "nudge" the route by inserting points as required to force it to use the roads of your choice.

Intersections are good for routing, but avoid town names, otherwise it will route you to that exact point, even if you want to bypass the town.

[slofox]

One Month On: (almost anyway)

Works quite well really although the English lady that lives in there and does all the talking can be fuckin' persistent at times... I've told her a couple of times to "shut the fuck up" but she ignores me...cow

Several points have emerged:

You can actually use this just as well without the bluetooth connection as with it. The screen instructions are really clear and can be seen with a very quick glance. No worse than checking your speedo. You can poke the top text line and a list of navigational instructions will replace the map. You don't actually have to have the verbals. Oh and it works just as well in the tail bag if you are happy with sound only.

I am still fiddling about with route preferences - it's quite hard to get it exactly as you want it. Plus my needs vary from trip to trip and I can't be buggered changing stuff every time. So I just put up with whatever settings I have at the time. One thing I do NOT want is the instruction "make a U-turn" when I veer off her chosen route. Like I said above, she's persistent. Fortunately you can select "no U-turns" in your preferences...thank god. Overall I'd like more options here although I'm not sure just what would work. In general, route choices offered are pretty sensible. I'd have to say I have gone with "shortest route" instead of "quickest route" after several weeks of comparison. These choices make more sense to me. Some of the "quickest" options didn't seem accurate to me. Pity there's not a "most interesting route" choice...

Recalculation after going off track is pretty good - quick and to the point. What I would like - bit much I guess - is for the thing to "learn" my preferred routes so it doesn't always suggest a route I never use. Not much AI in there...

I am still laughing my head off over some of the street pronunciations - especially Maori street or place names. They're a hoot. e.g. Tuhikaramea Road comes out as "two-hika-RAMmier" Road. So far, I have failed to get it to say "Ngaruawahia", try as I might

Custom routing is pretty good using map source and the technique outlined in one of my earlier posts. The only thing I don't like is that the routes call themselves by their starting and finishing points. e.g. "6 Fred St to 9 Mary St". If all your routes start from home and end back at home, they all end up with the same name. Maybe there's a way around this but I haven't found it yet.

On the plus side, the unit is dead easy to use with gloves on - even big fat fingered gloves with fingers that are too long. It's quite possible to do this while you are riding despite the device warning you NOT TO DO THIS at start-up. Make your own choice here. I don't mind doing very quick minor things but if a major adjustment is necessary it's best to stop. No point in fanging down the road at warp factor 9 while you peer myopically at the screen...and end up rear-ending a Mack truck or something...

Screen visibility has been criticised in at least one review I read but I have found it pretty easy to see under any conditions. Really bright sun can make it less easy to see but I have never been unable to read it.

Would I buy it again? Yep, I do believe I would. Especially since the Open GPS project provides free maps which are upgraded from day to day. But that aside, it does its job well and is user friendly.

[banditrider]

Custom routing is pretty good using map source and the technique outlined in one of my earlier posts. The only thing I don't like is that the routes call themselves by their starting and finishing points. e.g. "6 Fred St to 9 Mary St". If all your routes start from home and end back at home, they all end up with the same name. Maybe there's a way around this but I haven't found it yet.

Mapsource rocks! You can rename the routes to whatever you want. Open the route, deselect the Autoname box and change the name. You should also be able to do this on the device if necessary (well you can on the 550 anyway).

[slofox]

Mapsource rocks! You can rename the routes to whatever you want. Open the route, deselect the Autoname box and change the name. You should also be able to do this on the device if necessary (well you can on the 550 anyway).

So where is the autoname box, BR?

EDIT: Never mind - found it!

[NordieBoy]

Looks like the Zumo 220 is a Nuvi 500 with Bluetooth but without geocaching friendliness.

But you also get RAM mounts in the package?
Also do you get a cig lighter adapter or a proper slimline motorbike adapter that splices into the wiring?

[slofox]

Looks like the Zumo 220 is a Nuvi 500 with Bluetooth but without geocaching friendliness.

But you also get RAM mounts in the package?
Also do you get a cig lighter adapter or a proper slimline motorbike adapter that splices into the wiring?

Yes to all of the above. And yes, it is essentially a Nuvi without the geocaching.

You get RAM mounts for the bike, a big arse sucker for the car windscreen, car plug to go to ciggie lighter and a bike harness which I just hooked into my distribution block. Oh and USB connection for the 'puter. I think that's all.