GPSMap 276Cx Speed Fix

[seasdes]

I have many GPS units but my favourite is the garmin GPSMap 276CX for the following reasons:
1. Rugged
2. Key pad operation
3. Bright and easy to read
4. Operates all day using the battery, so no need to wire to the bike

Its only defect for me has been the slowness of the map refresh, so much so that I have missed turn points when road riding. Yeah I know I should be reading the distance to the next turn and not the coloured route line.

All is not lost. Doing the following results in snappier performance.
1. Load the map that is most important to you in the onboard memory, not the SD card. This makes the most difference.
2. Turn Declutter on. Need to do this for each trip.
3. Set map detail to Normal.
4. Set screen brightness to 90%, to improve battery life.

It is now as fast as any of the other GPS units that I use (including phones).

This info may be of use to others. Otherwise please ignore.

[skinnie]

Thanks for sharing your findings. I have an old 276c which I love but I am curious about the 276cx.
I presume you also updated the unit to the latest firmware. From what I've read it should also improve a bit. From my experience with old etrex like the 30,30x the topoactive maps are too heavy for the hardware, having some regions only or some lighter osm maps can improve a lot.
Let us know

[LostAgain]

My favourite device is the 276CX also.
Brightness and clarity of screen is really good, and it's a tough device.
I do find the keypad operation quite slow compared to a touchscreen, especially for entering new waypoint names or searching etc..

It's a shame garmin never finished it, things like having a folder containing vehicles included, none of which can be loaded, having the overlay corner data fields shading the wrong way around, black with only a white outline in night mode which is very hard to focus on when moving, but completely white in daytime mode, this is much better to view the other way around, I tried it by making one of my maps display night colours in day mode by editing the .typ file.

Onroad I have only the OpenMapChest (Australia) map enabled, all others disabled and it works ok for response speed, detail set to most and declutter off.
I didn't notice any performance differences between having the map/s internal or on a card, but nowdays only use them from the internal memory.
It's stability and reliability runs rings around my very disappointing Montana 700.

[ConiKost]

1. Load the map that is most important to you in the onboard memory, not the SD card. This makes the most difference.

Cannot confirm. Onboard memory with City Navigator was maybe a few percent faster, but that's all, if comparing with SD.

2. Turn Declutter on. Need to do this for each trip.

Yes, this helps, but you won't see any POIs anymore, that may not be always a choice someone wants.

3. Set map detail to Normal.

Ack, this helps.

4. Set screen brightness to 90%, to improve battery life.

Did you see how much? Since I used most of the time the 276Cx in AMPS mount, I didn't tried it.

It is now as fast as any of the other GPS units that I use (including phones).

To be honest, I cannot confirm that for me. My Montana 750i was much faster in map rendering than my 276Cx.

It's a shame garmin never finished it, things like having a folder containing vehicles included, none of which can be loaded, having the overlay corner data fields shading the wrong way around, black with only a white outline in night mode which is very hard to focus on when moving, but completely white in daytime mode, this is much better to view the other way around, I tried it by making one of my maps display night colours in day mode by editing the .typ file.

Full agree. My dream would be a successor called 278Cx (Like 278->276) with just much faster hardware, which would solve the performance issues.

[LostAgain]

It's a shame garmin never finished it, things like having a folder containing vehicles included, none of which can be loaded, having the overlay corner data fields shading the wrong way around, black with only a white outline in night mode which is very hard to focus on when moving, but completely white in daytime mode, this is much better to view the other way around, I tried it by making one of my maps display night colours in day mode by editing the .typ file.

Full agree. My dream would be a successor called 278Cx (Like 278->276) with just much faster hardware, which would solve the performance issues.

Indeed!
This would probably be the only time I'd ever purchase anything again from Garmin.

[LostAgain]

......having the overlay corner data fields shading the wrong way around, black with only a white outline in night mode which is very hard to focus on when moving, but completely white in daytime mode, this is much better to view the other way around......

Seems this is something else the eggheads at garmin broke and never bothered to fix, even after many requests to do what is probably a very simple fix.

I just received for nothing a brand new still in the box 276CX.
Unboxed it, put the charged battery from my other CX in it, took it outside and turned it on.
It had a good connection to satellites within a few minutes, I had a play with the map settings (basemap only) and turned on the map with overlay or corner data fields.
Noticed in day mode the characters were black on light coloured screen, very easy to see.
I switched it to night mode, the characters were a solid white with a black outline, exactly how it should be viewing at night on a dark background screen.

I thought 'maybe someone at garmin did read my multiple requests to change this, this is how it should be, excellent!'
Then when walking around with it I noticed and remembered the issue with the map rotation that also affected the Montana 700 I had, which garmin, to their credit fixed in both devices with firmware updates.
So I thought 'ok, I'll update the firmware, should solve that issue'.

And it did, and the first thing I noticed after it fired up once the updating was complete, the damn corner data fields character colouring was the wrong way around again

So somewhere between the 2.70 original firmware & the 5.90 latest that it updated to, they either accidently or deliberately broke how the corner data fields characters are coloured making it much harder to see both day and night

[GPSrChive]

We still need one of these if you should come across another

[Wojtas81]

It's stability and reliability runs rings around my very disappointing Montana 700.

Old Garmins are very reliable. Same with Montana 680t which works surprisingly well today.
Finding one in good condition is like finding a pearl on the beach.

[LostAgain]

We still need one of these if you should come across another

Send me a ridiculous amount of money and it's yours, otherwise you may have to wait until it stops working

It's stability and reliability runs rings around my very disappointing Montana 700.

Old Garmins are very reliable. Same with Montana 680t which works surprisingly well today.
Finding one in good condition is like finding a pearl on the beach.

Yeah I have several of the 610 models, they seem to work ok.

[Wojtas81]

From my experience with old etrex like the 30,30x the topoactive maps are too heavy for the hardware

eTrex models are known for their slowness. These devices are rugged, small and have great battery life, but are not fast.

On all my devices (see footer) TopoActive maps panning/zooming speed is very acceptable.
However I agree that third party maps tend to be noticeably faster. When I switch to TalkyToaster maps everything is way smoother.

The problem with GPSMAP 276cx is that it has relatively big screen (5") and resolution (800x480) which surely impacts map refresh.

We still need one of these if you should come across another

In my country they are still available (used and new). At least for now.
New one cost is almost identical to Montana 710.