Thoughts about GPSMAP 67?

Discussion related to the Garmin GPSMAP 67 series GPSr
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GPSrChive
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Re: Thoughts about GPSMAP 67?

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Gadwin
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Re: Thoughts about GPSMAP 67?

Unread post by Gadwin »

mimichris wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 7:23 am What really matters is the precision of the layout, the precision of the follow-up, in open terrain as in the city, that's where sometimes it's not excellent even with the 66sr.
Never noticed any problems with the precision with the 66sr. I think it was always precise enough, that I could navigate myself. When I looked at the track, I could even see small turns, when I climbed on a nearby tree. If the 67 has at least the same precision and accuracy, it is indeed superior.

I am still very salty on the garmin marketing team.
mimichris
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Re: Thoughts about GPSMAP 67?

Unread post by mimichris »

It's still strange that Garmin releases an unfinished GPS with incomprehensible youthful bugs, Garmin, which has been manufacturing GPS for decades, is unable to release a reliable device on the first try, I wonder what the engineers and programmers are doing, are they up to the task?
GPSMAP66sr, GPSMAP67, GPSII+, Twonav Cross.
JungleJim
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Re: Thoughts about GPSMAP 67?

Unread post by JungleJim »

Buggy software unfortunately not only applies to Garmin's GPSMAP devices, but also to their cycling computers in my experience of using several Edge devices over the years. DC Rainmaker did an article on this a few years back.

For their newer wearables and cycling computers Garmin offers a public beta program which I think is a move in the right direction. But the way Garmin handles reporting of issues and feedback issue resolution leaves a lot to be desired (at least for Edge devices).
Current: GPSMAP 67, Edge 1040, inReach Messenger - Previous: GPSMAP 66sr, Oregon 700, Dakota 20, Edge 1030 Plus, Edge 1030, Edge 520 Plus, Edge 520
Gadwin
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Re: Thoughts about GPSMAP 67?

Unread post by Gadwin »

GPSrChive wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 11:28 pm Just an FYI for the 'doubters'.

We are currently performing a premature battery runtime test on our GPSMAP 67, and the results are looking very good. After nearly 24 hours of recording tracklog at one track point every minute, with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the Electronic Compass all enabled, and with occasional use for other purposes, the battery has dropped from 100% to 85%.

This is less than 1% battery drain per hour (0.69% per hour to be exact). Should the remainder of the test follow suit, that should get us about 144 hours. Not the 180 hours advertised, but we are testing with wireless radios and magnetic compass enabled.


UPDATE 25MAR23:

Our GPSMAP 67 continues to perform flawlessly. We are using for tracking at one minute intervals, we have loaded TopoActive maps via Wi-Fi, we are in constant Bluetooth connection with our phone, have loaded and updated Connect IQ apps, widgets and data fields, etc.

The Recording Controls page shows a cumulative tracklog with 6450 track points, and a running recorded time of 107 hrs, 28 minutes. The battery reports 25% capacity remaining.

Of course, if we had all wireless radios disabled and GPS system set to GPS Only, this test may take yet another week to complete!


UPDATE 26MAR23:

We checked on our GPSMAP 67 today and found it reporting only 1% battery life remaining, so we saved the active tracklog recording and analyzed it on our PC. Here are the results for this test, which included all wireless radios enabled, compass enabled, Multi-GNSS and Multi-Band enabled, and track log recording at 1 point per minute:

Total tracklog points were 7993, which equates to 133 hours and 12 minutes, or 5 days, 13 hours, and 12 minutes of run time, from 100% battery to 1% battery.

More testing will be performed once a more mature firmware has been published, with and without various consumers enabled.

Note: We have also been testing an eTrex SE with basic Alkaline batteries installed, tracking at one point per second, and currently it is showing 112 hours with all four battery bars still displayed. (please direct all eTrex SE comments to eTrex SE forum)
So if somebody wants to know some real world consumption. I used it on regular base, but never let it drain to 0, it was between 50-70% when I used the device. The observations are from several tracks. One track was 6-8hour long. I observed, when Wifi, Bluetooth are turned off, Multi-Band, Multi-GNSS are on, 15 sec Backlight timeout, track record auto normal interval (or one point per second record it does not matter surprisingly) and Keypadlocked (sigh), it drained around 1-1.2% approximately per hour ( I just looked during a record only twice on the device shortly).
When I looked from time to time on the display, scrolled through the map, started a navigation, then it drained 2% per hour.

About the battery it looks really good, no complain.
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LostAgain
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Re: Thoughts about GPSMAP 67?

Unread post by LostAgain »

mimichris wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 2:57 pm It's still strange that Garmin releases an unfinished GPS with incomprehensible youthful bugs, Garmin, which has been manufacturing GPS for decades, is unable to release a reliable device on the first try, I wonder what the engineers and programmers are doing, are they up to the task?
Doubtful.
Possibly more of a restriction by the bean counters (allocation of funding) than whether the engineers and programmers are up to the task.
I believe Garmin gets away with this because they have no real competition, if they did they'd have to smarten their act up quite a bit or lose sales because of it.

Requests to make even the slightest changes to GUI's to make how things display on the screen, or usability of their devices much better for all users quite often are completely ignored, many of these changes are very minor which I doubt would require more than a line or two to be edited or added to the firmware code.

They also know there's always going to be people that will keep buying the sometimes sub standard new devices as soon as they can push them out, and that users will do a lot of their beta testing for them, reporting bugs etc. so they can be sometimes fixed with firmware updates.
Nail
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Re: Thoughts about GPSMAP 67?

Unread post by Nail »

LostAgain wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 7:49 pm They also know there's always going to be people that will keep buying the sometimes sub standard new devices as soon as they can push them out, and that users will do a lot of their beta testing for them, reporting bugs etc. so they can be sometimes fixed with firmware updates.
I do not give in to the dictates, I return the GPSMAP 67. I will no longer be a beta tester. My time has value too. Slogans "Garmin engineers can't repeat this bug" is ridiculous. It should read "Garmin engineers can't fix the bug" (in less than 2 years).
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LostAgain
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Re: Thoughts about GPSMAP 67?

Unread post by LostAgain »

Nail wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 9:08 pm I do not give in to the dictates, I return the GPSMAP 67. I will no longer be a beta tester. My time has value too. Slogans "Garmin engineers can't repeat this bug" is ridiculous. It should read "Garmin engineers can't fix the bug" (in less than 2 years).
In some instances they possibly can't reproduce a bug.
There was a bug with the Montana 700's map display rotation at low speeds that seemed for a while no body but me could reproduce.
After much time I spent testing, videoing and reporting the issue to Garmin and posting about it here, they were able to reproduce it and fixed it.
Turned out the GPSMAP 276CX had the same issue, which they also fixed.

700
Spoiler
276CX
Spoiler
However, other issues and requests for simple, small changes to improve these and other devices, were and still have been completely ignored.
Gadwin
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Re: Thoughts about GPSMAP 67?

Unread post by Gadwin »

@Admin or anybody who still has both 66sr and 67, can you test the battery life time in Demo Mode for 24h, when both units are charged at 100% with backlight screen off? Since there is a theory, that the 67 is less accurate, because they tried to prolong the battery life time, it would be interesting to see what happens in Demo Mode.
neilwoody
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Re: Thoughts about GPSMAP 67?

Unread post by neilwoody »

I have owned a GPSMAP 67 for several weeks and have been using it off-trail and on hiking trails in the Five Ponds Wilderness of the Adirondack Park. Since the unit patched itself with firmware 4.80, it displays an accuracy estimate of 6 feet both indoors and outdoors under conifers. More tests under deciduous foliage need to wait until June. My real-time results show the GPS track aligns very closely with marked state hiking trails and my walking path on the shoulder of local streets. For my bushwhacking needs such as navigating to a local trout pond or a cliff overlook, the GPSMAP 67 performs very well.
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