The Garmin 496...a teenager's review

On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 06:43:43 -0700, Jay Honeck wrote:

But I truly hope they eventually do something about the screen refresh
rate, cuz all of us -- Mary, me, and now Joe -- want to punch the panel
while we're waiting for that stupid screen to refresh after slewing the
cursor to the next METAR reporting station... --

Refresh rate relates directly to power. Ideally, the box would offer
options (ie. rapid refresh, more power consumption vs. slow refresh,
longer battery life). That may be a "didn't think of it", I suppose, but
I'd be surprised since this is standard in laptops.

But I believe that inertia weighs heavily at Garmin. I asked once whether
they'd ever have the IFR-friendly flight plan entry of the 480 on the
430/530 line. I was told that they'd probably not do this as it was
considered "more difficult".

Another place where having an option (ie. waypoint entry or airway entry)
would be a Good Thing.

Still, I'm suspicious that none of the other vendors have leaped past
Garmin. That suggests that there's a part of this equation I'm missing.
Perhaps the development costs to "get it completely right" would render
the unit too expensive given the small audience?

I presume that all those little game-box things sell well more than
aviation GPS units.

- Andrew

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ps.com...
"If Microsoft built the X-Box the way Garmin built the 496, they'd
have sold about five of them..."

Apples to watermelons.


Okay, I'll give you the X-Box vs Garmin comparison is wrong. Which is
why I mentioned the Sony PSP handheld.

Sony operates in the fantasy world; Garmin has to operate in the real world.

How many units does Sony sell? How many does Garmin?

How many cars does Toyota sell? How many aircraft does Cirrus?

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
It's amazing that you're the only one to think of this. Congratulations!

Look around at the demographic of pilots nowadays. I'm 48, and I'm
still considered the "Young Guy" at the airport -- which is the reason
so few pilots apparently grasp how truly clunky the 496 is to use.
Garmin is not dealing with a generation that has grown up with a mouse
in our hands, and most pilots have nothing to compare the 496 against.

My son does. And his observations were right on the money.

Jay,

Stick to running hotels. As a technologist, you're assessment is
embarrassing.

If Sony or MS could translate their game systems to GPS naive, they already
would have done so.

You're starting to sound like those naive folks who think making cars and
making aircraft are so much the same thing.

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
It's amazing that you're the only one to think of this.
Congratulations!

Look around at the demographic of pilots nowadays. I'm 48, and I'm
still considered the "Young Guy" at the airport -- which is the reason
so few pilots apparently grasp how truly clunky the 496 is to use.
Garmin is not dealing with a generation that has grown up with a mouse
in our hands, and most pilots have nothing to compare the 496 against.

My son does. And his observations were right on the money.

Jay,

Stick to running hotels. As a technologist, you're assessment is
embarrassing.


As someone who was presumably taught the English language at an early age..
"you're"... (??)

Glass houses and all that.

KB

"Matt Barrow" wrote

Stick to running hotels. As a technologist, you're assessment is
embarrassing.

Matt, what the hell is wrong with you lately.

Did someone **** in your Wheaties? Something wrong with your lovelife?

For the past few weeks you have been more obnoxious than usual.

Think about it, and think about toning it down. Everyone will soon be
avoiding you, if you keep it up.
--
Jim in NC

Stick to running hotels. As a technologist, you're assessment is
embarrassing.

Matt, what the hell is wrong with you lately.

Did someone **** in your Wheaties? Something wrong with your lovelife?

For the past few weeks you have been more obnoxious than usual.

Heck, I haven't noticed any difference...

;-)

Seriously, I *know* that the 496 and PSP are not the same thing, and I
*know* that Sony sells 80 gazillion game platforms for every one of
Garmin's GPS units.

My point in posting is simply to highlight how truly crappy these
units are, and how expensive they are, comparatively speaking. For
those of you who think otherwise, get thee to your kids room, and see
what real "high tech" looks like.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Refresh rate relates directly to power. Ideally, the box would offer
options (ie. rapid refresh, more power consumption vs. slow refresh,
longer battery life). That may be a "didn't think of it", I suppose, but
I'd be surprised since this is standard in laptops.

What's especially sad is that every, single one of the "way cool"
aviation features of the 496 are impacted by this problem. Here's how
it goes:

1. You're cruising along on a 100 mile x-country flight. This is
typical for us.

2. You've got the screen zoomed into the 30 mile range, so that you
can see any details at all (like towers) on the little screen.

3. You want to check the runways at your destination airport, which is
NOT displayed. (Remember, you're zoomed in so that you can see stuff.)
The 496 has the runways stored in its database -- all you have to do
is put your cursor on the desired airport and hit "enter" to see them
all.

4. In order to click on the desired airport, you must "slew" the
cursor off the edge of the screen in order to find it. This means
hold the arrow button down, slew to the edge of the screen -- wait
three seconds while the screen disappears and reappears -- and
continue.

The REALLY bad thing is that the cursor doesn't stop moving when the
screen disappears, so that in those three seconds you can easily WAY
over-shoot your target airport. (I've even ended up in a different
state during the time it's blank.)

5. Repeat ad nauseum.

This process must be performed in order to see ANY of the good stuff,
including accessing the AOPA restaurant/hotel guide, radio
frequencies, field elevation, airport diagrams, METAR and TAF weather
-- you name it, you've got to put your cursor on the airport and push
"enter" to activate it -- which means slewing.

My son just laughed when he first used it...until I told him it cost
$3,000.00.

Then he just laughed at *me*... (Until he figured out that it had come
from his future inheritance...)

;-)

Still, I'm suspicious that none of the other vendors have leaped past
Garmin. That suggests that there's a part of this equation I'm missing.
Perhaps the development costs to "get it completely right" would render
the unit too expensive given the small audience?

Yep, me too. Lowrance -- the world leader in nautical GPS -- has been
"promising" weather for over two years -- and STILL nothing. It must
be a lot harder than we think it is...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
Refresh rate relates directly to power. Ideally, the box would offer
options (ie. rapid refresh, more power consumption vs. slow refresh,
longer battery life). That may be a "didn't think of it", I suppose, but
I'd be surprised since this is standard in laptops.

What's especially sad is that every, single one of the "way cool"
aviation features of the 496 are impacted by this problem. Here's how
it goes:

1. You're cruising along on a 100 mile x-country flight. This is
typical for us.

2. You've got the screen zoomed into the 30 mile range, so that you
can see any details at all (like towers) on the little screen.

3. You want to check the runways at your destination airport, which is
NOT displayed. (Remember, you're zoomed in so that you can see stuff.)
The 496 has the runways stored in its database -- all you have to do
is put your cursor on the desired airport and hit "enter" to see them
all.

4. In order to click on the desired airport, you must "slew" the
cursor off the edge of the screen in order to find it. This means
hold the arrow button down, slew to the edge of the screen -- wait
three seconds while the screen disappears and reappears -- and
continue.

The REALLY bad thing is that the cursor doesn't stop moving when the
screen disappears, so that in those three seconds you can easily WAY
over-shoot your target airport. (I've even ended up in a different
state during the time it's blank.)

5. Repeat ad nauseum.

This process must be performed in order to see ANY of the good stuff,
including accessing the AOPA restaurant/hotel guide, radio
frequencies, field elevation, airport diagrams, METAR and TAF weather
-- you name it, you've got to put your cursor on the airport and push
"enter" to activate it -- which means slewing.

My son just laughed when he first used it...until I told him it cost
$3,000.00.

Then he just laughed at *me*... (Until he figured out that it had come
from his future inheritance...)

;-)

Still, I'm suspicious that none of the other vendors have leaped past
Garmin. That suggests that there's a part of this equation I'm missing.
Perhaps the development costs to "get it completely right" would render
the unit too expensive given the small audience?

Yep, me too. Lowrance -- the world leader in nautical GPS -- has been
"promising" weather for over two years -- and STILL nothing. It must
be a lot harder than we think it is...

It is a priority thing with Lowrance. They were purchased by a company that
is completely marine based. The new parent company had Lowrance pull
resources from developing XM for aviation so those resources could fill in
some percieved holes in the marine product line.

So, now they have a hole in their aviation product line. I am told that
Lowrance will correct this omission, the only question is when? This year
at Osh or next year at SnF?


--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"NW_Pilot" wrote:


The CPU speed in my cell phone is faster then that of the G1000 no
telling what they are using in the 496. So anyone have about $90K they
want to toss to the Korea/HongKong to reverse engineer the 496 and then
make it better and knock them off for only a few hundred dollars? Hell I
could crack/dump their their os in a few days and would give me an excuse
to get my SMT rework / device programming equipment out of the attic.


It's amazing that you're the only one to think of this. Congratulations!

I expect to see your $300 Garmin beater at OSH next year!

--
Dan

"Don't make me nervous when I'm carryin' a baseball bat."
- Big Joe Turner


I have sent out many 6 and 8 layer boards to be ripped apart and copied
layer by layer, trace by trace, solder pad by solder pad, all it take is
money and anything can be copied. If it has a published schematic you can
program/scan it in to Altium (protel), Eagle (cadsoft.de), or many other cad
programs. All to need to do is input in the Schematic arrange the board lay
out make some Gerber files upload to a board house. I believe
pcbexpress.com, ezpcb.com, PCBnet.com are still around they do up to 6
layers quick turn prototypes no questions asked. Once you get the prototype
the way you want on to injection molding and manfacture.

I have been out of the industory for few years now and many companys in the
U.S. have gone out of biz (Want a Good American Job Move To China)

A place to have a schematic drawn up of simple devices this guy is an old
timeer now and may be a little slow but only about $20.00 an hour. I sent
these guys lots of Cable TV equipment back in the day when I did not have
the time to do it myself.
http://www.bomarc.org/home.php

Some others:
http://www.delectrol.com/reverse_engineering.htm

http://www.mitsi.com/PCB/reverse_engineering.htm

http://www.armisteadtechnologies.com...ineering.shtml

http://www.isensortech.com/PCBreverse.htm

List of Some Production House's, The First one listed Circuitone is my #1
recommended I have done business with them in the past many times. They can
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Circuitone Ltd
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48 Hoi Yuen Road
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Kowloon
Hong Kong SAR
Tel: (852 ) 23500360
Fax: (852 ) 22422544
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-------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------
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China 518030
Tel: (86 755) 8376 8879 Ext : 8808 (86 755) 8376 8867 Ext : 8814
Fax: (86 755) 8376 8890

"NW_Pilot" wrote:

I have sent out many 6 and 8 layer boards to be ripped apart and copied
layer by layer, trace by trace, solder pad by solder pad, all it take is
money and anything can be copied.

So why hasn't anyone come out wth a half-price 496 knock-off?

Should be easy, according to you, and I guarantee you there's a big market.

--
Dan

"The future has actually been here for a while, it's just not readily
available to everyone."
- some guy at MIT