Garmin 478 users/owners thread

[Boon Booni]

Originally Posted by spidennis

I need a gps for hiking and kayaking, I already have a garmin 478 but it's battery life is 4 hours max. I'm on dialup so researching is kinda tough, and the garmin website keeps crashing my browser so I gonna do some asking around here.

I have two options,
1) use my 478, get more batteries (maybe 2), "inland lake and waterways" and intall it onto a garmin card.
2) get another gps better suited for the task, but which one?

which route is gonna cost me less?

I plan on doing a lot of backcountry kayaking and portaging (carries) in the NY Adirondack mt waterways. I'm also entered in the 3 day "90 miler" and it would be great to track my progess in the race and in my training sessions.

I don't want another 600 dollar unit, got one already or can I somehow get my 478 to pull this duty as well? more batteries maybe? installing "inland lakes and waterways" on a card? Is this gonna cost more than getting a whole new and different hiking type gps?

what gps has topo and inland lakes, rivers and streams? don't really need all the hwy stuff as my 478 has got all that.

the 478 does have a big plus in it's favor though, that nexrad weather radar. that would be all too handy on my backwater camping adventures!

dang, what to do? .....
and where to get more batteries? suggestions please!

I bet you could build a battery pack out of AA, C, or D batteries to get you a 12volt aux. battery. I think the satellite antenna would be kinda hard on batteries.

You'd need 8 AA batteries to get close to 12v. I don't know if the unit will run on less voltage, though the internal battery is only about 7 volts so you may be able to get away with less.

EDIT: If the unit will work on less than 12v external (I'll have to check that) you could run a regular 9v battery, and maybe hook 2-3 in parallel to get a little more longevity.

FWIW, my 478 will run 6+ hours on the internal battery. Do you have it set on battery saver? Do you run backlight always on?

[BlueLghtning]

Originally Posted by spidennis

I need a gps for hiking and kayaking, I already have a garmin 478 but it's battery life is 4 hours max. I'm on dialup so researching is kinda tough, and the garmin website keeps crashing my browser so I gonna do some asking around here.

I have two options,
1) use my 478, get more batteries (maybe 2), "inland lake and waterways" and intall it onto a garmin card.
2) get another gps better suited for the task, but which one?

which route is gonna cost me less?

I plan on doing a lot of backcountry kayaking and portaging (carries) in the NY Adirondack mt waterways. I'm also entered in the 3 day "90 miler" and it would be great to track my progess in the race and in my training sessions.

I don't want another 600 dollar unit, got one already or can I somehow get my 478 to pull this duty as well? more batteries maybe? installing "inland lakes and waterways" on a card? Is this gonna cost more than getting a whole new and different hiking type gps?

what gps has topo and inland lakes, rivers and streams? don't really need all the hwy stuff as my 478 has got all that.

the 478 does have a big plus in it's favor though, that nexrad weather radar. that would be all too handy on my backwater camping adventures!

dang, what to do? .....
and where to get more batteries? suggestions please!

How old is your battery? If I have battery saver on and the screen backlight turned down, I know it tells me the battery will last a lot longer then 4 hours. I think upwards of 6-8hrs. Heck, I think I can get 3-4hrs running the XM antenna on the battery.

You might like the etrex series. The run on 2AA batteries. Pretty small and easy to handle. You could load the topo or R&R series on it. They can be had very cheap also.

[Jamie Z]

On a full battery, my 478 battery meter reads more than 10 hours.

Jamie

[spidennis]

ok, with all suggestions on turning stuff down and disconnecting the xm antenna I get 6ish hours according to the display. cool, I hope that's fairly close. I'll still get a couple of batteries though. That would be less messy than doing a external battery pack, and when you're trying to be going light weight this will be my splurging items. and I saw the batteries for 18 bucks a piece on amazion.

Now, onto those data cards ....

on ebay I saw Garmin Data Card (US Inland Lakes-NE) 010-C0458-00 for 70 bucks.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Garmin-Data-Card...d=p3286.c0.m14

What's the max size card I can get? and can I get the whole inland lakes and such on one cd/dvd and have it fit onto one garmin data card? I gather I'll have to use my computer to do this huh?

[spidennis]

I found the whole us inland waterways for $105 on DVD
now to find a garmin data card that will fit it all? Is that possible?
or will I have to only load what I need as I need it?
I gather I can write to these garmin cards more than once? hopefully!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Garmin-Mapsource...3286.m20.l1116

memory cards I see are 64, 128, and 512 ..... 512 buy it now for $115

two batteries, card, dvd = $260
or I can buy a preloaded data card for region 3 for 90 bucks ....
so far I hadn't seen a preloaded data card for the whole us inland lakes?

now to see what smaller handhelds are gonna cost with inland lakes on it .......

oh man is this dialup painfully slow!
our phone line goes under the lake to get to me .....
and the tv sat dish I have installed in a really tall dead tree,
and it requires adjusting (oh wonderful, ug)
that's life up in the mountains!

[Boon Booni]

Originally Posted by spidennis

....That would be less messy than doing a external battery pack....

Just did a quick test. The unit acts like it's on external power when you hook up a 9volt battery.

Get a few of these:



and one of these..




I bet you could make a nice external battery that would plug in just like if you had it wired to your bike. Hell three 9 volt batteries weigh nothing and can be found everywhere.

[spidennis]

Is the "vision" version of inland lakes software worth it? It appears I have a choice ........
edit: this isn't for the 478

garmin site: region 3 Part Number: 010-C0458-00 Suggested Retail Price: $ 116.65 USD
ebay: 90 bucks

right now I'm leaning towards the preprogrammed data card for region 3 and two extra garmin batteries. this would be the "lazy" route of getting what I need .......


gramps, with your 9 volt system is there a way to keep the 478 from charging the internal battery so the external 9 volt batteries don't get discharged?

[Boon Booni]

Originally Posted by spidennis

...this would be the "lazy" route of getting what I need .......

gramps, with your 9 volt system is there a way to keep the 478 from charging the internal battery so the external 9 volt batteries don't get discharged?

I know there are people that run the 478 hardwired with the battery out of the unit to help alleviate vibrations, so possibly.

Though I imagine that charging the unit's battery with the 9volt batteries wouldn't be a waste as you'd have a charged main battery once the 9volt jobbies were dead.

The 9 volt thing is untested. It's just my idea, but I imagine that 3 batteries hooked up would provide a decent amount of power. I'll have to test it some day and see how long they last.

[GSbiker]

Originally Posted by spidennis

I've had my new 478 now for a few days and went to register it at garmin.com and see that they are providing me with a free map update. cool.

==============================
Free Map Update

Thank you for registering your product.

Our records indicate that you are eligible for a free map update for the device below. Follow the screen prompts to take advantage of this special offer today.

Unit: GPSMAP® 478

Serial Number:

Map Update: City Navigator® North America NT 2010 Map Update

Expiration: Free update expires May 10, 2009 *

*You have 30 days to take advantage of this free map update. After 30 days, this map update will be available for purchase from our online store.

Customers outside the US and EU will be responsible for any additional taxes and customs fees.
==================================

I was wondering on just how I was going to make routes on my computer without a dvd and now this is my ticket I was looking for!

edit: as it turned out, at this time the dvd wasn't yet available so I did the download option instead.

==================================
Garmin's 478 webpage
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=148&pID=402

Thanks for the tip on the map download. Works great.

Love the 478 so far.

[Jamie Z]

Little trick I figured out (it's probably in the owner's manual, which I don't have and haven't read the pdf).

Press "Find" twice to automatically route "HOME."

Jamie

[BlueLghtning]

Originally Posted by Jamie Z

Little trick I figured out (it's probably in the owner's manual, which I don't have and haven't read the pdf).

Press "Find" twice to automatically route "HOME."

Jamie

Yep, quite a few of the Garmin's do that. Even the 2820 does it also.

[Boon Booni]

Originally Posted by Jamie Z

Little trick I figured out (it's probably in the owner's manual, which I don't have and haven't read the pdf).

Press "Find" twice to automatically route "HOME."

Jamie

I was missing one when coming from my 76C. On the 76C if you press "find" twice it takes you to the "find history" page showing all the addresses, waypoints etc that you've looked at in the past (the last 50 I think).

I was annoyed that the 478 didn't have this feature, that you had to scroll through the find menu to get to it.

But, if you hold down the "find" button on the 478, it'll take you immediately to the "find/goto history" page.

[Chipper]

Upgraded to 478 from 276. Love it, But.... Used in car with the speaker/lighter plug voice prompts do not play. If I switch to earphone sound setting like on m/cycle, and put my earphones in works fine. Tried another power/speaker cable same thing. Yes, have the sound turned up on screen brightness/sound screen. I am assuming should be set to line out on sound page but have tried both. Any ideas? Does having WAAS enabled or xm radio (which I have on m/cycle only, no antenna in car) change anything? Thought would try here before call Garmin.

[Jamie Z]

Originally Posted by Chipper

Upgraded to 478 from 276. Love it, But.... Used in car with the speaker/lighter plug voice prompts do not play. If I switch to earphone sound setting like on m/cycle, and put my earphones in works fine. Tried another power/speaker cable same thing. Yes, have the sound turned up on screen brightness/sound screen. I am assuming should be set to line out on sound page but have tried both. Any ideas? Does having WAAS enabled or xm radio (which I have on m/cycle only, no antenna in car) change anything? Thought would try here before call Garmin.

Hm. I had/have very nearly the same problem with my 478.

When I got the unit and plugged it into the car, the voice prompts worked. And then they didn't. I fussed with the cable for a bit and then the prompts came back, for a short time, and now they don't work again.

Garmin has agreed to send me a replacement cable (on an eBay purchased GPS, no less) so I'm hoping that will fix the problem.

Jamie

[BlueLghtning]

I've never had any problems with my 478 and getting voice prompts from the cig plug/speaker