ettalong's Full Review: Garmin StreetPilot 2610 Car GPS Receiver
Well I purchased my Garmin 2610 in May 2004.
From a well respected GPS specialist in Queensland. A dealer whom I purchased my Garmin eMap from a few years before hand. I live on the Central Coast of New South Wales in Australia.
This GPS is my fourth. Three of them were Mapping type GPS units and two of these were Auto routing.
The 2610 is a full Colour auto routing GPS with many features, some of which I will mention here.
When purchased it had already installed, the 128mb memory card fully loaded with ALL Australian mapping. All you had to do was pull it out of the box, let it Autolocate for the first time, and then she was ready for work.
The unit came with the 12volt DC cigarette lighter cable with speaker included. A 240volt AC [Australian voltage] power cable without speaker. IR remote control. Instruction manual, beanbag mounting which works incredibly well. This I have ‘tested’ now with many kilometers under it now.
USB cable etc.
Why did I purchase this particular unit? Well I did a fair bit of research and with previous GPS experience was maybe a bit more aware of what I thought would be nice features.
Well the Garmin 2610 has these nice features.
The IR remote control works well and after a very brief single read of the manual I found that the whole system was very intuitive in its operation.
I found however that the remotes shape, being the same at each end, a trite annoying. When traveling alone, and in particular in the dark, I found that picking up the remote, you were not certain that it was pointing in the right direction. A distinct directional shape would alert you to this just by tactile sensation.
Also I would like the IR remote to have a little brighter backlight LED arrangement, making it easier to see. But what would be really good is if these LED’s where of different Colour, and the pushbutton on the right hand side of corresponding colours. Minor point. Probably of more importance is the angle of the IR emitter at the top of the remote. I found that I had to point it directly to the 2610. A more comfortable hold of the remote would be holding more at a 45 degree angle, and have the LED tilted back to allow for this. Or is it just my remote that displays this behavior?
Anyway, also have the extra luxury of the pushbuttons on the right hand side, they to being very intuitive. And I love the touch screen operation of it as well. So if the IR remote batteries died, you still have 2 other methods of operation.
Not bad.
The Colour screen is bright, very easy to read and the colours chosen are pleasant. The map quality is not bad either. I also ran the Navman GPS with the new 3D screen, and was impressed with this. Well at first I was, but the novelty wore of, and that in my opinion is all it is, a novelty. I found the maps harder to read, in particular up ahead and reverted back to the original straight down view instead.
I find the ON / OFF swith on the right hand side however to be a pain. So easily to hit ans switch it off. Would have been better to have a soft push button, holing it in for say three seconds then shuts it down, same to turn it on.
Another thing I love on the 2610 is its ability to communicate to your PC or Laptop. USB transfer speed is not bad [cant comment on map transfer as these were already loaded].
So transferring data to / from 2610 to the Australian CityNavigator software worked well. Another GREAT thing is the FREE from there web site, updates from Garmin [not maps themselves] of the 2610 operating system as well as the Mapping software front end. They now even email you if you request it, and are notified when these become available. So my 2610 today have the same software as the ones leaving the factory, even though when purchased it was a few versions before. And some of the additional enhancements are extra nice.
My Garmin eMap also has that feature.
Also with the FREE from there web site, software from Garmin again, you can capture screen shots etc using xImage. Works well. Any you can e mail this image to someone or include it in a direction sheet for someone whom does not have a GPS. Can be modified with paint packages etc as well.
Also with another FREE from there web site, software from Garmin, is there nRoute autorouting software. works very well. Gives my older eMap some extra features whilst connected to laptop. And it to works very well with the 2610.
I am writing to Garmin with some additional ideas that I feel would enhance an already very good product. Just maybe these will appear in a latter version. You never know.
Road testing the Navman and the 2610, I found some performance differences. Standing still like at lights, the Garmin stood rock solid at 0kph however the Navman sometimes showed 0kph and then would indicate say 5kph and this fluctuated just while waiting at a set of traffic lights.
So how good does it perform in reality? Also noticed on the Navman some hesterisis or delay when taking off or coming to a stop in comparison to the 2610.
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Below is an extract from DiverHank whom has posted on the net some additional undocumented features of the 2610.
"2. 2. Diagnostic Screens.
Hold down menu and find buttons then turn on the unit it will boot to a diagnostic screen. This screen tells you such information as software and firmware versions, unit temperature, what type data card you have in it. When on the diagnostic screen you can press page repeatedly to see a bunch of different testing screens. One word of cautionâ€Ãƒƒ‚¦ your current position might be reset to Kansas, USA and the next time you use the unit, it would go into Autolocate mode. Other button sequence on boot up are:Page+Find then turn unit on = force autolocatePage+Menu then turn unit on = clear user settingsPage + Menu + Find then turn unit on = Master Reset "
Garmin Street Pilot 26X0 Undocumented Features
Software Version 3.90, Audio File 2.1
Collected By DiverHank
Updated 11/11/04
I tried this and it works well, and no my Garmin 2610 did not default to Kansas USA...
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A friend of mine also bought a Garmin 2610 after seeing mine. He to is most happy with his purchase.
Recently his sister borrowed his GPS and when she went to use it, found that it was not working. The problem was found after some time, the internal fuse located inside the cigarette lighter plug had somehow no longer made contact. On removal and reinserting, it worked fine.
I posted this so that you are aware of what to look for, should this happen to you. I have not experienced this. My comment, IF the fuse does fail, you are stuck.
So carry some spare 1amp 3AG fuses in the glove box. I think there should be a SPARE fuse inside the 12 volt plug, but I think it would be a nicer solution if you had a thermal resetable fuse on the back of the GPS itself.
What do you reckon??
Anyway this is a ‘brief’ review at this stage and I will come back to add more to it, just unfortunate that I am running out of time right now.
Have many more things to say..
Additional brief info...
[been busy studying for exams so not much time to add info]
BUY some SPARE FUSES for your 2610.
Was recently caught out, powered it up, worked fine, then DEAD.... in the middle of nowhere, and no GPS.. and suddenly thought that the unit had gone to God.
So after much anguish, discovered that the 3AG style fuse located in the speaker power plug assembly had failed - and NO SPARE.
Garmin should do 1 of 2 things, provide a SPARE FUSE within the speaker assembly to change over when this occurs, or I would prefer to see an electronic resetable fuse in the body of the GPS itself.
On closer inspection of the fuse, found it had failed for mechanical reasons. Travelling in my Subaru Outback on a not to rough road may have helped it to its death.
Anyway back to my exams and studies.....
FINAL WORD ON FUSES - NEVER REPLACE IT WITH ONE THAT HAS A HIGHER RATING THAN THAT SUPPLIED or else you will indead see the GPS go to God.
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