Sun Glare

Here are some sun shades by Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_13?url=search-alias...

turn mine in different directions, sometimes facing a bit down seems better.

Before you spend much money buying a sunshade, take a piece of light cardboard or heavy paper and make one. Try it out, maybe double-sided tape to hold it on. If it doesn't help, you aren't out much money.

Have you also considered wearing polarized sunglasses? Even the cheap ones from Costco can make a big difference in sun glare, not just on the screen, but in visibility while driving as well.

Depending on the particular nuvi's screen orientation/setup, polarized sunglasses may make the problem even worse. I heard of many cases where the screen looks fine if the unit is turned sideways but becomes totally unreadable if used in the proper orientation. Again, this applies to certain units only and may not affect many units at all...it won't hurt to try but don't spend a ton on sunglasses only to make the situation worse. Best to take the unit into the store and try the glasses with it before you buy them. Rotate the unit in all four directions to see if the polarization of the glasses affects the legibility of the screen in the unit's proper orientation.

I made a shade with thin cardboard and taped it on and it worked fine. My problem was the windshield on my vehicle is slanted enough that the sun shines on the screen at times. If I had an older car, wouldn't be this problem.

I agree regarding polarized lenses making things worse. Not sure why that is.

I wrap a micro fiber towel to form a shade around the unit. This helps a lot and also keeps it cool during the summer.

You might want to consider using a vent mount.

Liquid Crystal displays work by polarizing the light passing through them. In the 'off' state, no voltage applied, the light is polarized so that it pass through the front of the display. In the 'on' state, they twist the light 90 degrees so that it is perpendicular to the front's polarization and no light pass through. Depending on the polarization of the display, it is possible that your polarized sun glasses will block the light from the screen.

Here is an article I wrote back in '09 about Sun Glare and shading which may be of interest to you.

LOWRANCE? NO! GARMIN OF ARABIA
- Sun Shielding Your Nüvi

complete with photos. A no cost solution that I use.

It is on page 8 of the General section

Garmin Trick, Tips, WorkArounds etc.

http://bit.ly/garmin_gps_tricks

Gary Hayman

Thanks for the ideas, I will try them. The members of the POI Factory site are always helpful.

First time I was wearing a new digital LCD watch I thought it was broken because the display was totally blank. I forgot I was wearing polarized sunglasses. Turning my wrist a bit "fixed" my new watch.

"Custom" shade made out of heavy paper works really well, and keeps the operating temperature down during the summer.

bob in sunny silicon valley

Reading any LCD screen usually gets much harder with polarized glasses (or lenses) since LCDs themselves rely on polarization. Yes they will reduce glare (especially reflected glare, such as off water) but can make an LCD screen such as a GPS invisible.

I do know about the polarization effect with LCD screens, as do vehicle manufacturers and many manufacturers who produce LCD equipped gadgets for outdoor and vehicle use. Neither my Garmin Streetpilot, 60C or Nuvi 750 suffer from any issues with polarized lenses that would render the screen unreadable (when used in its proper orientation of course). Neither does any of my vehicles LCD screens. It's one of the issues I took into consideration when buying my GPSs as I always wear polarized lenses when outdoors.