Garmin 2460LMT Usage

Got mine a few weeks ago as a replacement for an aging TomTom. So far I really like it. I wish there was more things you could do with voice commands but what there is works well and covers most of my needs.

I named mine Veronica for voice commands. I tried several names but in a noise environment (Diesel Truck, I discovered more syllables and some hard sounds made it more reliable. I do have to talk pretty loud at times.

The unit can do so much more than the manual says, you have to read all the forums to finish your education.

Jim...

After updating Maps for the first time, and attempting to restart the 2460LMT, it would turn ON then OFF repeatedly without actually going to the first page display. I thought the unit was defective.

Re-connecting to Garmin website (my Dashboard)I found that it also needed a software (firmware?) update. Carefully following the instructions resulted in the 2460LMT working again.

Best to check both Map Update and Software updates to assure proper operation.

I'll post more experiences soon.

Ernie..........

I bought mine a couple of weeks ago, and so far I've been very impressed with it. I wanted the larger screen, voice recognition (works very well), and the well reported Bluetooth hands free ability, which also works well.

The only thing that I've been frustrated with relates to POI's. There is an apparent inability to show POI's icons on the map unless it is an actual destination, or to set an proximity alarm for individual categories of POI's such as, School Zones.

It has been some time since I've had a car based Garmin, but my memory is that I used to be able to show desired POI's on the map, and set proximity alarms on an older unit that I used to own. I've had no success finding any answer on the web.

Am I doing something wrong?

The icons for your favorites show up much better then the custom pois.All others you will need to zoom in on the area to see them.Unless they are close to the road you are navigating on.You will need to use sox.exe and wav file to get voice alerts. Using poiloader in manual mode you can set a speed or distance alert.Or build the alert into a gpx file.See http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25721 for custom pois. http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25730 for wav file.

The 2460LMT does impress me too and it has plenty of potential.

I have not yet tried adding or modifying custom POI's but am reading up on how to create and manage them.

I'll need to look at the reported inability to show POI icons unless they are actual destinations.

These may not be unique to the 2460.

I discovered that if you touch the satellite bars for about 5 seconds or so it brings up a detailed display of what Sats you have connected to, strength and estimated accuracy of your location.

If you touch the battery icon for 5 seconds or so it goes into a test mode and has all kinds of neat stuff.

Jim...

Yes, these features have been there for quite a while. My previous Garmin, which I have since forgotte the model, and my current 1690 both have these features. It is kind of neat to look at, and I've actually used it a couple times to check voltage, etc., when setting it up.

so much more info than the old 330c I had.

Here's a screen shot most of you will never see on your Garmin

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x101/soberbyker/Photo352....

I'm on the main runway at Philadelphia International Airport.

(the company I work for repairs/replaces the asphalt)

Right after receiving the 2460LMT, Garmin initially gave me conflicting information. This on how to transfer my Way Points and Routes from existing Street Pilot 2610 and Map Source to the new 2460LMT. In the end they suggested using Base Camp and the result was incomplete and confusing.

I was able to finally transfer Way Points and then needed to re-create the Routes.

The leaning curve was pretty steep getting Base Camp and the 2460LMT to work in understandable fashion.

The 2460LMT & corresponding updated internal Map is usually accurate but does have occasional inaccuracies and omissions in routing to simple Points of Interest and on up to one year old roads.

I'm not sold on Garmin's updating and on Base Camp.

I agree; I have been trying all sorts of gpx code to get the sound to be heard; all I hear is a usual bong. POI Loader causes an error when meeting any reference to a wav file - no errors with mp3 .And yet, it can't be heard. So, frustratingly !
I wonder how it copes with TourGuides?

HELP!

I downloaded the POI Factory Red Light & Speed Camera files and they appear to be more accurate than the Garmin version. Hurray POI Factory!

I could not get MP3 files to play and switched to wav and everything started working. I did get an error on a stereo wav file and had to run it through some software to combine the two channels.

Jim...

Your problem is that your unit doesn't have an MP3 player. You have to load SOX and use WAV files.

Is there a way to get the Tour Guide pop up to go away on the screen once it pops up?

Not once the alert is active.

Seems like sometimes the TourGuide alert message is bigger but most of the time you can't read it without stopping the car and getting out a magnifier. At first I thought it may have something to do with the length of name but not sure now. It always put TourGuide in the name which isn't really needed.

Any ideas on how to make it bigger?

Jim...

We just got back from a 5 week loop around the US with Veronica my 2460. I changed the voice command to "Hey Veronica" because my noise Diesel F250 with radio going would activate the 2460 way to often. With "Hey Veronica" it went 6000+ miles with out a false activation.

I would give Veronica a B+ overall. The two biggest mess ups were not to bad and were bad GPS coordinates in custom POI files I loaded, can't really blame that on the 2460. Worse it did on it's on was when we were traveling state roads it seemed to want to take me through side streets of small towns that I had a turn in, to save me a few feet, I learned to ignore those directions. Of the 6000+ miles all but about 1000 miles were non Interstates so it had plenty of opportunity to mess up.

It got us through some pretty harry route changes and directions that I'm sure I would have messed up on.

The voice recognition I would have given a C grade accept the humor it provided easily raised it up a grade. We had a lot of good laughs out of what it thought we were saying. We would take turns saying the words it had real problems with like Walmart. To be fair many words it got with no trouble, and remember I said I have a noise F250 diesel. It was good enough to save a lot of time when we were looking for things or changing or adding to our route. Since we really had very little planned ahead we changed our route a lot and I didn't have to stop to reprogram or talk the wife through it.

My wife quilts so we had alerts set for 2 miles for shops and 1/2 mile for free WiFi. Those turned out to be useful. My wife got to stop at some really out of the way shops and the WiFi was usually McDonalds so it was also useful for bathroom breaks.

So overall I was very pleased with my purchase.

Jim...

Thanks for the great report, Jim!