Big question, how is the battery life.. It is the one thing I dislike about the 305, 10 hours max is pretty bad. With a color screen how good is it?


Just wanted to add my experience so far with battery life. I charged mine yesterday for about 5 hours and then went for a short ride to test it out at 6:30PM last night. I decided to leave the unit on and put it in my center console in my car to drain the battery to fix the 50% glitch that a few people have experienced. Now it's 9:30AM the next day and the unit is still going on the same charge. It gave me one warning about low battery, but it was still tracking satellites the whole time. That's 15 hours and it still hasn't shut down. It is scanning for my HRM and cadence since I am in the office now and they are in the car. Seems like that would drain the battery. I haven't been using the back light that much since it was in my car, but that still seems like pretty decent battery life.

One other impressive note is that I made the assumption that being in the center console with the lid closed, it would not be able to track position or connect with satellites, but when I took it out this morning, it was still tracking speed and position. :)

How do you do it from training center. I have that downloaded.

To do it from Training Center you have to first ride the route. Once you have ridden the route you have to download the 705 to Training Center. In Training Center click on the "Course" button and then in the Edit menu select "New Course" or Cntrl+N. It will then ask you which ride from your history file you want to base the course on. Once this is done you can title it and add Course Points (the Flag Button above the map view).

Just curious, did the version of Training Center you downloaded included any maps?

By the way, does mapsource have maps for europe as well in the single version or do you have to buy a separate version for european maps? Do you have a link for them?


Yes Mapsource does have maps for Europe but you must purchase them separately, they are not on the SD card that came with the ones that REI has been shipping.

Hope that help you out. If you have more questions feel free to post them!

Re: Battery Life.

It just shut off after over 17 hours of being on.

Re: Battery Life.

It just shut off after over 17 hours of being on.

That is good news that the battery life is much longer than the 305.. For those of you looking for a good deal on micro sd cards, amazon has a good deal.. 5.00 for a 1gb card..

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-MicroSD-SDSDQ-1024-A10M-Retail-Package/dp/B000EEZCEG/ref=pd_sim_e_img_10

Does anybody know if you can do the following:

1) get the Edge 705 w/o the microSD card
2) get the Mapsource City Navigator DVD
3) get a 1 GB microSD card
4) load City Navigator database on card
5) use card in Edge 705 like if you got full 705 bundle w/ street level map (Garmin Edge 705, Heart Rate, Speed/Cadence & Data Card with Street Maps 010-00555-40)

Thanks for your help.

Does anybody know you can do the following:

1) get the Edge 705 w/o the microSD card
2) get the Mapsource City Navigator DVD
3) get a 1 GB microSD card
4) load City Navigator database on card
5) use card in Edge 705 like if you got full 705 bundle w/ street level map (Garmin Edge 705, Heart Rate, Speed/Cadence & Data Card with Street Maps 010-00555-40)

Thanks for your help.

1) No, Garmin has not released that version yet.
2) Buy it from Garmin or search the web, lots of places sell it
3) Any online retailer or electronics store will sell you a 2gb micro SD card. I believe a 1 gb card is too small to hold the entire US of City Nav.
4) City Nav comes with Mapsource. Mapsource is the software you use to load the maps on the Edge.
5) To do step 4 the SD card needs to be in the Edge. Once the maps are transferred you just need to check in the maps setting screen that City Nav is selected.

Pros of this process: You gets the maps on your computer and the Edge
Con: You will pay more than if you buy the current version that comes with City Nav on SD card.

1) No, Garmin has not released that version yet.


Performance Bike has the version w/o the map. Performance bike item 40-3883A description is "Garmin Edge 705 GPS w/ Heart Rate/Cadence". Seems like this is the mid level Garmin version 010-00555-30. Am I missing something here? I know that both REI and Performance are out of stock at the moment. I'm not as concerned with avail as price at this point. Plus, it seems that having the DVD would make it easier to plan routes on the PC and then download to the 705.

Performance Bike has the version w/o the map. Performance bike item 40-3883A description is "Garmin Edge 705 GPS w/ Heart Rate/Cadence". Seems like this is the mid level Garmin version 010-00555-30. Am I missing something here? I know that both REI and Performance are out of stock at the moment. I'm not as concerned with avail as price at this point. Plus, it seems that having the DVD would make it easier to plan routes on the PC and then download to the 705.

You are correct. Performance estimates around 2-3 weeks before they will get it. If you aren't concerned with availability, you can get this version from them if you wait. They are also offering the best price (currently). Would have been really good to snag it yesterday with their 17% off St Patty's sale (plus another 10% in team performance credit earned).

edit: Performance's site specifically says March 28th now.

You are correct. Performance estimates around 2-3 weeks before they will get it. If you aren't concerned with availability, you can get this version from them if you wait. They are also offering the best price (currently). Would have been really good to snag it yesterday with their 17% off St Patty's sale (plus another 10% in team performance credit earned).

Yeah, the price was certainly right yesterday. The 27% off (net) really caught my attention but because I didn't have answers to the previously mentioned question, I decided not to pull the trigger.

I am planning on riding the East coast this fall so I want to have the street level mapping, but since I'm new to this level of mapping, I'm not sure which way to go is the best. Ideally, I want to do all my route planning on the PC and do a bunch of what if's routes before I decide on my final route. After I decide on the final daily routes, I will download them to the Garmin. I don't want to do all my route planning natively on the small screened (compared to the large PC screen) 705. I have done some route planning using DeLorme s/w and I'm sure it would be much better doing the planning on the PC as compared to the 705 for a 1000+ mile route.

So which is the best way to go? Get the 705 w/o the street level maps and buy the City Navigator DVD along with a microSD card so that I can do the the planning on a PC or should I get the full up 705 bundle that comes with City Navigator on the microSD card and somehow I'll be able to do the route planning on a PC even though it appears that the full up 705 bundle with the microSD card does not include the City Navigator DVD?

The first time I have seen this happened today during a ride. The Grade % went blank (3 bars) and never returned. It was like the unit was in a pause mode but it was not. Mileage, calories, etc. kept updating and incrementing. Grade % stayed blank and total ascent and total decent stayed at what figures they were before the grade % dropout.

Anyone have this happen to them yet?

I will see if tomorrow it does the same. If so, I will attempt to soft reset the unit.

The first time I have seen this happened today during a ride. The Grade % went blank (3 bars) and never returned. It was like the unit was in a pause mode but it was not. Mileage, calories, etc. kept updating and incrementing. Grade % stayed blank and total ascent and total decent stayed at what figures they were before the grade % dropout.

Anyone have this happen to them yet?

I will see if tomorrow it does the same. If so, I will attempt to soft reset the unit.

I will post the same question I posted for you on the Motion Based forum for the benifit of others here.

Did you loose GPS signal? Does your ride show up on the map?

I will post the same question I posted for you on the Motion Based forum for the benifit of others here.

Did you loose GPS signal? Does your ride show up on the map?

GPS signal was good and mapping was all good. Just the Grade % went out which obviously effected the ascent and descent #'s. Elevation was working fine though. Weird huh.

GPS signal was good and mapping was all good. Just the Grade % went out which obviously effected the ascent and descent #'s. Elevation was working fine though. Weird huh.

This is strange. You may as well soft reset (Lap and Power at the same time) and see what happens tomorrow. Keep us posted.

This is strange. You may as well soft reset (Lap and Power at the same time) and see what happens tomorrow. Keep us posted.

Yesterday the unit was fine.... Hopefully that was a glitch that won't happen again, however, keep an eye out for it !

Re: Elevation, Did I miss something? I thought the 6 and 705's provided elevation data from an altimeter. I've used my 705 on the road in company of others and there were comparatively together. But the other evening turned off GPS working indoors and was surprised by inaccurate negative elevation readout, I'm on the second floor.

Also on product to organize and compile data, what to you prefer and why, motion based, Garmin connect or training center.

Converting gpx to course, if there's a way short of using GPX2CRS that requires d/l'ing .net and installing I'm all ears.

A note on slow transfer times and Garmin Support, the USB cable out of the box is tagged (as are many USB devices) install drivers b4 connecting. No drivers on CD called emailed support, followed up with call. On the call I was instructed to go ahead and connect Winxp drivers were all that was needed. A few days later received email with link to Garmin USB drivers:mad:, what are you gonna do? In any case, may be the difficulty of some with long transfer times. Link below
http://www8.garmin.com/support/agree.jsp?id=591

So can you use a Garmin to train for an Ironman? I mean does it work for a runner? Would you be able to swim wearing the watch?

Re: Elevation, Did I miss something? I thought the 6 and 705's provided elevation data from an altimeter. I've used my 705 on the road in company of others and there were comparatively together. But the other evening turned off GPS working indoors and was surprised by inaccurate negative elevation readout, I'm on the second floor.

Per Garmin the 605 does not have a barometric altimeter but the 705 does:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/compare.do?cID=160&compare=compare&compareProduct=10884&compareProduct=10885

A barometric altimeter is not 100% accurate unless you calibrate it each time you turn it on. On the 705 you do not have the ability to calibrate it yourself. The 705 is aimed at showing you your change in elevation. It is subject to small variations as you have seen.

Converting gpx to course, if there's a way short of using GPX2CRS that requires d/l'ing .net and installing I'm all ears.

Try looking at some of the websites like www.bikeroutetoaster.com. They are a one stop shop with no conversion required.

A note on slow transfer times and Garmin Support, the USB cable out of the box is tagged (as are many USB devices) install drivers b4 connecting. No drivers on CD called emailed support, followed up with call. On the call I was instructed to go ahead and connect Winxp drivers were all that was needed. A few days later received email with link to Garmin USB drivers, what are you gonna do? In any case, may be the difficulty of some with long transfer times. Link below
http://www8.garmin.com/support/agree.jsp?id=591

This may be some peoples issue but it was not mine as I have installed those drivers.

So can you use a Garmin to train for an Ironman? I mean does it work for a runner? Would you be able to swim wearing the watch?

You could use it to train for the bike portion obviously. :D

It does not have any run specific fields like pace that you can select from. You could get a arm band case to hold it and if you look around long enough I am sure you could find one that has a clear face so you could see the screen while you are running.

As for the swim, I am guessing you would get a signal just fine as you are not under water. The unit is water resistant to IPX7 standards so I would think it is not recommended for the swim portion.

"Most newer Garmin® GPS units are waterproof in accordance with IEC 60529 IPX7. IEC 60529 is a European system of test specification standards for classifying the degrees of protection provided by the enclosures of electrical equipment. An IPX7 designation means the GPS case can withstand accidental immersion in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. An IPX8 designation is for continuous underwater use."

hello
has anyone used it to navigate in the car yet for directions??
thanxs

hello
has anyone used it to navigate in the car yet for directions??
thanxs

I actually did this week. I was in Denver for work and used it to get around and find places to eat. Not as easy to use as my Nuvi or 60CSx but was usable and performed fine.

I used my 705 as a vehicle GPS unit today... and I can say WOW it's great! gave turn-by-turn directions, it beeps when an action is coming up, it counts down the feet until the intersection, I missed one road and it recalculated, and reception inside the car sitting on the center console was fantastic... while on our trip I did a POI search for starbucks and added it as a waypoint easily. It really is a complete GPS unit in addition to all the bike gear on this one. And the screen is fantastic, very easy to read in all light conditions and angles.

Yesterday the unit was fine.... Hopefully that was a glitch that won't happen again, however, keep an eye out for it !

Well mine had issues today with elevation too. It was stuck at 5,200 +/- from when I turned it off Friday. It would not recalibarate to the 500+/- I was at today. Soft reset would not fix, diagnostic screen (power + enter) showed bad elevation too. However if I saved a waypoint it assigned the correct elevation if I used the average feature. Even letting the unit sit for a long period did not correct.

Software version is 2.10.

The only thing that corrected is was a full reset to factory defaults (power + mode).

I like to buy an edge 705 for my few day tours without a notebook to save recoded tracks to a computer.
I did not buy an edge 305 last year because of the record limit of about 9 hours at all. I know that the continous recording is still limited to about 9 hours with the edge 705, but it may work like this:

If I record a 4 hours track of data (every second a trackpoints, heartrate, speed, cadence, ...) and then I stop recording for a break. Can I now store the recorded track up to that stop point to the 500 MB internal free space or to an additional microSD card so that I can hold the complete tour data with all trackpoints, heartrate, speed, ... of a week (i.e. as 14 files as half day recordings) inside the edge storage. Is this possible?

Thanks for any answer ...

Question about satellite signal acquisition. Is acquisition nearly instant or do you have to turn on and wait.... I recall reading that the 305 had somewhat of a delay and wondering if the 705 is better.

Question about satellite signal acquisition. Is acquisition nearly instant or do you have to turn on and wait.... I recall reading that the 305 had somewhat of a delay and wondering if the 705 is better.

No scientific data here but I would say it is marginaly better. I don't have my 305 anymore so I can't do a side by side test.

Question about satellite signal acquisition. Is acquisition nearly instant or do you have to turn on and wait.... I recall reading that the 305 had somewhat of a delay and wondering if the 705 is better.

every GPS got a delay...it can't be instant, except maybe if you turn it off and on again, it will be a lot faster because you haven't moved it!

I like to buy an edge 705 for my few day tours without a notebook to save recoded tracks to a computer.
I did not buy an edge 305 last year because of the record limit of about 9 hours at all. I know that the continous recording is still limited to about 9 hours with the edge 705, but it may work like this:

If I record a 4 hours track of data (every second a trackpoints, heartrate, speed, cadence, ...) and then I stop recording for a break. Can I now store the recorded track up to that stop point to the 500 MB internal free space or to an additional microSD card so that I can hold the complete tour data with all trackpoints, heartrate, speed, ... of a week (i.e. as 14 files as half day recordings) inside the edge storage. Is this possible?

Thanks for any answer ...

I believe all you need to do, with every second monitoring, is to reset your timer every 4 hours. This will save the previous 4 hours to the internal memory.

I believe all you need to do, with every second monitoring, is to reset your timer every 4 hours. This will save the previous 4 hours to the internal memory.

Thanks for the answer, but do you know that it works because you are a owner of an edge 705 and you did that or do you think that it should work fine ?

If you are an owner, do you know if on reset/stop all trackpoints (up to 13000) will be stored to a single very large history file with all the recorded extra values (heartrate, cadence, ...) included - means true lossless storing and lossless loading all history files to PC (i.e. training center software) ?

I like to buy an edge 705 only if it works like this with lossless history file storing.

Thanks for any answer ...

Thanks for the answer, but do you know that it works because you are a owner of an edge 705 and you did that or do you think that it should work fine ?

If you are an owner, do you know if on reset/stop all trackpoints (up to 13000) will be stored to a single very large history file with all the recorded extra values (heartrate, cadence, ...) included - means true lossless storing and lossless loading all history files to PC (i.e. training center software) ?

I like to buy an edge 705 only if it works like this with lossless history file storing.

Thanks for any answer ...

First of all, I do have a 705. When you reset it saves the data (all of it including HR, trackpoints, cadence, elevation, etc.) to a file on the internal drive. When you plug in and download do Training Center it will download. I routinely ride for a week everday, reset after the ride and then download multiple days at one time. I never have any issues.

Hope that helps.

First of all, I do have a 705. When you reset it saves the data (all of it including HR, trackpoints, cadence, elevation, etc.) to a file on the internal drive. When you plug in and download do Training Center it will download. I routinely ride for a week everday, reset after the ride and then download multiple days at one time. I never have any issues.

Hope that helps.


This was the info I like to hear.

You are better than official Garmin Hotline support in germany. They understood the problem with the edge 305 but were not able to tell me if I can work around the 9 hour (13000 trackpoints) limit with the edge 705 internal history storage. OK, I know edge 705 german offical delivery begin is mid of april - I hope april 2008 ...

Thanks a lot luv2climb !

luv2climb beat me too it... Yes, I own a 750, and it does indeed work. The manual actually states it will record up to 4.5 hours at a time, but reseting at the 4hr mark is probably a safer bet. I've only recorded up to 3hrs at a time so far. So I was only stating what the manual stated for the 4 hr reset suggestion.

For those who have the 705 bundle w/maps on the sd card - are there files to load the city navigator software and maps onto a PC and create routes and tracks on the PC to upload to the garmin?

I know that if one has the city navigator cd you can load it onto a PC and load the maps to the sd card.

The manual actually states it will record up to 4.5 hours at a time.

If I recall right the 4.5 hour time is if you use every secound recording. If you use smart recording you can get more time in one file. Someone will correct me if I am off base. I use the smart recording and my files always contain plenty of data for me.

For those who have the 705 bundle w/maps on the sd card - are there files to load the city navigator software and maps onto a PC and create routes and tracks on the PC to upload to the garmin?

I know that if one has the city navigator cd you can load it onto a PC and load the maps to the sd card.

Nope! This is the drawback of buyng it on the SD card, it will only work on the 705. If you don't own City Nav seperatly you will either have to buy it or use one of the websites to create a course and download it.

If I recall right the 4.5 hour time is if you use every secound recording. If you use smart recording you can get more time in one file. Someone will correct me if I am off base. I use the smart recording and my files always contain plenty of data for me.

luv2climb your correct... w/ smart recording it is recommended to reset every 12 hours.:)

Nope! This is the drawback of buyng it on the SD card, it will only work on the 705. If you don't own City Nav seperatly you will either have to buy it or use one of the websites to create a course and download it.

That makes planning routes on the PC pretty challenging. I guess buying a 705 sans maps, then buying City Nav would be the best option.

That makes planning routes on the PC pretty challenging. I guess buying a 705 sans maps, then buying City Nav would be the best option.

That's annoying. It would be nice if they would give us 1 unlock code (instead of the normal 2) and use it for this device. Oh well.

every GPS got a delay...it can't be instant, except maybe if you turn it off and on again, it will be a lot faster because you haven't moved it!

I have been buying/using GPS for years and I can tell you that the chpset's make a big difference in sat acquisition. I was trying to determine if the 705 has the SIRFIII ... but ended up ordering one and I'll test it out against the handfull of gps units that I have.

I ordered the 705 w/cadence and plan to use my own City 2008 along with a 1GB card.

Has anyone tried 2 or 4GB cards - or even better SDHC cards? I'm guessing the later will not work...

I have been buying/using GPS for years and I can tell you that the chpset's make a big difference in sat acquisition. I was trying to determine if the 705 has the SIRFIII ... but ended up ordering one and I'll test it out against the handfull of gps units that I have.

I ordered the 705 w/cadence and plan to use my own City 2008 along with a 1GB card.

Has anyone tried 2 or 4GB cards - or even better SDHC cards? I'm guessing the later will not work...


I'm using a 2 gb micro sd card with my 605, no problems.

Tom

2 gb San Disk on my 705 here. No issues.

How much map data can you get on the 2gig cards? I'm guessing I should be able to put just about the entire us in if I choose to, would that be correct?

I loaded up a 2 GB card with 49 of the 50 states last year. That was using City Nav 8. Alaska would have put it over the limit.

The card that was shipping with the units was a 2 GB card with all 50 states. It fits it all in about 1.1 GB because the maps are tailored to portable units.

What is the warning like? Is it just beeps or does it talk? And how loud is it?

What is the warning like? Is it just beeps or does it talk? And how loud is it?

What warning are you refering to? if it's the upcoming turn notification it does like a fancy beep, it's a good volume, not too loud, not too soft... I'd say it's about perfect.

the 705 is not capable of voice to my knowledge... but what's odd is that the maps that come on the SD card actually have the voice files.

2 gb San Disk on my 705 here. No issues.

Nice - I have some 2 and 4GB SDHC cards - if they wont work I'll have to pick up a regular 2GB.

2 Bike Profile Bug - Has anyone else experienced this? It was in another post someone said that due to the new firmware if you switch to bike #2 the speed's go crazy....

2 Bike Profile Bug - Has anyone else experienced this? It was in another post someone said that due to the new firmware if you switch to bike #2 the speed's go crazy....

tons of people have been experiencing this problem.


Hey does anyone know the best way to translate a paper cue sheet onto the 705 (i.e. a specific, exact route with some offroad points)? I tried creating a track in mapsource and uploading it, but the 705 just crashed after saying "too many waypoints."

Hey does anyone know the best way to translate a paper cue sheet onto the 705 (i.e. a specific, exact route with some offroad points)? I tried creating a track in mapsource and uploading it, but the 705 just crashed after saying "too many waypoints."

What you created was a route or a saved ride on the 705. A course is the best way. You can do it on many websites. One that I have played a little with is bikeroutetoaster.com.

Since you have Mapsource you can use this process (take few steps but you control it 100%):
- Create the route using the auto routing functionality in Mapsource
- Save this as a Mapsource map (.gdb ver 2)
- Download this utility http://www.softsolutions.be/GPS/Garmin/wingdb.htm
- Set the saved GDB file as the input on winGDB click the top option "Convert routes to tracks with all points"
- Set an output file (any name you want)
- Click Convert
- Open the new file in Mapsource again this time you should have a track instead of a route
- Save this as a GPX
- Pass the GPX file through Somejoes gpx2crs (http://www.niniu.com/Garmin/Gpx2Crs.zip). You will need .net to run this and that can be found here (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang)
- Import to Training Center (optional for the 605/705, required for 205/305)
- Save on the Edge (via TC if 205/305, can do via file expolorer on 605/705)

Enjoy!

What you created was a route or a saved ride on the 705. A course is the best way. You can do it on many websites. One that I have played a little with is bikeroutetoaster.com.

Since you have Mapsource you can use this process (take few steps but you control it 100%):
- Create the route using the auto routing functionality in Mapsource
- Save this as a Mapsource map (.gdb ver 2)
- Download this utility http://www.softsolutions.be/GPS/Garmin/wingdb.htm
- Set the saved GDB file as the input on winGDB click the top option "Convert routes to tracks with all points"
- Set an output file (any name you want)
- Click Convert
- Open the new file in Mapsource again this time you should have a track instead of a route
- Save this as a GPX
- Pass the GPX file through Somejoes gpx2crs (http://www.niniu.com/Garmin/Gpx2Crs.zip). You will need .net to run this and that can be found here (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang)
- Import to Training Center
- Save on the Edge

Enjoy!

wow, thanks for the detailed writeup. I'll definitely give this a try when I get home from work and can play around with mapsource. This seems really complex though.. that uses 4 different programs.

From what you've written I'm gathering that you created a Route because it's a lot quicker than drawing the track by hand in mapsource. Then you used a software utility to convert it to a bunch of track points (wingdb).

Why the final conversion to .CRS and the use of training center? I've only been using mapsource.. do I really need to download Training Center? Is this step really necessary or can I just send the track to the 705 using mapsource (though that's basically what i did already and was giving me the too many waypoints error).

One last thing--what if a route has a point where you say, cross an offroad junction? Can that be supported using these methods? I've got some cue sheets that cross unmapped areas.

Why the final conversion to .CRS and the use of training center? I've only been using mapsource. do I really need to download Training Center? Is this step really necessary or can I just send the track to the 705 using mapsource (though that's basically what i did already and was giving me the too many waypoints error).

You really don't need Training Center since you can copy the file manually to the 705. With the 305 you had to use TC to get the file on the unit. The .CRS allows you to use the virtual partner features.


One last thing--what if a route has a point where you say, cross an offroad junction? Can that be supported using these methods? I've got some cue sheets that cross unmapped areas.

No due to the fact that you are using the auto-route features of Mapsource, it will always keep you on a road. Now if you use the Topo maps and there is a trail that may work. I am sure there is a way but I don't know it. Maybe someone else can chime in.

Ok so I got some tracks on there where the cue sheet goes offroad using the following process:

1. creating tracks in mapsource using track drawing command directly
2. save as v2 gdb
3. convert it in wingdb
4. open in mapsource and save as gpx
5. put file on 705 using explorer

Here is the part I can't figure out - sometimes when I hit "navigate" on the track in "saved rides" it brings it up on screen just fine. Other times it gives me a "route waypoint memory full error" and the thing freezes right when it reaches 100%. I've played with a lot of the variables and I just can't seem to get it to replicate this error consistently. Sometimes it freezes up, sometimes it doesnt. Thoughts? Had this happen with any routes/tracks?

I haven't had a chance to actually ride the track when it is working yet.