Experiences with Garmin iQue 3600 (GPS/PDA)

Anybody try this new Garmin iQue 3600 integrated GPS/PDA device?

Features:
- 200 Mhz Dragonball-Z processor
- Integrated GPS & iQue applications
- Integrated flip-up GPS antenna
- Speaker & voice guidance commands
- MP3 Player (stereo headset jack)
- 32MB built-in memory
- SD expandable memory slot (not I/O though!)

Looks like a nice device for a travelling salesperson like myself.

The only downside I've heard is the battery life is dismal when screen brightness at full-setting, with WAAS-enabled, and battery-saver mode off. It's not great even with those features reversed, but hey that's what an DC-car adapter is for.

Interested in any/all experiences.

Logicnerd411 has one and loves it. Lets see if we can lure him in here. (Whoops, wouldn't want to bait)

I definitely want to hear his experiences with the unit--especially battery power.

Two things I hear, 1) you must have an alternate power-source if you use the GPS heavily or in constant-on for hours at a time (i.e. a Palm Power-to-Go external lithium-sled or DC adapter), and 2) you must add a min. 126MB SD card for the maps.

I think I'm going to go for it, as my Palm Tungsten W does not offer any good GPS solution--because of the absence of built-in Bluetooth (requiring a Bluetooth SD card which prevents use of the SD slot for the Cities/details maps), and because the "wired" solution using the PUC-slot is an DC-only operating solution.

Unfortunately, this will mean carrying two PDA's, but hey its an imperfect world.

I've had my iQue for about a month. Its my first GPS and my first PDA. I really like it a lot, and think it would be a great device for a travelling sales person. I use it in the car with the Nav Kit (modified) so battery life is not a problem, and the Nav Kit speaker has plenty of volume.

I could go on and on about it, but there is a forum (PDAStreet) dedicated to the iQue that has lots of info about it. It's here

I've seen the iQue selling for as low as $455 online. You will want to get a Secure Digital Card also, so you can load lots of maps onto the iQue. I spent $65 for a 256MB SD card at Costco. Right now I've got about 130MB of maps on the card, plus about 100MB of MP3's.

For use in my car, I removed the beanbag from the Nav Kit and just use the cradle/speaker/power plug and bent a wire to mount it to a vent. Here's a couple of pictures.

epro05, brilliant. Nicely done.

[ QUOTE ]
You will want to get a Secure Digital Card also, so you can load lots of maps onto the iQue. I spent $65 for a 256MB SD card at Costco. Right now I've got about 130MB of maps on the card, plus about 100MB of MP3's.

[/ QUOTE ]
Just curious, but how many Cities, or metropolitan areas is contained in that 130MB of maps you've got loaded up?

As a travelling sales person, I'm gonna need alot of different areas, and would rather not load up new maps all the time. I'm just trying to decided between the economical 256MB SD cards vs. the pricey 512MB SD cards.

A couple more comments.

You don't have to add the SD Card. You can store maps on the internal memory also, but not very many. The card does become necessary if you want lots of maps.

On battery life, you're right about the screen brightness setting having a big effect on battery life. However, when you're not connected to an external power source, the display will timeout after 3 minutes, but the GPS will continue functioning while the screen is off.

I went to an airshow last week and decided to use the iQue to log my track during the day. It was on continuously for 5 hours, and I recall that the battery was down to about 25% at the end of the 5 hours. Most of that time the display was in the timed-out mode, but I did reactivate the screen from time to time.

Sure was easy for me to find my car after the show was over.

guncollector,

Everything highlighted in pink below is loaded (plus the West Palm Beach area in Florida).

All that in 130MB, huh? Most excellent.

I just ordered a Panasonic 512MB SD (one of the best and fastest SD cards per your buddies over at PDAStreet.com, from Outpost.com for $189. Figured that was pretty reasonable, considering two 256MB cards were going to run between $120-160, depending on manufacturer.

Can't wait. I'm going for it.

Well, I love my Garmin iQue 3600 - it has decent battery life with brightness on at 35% and WAAS off. I don't need that much of accuracy ( < 3 meters ). I loaded about 29 MB of maps into my Costco bought Sandisk 256 MB card. It includes areas from Baltimore, MD to Dale City, VA (about 70 - 80 miles) and with some large areas on DC and Northern VA. I really love this PDA. Only thing I don't like so far is that it didn't use existing code for virtual graffiti - so that extra 160 pixels for VG still isn't implemented for extra use in most programs. The developers of course are changing their code. (If that makes no sesne to you, just ignore it.) I think you will really like it, Ron.

Have any other questions? Don't hesitate to ask. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Dan

guncollector,

Glad to hear you're going for it.

The entire set of North America City Select maps total up to 1 GB. Buy another one of those 512 cards, and you can have North America in its entirety.

Just Kidding.

Your 512 card will be great and cover everything you need I'm sure. If you plan to load several hundred megabytes of maps though, you can plan on it taking quite a while, first for the PC to build the file for all the maps you select, and then again to download the file to the iQue.

I met someone who was on his third one already. The first two had parts break. Luckily, REI, where he bought it, was very accomodating on exchanges. On the second one, I remember specifically, that the point that broke was where the charge adapter plugged in next to the universal palm connector on the base.

On the plus side, he loves the unit so much, he is determined to stick with it.

David <><

I'm very tempted to buy one of these things. I've never owned a GPS or a Palm Pilot but this looks very handy. I might try and pick up some Palm OS programming experience with the unit. Does anybody know if there is something coming in the not so distant future that will blow this thing away? If there are going to be tons of PDA's with GPS in the next couple months I'll just wait for the price wars to begin.

I don't think there will be a flurry of GPS-enabled PDA's anytime soon (i.e. in the next 8-18 months).

Obviously, Garmin is first-to-market, and I think the other makers are taking a wait-and-see approach.

I also think it would be folly for, say, Palm or even a PocketPC makers to try and enter into this niche market as they do not have any GPS manufacturing experience. Whereas, Garmin can license the PalmOS, they in turn cannot license the GPS manufacturing capability.

Conceivably, though, one of the larger PDA makers may approach Garmin's main rival, Magellan, and enter into some soft of joint enterprise. I could definitely see that.

Bottom line, IMO, its ok to be an early adopter here. The price of the unit is not exorbitant, and it will remain functional as a GPS device (and therefore retain value) long after Garmin comes out with a updated version it. Heck, I still use my Garmin GPS III (not even III+) with great results while fishing or on long drive--though it will now be replaced the iQue for the long drives.

Do you guys know if Garmin is doing something to correct the high failure rate of the IQue? I mean I expect a few people to have problems but after hearing TONS of people reporting these same problems on here as well as other forums, I have a extremely hard time shelling out $450+ on something that is so darn prone to dying.