Garmin touch screen question

[Therapy]

In the Garmin manual on cleaning the touch screen it says the touch screen is sensitive to skin oils, waxes and abrasive cleaners. It also says not to use cleaners with ammonia, alcohol, abrasives or anti-grease detergents. It follows with instruction to use only an eyeglass cleaner that is specified as safe for anti-reflective coatings.

Sheesh!

Is there a tool to use instead of the finger so one does not muck up the screen so as to have to clean it at the end of each day?

I did not notice it in the manual or on the accessories portion of the website.

[Sandero]

That regimen sounds awful. I wonder if you could apply some sort of film which you could clean with something more accessible / reasonable.

I have a small iQue which is a touch screen PDA / GPS with charts and use the little stylus since touching the icons is impossible with a human sized finger. But you can pan or zoom. The stylus works the best though, but it can get lost or misplaced.

I suppose the concept behind the touch screen is that you have more direct access to more commands instead of srilling down through menus and soft keys. I find the user interface on the MFDs stinks, but this may be because they can do so much with so many commands that its impossible to provide access any other way than levels up levels of menus. I find I can't remember where to find some commands and spend too much time searching menus and never can remember how I got to the command when I DO find it.

All this has led me to believe that I want basic information which is easy to get to and read. The little iQue does that fine, suprizingly and I am liking it more than the big MFD.

Less is more.

[Therapy]

What is an MFD?

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by Therapy

What is an MFD?

Multi Function Display

I don't worry about what cleaner to use on my 5208, I just wipe it with a soft cloth after I breathe on it. Works fine.

BTW, can anyone tell me how to clear the history of the tracks?
I found out how to turn it off, but not how to start new history.
Every time I turn the tracks back on, all the tracks I have ever made are still there.

Steve B.

[clearsea]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

BTW, can anyone tell me how to clear the history of the tracks?

Which model?

[Therapy]

MFD. Got it.
From Garmin site.
-------------
To edit or delete saved track:
From the home screen touch information>user data>tracks>saved tracks
Touch the track you want to edit or delete
Touch edit track to change the name or color of the track or delete it.
-------------
There is a way to record tracks that have the options of off, fill or wrap.

If it is set to wrap and you delete it I don't know if it will delete the entered wrapped track or just one portion of it.

http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/GPSMA...nersManual.pdf

Pages 15 and 16.

Let me know if all of it goes away as I know I want a few tracks to be able to follow.
If they all go away then the choice of recording will need to be set to "fill".

[senormechanico]

Therapy,

Thanks for that.
It's raining like heck right now or I'd go down and give that a try.
I'll post the results when I can.

Steve B.

[Charlie]

You can buy little covers to put on goggles when you are spray painting. They are clear plastic and then when they get so full of paint you just peel it off and then add another one. If you can find a source for that material one piece of plastic on the screen would last for months. They also sellthese covers for Ipods.

[Therapy]

I guess it will be moot.

For $20.

garmin 5212 - ShopBIG! : BIG Selection. BIG Savings.

[Highlander40]

I talked to a Garmin rep about the screen. It's glass, and the cleaner is just a mild soap. They recomend a micro fibre cloth. You can even use just the cloth with some heavy breathing.
The screen is supposed to be a lot tougher than the old LCD soft type.

My problem with the touch screen is, in a seaway, how do you hold your hand still enough? I played with it in the store and had a hard enough time locating waypoints exactly that I went with a traditional mouse type controll.

I have used several Garmin units and have never liked the menu structure.

The key thing that my favorite unit to date has is "context sensitive menu buttons" a 10 yr old Northstar. The new one this spring will be a Raymarine. we will see.

I wouldn't worry about the Garmin screen, just keep a soft rag handy.

Carl

[senormechanico]

Therapy,

I followed the instructions and erased the tracks. I don't see any way to keep some but not all of them.

Steve B.

[roverhi]

From what practically everyone says, the Raymarine interface is not very intuitive or user friendly. The Garmin is reputed to be much better. I'd look very carefully at the units that are out there before I'd dump the Garmin interface for another.

FWIW I've been able to find most everything on my 3006 just by playing around with the buttons. It wasn't what you'd call a natural fit but it didn't take me long to find out how to make it useful. I'm one of those guys that started off with CPM as an operating system and have been at war with GUI interfaces. I've made an uneasy truce with Windows but Apples drive me nuts. So the Garmin interface has got to be relatively decent not to have been deep sixed by now. Of course, all of us seem to have different aptitudes for dealing with different interfaces.

Aloha
Peter O.
Pearson 35

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

Therapy,

I followed the instructions and erased the tracks. I don't see any way to keep some but not all of them.

Steve B.

Then it must be set to "wrap" for the record function. Probably the default though the manual does not say that. Some other instructions tell you what the default settings are but not on that part.

It must be set to "fill". Then there is a set amount of memory used for each "track". It is kept separate and they can be deleted separately. The only down side is that maybe while you are going somewhere and want to record the track the memory for that one will fill up and you will have to name it, save it and then start another.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by roverhi

From what practically everyone says, the Raymarine interface is not very intuitive or user friendly. The Garmin is reputed to be much better. I'd look very carefully at the units that are out there before I'd dump the Garmin interface for another.

FWIW I've been able to find most everything on my 3006 just by playing around with the buttons. It wasn't what you'd call a natural fit but it didn't take me long to find out how to make it useful. I'm one of those guys that started off with CPM as an operating system and have been at war with GUI interfaces. I've made an uneasy truce with Windows but Apples drive me nuts. So the Garmin interface has got to be relatively decent not to have been deep sixed by now. Of course, all of us seem to have different aptitudes for dealing with different interfaces.

Aloha
Peter O.
Pearson 35

I have used Raymarine C-80 (maybe a 120, can't be sure) and two different Garmins.

I like the way the Garmins work. For some reason I can find stuff on the Garmin easily. Not so for the Raymarine.

That is just me though I guess.

[Highlander40]

Can't say much about the Raymarine. In a couple of weeks I will start learning on my E120. The thing that drove me nuts with Garmin is that there never seems to be a direct connection to the next required page. Going up and down the menu structure instead of forward.
10 years ago Northstar built a system that is still not surpassed in ease of use. The only reason that my new unit is not Northstar is that they left me hanging with a working unit that had no data for tides and currents. The data was part of the system and they would not spend any programing time to continue it.
I said bye bye