Garmin Rino 650 Test & Review

[Ent]

Hi

As more than a few would have noticed I have a love hate relationship with Garmin. Some would say that I love to hate them or would hate to love them but in many ways Garmin has the ability to hit what I am after rather well. For the record I have a 305 Edge (two, actually three but one failed) bike computer, Fenix 405 wrist watch, Garmin 62S, and an Extrex 10 that I gave to my brother. All have had there issues which tends to revolve more around the software than the hardware.

So into the fold was welcomed a Rino 650. It came as a twin pack with the AA battery holders optioned on. Why two? Well having been laid up with and Achilles operation to pass the time I took up a water activity, and it made sense to have two way communication with a friend, so rather than buy one each the two for $649 was too tempting. Having had experienced Garmin's mapping products I avoided the option to pay a small fortune for arguably near useless maps for off road activities. As more than a few would have noticed I have fallen for the charms for OSM, and while a lot of work is required to get them up to commercial map standards they are good enough for my purposes, providing I while away a few hours putting in geographical points of interest. The main points are lakes and the occasional mountain as frankly this combined with Contour Australia 5m gives enough reference points to be useful in the real world.

So out of the box one came and the assembly took place. Can not complain about the manual as there was not one! Ok, yes there is an electronic copy on the device but you will need a PC to access it. There in is the first lesson. To get the most out of Garmin's GPS a PC is required. There is a quick start-up guide but it is rather light on. But being a male reading a manual is a last resort anyway so in I dived. The first step was cooling my heels for about three hours as it charged up. Can not over emphasis that getting a long life from battery packs is the proper care of it. One of the first things is to fully charge a battery before first use. This gave me a chance to figure out the AA battery pack. Aging eyesight and grey on grey plus my dislike of forcing things meant this took a while but then success. Like the unit itself it is well made with typical Garmin industrial grade construction. While no great fan of Garmin's consumer goods such as the Edge 305 construction I can not fault their outdoor ranges' construction.

Ok charged up and ready to use. The unit is both a GPS and UHF 5w two-way. Just be aware that when using the AA battery pack the power output is reduced to 2.5 watts. This means it is a pretty serious UHF two-way. The unit is waterproofed to IPX7 standards which is ideal for bushwalking but probably a little underdone for marine use but then my Garmin 62s has survived more than a few dunkings so though not rated for swimming with it might just handle this, but user beware as the JIS8 rating or better is recommended (Uniden VHF marine two-ways that float) for that treatment.

So testing time. Well not much was done today. It received ok and managed to trigger a repeater but not having another person around it was more basic look and feel. The screen is touch screen. What this means that the Garmin 62S button dance is not required so it actually works well. Honestly the Garmin 62s button arrangement was designed by a demented sadist and I have no respect for any claims that this is a good thing as it forces the user to have sufficient standard of mental instability to be trusted with a GPS. I think I will like the beast.

Ok, step one was getting Contours Australia 5 metres on it. Oh no!!!! Now a vEnting session! Mapinstall on my PC locked when I connected it. Tried the 62s and the same effect. Decided to ring Garmin support. Ten minutes of lift music and no wonder a tech at the receiving end has a consumer about on the edge of an axe wielding attack. Usual Garmin approach. Uninstall everything and try again. Sorry, this little black duck had already uninstalled and re-installed it. Next time waster was a request/demand to uninstall Garmin maps. Hostility was rising but then Mapinstall returned an error screen which was dully emailed to support. Same old same old blame a non Garmin product, that been Shonkymaps. Time to end the call and retreat with the service complaint number. Uninstalled Shonkymaps and still the same issue. Given that Garmin can not be responsible for third party maps I stared to uninstall from the PC the other non-Garmin maps. I honestly can say my mood was dark as I thought that this a waste of time as I had no problems before Garmin, with usual programmer arrogance, had automatically updated the original version of Mapinstaller that had worked. After much nashing I noticed OZ-Topo trial had been installed. I had installed it sometime back to answer a fellow site user's question on what did I think of it. Well, let me say, not much!!!! It been a trail version was copyright protected and this meant it crashed Mapinstaller when a device was installed. With it removed all was well with the world. Once again I make my point that commercial software that has the overinflated sense of importance to impose copy protection has no place in the world. As for Oz-Topo crashing Garmin's map installer this shows the contempt that they show to their potential customers victims. So crummy commercial software meets indifferent Garmin programming. Who is to blame?

Now rant is over time to push one so Shonkymaps was reloaded onto the PC and it along with Contours Australia 5M put on the Rino 650 plus the latest downloads of OSM. Time to go to bed as I am sure that if I leave it to the morning all will work well but if use tonight the god of the gremlins will reek havoc on my sleep.

Cheers

[Ent]

As mentioned L-ion battery packs need care and the second unit proved this. When I went to charged the battery on the second unit it was dead flat. It then refused to charge. Swapping the battery packs then revealed a possible reason why. The package had already been opened and the unit had its last location as Rocklea Queensland with unit been named. It had been played with before or used as a demo and likely flattened then put back in storage before been shipped. A sure way to kill a L-ion battery pack.

Ok rang Johnny Appleseed (Rocklea) for them to send a replacement battery pack. Err no they would not until I had sent the other one back, to then be sent back to Garmin before a replacement would be shipped. Ok what do I do meantime? For the record the order totaled $739 and according to their website a battery pack was $85. Hardly a customer trying to rip them off!

Sadly this style of business is typical of many Australian retailers. I order a lot of stuff overseas and on the rare occasion something does not work my word is accepted and the faulty component shipped the same day. But not Johnny Appleseed. I have previously brought stuff from them so was rather surprise by their approach which they claim Garmin insist upon.

Oh and for the record l-ion batteries need to be shipped by road if using Australia Post so further delays in returning the misused battery pack. So much for Garmin's customer service and Johnny Appleseed's approach not to mention quality.

Yeap, Garmin's standard customer treatment is in place supported by Johnny Appleseed. For the record I gave Johnny Appleseed the opportunity to expedite the replacement process but they refused. Hard to recommend them now.

So testing still on hold. Yeap, the love/hate relationship continues with Garmin products.

Cheers

[Ent]

Well new Li-ion battery pack arrived as Johnny Appleseed relented and posted a replacement by express delivery. Great outcome, pity it took so many emails, but at least it happened.

So now on to the installation of the units. Garmin is developing a range of ANT wireless devices with the bike cadence and heart rate monitor being two. The problem in the past is Garmin has used an artificial division between these two market segments with Basecamp for downloading GPX files and Training Center for the fitness file format. What this means is the heart-rate will show up on say the Garmin 62S but will not be stored in the data file. The Fenix gives the option to use either of the files so is a cross-over unit. The Rino appears to be in the 62S camp, so for those that like to use their GPS as a fitness tracking device the 62S and Rino are not the go, so either a dedicated fitness device such as the Edge 305 or the cross-over device such as the Fenix is required, if that is your thing. A useful ANT device is the remote temperature sensor. Handy for solving those subjective debates how cold it is. I use one with the Fenix but despite the claims I could not get it to work with the 62S. As rather expected a firmware update was required for the 62S, and unlike the bricking of my iPhone, this was very painless so now the 62S is setup to use it. Strangely the Rino 650 firmware update still does not support the temp device which is a pity. The Rino will support the other two ANT devices. O'well we can only wait for future firmware updates.

So on went Shonkymaps, Contours Australia 5m, and the latest OSM files. The first two are dowloaded via the mentioned Garmin Mapinstaller while OSM files are simply downloaded from the web and then copied direct to the device. OSM has a few file formats. For road use the routable one is the best but I find the 2KM zoom level one the best for bushwalking. No hassle as you can have both loaded on the unit and swap between them as you can with Shonkymaps. With these free maps you can get a respectable map of some areas with the advantage if no data is on OSM you can map it in yourself. I when heading to a new area invest a few hours in tracing in lakes and putting in the main peaks. This combined with the 5m contours gives a good guide. Of course Tasmap provides information on terrain and should still be packed ideally as a backup paper map. OSM can provide much greater precision of tracks and water courses if the volunteer mapper has done a good job. Handy for those winter wanders where the on ground indicators are covered in snow.

So with units setup now the testing can start in earnest. As the Rino 650 shares much with the Garmin 62S such as the aerial tracking performance is excellent. The touch screen interface is excellent and continues to show that Garmin in porting the same interface to the button driven 62S was a mistake. The Extrex has a much more sensible button driven interface than the confusing 62S. The Rino is not perfect but a massive improvement on the 62S.

Cheers

[Ent]

A trip in the real world completed and must admit I like the beasts. Still a lot of playing to do but the ability to send and receive fellow Rino 650 GPS locations handy. Plus the UHF component of the system works very well. We as usual were rather over equipped for communication options with Uniden VHF, iPhone, etc so had a chance to compare and contrast. The Garmin UHF at 5 watts power gives enough power for general use but we did not give it much of a workout as it was water activity so normally line of sight.

The water resistant rating of the Rino is adequate for the occasional mishap but it is not up to the marine standard of the Uniden VHF sets plus it will sink like a stone if dropped in water. Shame that Garmin did not include a strap. After much searching I found at the Launceston Kodak shop a neck strap that felt strong enough to take the unit's weight.

The only downside was the indifferent sending of text messages. Some came through why others did not. Not sure at this stage if it was user error or just that the units are not good at that aspect. More testing is required.

The touch screen display works well and is bright enough for daylight use. In many ways the means of user interface that the Garmin 62S should have had. The unit as a GPS matches the Garmin 62S, but one that you can use. In fact, the Rino screen and interface should condemn the 62S to the waste bin of technology. Just to avoid any misunderstanding, the Garmin 62S was in my opinion the best GPS on the market for being used as a bushwalking GPS in all aspects except for the user interface. The Rino 650 just shows what Garmin could have done and should do with the 62S.

Cheers

[Ent]

Chance to check out the radio functions and found effective range outside line of sight around two to three kilometers on full power. Also interesting aspect is the mic when the unit is wet it clogs with water and very hard to clear out so while the units can take a dunking it is likely that the mic might be a challenge to clear of water hence garble communications. Something to consider with water activity use.