Garmin Montana 650 GPS

alexuk said:
what did you make that from Phil?
I need one or 2
Click to expand...


they're for yachts .... if you google west marine , then search plastic stanchion clamps, you should find them
 
I just managed to lay my clammy hands on a Montana 650 and an amps mount. For those of you using this mount, how did you connect the power cables to the bike? I don't mean "Where does the red wire go, and where...", but rather, did you make it a permanent fixture on your bike (which I don't intend to do, as I will only be using it on longer trips) or did you install some sort of plug for it. If you put in a plug, I wouldn't mind seeing a picture of it, just to get an idea of what works.
 
Tom said:
I just managed to lay my clammy hands on a Montana 650 and an amps mount. For those of you using this mount, how did you connect the power cables to the bike? I don't mean "Where does the red wire go, and where...", but rather, did you make it a permanent fixture on your bike (which I don't intend to do, as I will only be using it on longer trips) or did you install some sort of plug for it. If you put in a plug, I wouldn't mind seeing a picture of it, just to get an idea of what works.
Click to expand...


Tom best way is to hard wire it to the battery and put a switch in the +ve red wire, then you wont get the blue sulphate in the connections.
 
I just grabbed a Montana 600 for $112 on Amazon! They seem to be popping up at this price every 30 minutes or so. I put one in my cart and happy to have bagged it at that price (so I thought!!) I went looking at accessories. went to check out and was told it was no longer available so kept refreshing the page and saw it again at that price (only 1) and again, it was gone so I sat around constantly refreshing the page and bagged it the moment it appeared.

Happy hunting! That is a great price even with int shipping and customs.
 
Fantastic find, dont suppose it will be available tomorrow
However see my post about usps not shipping batteries
 
I'm in the USA at the moment and will carry it home. I actually bought a second one as well that I will sell.
 
Davevb said:
I'm in the USA at the moment and will carry it home. I actually bought a second one as well that I will sell.
Click to expand...


Dave -- there's a bunch of people interested in Montana's if you've got one for sale when you get here let me know... how much etc....... thanks
 
Yeah, they cancelled one of my orders as well with no explaination. Unfortunately, it was the one i was having shipped overnight (seeing how cheap it was) so now I have to wait for standard shipping....My other order still stands, hope it ships and they don't pull the plug after finding the price was some glitch in their system or something.
 
The MCN this week are advertising that Garmin.co.uk are offering Montanas at £166.00.....

I looked at the site and cant find them, might be worth keeping an eye on.. :DD
 
Oh well, it was too good to be true....after waiting 3 days for it to be shipped they just cancelled my order.

The live chat explanation:

I am very sorry for the faux pas in listing, the item was priced wrong to us from the manufacturer so we actually pulled our contract with them and have not yet finished negotiations
11:34:26
therefore we do not have this item available because if they do not honor their end of the deal we pull our order and this particular item will no longer be available on our site

BTW it is available on their site for full price.....

:kat
 
Is there a comprehensive instruction manual online anywhere?
The basic one that comes with it is not much help
and I'd like to know things like how many tracks I can store on it, and how many points each track can have.
And what are all the wires on the AMPS mount for?
Can you connect any hrm to it,or does it have to be garmin? and cadence?
Does anyone have a spare RAM ball/square or diamond baseplate you can sell me?
I have only used it once so far, but the tracklog cut out a couple of times, and was a straight line at times, is there a setting to make it record the track on screen in a realistic fashion?
I was told that the zumo would pickup a track you had already ridden and show it if you were on it again. Is Montana the same?
If so,does it read from old gpx files on the memory/card?
 
All of that is covered in the very long thread on the advrider forums. There are also some pages on the garmin website with extra help topics, but I can't remember how to find them.
 
I read thru 10% of that thread, a couple of useful replies, but it'll take forever to read it all.
There needs to be a more readable source some where
 
Alex ....give us the main things you want to know and we'll try answer them - not crazy detailed stuff.
 
A couple of things about montana mounts-
The Ram Montana holder was doing very well, I had a couple of runs , through some dense overgrown jungle, with some crashes, and it stayed in place.
However, when I picked up the mount in the morning, the roller bit had disappeared, no idea how or where.
The AMPS mount looks good, but where do I put all the wires?
Unfortunately, it comes without a backing plate(4 bolt), which I didnt notice in the website I got it from, so I cant actually use it until I make another order from the US. :topes
Eagle gps chiang mai had none in stock :bash

The Montana has an option for receiving heart rate monitors, but as it did not pick up my Polartec one, I guess it's only for garmin hrms
 
Alex, I also lost my roller bit in the Ram mount. I know it had been spinning without the Montana in the mount as I had been hearing its annoyingly buzzing sound. My mount maintains its holding ability without the roller bearing.
 
Alex gadget trend in bangkok usually has huge stock of ram mount parts. The Wire / power arrangement is removable from the alps mount, there are 2 tiny screws.
 
Was looking to purchase a Garmin Montana GPS for a friend & GPS City now have the Garmin Montana 650 on sale for USD$ 479.95

http://www.gpscity.com/garmin-montana-650.html

GPScity garmin montana usd479.jpg




If you get one, make sure you choose the Amps mount, it's far superior to all the other Montana mounts.


http://www.gpscity.com/garmin-montana-6 ... cable.html

montana amps mount.jpg
 
i've just taken delivery of one of these and the amps mount, its my first proper GPS so ive got a lot of learning to do, already picked up the North Thailand and Laos maps from Phil on my last visit so let the fun commence, expect some daft questions as i go along, totally new to all this but looking forward to getting out and exploring!!!
 
Got a problem with my montana today.
Riding back last night I got a message 100 times to say it was not a Garmin battery
But it is a genuine battery afaik, and was not a problem before
This morning it will only work with 3 AA batteries, otherwise it shows only the USB sign on screen
 
Try some double sided tape on the inside of the battery closure/ back (as a friction hold on the battery) and then go test it. You will then know if it just from loose contacts.

alexuk said:
Got a problem with my montana today.
Riding back last night I got a message 100 times to say it was not a Garmin battery
But it is a genuine battery afaik, and was not a problem before
This morning it will only work with 3 AA batteries, otherwise it shows only the USB sign on screen
Click to expand...
 
Alex - my Montana did exactly the same, drove me nuts. It worked fine on AA batteries, but gave me the error when using the rechargeable battery provided with the unit. I followed the instructions in the below link and it sorted out the problem, not had a single issue since and only use the rechargeable now. Please note that I am only talking about the 5th picture down, not disassembling the complete unit!

Garmin Montana GPS Reliability Modification - Hardening How-To - ADVrider

Hope this helps, Matt
 
thanx Matt, the battery voltage is zero according to my voltmeter, and it wont charge.
By the way, how did you install your amps cradle? I dont really want to use the ram ball mount system
If I hardwire the Amps mount to the ram mount, it's too easy for someone to unscrew it and walk off with the lot
 
Not sure if you have done this, but of you go into; Setup/System/Interface you can select Garmin Spanner. If you do this, when you plug a USB in it gives you the choice of going to USB storage or not. If you select YES, it then allows you to transfer files backwards and forwards with the PC (this is the default setting). If you select NO, it just powers up the GPS as normal and charges it, you can do anything that you normally do when in normal use. When in USB storage mode, only the USB symbol is displayed.

As for the cradle, I built my own mount from some aluminium flat bar and a couple of nuts and bolts from a hardware store. Cost about 50 baht. If you do this, make sure you support the back of the cradle otherwise it flexes and stops the quick release on the cradle working. My objective was to get the mount as solid and as low as possible - it works great. I had to buy 6m of flat bar so have loads if you want some.

Matt
 
Matt said:
Not sure if you have done this, but of you go into; Setup/System/Interface you can select Garmin Spanner. If you do this, when you plug a USB in it gives you the choice of going to USB storage or not. If you select YES, it then allows you to transfer files backwards and forwards with the PC (this is the default setting). If you select NO, it just powers up the GPS as normal and charges it, you can do anything that you normally do when in normal use. When in USB storage mode, only the USB symbol is displayed.

As for the cradle, I built my own mount from some aluminium flat bar and a couple of nuts and bolts from a hardware store. Cost about 50 baht. If you do this, make sure you support the back of the cradle otherwise it flexes and stops the quick release on the cradle working. My objective was to get the mount as solid and as low as possible - it works great. I had to buy 6m of flat bar so have loads if you want some.

Matt
Click to expand...

Hi there Matt

Do you have any photos of your DIY mount ?

Thanks

Ally
 
Would contact Garmin (the more people complain about, the better the chance that Garmin will do something about it). Some people reported that, when they contacted Garmin, that Garmin was aware of the problem and in most cases Garmin shipped a new and better fitting battery to them.
 
Matt, I used garmin spanner, and it seems to be working/charging now. Thanx
I contacted garmin europe and got a very quck reply and offer of a new battery, but then I mentioned that I am in thailand, so still waiting for a solution

Could I buy some of the alloy bar off you?
 
Alex -you can have some of that bar. I'll cut some off and leave it at Riders Corner for you - it'll be there later this evening.

Ally - been working on my bike all day again but will try and get a picture of the mount for you. It's not pretty, but functional!

Matt
 
alexuk said:
Thanx
I contacted garmin europe and got a very quck reply and offer of a new battery, but then I mentioned that I am in thailand, so still waiting for a solution
Click to expand...

You should contact Garmin in Taiwan as they are covering Thailand and other countries in the region
 
Damn was hoping for some real problems for the Montana, but they all look solveable so far. This might be going on my wishlist. Great feedback from Matt and Auke thanks gents.

I generally like to plan my rides as much as possible with Mapsource and create routes so that they show up on my 60 CSX more clearly. Last weekend my routes did not show up at all on the GPS and had to try and follow the tracks that are displayed on the GPS map instead of a planned routes thicker lines. Sadly I could hardly see the tracks and needed Matt to help guide me through the woods. Does the Montana display the map trails any larger than the 60CSX?
 
bigntall said:
Does the Montana display the map trails any larger than the 60CSX?
Click to expand...

Don't think so. It is possible to adjust the Type file which influences the color/appearance of the lines.
 
I got a battery sent to UK,but I'm wondering if Garmin Asia would send me one here, quicker.Are theyhelpful?
 
Yes, they are helpful - had problems with my 60CX and contacted them by email. Next day I had an answer and a RMA tracking number so I could send the GPS for them to repair. They replaced the GPS with a new/refurbished one which I received 10 days after I had mailed them the faulty one (lose plug for the external antenna).
 
I changed the setup of my Montana 650t the other day and the route is now quite apparent. I've got it set up as:

Nuvi dashboard
Motorcycling user profile
Dirt Slinger
Track up
Auto resizing.

As I approach a turn, the track gets larger... up to nearly a centimetre wide. It zooms out when there's a long way to go to the next turn.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
KTMphil Garmin Montana waypoints full GPS - Help and Discussion 3
kiwiphil Garmin Montana 650t for sale GPS - Help and Discussion 3
G Garmin Montana 650 Touch Screen Digitiser Replacement GPS - Help and Discussion 3
2wheels Garmin Montana 650 repair woes GPS - Help and Discussion 29
johnnysneds Garmin Montana 650 v 650T GPS - Help and Discussion 18
Similar threads
Garmin Montana waypoints full
Garmin Montana 650t for sale
Garmin Montana 650 Touch Screen Digitiser Replacement
Garmin Montana 650 repair woes
Garmin Montana 650 v 650T
Back
Top Bottom