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[TurboTorben]

5.   The bicycle symbol is sometimes in the way, and not clear at all to make out if you are following the track correctly. Also in Birds Eye View mode the track recording line thus not follow the track line if you change to other directions than North, so it makes it messy and go’s over the track line you are following. Suggestion: Change the bicycle symbol in the symbol like GH625 but a bit bigger and a bit stretched so the top of the arrow point is good to spot. The record line can be taken away if it can’t handle  BEV, make the line solid if the STP is past so you know where you are at the moment. Together with the new arrow point it should be enough information.

7.   The Grey fields are not all very clear, also to change the contrast is not the solution because after this the normal darker grey in user page becomes too dark  . Suggestion: change the light grey fields to a bit darker.

8.   Better to have a separate on/off button. Suggestion: on the topside, makes it possible to do a lot better navigation thru the pages like back function and so on.

11.   Slope did not work!!, or did not show. I did go over 2 bridges about 200m long and height difference of 8 m, slope stayed on ZERO. It was of course about 4%. Slope thus not show up in TG!!

Agree at all the above.

Regarding on/off button. I think you're right! I think it is a mis-understanding that things is being simpler to use by reducing the number of buttons. If this way of simplification continous we will end up with devices with only one button - and whom would like to control for instance the GB580 with just one button. In my opinion the GH625 is simpler to use with its 6 buttons, compared to the GH580 4-buttons.   

Regarding the slope function I did a little study off this today. It seems to me that slope works (allthough mine device is a GB580B without barometric altimeter) - but is done either at a way too long distance, or is way too slow. At my ride today I rode up a hill - slope 8%. At the top I ride more than 300 meters out of the flat road, and the slope still showed 8, then 7 then 6 and so on. This indicates to me that the slope algorithm is taking to much of the already passed route into calculations. Another observation I did was that if I ride down a hill and then immediately up a hill of similar height - the slope is shown as 0%. Again I think this shows that the algorithm is to taking too much of the early route into calulation.

For me - as a mountain-biker - I think that the slope-calculations should be done for every 50 meters distance (here en Denmark we don't have real mountains - only hills up to approximately 170 m.)

/regard TT

[albert]

Hallo TT,

but is done either at a way too long distance, or is way too slow. At my ride today I rode up a hill - slope 8%. At the top I ride more than 300 meters out of the flat road, and the slope still showed 8, then 7 then 6 and so on.

Thanks for the reply, I will test the GB580 extensively the coming day's. I go today to France and will find out the working of the slope function while riding the 100 cols tour. Hope the weather changes to good, now a lot of rain. I also hope that TG becomes slope so you can see there the steepness of the mountains after the tour.
By the way, the sound beep is a bit low, on Saturday it was very windy and didn't hear the beeps a lot of times

Regards,

Albert

[Phil]

Hi,

+1
This is already available on other models,

Not in custom page??

Yes, I can't check it right now, but I'm pretty sure I used it in a custom page on my GH625

My mistake, I checked with GH505 and the time field is not there as I thought.
On GH625 I can tell it's there, but my unit is a rebranded Keymaze with custom firmware, not sure about standard firmware since I don't have it installed.


Anyway, I had a ride with the GB580 this weekend, and overal I was satisfied with its performance, (mounting was easy and efficient, the precision is very good, ...).
However I have a few remarks/sugestions I would like to give:

- I tried to use trackback to follow a track not from the beggining, but I couldn't skip points until I get to place I started. Usually we use OK to skip points and ESC to go back, but now these buttons are assigned with different functions.
- When I pressed LAP, it said "Lap Full", even if the memory was still empty. I've seen this happen also in GH505.
- When you stop the bike, the speed value takes a few seconds to reach 0. It's probably a good idea to have this inertia when using GPS because of the accuracy/peak errors, but when using the speed sensor on the wheel you don't need to average with past values.
- Same thing with cumulate, with GPS you have big error, so you need to filter value changes, but using the barometric sensor you get more accurate values, so you don't need to filter that much, otherwise you don't have any advantage.
- I would like to have an odometer feature, that counts total traveled distance even when it's not recording an activity, like we have on regular bike computers.

By the way, Geoffrey, I did a quick test to integrate in the SportTracks plugin and noticed the protocol is not exactly the same as GH505, so can you send me the protocol specification?


Regards,
Phil

[jervanheg]

Finally.... Back from Holiday just picked up the device.
While I typically fiddle with any new gadget before even picking up the manual, I though to do this one 'by the book' - reading the manual first, while the device is charging.

Not sure if I'm supposed to notify about this... Manual, page 5, says: 'antenna is located in the lower part of the device'. I assume this must say 'upper', not only do I believe this would be more logical, but the arrow also points to the upper part.

'real' testing soon!

[jervanheg]

menu navigation consistency error :

Configuration > Set System > Display > Units

Hitting "escape" should go back to previous page ("Display"); but instead, it goes back up 2 levels to "Configuration".

[jervanheg]

Improvement idea :

- currently, it is mandatory to rotate through 4 pages of user-defined fields (+ time screen). So if you want to go back to your first screen, you may need to push the button 4 times.
- my suggestion is to show only those pages that were actually user-configured. (ie. not to show any pages that have not been user-configured). So if someone decides only to have a single user page, he would not need to scroll through 3 others in order to return to his screen.

[Roger C]

Hi Geoffrey and globalsat!

Now i have recieved and installed the bike gps with speed and cadence sensors on my Mtb, did my first cycletraining with it yesterday (59km).
At first look at it, it looks nice with the orange/black colors, and pretty big display.

Mounting it on the Cycle works good, but some other fastening type would be great so i can switch betwin bikes without having to buy alot of stripes.
And for a runner like me, a wriststrap would have been nice, maybe it can be bought later on.

Well on this first test with it, it shows a longer distance then my gh-625, (400m on that 59km trip)
Maybe because of not having a perfect satellite connection, maybe my gh-625 had more satellites at start.

Cadence sensor worked fine, placed it where Longjog placed it, good connection.

Speed sensor also worked fine when testing inside with gps off, but like someone said, it should also work to show distance when i choose to turn my gps off, like on cheap non gps modells.

On gs-sport.com i saw that it supports Sporttracks 3.0 , does it already? cant find it.

And now over to the handling of the device using 4 buttons:

I think its a bit confusing with multipel function of the buttons, you easily forget what button you should press in different situations.
At first, shouldnt it be a Start/stop button, i mean with text showing on the side of the gps, because that is what we use the most, to start and stop it.

And when you stopped the timer, it doesnt show on the 4 custom page that you have stopped, ( a blinking timer symbol, like on gh-625) so you have to switch to Clockmode/page to see that, shouldn't it be better to have that little symbols that is showing on clockpage also showing in custom page mode, on the side or at the bottom?

And is it a big fix to be able to have the Clock in a custompage field? think we all want that.

Tempsensor shows a very high temp all the time, is it the temp inside the device it is showing?

Will test it more another day.

//Roger C

[jervanheg]

I've just mounted GB-580 on my bike.

As a mountainbiker, I'm very much aware of the extreme forces that a bike has to endure on descents, etc. Road bikers wil have the same on cobblestones. Because of these forces, I've experienced the limits of some mounts first hand, losing a couple of devices while doing so :-(. For my Garmin Vista, I rely on either Softplate or Ram Mounts, as the standard Mount failed to keep the device secure.

And here's where I fear GB-580 may be vulnerable as well. The fit is NOT very secure. Please do try the following to illustrate my point :
- click GB-580 in the mount until click.Now try to push it our by applying pressure to the opposite side. You will find it actually sits quite well - but that is because you push the device "deeper" into the latch "cavity".
Now try the following :
- click GB-580 in the mount until click. Now grab GB-580 by the sides between two fingers. Slide out while slightly lifting the device upwards on the side of the latch. With my device, GB-580 came loose without effort whatsoever.
This is quite a concern - a safe mount is critical.

I would also recomment to provide a small hinge or something, so that riers may secure te device with a failsafe wire (which I always use - a piece of wire attached to the device and around my steering bar).

[canadien]

Hi jervanheg, Phil and Roger C,
Thanks for submitting your feedback,
I just add them to first page:
http://www.usglobalsat.com/forum/index.php?topic=3795.msg10041#msg10041
Have a happy beta-testing!

[jervanheg]

First Ride. Half road, half off-road. Cloudy.

On the bike :
- GB580
- GH615 (firmware GH625)
- Edge 500

Configured:
- GS : every second
- Garmin: "smart" recording

Total Distance
- GB580: 62.78km
- GH615: 63.15km
- Edge500 : 63.17km
I'm going to compare the actual tracks to find any inconsistencies. 350 meters off is a bit much.

Avg speed:
- GB580: 22.75km/h
- GH615: 22.84km/h
- Edge500 : 23.01km/h
Weird. If the distance on GB580 is the same, it shouls actually give the highest AVG reading. I can only assume there are small differences in the moment it auto-pauzes.

And now for some usability findings.
- The piezo buzzer for GB580 is the quietest by far - in fact, it can hardly be heard.
- the buttons are a bit harder to push. This said, I configure the device so I don't have to push anything. But for data-buffs, it may be handy to have a scroll function between data pages.
- calories on non-heartstrap devices is way off, as expected (I had 4800 :-)
- "actual speed" field never goes to zero, even under complete open skies. It always "hovers" around 0.5km/h. However, the auto-pauze does work well, so I assume this is configured to ignore this. It may be better though to have the device show "0" when it is below a certain treshold + enough sat accuracy.

[canadien]

Continue your comparison jervanheg. It is much interesting.
Here we can see an example of buttons functions on 500 edge. Main difference I think is the double buttons function names: one one the grey side and another name on the blue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiTloso0Gl0&feature=related

[AndersBrontosaurus]

And for a runner like me, a wriststrap would have been nice, maybe it can be bought later on.

Agree! The more i look at it...Friend of big displays as I am.

Anders

[albert]

Hello all,

This is my next review:

1.   The slope Works and is a very nice feature I am really happy with it.  But it is a bit slow, after a mountain climb it went down and after 500m it showed still 2% up. Maybe it is an idea to reset the slope to zero if altitude shows a  (after 2 sec)  a downhill situation or if it goes up from down altitude.
2.   Max speed was a gain not right (209,2 and second time 221 km/h) 
3.    The trackback function is good, except the bicycle and his line. Sometimes the track is not the same as the real gps direction, but that is not a problem with the GH625 But now, if the STP arrow gives a direction to the right you don’t know if you have to turn or go straight  ahead because the bicycle and the line don’t give a clue.
4.   The bicycle holder could be better, the lock is to easy, you pull off easy. During the ride I almost lost the device because of changing the pages. Suggestion for new models look at Sigma Bicycle computers, the holder is 2 ways to fit and you fit it with a rubber ring, so easy to swap to another bike. To mount the computer you have to twist it around in a sort of screw wire 90 degree. It is not possible to hit it off very solid and light solution.
5.    I miss the option after track back reached his goal to continue, We are cycling till it starts to rain or to the hotel for the next day, or if we tired. So the track back is mostly longer than or shorter than the track. Now already I have to different files because I could not continue.
20-07-2011 65 km
1.   I did a track back backwards, works fine. My job was to move the car to next location and then I cycled towards my friends. Still I don’t like the cyclist and the record line appearing everywhere. Like yesterday the cyclist and his line did not follow the track so well it came more from the left site and was about 60 meters out then I had to make the decision witch road I should follow they all 3 started more or less in the same direction and wend out later 3 different  angels. If I good have seen where precise I came from the choice would be easier.
2.   I like very much the slope and my friends do like it as well, they all the time asking what the slope is. The slope however should be faster reacting. Maybe that it is than not so accurate but at least it shows quicker a good or nearly good figure. Now I had to day a steep climb for about 500 meters and from the beginning on it was 12% or more, just before I did reached the top it showed 12%. The slope did climb 1-2-3-4-5-7-8-10-11-12, I had time enough to see it going up.
3.   The Max speed is now OK
4.   The total altitude+ is very accurate, the Route description about the height and the GB580P is the same +/- 2 meters different, but the Garmin and a bicycle computer with barometer they were far out, more than 90m.

21-07-11 126 km
1.   Tried the auto zoom mode: The auto zoom is Depending on speed, in my opinion this not correct. Most times it is now on 1 km,  toward the STP it makes now different .
It should be based on STP so if this in almost the middle of the screen it should zoom in to

[jervanheg]

Surely there must be something wrong with mine? I can't believe this bug...

Page configurations aren't saved, and lost on switchoff.

I carefully configured all 4 data pages... but after a switch on/off, all of them were gone again (ie. all data fields were changed)...

Anyone else got this too?

I'm now going to test if at least, it remembers the number of data fields...

[TurboTorben]

Improvement idea :

- currently, it is mandatory to rotate through 4 pages of user-defined fields (+ time screen). So if you want to go back to your first screen, you may need to push the button 4 times.
- my suggestion is to show only those pages that were actually user-configured. (ie. not to show any pages that have not been user-configured). So if someone decides only to have a single user page, he would not need to scroll through 3 others in order to return to his screen.

Speaking of user custom pages and rotating among these. It would be nice if you could choose that the pages rotated automatic with a configurable time interval.

/TT