GPS Lifespan?

[HaulinAshe]

Zumo 550s never last more than 18-months for me. That's roughly 40,000 miles of gloved fingers poking the screen until the lamination begins to flake and the touchscreen goes bonkers.

The jury is still out on the 660's lifespan.

 

[Fred W]

I wonder if there are more things in play besides time, miles and number of finger pokes.

Like, where is the GPS stored? What environment it gets used in and stored in. How often do you use the touch screen to scroll around on the map? Or do you use the rubber covered hard buttons more often the average bear?

There are a lot of critical variables that we have no real control over. I'm just hoping that whatever I'm doing my 550 lasts longer than Jeff's.

 

[Zolton]

It was part of a custom route. I had a different one for each day of a 7 day tour. Like you said, I should have magnified the chosen route more in mapquest and I would have picked this up but I didn't and I missed it. I'm a newbie with the Zumo and it's a bit of a learning curve. These are great tools but you can't depend on them entirely, especially when it comes to your personal safety and well being. Sorry for hijacking the thread but I thought I'd slide my story in somewhere on the site. :clapping:

 

[RaYzerman19]

BTW, the digitizer can be replaced with one from ebay, for about $30.... that's the piece that gets the most use and abuse. It will take you less than a half hour.

 

[JamesK]

BTW, the digitizer can be replaced with one from ebay, for about $30.... that's the piece that gets the most use and abuse. It will take you less than a half hour.

Yep, it's a pretty straight forward process, and there is a number of How to Guides online, one on the ZumoForums.com and one on ADVrider.com. Btw, a good screen protector goes a long way to extending the life of the Digitizer screen.

 

[Bustanut joker]

BTW, the digitizer vibrator can be replaced with one from ebay, for about $30.... that's the piece that gets the most use and abuse. It will take you less than a half hour.

So tell me... iszat battery powered or plug in? Adam an Eve has plug in's fer eighteen bucks.. :jester:

 

[MCML]

It was my own fault for continuing on when the road went from bad to worse.... It was the most stressful 3 hours of my life....I'm an idiot for taking this road...

We're all compulsive Type A's on this bus.

 

[rogdeb]

Maybe a dumb question, but, could it be just ... full ? And needs trips, routes, etc to be deleted ?

Understand here that my understanding of a GPS is just in the "finding" and "following" of what they say.

 

[RaYzerman19]

BTW, the digitizer can be replaced with one from ebay, for about $30.... that's the piece that gets the most use and abuse. It will take you less than a half hour.

Yep, it's a pretty straight forward process, and there is a number of How to Guides online, one on the ZumoForums.com and one on ADVrider.com. Btw, a good screen protector goes a long way to extending the life of the Digitizer screen.

I'm going to slightly differ on the screen protector.... don't use them on resistive digitizers as you tend to press harder and break them down. I had a so-called flexible one, but took it off. I had mine 3 years before the digitizer gave out, and nothing but very light fingernail scratches on the screen that were invisible when the Zumo was on.

Go ahead and use screen protectors on cameras, iPods, that kind of stuff. Different kind of digitizer.

 

[Zorlac]

It was part of a custom route. I had a different one for each day of a 7 day tour. Like you said, I should have magnified the chosen route more in mapquest and I would have picked this up but I didn't and I missed it. I'm a newbie with the Zumo and it's a bit of a learning curve. These are great tools but you can't depend on them entirely, especially when it comes to your personal safety and well being. Sorry for hijacking the thread but I thought I'd slide my story in somewhere on the site. :clapping:

Glad you did, I was hanging with a mental image on every word while reading it to my wife!My GPS took me through The Monongahela National Forest near Deals Gap on a pretty hairy road when I told it to take me back to the Canaan Valley Resort after a days ride, it was more of a DL650 road than an FJR road, nothing like your story thank God! :dribble:

 

[Pepperell]

Hmmm. I ride to get lost, don't need a GPS to do that. I mean, how are you going to find places you haven't been without getting lost first?

Also, I ride mostly in New England with three simple rules;

1. If you see the ocean, turn around and go back;

2. If you see Customs, turn around and go back;

3. If you see New York, turn around and go back.

Simple! :yahoo:

 

[Bounce]

My original Garmin Street Pilot (monochrome) still works. I use my refurbed 2610 more because of the additional features though. The first was bought new for $500 around 1999. The refurb was bought... er... refurbed about 2 or 3 years ago. I recently bought a refurbed Magellan Roadmate 1212 for less than an update to the 2610 maps (which would still be at least a year old since G discontinued updates). We'll see how it goes but it's clearly not designed to survive a bike so it will stay in the car while the 2610 keeps on running.

My Zummo 550 decided to send me down a "shortcut" between twisty mountain roads on my recent trip through WV / NC last week.

it's never an adventure while it's happening.

do a detailed write up with street/routing info and such. post it and also save it. then when the time's right, send people a link to it as a way of saying "btdt". Garmin Street Pilot assisted example