Lowrance Iway 500 Gps

[GunMD]

Seeking opinions on the Lowrance iWay 500C GPS / MP3 Player. Looks cool and I love the idea of having 10gb of MP3 storage in the same device as the GPS, but I need some feedback before making a decision.

Take a look here...

 

[ock913]

Like you, I thought this would be a great choice. I could my GPS and MP3 too .... whud a bargin right ?? Til I went and looked at it in person. For me ....... it just looked too big. I think it is a nice piece, but just too big to try and mount on my bike. I remember someone on the other forum posted pics of his mounted over the front brake resevoir. I considered between the bars on a Stem Stand, but even that would have been huge. I am gonna hold out til Tom Tom releases the Tom Tom Rider and see what it looks like. It is prolly a quarter of the size of the iWay.

Don't read anything negative into this ....... just for my tastes, it is too large to mount on my bike.

 

[GunMD]

Ok, since I'm not getting much in the way of feedback on this subject does anyone know where I can actually see one of these in person in southern California? I live near Palm Springs but will be in Big Bear next weekend, San Diego the following weekend, and Carlsbad the week after that. Any good GPS stores in any of those areas?

 

[antvq]

I read the specs on this and came across this...

20GB internal hard drive,

From what I have read, any time you mount something with an internal hard drive on a bike, you are asking for trouble. The hard drive can't take the vibrations from the bike and it 'skips'. Not a good thing IMHO

 

[04FJR4ME]

All I can say is the size and weight is not praticle on a bike, the user interface although acceptable, it lacks certain features as a good set of POI data, having marinie data on a car or bike navigation system seems somewhat useless.

Motorgod owns one and had trouble with his, he purhased it cheap and it could have been a return or refubished unit that is sold as new, there is issues with MP3 music and system locking up.

If you never used a GPS system, you porbably think this is the best thing ever, but if you compare, the Lowrance iWay 500 still have a little room to grow.

Their acceptance rate is marginal at best.

Hard drives does seem to have issues with vibrations, but again, our FJR is very smooth. If you mount it on a HD, it will probably dies very quickely.

The price has came down much like the Cobra, but there is a pretty good reason why the sales is not up when the price is down, and one reason is that it still lacks what most consumers wants, ease of use interface and the ability to have more information in the POI.

GunMD, If you wish to see a unit and if you are in North Cal, stop in and visit and play with the Lowrance unit at my store.

My Webpage

Just my two cents worth, what do I know!

 

[GunMD]

04FJR4Me,

Thanks for the scoop...I plan to be in NorCal in September so if possible I'll stop in and see one.

 

[dusty1300]

Check out this page, you might find what you want there:

https://www.gl1800riders.com/forums/viewfor...ea9a9049d74f898

Tom

 

[motorgod]

The only problem I have had with my Iway, is that once in a while it will lock up while I'm under way. It only seems to happen when I am just using the GPS to track my journey. To cure the problem I do need to slow to under 35mph or stop before it will reset on its own. It is a strange problem that is very intermittent. I do have a RMA # with Lowrance if I feel the need to send it back. I'm taking a seven day five state tour in August. I'll decide after that if I am going to send it back. I have never had a problem with it while I was following a route. I am still very pleased with the Iway. The screen is nice and big and the touch screen comes in very handy.

You can click on my "webpage link" below and see how I have it installed.

I sure beats the sh*t out of any of those tiny screen GPS floating around!

 

[04FJR4ME]

Motorgod

Someday if you are down in the San Jose area, stop in and do a side by side comparison with a Magellan 760 or a Garmin 2620 or 2720, I think you will find it interesting.

There is lots of missing POI's in the iWay and the recalculation rate is very slow compare to others.

Most of the time, if you only have an older GPS system to compare the unit to or if you are only using one to test with, it is very hard to see any differences, but if you use 5-6 units at once to test with, you will see the differences immediately.

I was sold on the iWay when it was first introduce, the weight and size was a issue with mounting it in a vehicle, since as you know, if it sits on the dash and the vehicle is involved in an accident, that is like having a lose brick sitting in front of you that can hit the driver or passenger if the vehicle is involved in an accident.

The end result is that if you are happy with the unit, that's all that should count. I sell the iWay and it serves a purpose, but it is not my first recommendation.

Keep the rubber side down.

 

[04FJR4ME]

I read a forum about GPS, they don't allow me to join it because we don't wish pay to advertise on their forum and we probably have more inside information they have to offer since we do Alpha and beta testing on a lot of these products ourselves.

I am not trying to talk anyone out of getting a great deal for a Lowrance iWay 500, I just wish to make known that there are some issues that you may not know about and would save you some time and money if you understand the system better.

As far as the iWay 500 issues goes, here are some examples

Here are some links to some discussions they have regarding issues with this product.

My Webpage

Lowrance iWay 500> This unit perhaps has the brightest and best looking display of the lot. It also has a built in MP3 player which we tried out and it seemed to work fine. The feature mix is generally good including a HD with USA/Canada NavTeq road maps included. However, it has some routing quirks that we feel are unacceptable for car navigators today. Even when driving on the freeway between Atlanta and Charlotte, the iWay repeatedly took us off the freeway, onto a country road for awhile and then put us back on the same freeway a few miles up the road. Sometimes it would just take us up the ramp, make us turn right or left and drive us a mile up the road and tell us to make a U-turn and get back on the freeway we had just exited. This is not good. Unfortunately, the unit's propensity to generate strange and out of the way routes cause us to rate this unit NOT ACCEPTABLE. However, were Lowrance to provide fixes to the router software, we would probably rate this unit up with the SP2620 and RoadMate 700 in overall capability. Lowrance tells us that they are aware of this problem but have no immediate plans (as of May 2005) to provide a corrective update.

My Webpage

schneid

69 Posts

Posted - 06/08/2005 : 02:08:11

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yep, the iWay by is far the BEST hardware platform on the market. Unfortunately, it has the very lacking software. If you want one cheap, check eBay on Monday.

bryman84

USA

10 Posts

Posted - 06/09/2005 : 19:23:35

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recently, my iWay has been randomly registering taps on the touch screen. It usually happens in the upper left corner, and it is frustrating to watch it cycle through the viewing modes several times a minute. When I changed the skin and moved the button, it still continued to move the cursor to that corner. Does this sound like a hardware problem to you guys? I sent an email to Lowrance, and I'm waiting for a response.

Exactly how mine failed... It acted like I was tapping the screen all the time, then rebooted once. Right after that it wouldn't boot the next day.

All complex electronic devices risk "infant mortality" in the first 90 days or so. Usually if it makes 90 days, it'll last a long time but that first 30 to 90 days is when critical hardware issues usually crop up.

Call them and tell them about the problem. Get an RA and dump all your files to another location on your PC. If they replace it, you'll lose your skins and music but will (hopefully) retain your address book. BTW, there's a secret dialog to load/dump your address book to a file. Don't have it here with me, but it could easily be added to a modified skin for situations like these where you might not recover your addresses

My Webpage

 

[Greenzilla]

Talked to a fellow rider at a rally who I've known for many years that loved his. Some pros and cons he mentioned

Pros - MP3 capability. large database of restaurants gas stations etc. ability to scroll the screen by touch (drag the screen to where you want). very intuitive. Directions actually state "turn right on main street" as you approach main street instead of 'turn right 50 feet" like other units I've heard. Routing preference can be set on a scale for highway vs secondary roads, toll roads etc. Plenty big enough to see while riding.

Cons - Does not do mid way way points, so you need to put in each intersection where you plan to turn for a circular route or if you have to ride on a certain road that is not on the calculated path. I saw him calculate a route from Asheville NC to his house in San Diego - only took about 30 seconds to do - not sure if that is quick or not. Plenty big enough to see while riding.

 

[04FJR4ME]

only took about 30 seconds to do - not sure if that is quick or not.

Again, if you do not have another GPS system to compare it to, it is probably fine.

The MRM700 can route you from California to New York in 13 seconds. who needs that speed, someone that wish to start riding as soon as they input the address they wish to route to.

The Lowrance iWay 500 had a lot of trouble rerouting, try it some times to see for yourselves.

I am hoping they will improve, they are a very good company.