GPSrChive Discussion Forum

Is there any information on whether Garmin is going to keep producing the GPSMAP 66SR? Will it be replaced in 2023?

The 66sr is just barely two years old, and you want a replacement already?

What additional features and/or improvements would a 66sr replacement have?

Garmin have yet to include the advanced features of the 66sr into their remaining (and dwindling) product line-up.

Actually, I am planning to purchase a Garmin GPSMAP 66SR and I noticed that vendor stocks seem low. I wanted to make sure that I was purchasing the latest technology. Garmin seems to be focusing more on watch products lately. I need a GPS handheld that displays maps.

Yes, Garmin are Full Send on Watches and Bicycle Computers, while Hiking and other outdoor devices are seeing very little development, which is more than a little worrying....

How soon do you have to have a new handheld mapping GPSr?

Can you wait a little longer?

Yes, I can afford to wait. I have a Garmin Montana 610, but I wanted to take advantage of Galileo GNSS and multiband signal processing afforded by the GPSMAP 66SR.

GPSrChive wrote: ↑Sat Dec 03, 2022 2:03 pm The 66sr is just barely two years old, and you want a replacement already?

What additional features and/or improvements would a 66sr replacement have?

Garmin have yet to include the advanced features of the 66sr into their remaining (and dwindling) product line-up.

For the future replacement I would wish, that it could find Galileo Satellites as fast as GPS Satellites without a CPE file. Outdoor the GPSMAP 66sr finds GPS satellites really fast even if the CPE file is missing or is expired, maybe there is only a difference of 30 seconds. Only indoors it sometimes not even finds a GPS satellite without a CPE file, but that is not the purpose of this device.

But when it is about Galileo GNSS there is really a noticable change with or without CPE file. With CPE file it is almost instantly, even indoor, but without or expired file, the device will take almost 15min-20min to find them.

So I don't know if it is a hardware limitation or a limitation by the Galileo GNSS itself. That would be the only thing, why I would wait for a newer device to be more independent of the CPE file.

If it is theoretical not possible to optimize it and the CPE file is the only solution for it, then there is no point in waiting.

Also the map building when scrolling is a bit slow, especially if you try to zoom in/out and scroll at the same time, but this is maybe just a software problem. It is really a small problem.

There is also the thing, that only few GPS satellites have L5 band, but I think, that here the GPS satellites are the problem itself.

Gadwin wrote: ↑Sat Dec 03, 2022 9:33 pm There is also the thing, that only few GPS satellites have L5 band, but I think, that here the GPS satellites are the problem itself.

Correct. The GPS constellation is not expected to have full L5 functionality until 2027!

source

https://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/moderni ... ignals/#L5

On my Montana 610, I have speeded up the GPS satellite signal acquisition time by installing a small software program called GetEPO on my handheld which installs an up-to-date EPO.bin file each time I navigate.

neilwoody wrote: ↑Sun Dec 04, 2022 1:47 am On my Montana 610, I have speeded up the GPS satellite signal acquisition time by installing a small software program called GetEPO on my handheld which installs an up-to-date EPO.bin file each time I navigate.

On the 66sr you also need the CPE.BIN file. There are two files CPE.bin and EPO.bin

mimichris wrote: ↑Mon Dec 05, 2022 10:48 am On the 66sr you also need the CPE.BIN file. There are two files CPE.bin and EPO.bin

The GPSMAP 66sr requires only the CPE.BIN.

The GPSMAP 66sr does not use the EPO.BIN.