Zumo 550 Questions

[jryan]

Thinking about getting a Zumo 550 for 3 reasons...weather, road construction, mp3+xm. Ride mostly in ND, SD, WY, MT where alternate routes are few & far between, so knowing what's in front of me is a good idea! Have a few questions though:

 

1) With NavTraffic it shows road construction but it says it only has 80 markets...and none up north. Am I correct that I won't get road constr info for up here, or can I get road const but just not the up to the minute traffic reports, etc?

 

2) With WX Weather subscription, can I display weather on the screen simultaneously with xm/mp3 playing?

 

3) If I disconnect the 550 from the bike, it has a lithium battery to power it. If I take it over & crash in the lawn chair with a beer...can I use it without having the antenna on the bike connected? I'm guessing I'll be able to see the last downloaded info but won't get current updates.

 

Thanks for the help...JR

[wkboard]

I have had my 550 for 3 months now. I love it, but....

It WILL NOT display weather on the screen. The weather is only the little sunshine or rain icons with the forecast written by it. Even if you buy the extended weather, it will not display on the map.

I do not have a XM subs. so I can't comment on it, but the mp3 player works very well, and I have an 8GB SD card in it with all of my music. The Zumo 550 will only handle up to 1000 songs, though.

You can use it when it is off of the mount, on battery. (4 hours) It has the antenna built in and gets the satelites the same off or on the mount. It has trouble inside of buildings, but sometimes even recieves satelites inside. You can set up routes on the computer and load them in, and also load them manually with just the 550. It works well "stand alone/ handheld except it has no speaker when out of the car mount. On the motorcycle mount it uses the aux jack for earphones or connection to the RSV audio system.

When connected to the audio system you hear it thrugh the AUX position.

To use the helmet microphone you have to buy the Buddy Rich cable to plug the mic into the audio system. You can then talk on your cell phone useing the bluetooth connection in the zumo 550, and your helmet mic and speakers. It works very well, and is understandable to both parties even at highway speeds.

That's a pretty long answer, based on my experiences. Hope it is helpful!!!

[KeithR]

I plan to get a Zumo 660 next spring and have been checking out the Zumo forum. Lots of info there.

 

Keith

 

http://www.zumoforums.com

[BuddyRich]

I have the GXM30 on mine. You won't get any road conditions unless you around one of the 80 cities they talk about as markets. The weather you get in the basic is the current temp and 5 day forcast along with a map showing what is happening. You won't get the same live maps as you get off wunderground or weather.com though. You do get weather alerts that pop up on your screen though for thunderstorms,flash flooding,tornado's and such.

[Freebird]

I just subscribe to basic weather and traffic. I sometimes get a popup about a storm warning but when I click on it...it says "No alerts found". Is that because I only subscribe to the basic?

[BuddyRich]

Mine just started doing that. Last year it would give me a map and the county where the watch was. Must have something to do with the merger or one of the software updates on the Zumo.

[BEER30]

When you get a weather alert , browse on over the the larger XM weather map (you may have to zoom in some to see it). The alert will highlight the county that it is issued in . Move the cursor over that highlighted county and a tag will appear to explain what the alert is about . If you are not in the county that the alert was issued , you will get that "No Alert Found" message .

 

 

BEER30

[guns_usn_20]

What is the largest SD card the Zumo 550 can use?

[djh3]

On the traffic thing. I have a 765T, but from what I have read for most all Garmins (I wont say ALL because that's to wide a net) but most use the same traffic/road condition network. If a municipality dont update it you dont get info. I have used mine thru lots of big cities like charlotte, Orlando, Atlanta and its not very accurate. I have found its about 20 min behind the actual conditions as far as traffic tie ups. So when my cord started going bad, the little clips that old it in unit broke. I bought just the mini usb or whatever it is connector that goes in. It has no traffic antenna so that part dont work. I wouldn't plan my trip based off what it shows. Just my .02

[DblTrbl]

I have a 660 and for some reason when I load music on the SD Card and put the card into the GPS it reads NO Data ..........

 

Any hints on adding music to my SD Card.

 

Heading to VT and NY in a couple weeks. Sure would be nice to have tunes available if the radio signal sucks.

[dave_wells]

I don,t have a 660.

 

Are the files in a .mp3 format ?

[RedRider]

Zumo550 maximum SD card is 4G. You can put a larger one in there and it will work, but IIRC, it will only read 4G.

 

Answers to all your Zumo questions can be found at zumoforums.com. Excellent resource for all things Zumo.

 

RR

[djh3]

I think on the card you have to make a folder and call it MP3. Load your music in there. thats how my 765 is anyways. Here is a link to the manual incase you dont have that. Found this info:

From what I was told, it is best to store all of your music on the micro SD card by creating a folder for GARMIN, then a subfolder for MUSIC, then putting your music into seperate sub folders from there. I'm still not clear on why the need for several sub folders but they say it works best and I have to admit it does after trying without.

Also, I've learned that the 660 cannot take more than a 16 GB card without problems.

or

I did my 765 soooo long ago heck I dont remember.