Thread: Garmin 66i

I upgraded from the Inreach Explorer+ to the 66i as the price had dropped and the maps of the Explorer+ are not great.

I just wanted maps and satellite imagery same as my phone, without having to worry about phone running out of battery or getting broken etc


What i got was hardly worth it

Steps backwards from the Explorer+

• Battery life for my usage was 5-7 days now down to 100-120hrs
• Much more complex interface - Apps, Widgets, customer data fields - was nearly like learning a new phone OS
• Cant put your name and address on the startup screen
• No battery XX% just a battery icon (u can get a widget for this, but at $800 why couldnt they offer the same features as previous product)
• The Auto Expedition mode(battery saving mode) doesnt work, so if you want to put it into the lowest power mode you have to manual do it every time you have looked at it

The only thing i wanted was the maps and satellite images - well its only half as good as a phone app

• Satellite images are only from Garmin through Birdseye app - not google maps etc so there not up to date and no where near as clear also limited on size of area 6km by 6km
• Yes you can put NZ50Topo maps on it but limited to only a about 6 .KMZ files which means you have to delete & reload new ones every time you go to a new area
• Also you have to constantly turn on and off the map layers as it wont over lay the Satellite images

The GPS receiver chip set has been upgraded so it get locations quicker and more accurately
Ya you get a spare led touch and can set a waypoint for where the animal dropped relatively accuratly

I'm really quite disappointed, would have been better off spending the extra $$ on a cheap throw away phone and a battery bank.

Well I guess if it's made you grumpy enough to join the forum, we would have to say something good came out of it
I am partial to bullet points though

5-7 days VS 100-120 hours...now when I WENT TO SCHOOL there was 24 hours in a day....5x24=120 so 5 days continuous usage (does this person not sleep??)
if you put name and adress on home screen and you loose it or it gets pinched...burgler has your details....
last line says you live and learn...MAYBE.
welcome to the forum.

Messed that up should have been

Battery life for my usage was 5-7 days now down to 2-3 days (using 3% of battery per hour)

Welcome aboard. Good first post, offering your experience on a hot topic, you'll go well in here.

Far far better than the old" Gidday guys, new here: thinking of heading to X,Y,Z. Whereabouts are the most deer there?" sort of caper

I just bought a inreach explorer and have only figured out how to turn it on let alone do all that other stuff so you are well ahead of me

I have the 66i and love it. Saved my bacon on Stewart Is but I also had a 6x Pro and S20+...and a compass. I use them sparingly though...off-on-off. I also had a battery charger to top up at night, and solar to top up the battery charger. I can be a little OTT with gadgets though.

That's interesting. I recently bought a Garmin 66ST and thought it was miles ahead of my older 62.
I think there are some things that can help you address some of those problems.

1. Battery life - you need to set your GPS to battery saver mode which will turn your screen off when not being used. You can do this in the battery settings.
2. Apps and widgets - you can delete/alter the amount of apps showing on the GPS to as many as you want.
3. Overlay - I'm not sure what you mean by this because I am using the overlay set up which also shows the GPS map outlines. I also have a heap of data to store the satellite images so can't comment on that either.

There are a number of videos on youtube that might be able to help you get used the overlay. I must admit that the lack of a battery life percentage is annoying.

Update
A few of the major issues have been fixed with an update
The Birdseye Satellite images are now much more current in central north island at least
The Auto Expedition mode(battery saving mode) has been improved and seems to come on half the time now.

Did a little camping trip on the weekend in the Ureweras, rained a bit and held up to a few slips in dirt and the wet.

But still stating 1.7% per hour so 60hrs run time so 3-4 days usage.

Note i do carry a battery bank

Originally Posted by Daniel Kwon

That's interesting. I recently bought a Garmin 66ST and thought it was miles ahead of my older 62.
I think there are some things that can help you address some of those problems.

1. Battery life - you need to set your GPS to battery saver mode which will turn your screen off when not being used. You can do this in the battery settings.
2. Apps and widgets - you can delete/alter the amount of apps showing on the GPS to as many as you want.
3. Overlay - I'm not sure what you mean by this because I am using the overlay set up which also shows the GPS map outlines. I also have a heap of data to store the satellite images so can't comment on that either.

There are a number of videos on youtube that might be able to help you get used the overlay. I must admit that the lack of a battery life percentage is annoying.

1. Have definitively got it turning off the screen after 15sec, but it should go into hibernation (Auto Expedition mode) after 2mins of non-use can tell as will state "Resuming" when u power it on next. - But seems to only hibernate automatically intermittently.
2. Possible will see if deleting apps will reduce battery usage.
3. Cant overlay NZ50Topo maps and satellite images (can overlay the supplied Topo base map and Satellites)