iWay myWay

Another Disappointment

2009-11-25T19:48:00.002-06:00

Finally I got up enough nerve to tackle the unpleasant task of trying to get my iWay 500c repaired under terms of the extended warranty I purchased.

They have gone out of business! Repair Tech apparently left thousands of folks high and dry. At least I still have my unit, which is a lot more than many folks can say.

Now I'm trying to find some geek who is familiar with this unit to give me some moral encouragement and a hand in trying to fix it. It's a great unit and I hate to declare it pure junk just because a couple of companies don't play fair.

If you have any familiarity with the software or hardware in this unit, I'd certainly appreciate hearing from you!

In the meantime, my Garmin is doing just fine. Of course it has nowhere near the features the 500c had, but it was nowhere near the price, either.

Dissappointed by Lowrance

2008-11-24T15:15:00.002-06:00

The support lady at Lowrance today told me that the iWay 500c had been discontinued, probably in the first quarter of 2007.

Worse yet, she told me that they discontinued repair of the iWay 500c, probably in early/mid 2008. She said they "can't" repair them. I suspect she really meant that they chose not to even try to repair them.

As you can imagine, I am not pleased with this turn of events and will try to learn more. And try to get my unit working again, somehow.

In my opinion, it is NOT good customer relations to totally discontinue repair of an item less than one year after the warranty on the last unit they sold expires!

I intend to let Lowrance and anyone else who will listen know my feelings.

If you are thinking of buying a Lowrance product, please go to the top of this message and read it again.

Carefully.

A Problem at Low Temperatures

2008-11-23T16:54:00.002-06:00

I'm sorry to say that my iWay 500c has developed a problem.

Whenever the temperature is below about 50*F, touching the "X" to close the initial warning window does not close the window. It does nothing.

I view this as a temperature problem, not a software problem.

But I do have a software problem, too. I was loading some music into the unit when I accidentally disconnected the power to the unit. That seemed to "garble" the software.

I tried a soft reset. Then I tried a hard reset. Then I reloaded the operating system.

It appears to work, but it acts as if the map is totally gone!!!! A GPS with NO map is, well, pretty much like no GPS at all!

Tomorrow I'll call the company with which I have the maintenance contract. I just hope I can get it fixed before I need to use it to find my way back to Texas!

Any ideas? Let me know!

Reverse Route?

2008-03-23T18:56:00.002-06:00

How does one reverse a route on the iWay 500c? Surely there must be a way. Who ever heard of a GPS on which you can't do that?

But I can't find it.

If you know how to do it, please let me know!

Thanks!

Transitioning From One Trip Segment To The Next

2007-09-25T20:43:00.000-06:00

Today as we were driving through beautiful Custer State Park in South Dakota I set up a route with two waypoints between our present location and our final destination. (I'll call the waypoints A and B.)

As we passed A and continued on toward B, I noticed that the 500c was still giving distance back to A and the color of the route both ahead and behind our present location was magenta. Puzzling!

Then I stopped to take a picture. When I began moving, I noticed that only the route ahead of us was magenta and the route behind us was the dotted trail—just what one would expect.

Conclusion: If you pass a waypoint without stopping, the software believes that you have not yet arrived at that waypoint and keeps navigating you to it, rather than to the next waypoint. It appears that when I stopped moving, it interpreted that as an arrival at the waypoint and then began navigating me to point B.

Another possibility is that I did not pass exactly over the first waypoint, so it did not consider me to have arrived.

If you can shed any light on this, please Comment!

Interstates: Prefer/Avoid

2007-05-07T20:34:00.000-06:00

This is still a bit of a mystery regarding Routing Options on my Lowrance iWay 500c.

If you set the slider near the "Prefer" end of the scale, the unit goes out of it's way to take you on Interstates, sometimes when that doesn't make much sense to me.

But worse yet, that command seems to drag other roads with it; it doesn't apply only to interstate highways. There seems to be a hierarchy of roads built into the system. Basically, it's like this: big roads to little roads. More specifically, something like this: Interstates, Federal highways, State highways, main county highways, county roads, and finally dirt roads.

If you are "preferring Interstates" it seems to avoid smaller roads like county roads. It has this influence even if you are miles from the nearest Interstate and it has nothing to do with getting to your destination.

My preference would be that the "Interstate" slider only pertained to Interstates!

And the opposite is true, too. If you set it to "Avoid" it'll never put you on one, but will plan routes on smaller roads.

The big question: will setting the slider in the middle make all roads equally available, that is, neither favoring nor discriminating against big roads or small roads? Logic would dictate that to be the case, but experience seems to indicate that you have to be set toward "avoid" to get any small roads in your route to the destination.

What's been your experience with your Lowrance? Click on "Comments" below and chime in.

This weekend, we'll be driving from Cedar Rapids to Owatonna, MN. Perhaps some more information on various operational subjects will be gathered.

Navigating to a Point Which is on a Trail

2007-04-24T14:42:00.000-06:00

As you probably know, you can select a destination by going to the Map view, finding the right location, then touching the spot to which you wish to navigate. Fairly reasonable, right?

But what if the point you select as your destination is on a trail---in other words, you've been there before or at least drove past it?

Creating a destination out of a point which is on a trail is still a mystery to me. When/if I figure it out, I'll let you know here.

Or perhaps you already know how! If you do, leave a comment, please!

ETE and ETA Computation

2007-04-23T20:33:00.000-06:00

Tonight we went on a short trip to a destination 25 miles from home. When we were ready to come home, I selected my home as the destination while we were still in the parking lot.

After generating the route, it showed that the Estimated Time Enroute (ETE) was xx minutes and the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) was 8:29:41.

And this was before we had moved one inch! (One centimeter, if there are readers anyplace other than the US.)

How could it know how long it would take if it didn't know how fast we were travelling??? Clearly, it made an estimate. I suspect that it assumed that I would drive at the speed limit, which was indeed my plan. Because we had something in the back of the truck, I drove a couple of mph under the speed limit some of the time.

But I kept watch of the ETA and was amazed at how close it seemed to be to my own estimate. As it turned out, we arrived less than one minute after the time predicted before we had even moved!

You can bet I'll keep my eye on the ETA in the future, to see if I can gather any additional clues as to how it computes ETE. (ETA is just current time plus ETE.)

Any clues from you would be appreciated; leave a comment, please!

Basic But Useful Information

2007-04-18T19:57:00.000-06:00

Now that my long trip is finished, all that I do are short trips around town. But even doing those, I learned a couple of things.

When in the Navigate mode, there are two lines of text at the top of the screen, centered horizontally. The top one is the name of the street or road on which you are currently traveling.

Want to know where you are but can't read a street sign? Just look at the top line of text!
The second one is the name of your current TO waypoint. Or in the language of the book, the "via" to which you are currently navigating. That's not your ultimate destination if there is more than one leg to your current route.

These lines each hold a limited number of characters. Interestingly, each of the lines listed above appear to deal with "long" information differently.

If the name of the road on which you are currently located is longer than the system can display on one line, the information wraps to a second line below the first one.
If the name of your TO waypoint has more characters than can be displayed at one time, the information will be scrolled back and forth on one line so that the entire info can be read.

It's still a wonderful machine! And with lots more to learn and to use.

First Long Trip

2007-03-31T20:34:00.000-06:00

I've just completed a 2,000+ mile trip from Rockport, TX, to Cedar Rapids, IA. Yes, I know it is not 2,000 miles between those two points, but we took the scenic route!

The highlight: a visit to Big Bend National Park! The peaks called "Mule Ears" is pictured here.

I became a bit more proficient at operating the device. I also discovered that some "features" were a bit cumbersome ---so cumbersome that I didn't/couldn't use them. And some functions just didn't seem to work correctly.

Some details:

* Cumbersome: Routes

I just couldn't seem to get a decent route put together at the beginning. Sort of like squeezing a balloon: squeeze it in here, and it bulges out there. Later, I did get an 800 mile route to work, with only a few problems and surprises.

I'll post some comments on route building which may help you. But not now.

* Faulty(?): Computations

When going to a destination or waypoint (Lowrance calls them "vias") 300 miles away and travelling at a constant speed of 60 mph, it seems almost obvious that it would take 5 hours, if you maintained the speed, etc., etc. Chances are that it will take longer than 5 hours in the real world. And there is almost zero chance that you'll do it in less than 5 hours, such as 4+20 or even 4+40!

Yet my iWay500c consitently reported the required time enroute as less than the distance divided by the rate!!!

Certainly yours must do this, too. Can you offer any explanation?

* Usefulness: Great

In spite of these things requiring explanation, I really do like the machine! Even though we were not in any really tricky situations, the iWay500c is without question a great helper to have along!

If I were a trucker, I would have one without fail.

Order of Overlay Data, or What's Where???

2007-03-24T20:45:00.000-06:00

As you probably know, you can display several items of information along the right side of the screen on your iWay 500C. But do you know where each item will display?

I believe* the answer is this:
Items will be displayed in the order they were selected. That is, if the first item selected is Speed, that item will be on the bottom.
If the last item selected was Track, which is the direction the vehicle is moving, it will be the top item displayed.

Track, by the way, displays as one of the eight points of the compass: N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, or NW.

Bearing may also be displayed. Bearing is the bearing, or direction, from the present position to the waypoint to which you are currently navigating ---not to the final destination (unless, of course, they happen to be the same point). Bearing is displayed using the same eight symbols as Track.

* This is based on a small sample. It will be confirmed or modified later.

Top-level Menus

2007-03-18T21:09:00.000-06:00

There are three top-level menu pages. Each can be selected by pushing the Menu button on the unit the appropriate number of times.

In addition, the second and third menus can be selected by touching the upper-left on-screen "button" on the first or second menu, respectively.

First push of Menu button takes you to:

Main Menu

Main Menu (Selecting this will take you to the next Main Menu)
Route Via Destinations
Route Options
Overlay Data Setup
My Trails
Cancel Navigation
Directions List
Trip Calculator

Second push of Menu button takes you to:

Main Menu

System Setup (Selecting this will take you to the System Setup menu)
GPS Status
Pictures
Transfer Data
Safety Mode (On -- Off)
Device Information
Navigation Mode
Categories Drawn

Third push of Menu button takes you to:

System Setup

Screen Setup
GPS Simulator (On -- Off)
Reset Options
Shuffle (On -- Off)
Sound & Voice Setup
Units of Measure
Language
Repeat (On -- Off)

Fourth push and subsequent pushes of Menu button will change nothing if you are already in the System Setup menu.

Note: This information is based on a unit with software version 1.8. Units with other versions may not be exactly like this.

Why iWay myWay?

2007-03-06T21:12:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, I received a new gps unit: a Lowrance iWay 500c.

The unit is great. The Operating Instructions are not.

My goal is to create Operating Instructions for the Lowrance iWay500c which I wish would have come with the unit. Hopefully, you'll find them useful, too.

Maybe I can sell the results to Lowrance. Then they can come with the unit and every new owner will be more happy than confused.

Or perhaps I can just print up a copy for myself, one for my friend Gary, and a few dozen for the members of nuwaowners.org/forum who have been helpful to me with regard to not only gps but also our Hitchhiker RVs. (In addition, several of them have purchased RV Awning Travel Locks from me for their RVs, and I really appreciate that! And they'll appreciate the piece of mind that simple, effective, device brings.)

But certainly I can publish the information on this blog so that all who find it can benefit from the information. And anyone may comment; this could make the final version even better!

The plan is incomplete, but one of the first things to be published here will be a "menu tree." Every try to find the menu items in the book? Not there, are they! Should be, shouldn't they!

They'll be in iWay myWay, that's for certain.

Even though this is written about an iWay 500c, I suspect it will be equally useful to iWay 250c and iWay 350c owners.

All constructive comments are most welcome!