Road Names Missing Letters

[carolinarider09]

While I cannot answer the question posted above, I have noted, in postings on other sites with images of Garmin 550 showing street names that the new maps using upper and lower case letters seems to be a problem for the 550. A software issue for the map (how characters are interpreted for display on the map) since the street names do appear correctly in when not shown on the map on the 550.

[1WheelDrive]

Yes, that seems to be the case. No fix because of device obsolescence, but it wasn’t a problem until they caused it in the map updates by going to lower case letters on street names. And to compound it they won’t provide an easy way for people to roll-back to a map-set that works.

I looked around online for one, but it’s all shady web sites offering unlocked maps in *.rar format. I don’t need unlocked pirated maps because I have a legitimate license to those past versions. And downloading from those characters is a computer virus waiting to happen.

I’ll keep hoping for a solution because, quite honestly, not seeing the street names is a pretty big deal on a “navigator”.

[electro_handyman]

Garmin sure has it by the tail.. they say the device is obsolete so no phone tech support, you can still download recent maps(if you have the subscription), but yet you can't download an older version that you had previously downloaded.....

You will most likely have to go the route of OSM maps. In my opinion I think the OSM maps are more current, however they don't contain much of a searchable address database.
You can search and route via the 550 using the Lat/Lon coordinates with OSM maps.
If you make a route with OSM map on BC and transfer route to 550 with included waypoints, it should route just fine.

[carolinarider09]

Is there an article or "thing" showing how to get and use Open Street Maps. I found the website but..... Would like to see a little write up on how to get the maps on my 550.

[sussamb]

Depends where you're getting your OSM maps from. Most sites explain what to do and there is no standard. Try here to start

https://garmin.opentopomap.org/

[1WheelDrive]

I have an old copy of the Garmin 24k Topo maps for my area. Those maps were never locked. That shows street names fine, but the maps are very old, and there are only topographic poi’s in the map set. No features like gas stations, restaurants, etc. A friend and I rode around Vermont on the dirt roads for 4 days and used the Topo maps on the zumo 550s for navigating, but had to switch the the current version of no-streetname maps to find POIs.

[twowheelstom]

I just found that when I downloaded the newer Nov8/2023 CN NA 2024.20 maps to my 550 the street names come up as S.....R...
I have an older full NA map version 2022.25 on my PC via looking in Basecamp.
Now my decision is to live with the street name dots on the 550 or revert back to the 2022.25 file version.
But I think if I revert back to the older version I might lose the newer 2024.20 updates on such things like motels and gas stations on any searches.

[1WheelDrive]

I just found that when I downloaded the newer Nov8/2023 CN NA 2024.20 maps to my 550 the street names come up as S.....R...
I have an older full NA map version 2022.25 on my PC via looking in Basecamp.
Now my decision is to live with the street name dots on the 550 or revert back to the 2022.25 file version.
But I think if I revert back to the older version I might lose the newer 2024.20 updates on such things like motels and gas stations on any searches.

Yes, that is definitely true. Rolling back to a prior version of maps also means rolling back to the old POIs that were embedded in the maps at that time. I finally just gave up on my old zumo, moved up to a new zumo XT and switched to BT headsets. Have a couple of otherwise functional 550’s and four sets of Starcomm1 intercoms with a gazillion cables and headsets. Time for me to move into the current technology, though it doesn’t work quite as well as my ancient setup did.

[twowheelstom]

moved up to a new zumo XT and switched to BT headsets.

great , how you liking your XT?
and what BT headset are you using.

[1WheelDrive]

I like the new zumo XT quite a bit. The screen is very visible in daylight. Some of it’s appeal was in cutting the cords and moving to BT. I don’t really use a lot of the wizz-bang features that the new zumo brings to the party, but as a navigator and displaying off-road tracks work very well. I also loaded it up with MP3 copies of all of my music CD collection.

Which brings up one nit to pick. The music player applet resets every time that you power off the GPS. When you bring the player up it starts playing your playlist from the beginning again, alphabetically. The way to avoid that is to briefly press the power button to put it into standby instead of powering it off. But I always power it off when I get home at the end of the day. I guess I need to change that habit.

I have two pairs of BT headsets. An older pair of Sena SMH-10 headsets that still work pretty good for their age. And after buying the XT I splurged on a pair of Sena 20S EVOs with HD Speakers. Those seem to work more smoothly with the XT, probably due to later versions of bluetooth protocols, but the sound quality isn’t really any better than the old 10’s. Of course the 20’s battery life is quite a bit better than the older ones. Both of them are much better than the sound quality I got from the corded Zumo 550 to Starcomm1 intercom.