Garmin Rino, walkie talkie and MP3 player questions

[stahlecker]

Me and my buddy are really looking into the Garmin Rino 530HCX. Really like the fact that the GPS and Radio is in the same unit, we only have to worry about one thing to power.

I also like the idea of mounting the unit to the riser using a RAM mount but I've heard that you can't power the GPS from the sled with that particular mount. Anyone have any info on that?

Also I am wondering what speaker/mic setups work the best with this thing. I understand a PTT is probly the best. Is it possible to pipe in an MP3 player to get some music while riding?

Finally, we mostly ride Snowy Range and was wondering where I could find a trail map to download onto it. I'm kind of on the fence about TOPO maps. It seems like TOPO would be handy but then I kinda wonder if it's really needed.

Just want to say I am really impressed with this site the last few weeks that I've been lurking around.

Thanks, Brian

 

[Tycho998]

I've got the Rhino 520 and a friend has the 530. We love it, when ever you hit the Tx button it sends your position to other Rhinos. This feature alone is worth ever penny. Not having to stop an wait to do a body count for missing sleds saves a lot of time. Battery life is excellent. One charge with the back-light on 50% will last for 2 days. No need to modify the RAM mount to accommodate the power wire. The range of the walkie talkie far larger than the helmet mounted comms. We were about 2 miles apart and could talk no problem in a heavily forested area. Haven't tried mics or headphone attachment. I found on a motorcycle site (I can't find it right now) the bike riders will use a blue tooth interface so they can listen to MP3. I have all the TOPO maps for Ontario loaded on it and the color display is excellent at showing all the contour lines. I can read it at a glance while riding. The default maps don't have much info on them when you're in the back country.

 

[stahlecker]

Yea we decided to go ahead and buy them. My dad has a wholesaler where he could get new ones for $385 or so. Figured we'd give them a try. Thanks for the info about the battery life that's good to know.

After doing some looking on the internet I ordered the MotoComm helmet headset and their music mixer. It will mute the music when your talking. For about $90 all together I thought it seemed ok. Once I get to play with them I'll post what I find out.

I still need to figure out how I want to do the RAM mount, I'll probably work on that tomarrow.

Anyone know where to find trail maps for Snowy Range? I think it would be nice to have instead of having to reference a map all the time.

Hopefully if everything works out I'll be out playing with everything next weekend.

-Brian

 

[Tycho998]

Once you try it out let us know how it works. I don't really need a second wire from the sled to my helmet but it that system works and the music sounds Ok I may live with it.

 

[stahlecker]

I think I decided on the RAM mount. I think that I am going to go with the handelbar mount. Instead of using their U-bolt I think I will just drill and tap my riser and try to mount it there out of the way. If anyone has any input, let me know.

-Brian

 

[Tycho998]

Thats how I mounted mine. Drilled and used self tapping screws.

 

[stahlecker]

Well we finally got up to the Snowy Range today. We spent about 3 hours sledding this afternoon. The GPS worked great. The music part of the head sets also worked perfect.

The big problem today was with the walkie talkie part of the radios. We had to set the roger beeps to the loudest and most annoying beeps. This way when some one tries to talk we heard the roger beep and then we could have the other one repeat their message. Kind of a pain in the rear end.

We plan to play around with the microphone placement tomarrow and see if we can get the sound better.

I used a handle bar mount and drilled and tapped my risor to mount it. My buddy built a flat plate that uses the the handelbar bolts to hold it in place. I'll try to remember to take pictures tomarrow.

-Brian