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Review the Garmin Rino 530
 
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The Garmin Rino 530

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Here's some recent Garmin Rino 530 reviews:  

Butch
September 3, 2008

 		 I too have had radio transmission problems. A carrier is heard and position reporting is correct. At $150.00 to repair it out of warranty,this unit isn't worth the problems. Our club needed 25 of them. Glad only 2 of us bucked up with the money

 

cody jack
August 6, 2008

 		 I really loved this unit when I first aquired it. It worked fantastic and I even talked my brother and father into purchasing them too. The problem is that all three of us now over the course of a year and a half have had to send our units back into have them fixed. My brothers receiver quit working and his screen blanked in and out. my fathers quit transmitting, and mine quit transmitting too. Very frustrating to be able to here the person you are trying to talk to and them not be able to hear you when you respond. I feel that if these units worked appropriately they would be the ideal tool for hiking and hunting. But, after seeing three different units bought at different times all have problems and have to be sent back in it makes me very reluctant to recommend some one spending there hard earned money on one of these units.

 

Stew
January 13, 2008

 		 Three of us that have been hunting together for years bought 530's this year and used them over two and a half weeks of hunting. The down loaded maps were a must and if you are hunting away from electricity car chargers kept them fully charged between uses. Radio is strictly line of sight in Mountainous terrain though but we were able to find each other over 8 miles apart using the polling feature. One thing we did notice that it didn't like being bumped around, when we used them mounted on the ATV's they would shut off after every bump, had to keep them in a pocket. Loved the product highly recommend it.

 

LeRoy
August 20, 2007

 		 I like the Garmin 530 very much and have been using it for about a year and one-half. The electronics work well and it is simple to use once you learn the system. The color is what it's all about as far as I'm concerned. I talked quite a few of my friends into buying the Garmin units as it's the only one that is radio integrated at this time. The only problem I've had is that the rubberized seal around the antennas allows the the top to come apart. This the second unit that has done this, the first unit was replaced by Garmin but the second one was out of warranty.

 

Darryl Wattenberg
December 31, 1969

 		 We spent an hour or so on Saturday, then eight-and-a-half hours on Sunday geocaching our way to and from Cedar Point. It gave us a chance to spend some time with the new Rino 520 and 530 we picked up. Each of these units is running the first release of the software -- version 2.00. I've organized my Pros and Cons into the list below which might help others in their decision to buy a new receiver. Overall: Unless you're looking for the FRS/GMRS functions (which are very nice) I would not suggest the Rino series. Perhaps when the new software is released the performance will improve and make the unit more appealing. Pros:
  • Battery Life: The supplied 2400mAh NIHM battery packs a punch. Over the more than 8 hours we used the units on Sunday we only used 15-16% of the battery.
  • Radio: The ability to send locations through the radio is very helpful. When searching for more elusive caches, Firefly03 and I would stand still and send our locations (or poll the other person). In this manner we could get a better image of the cache location through the two known points -- us. We also ended up sending missing waypoints through the radios saving entry effort in the field.
  • USB Communication: The USB connectivity to the computer makes downloading information very fast. Sending more than 40MB of the Topo maps into the unit took under a minute. When downloading the 25 locations from Geocaching.com the transfer was completed before I knew it had begun.
Cons:
  • Inaccurate: The location information provided by the Rinos was far less accurate or stabile than either of the Magellan units we had been using. We brought the Sportrak Pro along for back-up this weekend, but found that we had developed a strong enough geosense that we really didn't need to use it. The worst aspect of the location inaccuracies was the bouncing effect. For example, while standing still in a clearing with the 530 (electronic comprass on), the cardinal would spin from left to right indicating the cache was moving from one side to another (when in fact I was starring directly at the cache 3 feet in front of me) on an accuracy rating of 15 feet. Not once during our searching was the cache at the location published on Geocaching.com. I have contacted Garmin Technical Support about these problems.
  • Slow Updates: Both units were frequently slow to update the location. Walking at about 3MPH as indicated by the GPSR, we'd have to slow or stop for about the last 30 feet allowing the location on the GPS to catch-up.
  • Buggy: Both units had their issues in the field. The 530 decided after about 7 hours of usage that it didn't need the LCD display anymore. No button pushes would restore the display, but a full power cycle did. The 520 early on decided that it would lock up at "Arriving at X" and not permit any input. A couple of power cycles and marking the cache as found before the satelites acquired fixed that problem. I have not yet contacted Garmin about these problems but will be later today.
  • Interference: The radio would receive information at random. Without anything coming from the other radio, the radios would randomly receive a transmission. We ended up with the squelch controll all the way up to minimize the trouble. No matter what the units would still spit out noise at random.
  • Talk Button: There appears to be an issue with the placement of the talk button switch under the rubber talk button cover. I had little trouble with the button pressing at the lower end of the button. Firefly03 had trouble keeping the button depressed though no matter where she pressed. The culprit seems to have been a lack of rigidity in the talk button cover since changing the finger position would change the results.
Hopefully this has been helpful. Enjoy the caching!

 


 


 
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