navigation GARMIN Zumo 550

Use navigation

1.Look up an address : (example :1250 Northwest Highway, Garland, TX 75041, submitted by a reader)

2.Press: "Where to?", "Address", "Spell State" (TX), "Spell City" (GARL) -at this point the unit figures out that it's Garland TX, "Enter House Number" (1250), "Enter Street" (NORTHWEST)

3.The address comes up with the proper zip code, now press "Go!" (or "Show Map").
Route set-up : faster time, shorter distance, off road
Route avoidance options (avoid unpaved roads, toll roads, U-turns, etc.)
Multiple Destinations - Users can enter many stops and the unit will automatically sort them to provide an efficient route
Auto re-route (fast off-route and detour recalculation)
Motorcycle console for trip information, including resettable fuel gauge to warn you when it's time to fill up

Routes : 50

Waypoints/favorites/locations : 500
Auto sort multiple destinations (provides most direct route)
Auto re-route (fast off-route and detour recalculation)
Choice of route setup (faster time, shorter distance, off road)
Route avoidance (avoid highways, tolls etc.)

POI

Points of interest (POIs) database, featuring motels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more
Custom POIs (ability to add additional points of interest)
Customized points of interest such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs

Case description

Looking at the front of the unit, the 3.5-inch touch screen, and 5 buttons : 4 to the left of the screen, and 1 to the right. The button on the right (5) is the on/off button, but the buttons to the left (1,2,3,4) are used for several functions : browsing through the menus, zooming the map in or out while driving, turning the volume up or down and toggling the trip counter on and off.

Tapping the screen and browsing the menus can also do all of this, but the buttons are usually a shortcut.

On the back of the unit there’s only one connector present, meant for connecting an external antenna to the device, and on the bottom there are two rows of gold pins (8) for connecting to the mount.

Hidden behind a plastic cover there’s a mini-USB connector (6) and an SD card slot (7).

The GPS antenna is built-in. There is no LED charging indicator.

Use it

After pushing the on/off button, the screen lights up, and the zūmo starts loading it’s built-in maps. After about 30 seconds of boot-time, a warning screen appears (‘don’t operate this device whilst driving’, etc.), and after tapping "OK" it’s ready to go.

Case

Trip-Computer Screens

Compass screen Screen Shot of the address

The “tools” menu

Select “where to” and choose a destination

Auto routing

After pressing the ‘Where to?’ button, six large icons pop onto the screen. With those icons, user can choose whether to directly enter an address, go to home destination, go to a certain POI, etc.
‘Address’. Enter country. Two icons are shown: the last selected country (which will, in most cases, be user country), or ‘spell country’. It consists of five letter icons on top, and below those icons a scroll bar that can scroll through the entire alphabet. While scrolling through the alphabet, the five big letter icons on top change accordingly. This enables the user to enter the country, city or.
As the letters are entered, the zūmo compares them to it’s own database, and once there are only a few matches left, it takes over and shows the possible alternatives for user to select.