Is elevation / altitude data available?
Sometimes just for "how cool is that" use, but sometimes for dealing with "when I get to nnnn meters / feet the motor goes sour" problems, altitude (or elevation - different name, same data) is very useful. Apps that overlay data (speed, distance, etc.) benefit from having it, too. Is it even available? Being able to display altitude in the bar would be a good idea if the data's even available.
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Superuser
Superuser
On such small screens, less = better.
It would be cool to add the screen with GPS status (locked satellites, signal strength, etc).
As I mentioned in my question, some of this is about tracking a personal best. Some of it about bragging rights. "I made it to 9700'. What have you done lately?" For some people it's a way to connect with where they are: "wow, I didn't expect the tree line to be so low." Or "in the valley the plants look like spring, but here at 4500' it's still winter" (personally seen on the Blue Ridge Parkway National Park.).
Info about the satellite constellation is a "nice to know" for bike-oriented GPS receivers. In some applications, the information isn't so "nice to have". Receivers intended for marine use almost always include the information as a diagnostic for poor position fixes. Agreed it's little more than a play toy on a 550.
Regarding screen real estate... IMNSHO the right side's thermometer is a dead loss. It says zip about miles and minutes into a route or to the end of the trip. ETA, ETT, DTA, and DTG as numbers, are more informative than a line and pointer that barely gives xx% of a route completion. Without a distance and time scale on the line, the distance between gas station (or other) icons is misleading. What looks like a gas station close to the current position can be, depending on the length of the route, few to many miles apart. In short, the thermometer is little more than " less / more than halfway there". To get more real estate, remove the near useless thermometer.
It has never been a hardware issue. I had an older TomTom unit that had a third-party software add-in that added elevation to the display with remarkable accuracy. Unfortunately, subsequent models appear to have locked developers out that possibility.
The best explanation I've ever seen for this abhorrence for the subject of elevation is that TomTom is a Dutch company. The Netherlands is about 21% below sea level, and less than 50% of their country rises more than about three feet above. Ergo, they have no concept of 'elevation' because their country of origin doesn't have any.
My new Garmin handles elevation quite nicely.
My Garmin 660, among its few pluses, can distinguish Death Valley from a pass in the Rockies.
Guess from these comments I'm SOL. Oh well.....
But... We saw no reference to updates until about a week ago. I found WiFi support at a campground and loaded the changes. I can treat my phone as a hot spot but the Rider doesn't see that as WiFi. Why there's no support for hot spot connections escapes me.
And the altitude thing came back. In addition to reporting altitude-related data to our firmware developer, we found our van slowing down for no obvious reason. At some point we'd get a clue that we were on a long climb that was just steep enough to overwhelm the motor (100 lbs of clothes for two, provisions and water for two, etc. add significant weight which handicaps the 91 HP motor). Seeing the altitude slowly increase moves from "nice to have for bragging rights" to understanding what the road's doing.
Enough winging - who do I contact to say not every country has only "[t]he Vaalserber[,] a hill with a height of 322.4 metres (1,058 ft) above NAP and the highest point in mainland Netherlands." (Thus doth Google/Wikipedia say - minor changes added) Garman provides altitude support even in Kansas. Note that Kansas is literally flatter than a pancake. Yes, winging again.
Superuser
On my GO Camper if I have it connected via Bluetooth to my Apple Phone then it does not see my Phones Hotspot turned on. If I however stop the Bluetooth connection it then sees the Hotspot.
Does that help.
Doug