Tips and Tricks, and Bugs

What is astonishing about the RoadMate 360 is how badly its finer features are documented. All of these features are built into ROM, but the manual doesn't say anything about them. None of these will hurt your RoadMate, so have at them. Some of these tricks may apply to other RoadMates, although I have not tested them (the RM300 seems especially likely).

This page is current as of version 1.81, the most current available firmware revision. You can see your machine's firmware under the OPTION menu, User Options, Diagnostics, Product Information.

Resetting the RM360

Under most circumstances you can forcibly power off the RM360 even if it ignores you by holding down the power button for about 10 seconds. Naturally, if this fails, just yank the power.

Getting Altitude, Heading and Speed Data

The RM360 collects full 3D lock data, not just the latitude and longitude it displays in LOCATE. To see the altitude, select User Settings, Diagnostics (use this fast sequence: down arrow three times, ENTER, minus button twice, up arrow once, ENTER), then GPS Status and press ENTER (i.e., hit ENTER twice). You will then see all the GPS statistics.

Note that altitude is given in metres, just to give us a headache in the USA. Recall that a meter = 39.37 inches = 3.28 feet.

If you're curious about what all the other information is, there is a terse explanation in the manual under Appendix A.

Using the RM360 as an Atlas

The Lowrance units and some others have an incredibly useful feature where you can punch in an address and then arbitrarily go and look at the location on the map as if you were there (like having Google Maps in your car). Although the RM360 doesn't let you do that per se, I came up with a kludge to do almost the same thing.

Make sure you are not already panning on a map; if you are, tap CANCEL.
In the map view, tap OPTION.
Select User Settings, Diagnostics. Again, there is a fast sequence to do this: down arrow three times, ENTER, minus button twice, up arrow once, ENTER.
Select Initialize GPS and say Yes (buttons: down arrow once, ENTER, ENTER).
Select Set GPS Position and enter an address or city name. (Buttons: down arrow once, ENTER, and then go from there.)
Tap CANCEL three times to return to the map and immediately pan it with the touch screen or the arrows. Now you can arbitrarily scroll around and zoom in and out. If you wait too long and it exits map mode, just pan it again.
When you're done, tap CANCEL, OPTION and initialize the GPS again. If you want, you can directly set the GPS position back to where you were for a faster lock, or wait for it to reacquire manually, although this can take several minutes.

Although this is a bit convoluted, it's quick to learn, and makes the RM360 quite handy as a handheld map. Probably not so useful now that many of us can get maps on our cellphones, but you might appreciate this trick when you're out in the boonies with no cell reception.

Using Simulator Mode

The manual talks a little bit about this (the .pdf on CD has it on page 81, although my Mac gives it as page 87), but what it allows you to do is to preview your route at up to 2x "typical speed" (presumably speed limit). Quite useful if you're unfamiliar with the area, or don't trust the RM360's ability to route. You could also use this as an alternative way of turning the RM360 into an atlas, although if you're in California and trying to view an address in Maine, you might be waiting awhile. Anyway:

OPTION, User Settings, Diagnostics (like above; see the last tip for the button sequence).
Choose Simulator Mode (buttons: minus button three times, up arrow twice, ENTER).
Tap ENTER to toggle simulator mode on or off.
Tap the down arrow once. Use left and right arrow to select your desired speed factor and tap ENTER. Btw, I strongly recommend 2x.
Tap CANCEL five times for the main screen and select a route. After you enter it, an amusing prompt will ungrammatically ask, Would you like simulate driving this route? If you say No, it will route as usual.
However, if you say Yes, the RM360 will proceed as if you are driving the route and you will "move" along the routing at typical speeds. Tap CANCEL to switch between the map and the simulator mode screen. Tap the Restart, <<1mi (Step Back) and 1mi>> (Step Forward) buttons on the screen to adjust the trip.
When you're done with the simulation, tap Stop on the screen.

You can just leave the simulator option on unless the prompt really bugs you. Note that every time a new route is generated, you will be asked this question (that means wrong turns as well).

The routing crash bug affects simulator mode too (see below).

Routing Directly To Lat/Long

You can't directly punch in a latitude and longitude, but if you know roughly where that particular coordinate is and can get close, you can route to that first, scroll the cursor to the desired coordinates with the touch screen or the arrows, and press ENTER. A screen asking Route To This Address? with the coordinates will appear. From there you can go straight into routing, or save it to the Address Book for later.

You can also use the map trick above, but you can't directly route to the coordinates straight away because the GPS information is fouled. Save it instead, set your GPS back to the correct location, acquire a lock (or it will hang the unit!!), and then route to it from the Address Book.

Bugs

Jump to tips/tricks

NEVER, EVER select Reformat internal memory under the Repair menu. Although less catastrophic on the RM360 than on the RM300, it will cause your sound system to be lost (no audio or voice), you will obviously lose all system settings, stored locations, etc., and there may be other problems with your unit. On the RM300, a firmware flash may fix this, but there is no known way to do this with the RM360 which was designed to be a purely stand-alone unit (there is no software on the RM360 CD to do it, and I would be very leery of using the RM300's firmware utility or you might end up even worse than when you started). If you have a unit that is making no sound even with the headphones, it was probably formatted.
The only known solution is to reflash the internal data from a working unit -- now that the line is discontinued, Magellan will not fix a busted unit even if you pay them. You can read about a potential method for this approach from the Hacking page, but there is no guarantee it will work. Do not send me E-mail asking for a copy of the firmware from my unit! -- it's too large and I'm not interested in being on the wrong end of Magellan's legal team.
It is a total mystery why a catastrophic option like this is user-accessible.
The RM360 may crash while route generation is occurring if a good GPS lock has not been established. In fact, it crashes so hard that it even ignores the power button. Pulling the power out is the only way to regain control. This problem is most acute if the GPS information was recently cleared, so make sure you have a good solid lock first.

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