6. Powering on the RoadMate 3000T the First Time

Figure 22: When you power on the RoadMate 3000T, you briefly see a loading progress bar and the Magellan logo

Figure 23: The RoadMate asks you if you want to see some new user tips. The icons on the right hand side indicate a full battery charge, and the unit is connected to AC power.

Figure 24: Here are at the Main Menu of the RoadMate 3000T. I have to admit it: I get a warm & fuzzy feeling when I see Magellan's tried and true user interface. Maybe it's more a function of Magellan being my first exposure GPS navigation all those years ago, but I just love the simplicity Magellan brings to the user interface. That said, I feel Magellan has taken from frustrating steps in the wrong direction. As Magellan adds new features to their product line, the software interface is getting more and more cluttered as new features creep in.

Adding to this problem is Magellan's perplexing decision not to use any words on the buttons on the unit, and represent everything with cryptic symbols instead. I suppose this may have been done for international markets, but what was once wonderfully simple has become much more complex. I found myself having to lookup in the manual what each button does. I really wish Magellan had put words instead of symbols on the buttons.

Figure 25: I always like to check the firmware version and make sure that I'm using the most current version. In this case, no update was available, so I proceeded.

7. A Word About Sleep Mode

The 3000T has something called "Sleep Mode", which can be confusing. Sleep mode is a limited power mode that saves battery power. When "waking up" from sleep mode, the time to acquire a satellite signal is faster than a cold boot.

To enable sleep mode, you press and hold the power button for 2-3 seconds. The unit shuts off and the power indicator light glows dimly. The power off completely, you press and hold the power button for 10 seconds. This completely powers down the RoadMate 3000T.

At first I thought this was a terrible idea -- unless you had carefully read the manual, there's no way you would know that you had to hold down the power button for an additional 7 seconds after the unit appeared to be off before it was actually "off". But then I thought about it, and I actually like the idea. Assuming you normally leave the unit connected in the car, this is a nice way to have the unit always ready to navigate. If you don't use for long enough that the battery completely drains, then the boot time is the same as a normal cold boot.

You can also configure the 3000T to automatically go into sleep mode after 20 minutes of inactivity (to enable this, press Menu -> System Settings -> Power Management -> Auto Power Off -> OK)

I could see this being annoying if you thought the unit was off, and brought the unit on a trip thinking you had a full charge, only to find out Sleep Mode has drained the battery. For my usage though, I found it a useful feature.

8. Navigating with the Magellan RoadMate 3000T

Figure 26: Text entry with the RoadMate 3000T

Entering text in the RoadMate 3000T is similar to most other GPS units. As you type out a name, the RoadMate dims the letters that are no longer available, leaving only letters that form possible matches to names in the map database. Magellan calls this technology QuickSpell.

Figure 27: The Magellan RoadMate 3000T has three screens you can use: the Map screen, the Maneuver List screen, and the TrueView/Split TrueView screen. Personally I like the TrueView/Split TrueView screen the best. Sometimes the maneuver list can be helpful. For example, if the RoadMate loses its GPS signal for more than a few seconds, the Maneuver List pops up. This is useful because instead of showing you an incorrect map position, you can read the directions and see where you're supposed to turn.

Figure 28: The main map view

The Map screen is the most commonly used screen on the 3000T, providing information about wher