Zumo 590 Screen Theme

[MSTOCK27370]

I have had several different Garmin GPS devices. Right now I am using a 590, 450 and 550.

I find that both the Zumo 450 and 550 have bright easily defined display colors. The roads are easy to see and the color differences make it easy to see streets regardless of the type of surrounding terrain.

On the other hand, I find the 590 display to be dull and the colors are often dark enough to make identifying the actual road difficult.

So is there a display "theme file" that I can load to my 590 that comes close to mimicking the 450/550 display theme?

[jfheath]

Make sure that your brightness hasn't turned itself down. For the 590 it needs to be at 100% , because it isn't the brightest display in the world. Also make sure that the display setting is set to automatic or daylight - not night time.

With the 590 the battery has never had a good output - the unit will turn itself down to 40 or even 20% if it has been without power for a few minutes. The display should return to 100% when it has bike power, but for me that sometimes does not happen, and I have to turn it up again. These days I always use it with the charger connected inside the house.

To answer your question about themes. I don't know. What theme are you using in the 550/450 ? ! I used the Garmin or Uk theme mainly - but not because of the brightness issue. I still find the 590 screen perfectly usable - even after owning the superbright XT.

Polarising spectacle lenses do not work well with LCD screens. (I am not sure how this affects the 590/595 - I had to stop driving with polaroids because of this effect on other displays).

[rbentnail]

Yes! There are if you 590 will use the same themes as my 595 does. I used this thread -> viewtopic.php?f=12&t=178&hilit=theme to download many and for instructions of how to use. I found they do not work with the XT.

[MSTOCK27370]

Make sure that your brightness hasn't turned itself down. For the 590 it needs to be at 100% ,..........

To answer your question about themes. I don't know. What theme are you using in the 550/450 ? ! I used the Garmin or Uk theme mainly - but not because of the brightness issue. I still find the 590 screen perfectly usable - even after owning the superbright XT.

Polarising spectacle lenses do not work well with LCD screens. (I am not sure how this affects the 590/595 - I had to stop driving with polaroids because of this effect on other displays).

Thanks. I will verify that brightness is at 100%

Just checked my Zumo 450. The 450/550 do not have definable Themes. There might be a file in one of the folders, but there is no screen that allows you to select from different display themes. This is why I was hoping that someone had possibly built a Theme that came close to the very easy to see 450 colors.

I never ride with sunglasses, polarized or other.

[lkraus]

I've been pretty happy with the attached theme. It started as a a high contrast theme that I've tweaked just a little so a magenta line shows better in a green park area. It also widens tracks so they "peek out" behind a route if you display both.

I had to zip it as the forum software does not accept a .kmtf file extension, even though it is just a text file.

Unzip and copy to your Zumo internal memory \Themes\Map\ and then change to the new theme in Settings>Map & Vehicle>Map Theme.

[rbentnail]

I tested a lot of themes on my 595 then deleted most of them. Glad you found what works for you. I never could understand how folks changed them so I just used what was available. I found I liked the bluer backgrounds on sunny days and the yellower ones on cloudy days.

[MSTOCK27370]

I've been pretty happy with the attached theme. It started as a a high contrast theme that I've tweaked just a little so a magenta line shows better in a green park area. It also widens track ...

Unzip and copy to your Zumo internal memory \Themes\Map\ and then change to the new theme in Settings>Map & Vehicle>Map Theme.

Thank you lkraus. I will copy the theme to my 590 and check it out.

[MSTOCK27370]

Thanks to those who responded to my inquiry. The Theme suggestions and especially the links to old threads were very helpful.

None of the themes were close enough to my goal of getting close to the 450/550 color scheme.
So, I used the Jawawa Tools page to edit the Auto Club theme. There were previously three Auto Club themes, so I created Auto Club 04. In this theme, I changed the background to a light yellow/tan color instead of the light grey background. I brightened the green used for woods and parks. And I modified the major and minor road colors to a medium orange color with a black edge. This was all "daylight" mode.

I reviewed this on my 590 and it looks very good. I will take it out for a ride later today. If any other 590/595 users would like to give this a try, I have attached the theme file in a zip folder here. I would appreciate any feedback and suggestions for improvements.

Auto Club 04.zip

(1.18 KiB) Downloaded 1001 times

[MSTOCK27370]

I rode today and tried the 590 with a planned route and also just the map. Looked good, but I decided to make a few more modifications to the Auto Club 04 theme. I made the residential streets line slightly thicker. I tried adjusting the land background further, but it appears that the 590 doesn't make adjustments to the standard map background, because I am not seeing any changes from the grey. The green wooded areas did change per my edit in the theme and with a lighter green the road stands out much clearer.

Here's the revised Auto Club 04 file

Auto Club 04.zip

(1.17 KiB) Downloaded 1028 times

[MSTOCK27370]

Another edit to my Map Theme. Based on todays ride, I made the major and minor roads color more intense (orange), and I made the parks and woods green a little lighter so the road would be more distinct. The slight increase in thickness of residential roads (black) made them stand out and very easy to see.

So, here's the Auto Club 04 theme - hopefully my last edit, unless someone has a good suggestion.

Auto Club 04.zip

(1.17 KiB) Downloaded 1024 times