Zumo 590 + 595 & Basecamp - What the Manuals Do not Tell.

[jfheath]

So, contemplating for a while on this, it seems I simply need to avoid using roads that are clearly marked in Base Camp as roads that are in fact not roads. Right?

Now you've got it !

There's absolutely nothing you could have done about this situation - nothing that would have made sense at the time anyway.

But there are things you can do to help to deal with the the gotchas that the Zumo can throw up. Its largely to do with making sure you plan routes in a particular way and use the various types of point to best advantage. Get it right (and it isn't difficult) and you will be able to keep your hands off the Zumo when riding and either follow or ignore the instructions and know exactly what the Zumo will do as a result.

Give me a day or two, and I'll put some simple, jargon free, easy to follow, illustrated notes for you.

Is Linville local to you ? It will make more sense if I can create a local example for you to go out and try.

Don't bother about the screen shot - sorry the request gave you a headache. @sussamb provided me with the confirmation that there was no road on the Garmin maps, which was what I needed to see.

[sussamb]

Nope, I said there was a road but it doesn't exist on the ground, or is that what you meant to say?

[jfheath]

Quite right. Yes thats what I meant.

[rbentnail]

Is Linville local to you ? It will make more sense if I can create a local example for you to go out and try.

Linville is about 150 miles to the west of me. I'm in a town called Asheboro, North Carolina. Would it help if I provided you with routes? I have many that I have never had a problem with, perhaps you can tell me the differences that make them "right" to follow.

[sussamb]

One thing that would be useful to know is how you create these routes. Do you generally import routes from other sources or create your own? Either way do you install or create them directly on your device or use BaseCamp and then send the routes to your Zumo? Have you any feel for which methodology tends to give you more problems?

[jfheath]

Linville is about 150 miles to the west of me. I'm in a town called Asheboro, North Carolina. Would it help if I provided you with routes? I have many that I have never had a problem with, perhaps you can tell me the differences that make them "right" to follow.

If they work OK, then there is no problem - but yes, send me some and I'll certainly take a look and offer suggestions. I'll pm you an email address if that is easier to use than adding attachments on here.

[rbentnail]

One thing that would be useful to know is how you create these routes. Do you generally import routes from other sources or create your own? Either way do you install or create them directly on your device or use BaseCamp and then send the routes to your Zumo? Have you any feel for which methodology tends to give you more problems?

I create my own routes, very rarely do I ever import others. I create them using Base Camp and then drag & drop to my SD card and import for use.

I've never really created a route so much. It's pretty annoying to me. But I hve picked a final point with one or two via/shaping points on the zumo and that seems to work well as long as I remember to do it in that order, starting farthest away and then moving closer. I usually have only one or two points, maybe 3, but the zumo handles this fine.

[Madtiger]

Thankyou for this information, I'll send you a PM for the document...

I have the new XT and am struggling to get to grips (with off road riding) after having a Montana before.

Questions...

1. Can I upload and use maps from third parties (i.e. Talkytoaster) as I have done with the Montana before? - I know Garmin say the topo maps in the XT now include off road tracks, but do they really include all the byways etc. that are included with opensource maps such as the ones from Talkytoaster (BTW: highly recommend his maps)?

2. Do I still need to use tracks for off road riding, or can I now start to use routes(trips) in the XT with shaping points and be sure I will be directed along the exact route I had planned?

3. You say I should use the same map in basecamp as on the device when route planning (fully understand why!), it takes ages to load the map from the XT when I connect to my Mac, in order to use the same map. Is there a way to speed that up, or keep the map loaded in basecamp somehow. I seem to remember that you could copy the map image from the Garmin device to a usb stick (in a folder called Garmin) and leave that in your PC/Mac to speed up basecamp loading the map for planning use, is that still the case?

Any help greatly appreciated

Steve

[jfheath]

I noticed your PM, so I'll add more detail as best I can to my reply, along with the file.

Quick Answers

1. Yes. I dont know of TalkyToaster, but I use OSM maps - Sometimes. They are very detailed, but do not have road speed limits, so route times and ETAs are way off.

2. I dont know. I had a first play yesterday with the Europe maos, found a track that asecamp plotted a route along if i set the vehicle to off road. The route was transferred correctly to Zumo, but recalculated if I changed the preferences to car in the Zumo. I couldn't get the topo maps to show up in Basecamp. Express did not have an option to install them. I may have missed something.

3. I dont know. See answer above. I am not an off-roader, but still keen to find out. My next step is to try routing along tracks with OSM. So far I have been less than pleased with XT due to a couple of issues, both reported, one acknowledged and one mysteriously resolved (apparently). I am less than convinced with the benefits of the Garmin Explore website, but their maps are superb with increased detail on Zoom in showing contours, and ending up with satellite imagery. Still more research to do on that.

Nb if you have 3rd party maps active (ie ticked in MyMaps on XT), then disable the others that you are not using. The Zumos do weird things if it has two routable maps running for the same area.

[sussamb]

Just to add there is nothing special about TalkyToaster maps, his are based on the OSM database like all OSM maps. Difference is he charges for some of his whereas most OSM mapping is free