Focus XT - RUT Behaviour History & Update

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jfheath
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Focus XT - RUT Behaviour History & Update

Post by jfheath »

The progress to the development of the solution to the RUT behaviour displayed by the XT has been a lengthy one, starting way back in May 2020.

There are lots of different threads - I thought it would be useful to bring them together in one post so that they can be found easily for reference. I have done this at the bottom.

For anyone coming to this thread from cold a brief explanation is probably required.
In certain circumstances, routes that have been transferred to the XT from mapping programs may seem to repeatedly demand that you perform a U turn, when a better way to reach the next via or shaping point is clearly to continue ahead.

'Being stuck in a rut' seemed to be a good phrase to describe this behaviour, so I decided that in this case 'RUT' stood for 'Repeated U Turns'.
This post is designed to bring together the various threads of the discussion - which first started 3 years ago !

Note that similar U turn behaviour can happen legitimately - eg if you do not pass through the start point; if you miss a via point; if a route point is inaccurately placed. This discussion has nothing to do with that situation which is usually caused by planning or riding issues. We've all made those kind of errors before - well, I certainly have !

Spoiler alert - we now have a fix for this behaviour. Garmin are still working on their own solution - so I am told.

Many thanks to @rbentnail for pointing out that anyone not involved in this discussion would not have a clue what this thread is all about, without a brief explanation.
Throughout this I have been in regular and frequent contact with Garmin Technical Support. My first ticket on the subject was in January 2022 - after doing a lot of testing and experiments to be sure that I knew what I was seeing. This thread died - ie very helpful, but then no reply, and my follow up was simply ignored.

So I started again - this time with a phone call. This very quickly escalated to a different key product support member who has been working on it with me ever since. We eliminated all other possibilities and she escalated it again to the team in USA - and it has been waiting in their queue for a while. I have kept in touch every 6 weeks or so for a progress report.

I wrote again a couple of weeks ago and got a reply yesterday afternoon (Fri 25 Aug 2023)

Dear John,

Hope you've been keeping well! I promise I have not forgotten to reply nor am I ignoring you by any means! We're still looking into this, but I'm working closely with the US on this - I'm going to be out all of next week due to holiday but will be back the week after and I'll reach out to you then, I am hoping to have a reference I can give you by then that you can share with the forum members and a few other things.

I just wanted to reach out to acknowledge your email, and that I'll be back in touch when I've returned from holiday!

Kind regards,


I'm not sure whether this means that they have made progress, or whether it just means that they have started to look at it. Whatever, we will find out soon enough, and it sounds more promising than ever before. So the subject isn't dead yet. Just taking time.

------------
Here are some links to the various threads where the RUT issue has been discussed.

20-05-05 : Zumo XT Glitches
21-09-15 : Routing errors (again) - any idea of a point of contact that may care ?
22-01-17 : XT Insists that I follow original Route, rather than calculate a new one.
22-07-30 : Routes Prepared in MyRouteApp - Used with XT
22-08-12 : XT More Observations when Driving Routes.
22-08-18 : Focus XT - Recalculating - The Breadcrumb Trail
22-11-02 : Zumo XT - Software Update ??
22-11-27 : Weird Routing Behaviour
23-05-18 : Weird Routing Behaviour - Major Success
23-05-23 : Java program to fix the routing behaviour of the XT.
23-06-01 : Summary of tools to fix the trips on the XT

Also

22-10-30 : Focus XT - Reported Faults and Status
Have owned Zumo 550, 660 == Now have Zumo XT2, XT, 595, 590, Headache
Use Basecamp (mainly), MyRouteApp (sometimes), Competent with Tread for XT2, Can use Explore for XT - but it offers nothing that I want !

Links: Zumo 590/5 & BC . . . Zumo XT & BC
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simoncrewe
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Re: Focus XT - RUT Behaviour History & Update

Post by simoncrewe »

Hi - just to say thank you very much for all your work & perseverance.
Stu
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Re: Focus XT - RUT Behaviour History & Update

Post by Stu »

@jfheath I am guessing your contact at Garmin is having a very long holiday? :?

Is it time we all started to report this issue to show how frustrated we all are with it?
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Re: Focus XT - RUT Behaviour History & Update

Post by Plainmad »

That might actually be the best idea.
I feel we’re not asking for the world getting them to fix this bug
jfheath
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Re: Focus XT - RUT Behaviour History & Update

Post by jfheath »

Yeah. I've been away too, and too busy to get down to this again. I'll email tomorrow.

Theres that chap on the forum too.
Have owned Zumo 550, 660 == Now have Zumo XT2, XT, 595, 590, Headache
Use Basecamp (mainly), MyRouteApp (sometimes), Competent with Tread for XT2, Can use Explore for XT - but it offers nothing that I want !

Links: Zumo 590/5 & BC . . . Zumo XT & BC
FrankB
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Re: Focus XT - RUT Behaviour History & Update

Post by FrankB »

Stu wrote: 20 Sep 2023 19:21 Is it time we all started to report this issue to show how frustrated we all are with it?
Would it be an idea, if at all technically possible, to create a 'poll' on this forum? And send those reults to Garmin.
The question(s) to ask would have to be carefully thought of.
FrankB
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Re: Focus XT - RUT Behaviour History & Update

Post by FrankB »

If I look at the times the Java program has been downloaded. (500+) It is an issue that matters to a lot of people. That should put pressure on Garmin, but I doubt they care.

I have asked Jaco, Javawa online trip repair tool, if he has statistics. I will post them here if and when he responds.

@jfheath Fingers crossed that your efforts pay off.

Edit: Jaco responded promptly Alas. The English/German stats are not yet available. The Dutch stats are somewhat mediocre. 21 repairs last month, by 4 unique IP addresses
jfheath
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Re: Focus XT - RUT Behaviour History & Update

Post by jfheath »

Needed to do family stuff today. Back home now: I've just sent a brief email to say that I had been hoping for a response by now.

It would be really useful to know whether or not the XT2 displays exactly the same issue in the same circumstances.
Have owned Zumo 550, 660 == Now have Zumo XT2, XT, 595, 590, Headache
Use Basecamp (mainly), MyRouteApp (sometimes), Competent with Tread for XT2, Can use Explore for XT - but it offers nothing that I want !

Links: Zumo 590/5 & BC . . . Zumo XT & BC
FrankB
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Re: Focus XT - RUT Behaviour History & Update

Post by FrankB »

jfheath wrote: 21 Sep 2023 16:07 It would be really useful to know whether or not the XT2 displays exactly the same issue in the same circumstances.
Agree. And if the fix can be applied.
Stu
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Re: Focus XT - RUT Behaviour History & Update

Post by Stu »

FrankB wrote: 21 Sep 2023 14:27
Stu wrote: 20 Sep 2023 19:21 Is it time we all started to report this issue to show how frustrated we all are with it?
Would it be an idea, if at all technically possible, to create a 'poll' on this forum? And send those reults to Garmin.
The question(s) to ask would have to be carefully thought of.
Yes there is no issue with creating a poll but will they listen?