Advice and tips on using Garmin 1000 for navigating?

[jay clock]

I have just got one of these with OSM base maps. I will be using in one of two ways - either circular day rides using pre planned gpx routes - have worked out how to do that and tested it. Other option is point to point on tour (France first, then UK). I have preplanned the France route (Med to Channel) but all sorts of things can conspire to mean I have to vary the plan

Specific questions

1 The routing option allows me to select a point on the map and hopefully it will get me there (!) but I am not able to choose cities from the options. When I type in London it does;t find it.....? Any clues, or is it best to just choose points on the map screen?

2 Anyway of creating a GPX route on my iPad while away and copying it to the Garmin?

3 I already have a Garmin 920 XT watch and the sodding quarter turn mounts are 90 degree different. So I either need two mounts on the bike or to remove and refit each time.

4 Any other navigating on the hoof suggestions or top tips?

Many thanks

Jake

 

[fossyant]

Get a Windows tablet for doing GPX. Apple stuff doesn't like Garmin kit much.

 

[Mile195]

I have one too. Here's my two cents:

1 - Yes, I find this too. For example, it doesn't find "Westerham" in the database, but when I point to it on the map, the town name is there clear as day. I don't know why. I suggest you just use the pin.

2 - No.You have to copy courses from a PC using a cable it would seem. It won't sync and do it via Garmin Connect or anything. PS: Don't use .GPX. Use .TCX. I tried GPX courses and it's a bit "buggy". A friend told me that GPX files only include the "waypoints" so your garmin has to calculate the routing which is slow. .TCX includes the routing so the Garmin needs to do less processing.

3 - How annoying... but I'm afraid I don't have a workaround for you!

4 - Where to begin.....
- If you're using built in routing (rather than downloading courses to it) put in a number of places you want to go through that take the route you have in mind. If you try to calculate a long route with only two places it will take an age, and usually sends you miles and miles out of the way. I haven't really worked out why yet.
- As well as being able to minimise distance, ascent or time, if you look deeper in the menus you will find you can set it to route you as if you're in a car. This is useful in cities where you probably just want to use main roads rather than being sent on silly diversions round housing estates. It also minimises (but not removes completely) the risk of getting sent off on a detour that makes your journey 10% or more longer if you're simply trying to get somewhere quickly.
-SCRUTINISE THE ROUTE IT GIVES YOU CAREFULLY! I find that despite selecting all the right settings, it will randomly send me off of a perfectly good road to ride through a housing estate, then come back out on the exact same main road 50 meters further on. When it's calculated the route, check it and make a mental note of any instructions to ignore. Like any sat-nav, don't disregard all your feelings that you're going the wrong way and just blindly follow it. the 1000 is good, but it's not perfect.

Finally - SEGMENTS - They DO NOT WORK. Garmin don't tell you this on their website, and they haven't worked for at least 2 months now. It think it's well out of order that they're selling a product supposedly with a feature that doesn't work but I've emailed them several times and it's clear they couldn't give a monkeys. I presume they're getting kickback from Strava Premium memberships, so it's not in their interests to fix it. I know you haven't asked about them but I just don't want you to go through the hours and hours of trying to work out what's wrong with them like I did!

 

[jay clock]

useful tips. many thanks. @fossyant unfortunately adding another gadget to the kit list is too pricey

@Mile195 all good points. I just experienced what you said about bonkers diversions when i tested it on a short car trip. tried to divert me down a side street

Segments not of interest to me with this device

All those route planning suggestions very welcome. I need to go out and try a few things and see what happens.

Biggest issue so far is battery life. Extra battery pack will be on hand for my long tours

 

[Mile195]

useful tips. many thanks. @fossyant unfortunately adding another gadget to the kit list is too pricey

@Mile195 all good points. I just experienced what you said about bonkers diversions when i tested it on a short car trip. tried to divert me down a side street

Segments not of interest to me with this device

All those route planning suggestions very welcome. I need to go out and try a few things and see what happens.

Biggest issue so far is battery life. Extra battery pack will be on hand for my long tours

I find the battery lasts alright. But I have the screen brightness turned down to the first "dash" at all times, and I don't keep bluetooth or wifi switched on. You can save even more battery by turning off GLONASS and using GPS only, apparently.

Oh, one more word on navigation. I have had instances where it's told me to use a cycle path next to a road. I carry on using the road. Fine for a while then it works out I'm not on the cycle path and tells me to do a U-turn. I presume it's trying to send me back to the last place it knows I should be able to access the cycle path. Obviously don't do a U-Turn... Ignore, ignore ignore!

 

[Racing roadkill]

If you want to end up 100 odd miles from where you actually intended to go, it's a superb idea. Make sure you have a way of getting it recharged, en route, or not only do you risk being way short of your intended target, but you won't be able to get back. But seriously, IMHO, the Garmins do GPS speed, and all the other stuff ( CADENCE, POWWWWWER) etc. very well, just not spectacular on guidance / routing.

 

[jay clock]

If you want to end up 100 odd miles from where you actually intended to go, it's a superb idea. Make sure you have a way of getting it recharged, en route, or not only do you risk being way short of your intended target, but you won't be able to get back. But seriously, IMHO, the Garmins do GPS speed, and all the other stuff ( CADENCE, POWWWWWER) etc. very well, just not spectacular on guidance / routing.

sadly it is the nav I want. My 920XT measures all the stats fine! Will perservere. I think I have the GPX/course following sussed, it is how to navigate to a destination if I am away from preplanned GPX routes!

 

[HLaB]

2 Anyway of creating a GPX route on my iPad while away and copying it to the Garmin?

Does the iPad have a micro USB port, if not you might be able to get a card reader adapter? I used a card to transfer data from my tablet to the garmin when the cable wasn't working.

 

[jay clock]

Does the iPad have a micro USB port, if not you might be able to get a card reader adapter? I used a card to transfer data from my tablet to the garmin when the cable wasn't working.

No. It only has a standard iPad/iPhone plug hole. I did wonder if I could get reader to plug into that but googling has not given that as solution to the problem of getting the stuff onto the Garmin

One other solution is that instead of the Ipad I take my MacBook Air which adds about 700g to my bag plus a bigger risk in cost etc if lost or stolen

 

[jay clock]

Other solution is to use paper maps! Which I will have anyway (got a 1:200k michelin atlas that I will rip pages from [ebay, dirt cheap secondhand]) - issue is that my eyesight for reading is oldmanish!

 

[John the Monkey]

If you want to end up 100 odd miles from where you actually intended to go, it's a superb idea. Make sure you have a way of getting it recharged, en route, or not only do you risk being way short of your intended target, but you won't be able to get back. But seriously, IMHO, the Garmins do GPS speed, and all the other stuff ( CADENCE, POWWWWWER) etc. very well, just not spectacular on guidance / routing.

Certainly with OSM, a lot can depend on how well the local area has been mapped, but that caveat aside, I used my 800 to navigate in the Nord Pas de Calais, and Champagne quite successfully. Mostly, I used pre-planned routes (plotted on ridewithgps), and only came to grief once, when the lovely path identified by the mapper turned out to be a rather rough forest track (a combination of taking it easy, and walking got me through that).

I had to use the unit's own calculated navigation once, to cut short a planned circular ride in the Nord Pas de Calais, and it worked fine, plotting me a nicely direct route back to the rental cottage.

Have you seen this?
http://www.forgot.co.uk/garmin-edge-navigation/garmin-edge-1000/

I know that the 800 needed some tweaks to its routing when working with OSM - it looks like the 1000 does too

 

[jay clock]

Certainly with OSM, a lot can depend on how well the local area has been mapped, but that caveat aside, I used my 800 to navigate in the Nord Pas de Calais, and Champagne quite successfully. Mostly, I used pre-planned routes (plotted on ridewithgps), and only came to grief once, when the lovely path identified by the mapper turned out to be a rather rough forest track (a combination of taking it easy, and walking got me through that).

I had to use the unit's own calculated navigation once, to cut short a planned circular ride in the Nord Pas de Calais, and it worked fine, plotting me a nicely direct route back to the rental cottage.

Have you seen this?
http://www.forgot.co.uk/garmin-edge-navigation/garmin-edge-1000/

I know that the 800 needed some tweaks to its routing when working with OSM - it looks like the 1000 does too

cheers @John the Monkey - and yes I had seen that link that was very useful. I have now got to grips with the basics and going to practise a bit

One top tip I saw (may be on that link) is that once a route is planned on RWGPS, drag the Pegman so the roads light up blue. If all your route is blue then Google went down there and so can you...

 

[John the Monkey]

One top tip I saw (may be on that link) is that once a route is planned on RWGPS, drag the Pegman so the roads light up blue. If all your route is blue then Google went down there and so can you...

Yep, although I don't think they'd have travelled along the little service routes through the vineyards of Champagne - missing those because of pegman would have been a shame

 

[HLaB]

No. It only has a standard iPad/iPhone plug hole. I did wonder if I could get reader to plug into that but googling has not given that as solution to the problem of getting the stuff onto the Garmin

One other solution is that instead of the Ipad I take my MacBook Air which adds about 700g to my bag plus a bigger risk in cost etc if lost or stolen

This any good to you

You might need to run an emulator to get the iPad to recognise the garmin file structure if it a windows based system.