bonj said:
so what does it display on the screen then, just a line with a dot for the position where you are, which is normally (if you haven't gone the wrong way) positioned somewhere on the line?
The route you are following is shown as a solid line on the screen, twisting and turning to represent the shape of the route you've programmed in.
You are represented by a little walking man icon, always centre-screen (no cyclist icon available, but I'm sure that someone somewhere will have hacked the firmware to do that!).
You can set the Etrex to always have north at the top of the screen, but that feels counter-intuitive to me. I prefer the other option, which is to show where you are heading towards at the top of the screen (and an arrow to show where north is). As you turn, the display rotates the breadcrumb trail round to keep the icon marching in the right direction.
If you programmed a very accurate route in, the icon would pretty much be on the line all the time. I just program in all decision points (junctions, roundabouts etc.) and enough 'via' points to give a reasonable approximation to the shape of the road. If I programmed in the climb from Mytholmroyd to Blackstone Edge, I might just plot a straight line between the 2 points because it is one road for 6 miles. It might twist and turn, but I can ignore that and stick on the road until the junction at the top, which will be clearly marked.
You can zoom the display scale in and out, but you can't pan it. Your position is always shown centre-screen. I don't like that because it means that you can only examine the route in detail where you are. The only way to see somewhere off the screen is to zoom out and all detail is lost.
It's a really simple system, but I like it because it is easy to take in at a glance when riding.
The one thing about the basic Etrex that I don't like is that there is no audible warning that you are approaching a turn. A little warning box pops up on the screen saying "Turn Ahead" but that seems stupid to me. If you are looking at the breadcrumb trail, you can already see that. If you aren't looking at the screen you won't see the warning box either! I'd like the thing to beep at me to remind me to look down at the screen when I need to. In practice, you do get into the habit quite quickly. I've only missed a couple of turns because I was talking to someone, but I've always noticed soon afterwards. Some models higher in the range do have audible warnings.