FrothNinja
Veteran
Well hold your Crazy Horses, to me the entire catalogue was diabolicalWell Long Haired Lover from Liverpool and Puppy Love were dreadful
bar one 
Sat Navigation device question
- Thread starter bluemirage
- Start date
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bar one 
HobbesOnTour
Guru
- Location
- España
@bluemirage (see what I did there?
)Without meaning to be a smartass have you considered that sweat or rain falling on the phone was the source of misbehaviour?
That's the ultimate drawback of using a phone in these circumstances - when you need it the most is when it's most likely to fail.
If you look under "help" in Osmand you'll find links to fora for users.
Osmand is pretty complex to get a hang of but is surprisingly useful and worth the effort in my opinion.
I can understand using a separate planner for bike rides but don't quite understand it for motorised transport. In my experience importing external routes into Osmand can be tricky (the map in the planner doesn't match Osmand's) and most likely to be a real issue if depending on voice prompts.
Paul_Smith SRCC
www.plsmith.co.uk
- Location
- Surrey UK
There are quite a few sites that offer free route planning in addition to a paid for version; software as you'd expect changes frequently and you may swap from on to another as they evolve.
At the moment I normally use the free version of www.alltrails.com (was GPSies) to create the course and add to my old Garmin 810 via usb. The user experience is very similar to www.ridewithgps.com, but with the added bonus that you can add your own notes in the form of a 'waypoint'; like 'café' or 'bikeshop', a feature that is no longer free with ridewithgps; hence my switch to Alltrails. One handy feature I like is you can toggle between 'hiking-cycling-driving' when creating, so you can switch to 'hiking' if you want to take a shortcut over a footbridge for example then back to driving if you want to stay on roads. There are two cycle focused modes, 'Bike touring' may include a smooth trail where as 'Road biking' will be on paved roads and paths that support bicycle access.
I live in a London Suburb, I seldom use Garmin Connect, as you'd expect since I bought my 810 in 2013 it has improved but it has been consistently behind other free course planning software. It still shares routing with runners so it will still often send you the wrong way around roundabouts, the wrong way down one way streets and take you down tracks even if you have selected 'follow roads', overriding this on route effectively going 'off course' often causes the 810 to crash; less of an issue in rural areas which have less one way streets and roundabouts of course.
I have been pleased with my Garmin and I was updating it I'd be happy to buy another, although there are quite a few others that have their followers; Wahoo especially also look impressive. For what it's worth if I was looking at the current Garmin range, features wise the Edge® Explore would be a consideration as I am really only interested in the mapping; although the extra battery capacity of the 830 would probably sway me (upto 20 v 12 hours). Yes the 830 is more of an investment but my old 810 has lasted 8 years which is not bad for a piece of tech'; which for me would also be a consideration when justifying how much I am prepared to treat myself. The 530 is cheaper and also has 'upto 20 hours' battery life, I do find the 830 touch screen far more intuitive to use than the 530's buttons.
Some have referenced stability, over the years I find the following has helped. Whatever software I use to compose a route in each case if composed on a pc when I transfer it to the unit I do it via usb (make sure it is the genuine lead, copies that seem to fit perfectly may not transfer the data fully) not via Bluetooth, occasionally with the latter it may not transfer the data as created and be less stable in use potentially crash during navigation. In addition I only ever transfer the data from the software it was created from, as opposed to say a route initially created with RWGPS then imported into another like Garmin Connect to edit, before transferring that to my Garmin. Along the same lines if I want to use a course from someone else I will normally use that as a reference only and create it 'fresh' for myself
At the moment I normally use the free version of www.alltrails.com (was GPSies) to create the course and add to my old Garmin 810 via usb. The user experience is very similar to www.ridewithgps.com, but with the added bonus that you can add your own notes in the form of a 'waypoint'; like 'café' or 'bikeshop', a feature that is no longer free with ridewithgps; hence my switch to Alltrails. One handy feature I like is you can toggle between 'hiking-cycling-driving' when creating, so you can switch to 'hiking' if you want to take a shortcut over a footbridge for example then back to driving if you want to stay on roads. There are two cycle focused modes, 'Bike touring' may include a smooth trail where as 'Road biking' will be on paved roads and paths that support bicycle access.
I live in a London Suburb, I seldom use Garmin Connect, as you'd expect since I bought my 810 in 2013 it has improved but it has been consistently behind other free course planning software. It still shares routing with runners so it will still often send you the wrong way around roundabouts, the wrong way down one way streets and take you down tracks even if you have selected 'follow roads', overriding this on route effectively going 'off course' often causes the 810 to crash; less of an issue in rural areas which have less one way streets and roundabouts of course.
I have been pleased with my Garmin and I was updating it I'd be happy to buy another, although there are quite a few others that have their followers; Wahoo especially also look impressive. For what it's worth if I was looking at the current Garmin range, features wise the Edge® Explore would be a consideration as I am really only interested in the mapping; although the extra battery capacity of the 830 would probably sway me (upto 20 v 12 hours). Yes the 830 is more of an investment but my old 810 has lasted 8 years which is not bad for a piece of tech'; which for me would also be a consideration when justifying how much I am prepared to treat myself. The 530 is cheaper and also has 'upto 20 hours' battery life, I do find the 830 touch screen far more intuitive to use than the 530's buttons.
Some have referenced stability, over the years I find the following has helped. Whatever software I use to compose a route in each case if composed on a pc when I transfer it to the unit I do it via usb (make sure it is the genuine lead, copies that seem to fit perfectly may not transfer the data fully) not via Bluetooth, occasionally with the latter it may not transfer the data as created and be less stable in use potentially crash during navigation. In addition I only ever transfer the data from the software it was created from, as opposed to say a route initially created with RWGPS then imported into another like Garmin Connect to edit, before transferring that to my Garmin. Along the same lines if I want to use a course from someone else I will normally use that as a reference only and create it 'fresh' for myself
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