Routing Issues On Explorist 500

[+Guitar4Him]

I've put together a bunch of routes that I regularly use with my Garmin 2610. These routes were created with MapSource and follow roads that I select (as opposed to those selected by MapSource). The routes work great in the Garmin. I get turn-by-turn instructions and the routes are adhered to perfectly.

 

Recently, I decided that I would like to load these same routes into my Explorist 500 so I could use it in a similar way to the Garmin. Here's the process I used to convert the routes:

 

- Saved the routes from MapSource as .GPX files

- Used EasyGPS to convert the routes to Explorist files (.upt and .rte)

- Loaded the files into my Explorist using the MapSend Manager

 

The files loaded into the Explorist just fine. I can call up the routes and look at them on the screen. When you view the routes, they show up as point-to-point (as opposed to street routes). Also, when you edit the routes, each waypoint is shown in the routing list. This is pretty much, expected behavior.

 

Here's the problem.....when I "Activate" the route and select "Street Routes", it recalculates the route, using apparently only the start and end points. It completely ignores all the other waypoints and comes up with a route of its choosing. Unfortunately, the route is completely different that the route I created and loaded.

 

Is this normal behavior for this GPS or am I doing something wrong? If this is normal for the Explorist series, does the RoadMate series act the same way? Here's why I'm curious about this....a motorcycle resort in the mountains of NC is wanting to post some of my routes in the mountain areas on their website. This way, other riders could download the routes, load them into their GPS's and then, be able to ride through new (and perhaps to them, unknown) areas without having to worry about directions. The GPS's would guide them, letting them just enjoy the ride. I know these routes work good with Garmin units, but I'm uncertain about the GPS's made by Magellan and perhaps, Lowrance.

 

What say you?

[+JohnnyVegas]

I do not use Direst route in the Sxp 500 so I cannot help you with that. I may be loading in soon for trip to Las vegas next week.

 

But as far as the roadmate, you cannot enter your own waypoints into a roadmate gps. So you cannot enter your own route.

[robertlipe]

As covered in the Magellan FAQs below, that's just not now DirectRoute in the Magellan handhelds (explorist and meridian are the same here) work.

 

Multipoint routing just isn't supported.

[+Guitar4Him]

But as far as the roadmate, you cannot enter your own waypoints into a roadmate gps. So you cannot enter your own route.

Can you enter waypoints and routes in the associtated PC software that you use with a RoadMate and then, load them into the RoadMate? If not, that really sucks....

[geotrouvetout]

  As covered in the Magellan FAQs below, that's just not now DirectRoute in the Magellan handhelds (explorist and meridian are the same here) work.

 

I use the Meridan Gold, which work the same for that matter. The above is correct. Garmin autorouting is much better than Magellan (but the software and hardware are much more expensive too in general). However you can create a regular multipoint route, and if DirectRoute maps are loaded it should show the points over the roads to follow. It will just not prompt the user when to turn so they have to keep an eye on it.

Edited February 3, 2006 by geotrouvetout

[+Guitar4Him]

  As covered in the Magellan FAQs below, that's just not now DirectRoute in the Magellan handhelds (explorist and meridian are the same here) work.

 

I use the Meridan Gold, which work the same for that matter. The above is correct. Garmin autorouting is much better than Magellan (but the software and hardware are much more expensive too in general). However you can create a regular multipoint route, and if DirectRoute maps are loaded it should show the points over the roads to follow. It will just not prompt the user when to turn so they have to keep an eye on it.

As I stated earlier, I loaded multipoint routes into the Explorist 500. All the POI's show up in the route when you edit it. However, when you activate the route, it recalculates and apparently only uses the start point and the end point and comes up with a new route of its choosing. The new route completely ignores all the POI's and does not follow the roads originally chosen for the route. This pretty much makes custom routes impossible on this GPS.

[geotrouvetout]

I cannot get the street route working either on my merigold but if you go with a point to point it does work, just w/o the autorouting.

 

You might also want to have a look here, here, here, and here

It looks like some folks in Russia (?) figured out how to make custom maps from a Thales soft, just like you can do with freewares on Garmins. I am trying it as we speak, seems pretty complicated but should work per what they say...

Edited February 5, 2006 by geotrouvetout

[docdigit]

It looks like some folks in Russia (?) figured out how to make custom maps from a Thales soft, just like you can do with freewares on Garmins. I am trying it as we speak, seems pretty complicated but should work per what they say...

 

Let us know the outcome!

 

Doc