60CSx goofy recalculating stuff

[+ThePropers]

I've been really happy with my 60CSx, despite me knowing some quicker ways around the area than it seems to.

 

But the other day I was going home, and decided to take the highway instead of it's suggested route (because I knew traffic was backed up).

 

This is kindof hard to explain, but basically the unit wanted to send me south 4 miles, then east about 10, and opted for east first, then go south.

 

Anyways, after I passed it's suggested exit, for the next 10 miles, it basically wanted me to get off of every exit and backtrack.

 

What was really annoying was I got all the way to my exit (a good 10 miles past it's suggested route) and it STILL wanted me to turn around and head back. By this time I was only about 7 miles from home, so it telling me to backtrack 10 miles just so I could be back on it's suggested route was getting annoying.

 

MY estimated time to my housewas about 10-12 minutes, but the unit was telling me about 30 because of the route it kept recalculating.

 

Even when I had gone a couple more miles, it was still insisting that I should keep turning off of my more-or-less direct route home and make this big loop back around.

 

Finally when I had gone a couple more miles and passed the last major road before my house, it finally recalculated correctly.

 

It was quite annoying. Anything I should've done differently? Granted, I was just more-or-less testing the thing since I knew where I was going, but I'd be quite annoyed if I was in an unfamiliar area and had to drive another 20 minutes out of my way because it doesn't recalculate correctly.

 

Anyone notice anything similar?

[+El Diablo]

I've run into the same situation. You can turn the feature off if you want.

 

El Diablo

[DogFleazJR]

I've been really happy with my 60CSx, despite me knowing some quicker ways around the area than it seems to.

 

But the other day I was going home, and decided to take the highway instead of it's suggested route (because I knew traffic was backed up).

 

This is kindof hard to explain, but basically the unit wanted to send me south 4 miles, then east about 10, and opted for east first, then go south.

 

Anyways, after I passed it's suggested exit, for the next 10 miles, it basically wanted me to get off of every exit and backtrack.

 

What was really annoying was I got all the way to my exit (a good 10 miles past it's suggested route) and it STILL wanted me to turn around and head back. By this time I was only about 7 miles from home, so it telling me to backtrack 10 miles just so I could be back on it's suggested route was getting annoying.

 

MY estimated time to my housewas about 10-12 minutes, but the unit was telling me about 30 because of the route it kept recalculating.

 

Even when I had gone a couple more miles, it was still insisting that I should keep turning off of my more-or-less direct route home and make this big loop back around.

 

Finally when I had gone a couple more miles and passed the last major road before my house, it finally recalculated correctly.

 

It was quite annoying. Anything I should've done differently? Granted, I was just more-or-less testing the thing since I knew where I was going, but I'd be quite annoyed if I was in an unfamiliar area and had to drive another 20 minutes out of my way because it doesn't recalculate correctly.

 

Anyone notice anything similar?

 

I had this problem once when the unit wanted to send me back an entire exit on the NJTP, just to come back to the exit I was getting off at - a useless detour of nearly 30 miles. Even after I exited the highway, and headed away from the turnpike, it STILL wanted me to go back. I turned the unit off and back on again and reselected the waypoint. It was fine after that. I only ran across this that one time.

 

I'm still using my old CS v4 from 2002. I chalked it up to that. Maybe something else is going on...

[+Firefishe]

Either that or Garmin needs to get off their duffs and adopt a better and more accurate algorithm *after* adopting satellite overlay/map updating technology so that their map data isn't so old, so fast. ;-)

[+Firefishe]

Either that or Garmin needs to get off their duffs and adopt a better and more accurate algorithm *after* adopting satellite overlay/map updating technology so that their map data isn't so old, so fast. ;-)

[+DutchGeek & Lollypops]

I found that setting the unit to avoid U turns helped in my case.

[vivona]

I have seen this "go back to a certain point" behavior on routes that have intermediate waypoints. For instance, if I create a route that has a starting point, an intermediate waypoint(s) and a destination, then drive it and take a different course that doesn't pass the intermediate waypoint, the 60CSx will want me to turn around and go back to the intermediate waypoint I missed.

 

If I merely select a destination waypoint and let it autoroute to that destination, then taking a different course always has resulted in a recalculation that made sense. Perhaps in your case the alternate road you took had a break in it in the mapping software, so the GPS couldn't calculate a straight route through it. I have seen this kind of problem a lot when planning a vacation with Delorme Street Atlas.

[+ThePropers]

I have seen this "go back to a certain point" behavior on routes that have intermediate waypoints. For instance, if I create a route that has a starting point, an intermediate waypoint(s) and a destination, then drive it and take a different course that doesn't pass the intermediate waypoint, the 60CSx will want me to turn around and go back to the intermediate waypoint I missed.

 

If I merely select a destination waypoint and let it autoroute to that destination, then taking a different course always has resulted in a recalculation that made sense. Perhaps in your case the alternate road you took had a break in it in the mapping software, so the GPS couldn't calculate a straight route through it. I have seen this kind of problem a lot when planning a vacation with Delorme Street Atlas.

 

Perhaps that was the problem. To test that, I could've stopped navigation and then punched up the destination again to see if it would calculate correctly. In fact, maybe I'll test that again on the way home tonight.

 

About the only other goofy thing I've experienced with it was coming back from WV a few weeks ago. We pulled up the closest Bob Evans and it sent me past the exit, to the next exit, and then had me turn around and get back on the highway going the other way. We actually saw the sign for Bob Evans as we passed the correct exit but figured there must be another one at the next exit where the GPS was telling me to go. I wasn't that happy with basically having to go 3 extra miles to the next exit, then backtrack 3 miles to the correct exit. I wonder why it didn't just tell me to get off that exit in the first place.

 

Of course, in hindsight, I could've just followed the signs to Bob Evans, but being me, I trusted the GPS and assumed that there was another one where the GPS was having me get off. Blind faith in technology...

Edited December 14, 2006 by ThePropers

[bgarland]

When I first got my 76CSx I was running some version of City Select (can't remember what version). When calculating routes, I frequently got crazy suggested routes that seemed to be based on the base map and not the complete city street maps. These routes would have taken me 5-10 miles out of the way. After seeing this several times, I upgraded to City Navigator 7 and have never seen the problem again.

[+TeamCNJC]

Have you seen the "get off at this exit and get back on the highway going in the same direction" thingey yet? Now that's annoying, but somewhere in the mind of my 60CSx it makes sense.

[+DocDiTTo]

I had one little odditymyself the other week. I was going to a caching event in York and needed to get to a restaurant that was on the other side of a divided highway. Almost immediately in front of the restaurant was an intersection where I could turn left and get to the parking lot, but the 60CSx told me to keep going straight for another intersection or two and then turn around. Not sure what was up with that, unless it just didn't understand that I could make a left turn where I was.

 

For the most part the unit's been pretty good. If I run into a quirk I power it off and back on, that usually makes it (and me) happier.

 

One other thing since we're complaining anyway is when you're driving down a highway, and you need to keep going straight, but it gives you the "TURN NOW" sound as you pass an exit. Reading the directions on the screen says to stay straight on the highway, but the beep makes it sound like you should take the exit. That's happened to me quite a bit, where highways split or exits branch off. My TomTom software running on my PDA is smart enough to not alert me when I'm already on the right road, wish the Garmin would be that smart.

[+widebmw]

I have found some things that help me.

If I have a route that I download from MapSourse I remove the start point (home), it may want to send me home just after I leave.

I don't make round trip routes anymore. I make at least one route for each direction, maybe more.

Make sure your GPS is set the same as you routes from MapSourse., like "quickest" "shortest" and the things to avoid.

The last time that I did a round trip route I also took a new section of highway that just opened, that really messed the GPS up. After that I just used "go to" the next waypoint for the rest of the day.

 

Most of the time I am on roads I know so it is not a problem if the GPS wants to take me another way.

If I am on unfamiliar roads I don't know that it took me out of the way.

[+ThePropers]

One other thing since we're complaining anyway is when you're driving down a highway, and you need to keep going straight, but it gives you the "TURN NOW" sound as you pass an exit. Reading the directions on the screen says to stay straight on the highway, but the beep makes it sound like you should take the exit. That's happened to me quite a bit, where highways split or exits branch off. My TomTom software running on my PDA is smart enough to not alert me when I'm already on the right road, wish the Garmin would be that smart.

 

Yep. You and I live in the same area, so I know exactly what you mean (Have you driven through the Eisenhower interchange yet? The thing beeps constantly!)

 

I've ran into that though a few times....where all of a sudden I hear the turn beep, but it's just letting me know not to exit. Hey, thanks, Mr. GPS for almost making me swerve across 3 lanes of traffic. I've learned to make sure I read ahead a bit so I know what turns are coming up.

 

Oh, one more goofy thing...I went to Lancaster the other night for a Christmas music show....but it oddly had me go one way there, and a completely different way on the way back. I mean, not even close to the same way. They were pretty much the same distance/time wise, but still...

Edited December 14, 2006 by ThePropers

[+GOT GPS?]

In my case with City Select 5, and a GPS V and Map60C, I noticed places that there was invisible breaks in the line segments, representing the roads on the GPS, and when I got past the invisible breaks, the GPS then would say, OH YAH, that is the way. couple examples where that I had to go west on 8-Mile road in Livonia Mich, then head south on I-275, but there was a break right where the line for the on-ramp for south bound I-275 was supposed to connect with 8-Mile Rd, but there was an invisible break where it did not connect. Also when I was going down some road, it wanted me to a crazy detour around a break in the line segment representing a 2-lane highway, but as I past the invisible break in the line, it routed correctly.

 

I believe some of the quirks where actually invisible breaks, where line segments where supposed to connect in the routing data loaded in the GPS, sort of like tracing electronic circuits on an Electronic Circuit simulator on a PC, where a resistor or capacitor may look like its connected in circuit on the PC, but there is a slight gap that you can't see causing an OPEN CIRCUIT condition, and I think the errors in City Select where causing an OPEN CIRCUIT condition in my case, causing the weird detours around these open circuits.

 

In the Routing data on the GPS, there are 2 data sets for the roads; one is the line segments themselves, and the second dataset, is the routing information loaded into the GPS, and sometimes, the routing data may actually have a break in it, causing the weird detours.

 

Just my very best guess at why I had as much trouble as I had with routing in Detroit.

[+Sputnik 57]

You should consider reporting these wrong exit and interchange issues to Navteq, the map data provider for Garmin (and most other autorouting mgf's). They are constantly trying to keep their data up-to-date, and welcome feedback. It won't solve your problem today, but it will make City Nav ver 9 or 10 that much better.

 

BTW, you can attach picture files to your feedback, so if you can grab a screen shot, so much the better.

Edited December 15, 2006 by Sputnik 57