How do Garmin Routes work?

[+Gill & Tony]

I have a Nuvi 50 and am planning to upgrade to either the 2597LMT or, more probably, the 2797LMT. These both have "100 routes" listed among their features, but I can't find anything which describes how a route works.

 

I am planning a big trip round North Western USA and Canada, geocaching as I go. What I want to be able to do is create a PQ based on the route I want to take and then use the nuvi to follow the route. For example, from Seattle to Vancouver, I have created a route which starts on the freeway, cuts over to Whidbey Island, detours through some side roads along the coast, meanders up to the border and then follows the main road to Vancouver.

 

The big question is "Can I transfer this route to the Nuvi and, if so, how"? I'm assuming that this will be the same with either model as they seem identical except for the screen size.

 

Any advice would be appreciated

 

Thanks

 

Tony

Edited October 3, 2013 by GillandTony

[+Mineral2]

In handheld models, you can create and save routes in your GPS, or you can create routes between waypoints in Basecamp and then save them to the GPS. This is now possible in some of the mid- to upper level nuvi units. I believe they also support routes with more than one "via" waypoint.

 

Compare this with your Nuvi 50, which creates a route when you select "go to" and input your destination. But this route is not saved for use again later.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

We've taken LONG trips every year for 15 years or so ( the last 10 were caching trips )

I break the long trip down into sections and create a PQ ( caches along a route ) for each section. I then use GSAK to create a database for each section and name it ( say Seattle to Walla Walla )....you may end up with 10 or 12 of these route databases. In addition I create a PQ and database in GSAK for each city or area that I will be visiting and caching in. The beauty of this is for the entire trip you do not need internet or phone connection....I load the next days route on the Nuvi and as our handhelds hold 5000 caches I only reload them every 2 or 3 days. I use Nuvi 780's and limit the PQ's to 500 which is the most they will accept as FAVORITES.....loaded as favorites the icons will be large and visible even when zoomed way out and you can auto-route to a cache if you want. If you have paperless handheld units there is no need to load the whole trip as a POI to the Nuvi but you can if you want. As you will have 2 Nuvi's you can have a different route on each.

When not traveling you can load the city that you're caching in to the Nuvi as well.....in a strange town sometimes its nice to auto-route to a cache.

All the above assumes you travel with a laptop or netbook.

[+DonB]

I have a Nuvi 50 and am planning to upgrade to either the 2597LMT or, more probably, the 2797LMT. These both have "100 routes" listed among their features, but I can't find anything which describes how a route works.

 

I am planning a big trip round North Western USA and Canada, geocaching as I go. What I want to be able to do is create a PQ based on the route I want to take and then use the nuvi to follow the route. For example, from Seattle to Vancouver, I have created a route which starts on the freeway, cuts over to Whidbey Island, detours through some side roads along the coast, meanders up to the border and then follows the main road to Vancouver.

 

The big question is "Can I transfer this route to the Nuvi and, if so, how"? I'm assuming that this will be the same with either model as they seem identical except for the screen size.

 

Any advice would be appreciated

 

Thanks

 

Tony

 

Ignore, I messed up the reply

Edited October 3, 2013 by DonB

[+DonB]

I have a Nuvi 50 and am planning to upgrade to either the 2597LMT or, more probably, the 2797LMT. These both have "100 routes" listed among their features, but I can't find anything which describes how a route works.

 

I am planning a big trip round North Western USA and Canada, geocaching as I go. What I want to be able to do is create a PQ based on the route I want to take and then use the nuvi to follow the route. For example, from Seattle to Vancouver, I have created a route which starts on the freeway, cuts over to Whidbey Island, detours through some side roads along the coast, meanders up to the border and then follows the main road to Vancouver.

 

The big question is "Can I transfer this route to the Nuvi and, if so, how"? I'm assuming that this will be the same with either model as they seem identical except for the screen size.

 

Any advice would be appreciated

 

Thanks

 

Tony

If you are going to create routes before you start your trip using software use the link sussamb posted.Once traveling you can let the GPS route you by starting with "where to" then you can pick cities or POIs and the GPS will route you to the place. Also check out a website called poi-factory.com that people upload custom POI files to such as restaurants, gas stations, motel chains, etc.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

Unfortunately favourites on the later nuvis don't work the way they do on your 780, or even my 1490. There's a thread here https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?58139-display-imported-waypoints-by-Basecamp-in-Garmin-Nuvi-2797 that covers the problem with the latest nuvis.

 

Maybe they could grab a couple of these and be good to go.

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R1.TR6.TRC1.A0.XNuvi+780&_nkw=garmin+nuvi+780&_sacat=0&_from=R40

[+Gill & Tony]

Thanks for the advice. I really like the way Favourites work on the Nuvi 50, so I may have to see the 2797 in action before I get it.

 

The link that sussamb posted doesn't seem to include either the 2597 or 2797, so I can't tell from that how they work. I've e-mailed Garmin support but their "We will get back to you in 3 working days" is now a week. I'll head down to my local electronics store to check it out

 

Cheers

 

Tony

[+Gill & Tony]

Ah, I had realised that the first link was specific to the 2797, but the other link confused me. I'm used to terminology like 27x7 to refer to a series and I thought that these were specific model numbers. I thought the word series embedded in the middle referred only to the immediately preceding model number.

 

There's a warning that the device may change the route, depending on settings. Is there any way to avoid that? I really don't want to spend ages getting a route exactly how I want it and have the device say "Nah! You don't want that, you want this instead". Sounds like a totally useless "feature"

 

Perhaps I should have asked a different question. Is there any device which can be mounted in a car for regular navigation, comes with lifetime maps, displays favourites in a reasonable manner, allows me to create a route with the PQ Map generator and import it the way I designed it, and which allows me to delete favourites from a list, rather than the one-at-a-time approach of the Nuvi 50?

 

Or am I dreaming?

 

Thanks

 

Tony

[39_Steps]

 

Perhaps I should have asked a different question. Is there any device which can be mounted in a car for regular navigation, comes with lifetime maps, displays favourites in a reasonable manner, allows me to create a route with the PQ Map generator and import it the way I designed it, and which allows me to delete favourites from a list, rather than the one-at-a-time approach of the Nuvi 50?

 

Or am I dreaming?

 

Thanks

 

Tony

Notwithstanding the convenience and power of the little Nuvi 50's destination routing with a single optional additional waypoint insertion per route, you may wish to consider using a laptop computer application for advanced multi-stop routing as mentioned above.

 

Delorme Street Atlas 2013, with a bundled USB GPS receiver, has the capability of creating, but not necessarily recalculating at every off road geocaching or sightseeing excursion, a route with up to 100 included Stops (shape points). A knowledgeable user can unzip and import multiple Groundspeak PQ files into a Win PC. Specialized single waypoint "EZNav" is available as well, for non-conflicting secondary geocache routing.

 

The Nuvi 50 would still be available for routing between current position and one or two nearer waypoints as well.

[+Gill & Tony]

Thanks for the info on Delorme Street Atlas, I'll have to look into that. I've also had a look at the Garmin 780, but it's out of my price range unfortunately.

 

Meanwhile, I'll have to go to my local dealer and see the 2597 in action.

 

Cheers

 

Tony

[Fangamon]

Routes are fully explained here...

 

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/routes.htm

 

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/routes.htm

 

Contents

 

* Introduction

* Creating a route

* Using a route

* Editing a route

* Unusual uses for routes

* Getting a root

 

A route is a collection of waypoints that are related in a way that permits you to use them to follow a prescribed course. Each section of the course is called a leg of the route. Generally on the Garmin units you can create a route with 2 to 30 waypoints (1 to 29 legs) and the unit will keep track of up to 20 such routes. The etrex, emap, and 76 have up to 50 waypoints in a route. The etrex supports one route, the etrex summit supports 20 and the emap supports 50 as does the 76. There are a number of things that can be done with routes, but the most common is to use a route to guide you to a destination.

 

Actually many people don't see the need for routes at all. If you need to go to a destination that exists in your list of waypoints you can simply use the "goto" command to guide you to the destination. Under these conditions you have created a route of two points, where you are located now and a target destination. Once you have initiated a goto the Garmin navigation screens will point you toward the destination and the map screen will draw a line from your present location to the target location. Of course, you may not be able to head directly toward the destination since there may be obstacles in the way so you must navigate by working your way toward the destination while moving around whatever obstacles you may encounter. This works surprisingly well even when driving in a car where you use the compass navigation screen to keep the destination objective in mind while traveling down the road. A feature of the "goto" command, on units equipped with this key, is that you can re-initiate it at any time by hitting the "goto" key again and hitting "enter" to repeat the same destination. The gps will recompute a line from the current location to the destination. The emap always recomputes from the present location while the etrex has an option on the local menu so that it can work either way. To force a re-evaluation on the etrex you will need to switch it to current bearing or re-initiate the goto. The gps will keep an updated calculation of the airline distance to the destination and will compute your probable arrival time based on your current speed and heading.

 

The newest units have no goto key so on these units you would use an object oriented approach, that is, find the waypoint and then the waypoint page will provide a goto button. The emap and other newer mapping units also support direct goto's to map objects without the need to create a waypoint. Use the cursor keys to highlight the object and then press enter to get information on the object. A goto button will be on the menu. The emap also uses a slightly different method of computing your probable arrival time. Instead of using the current speed and heading and computing a velocity made good it use the most recent sustained velocity. Thus it does not change the value rapidly nor does it respond to acceleration or even stopping. The value will be changed when you achieve a new sustained velocity. You can cause the value to be recomputed on this unit by using the stop navigation/resume navigation command sequence.

 

Many times, however, a closer approximation to the path being followed can be a big help. A route with intermediate waypoints can alert you to turns in the route to keep you from getting lost. Further, an approximation of the actual course will permit better estimates as to distance and arrival times. These intermediate waypoints may also indicate probable stopping points such a rest areas or refuel points. The gps will estimate time and distance to these waypoints as well as time and distance to the final destination. This estimate is based on your current speed and an expectation that you will be following the route vectors.

 

...continued

 

Edited October 12, 2013 by PigSti

[+Gill & Tony]

Hi, PigSti

 

Thanks for that link - contains some useful stuff.

 

However, it doesn't seem to apply to in-car devices - more oriented to hand-helds like the E-Trex and it doesn't mention GPX files at all. Given that the last update was in 2003, it may not be completely up to date.

 

Interesting reading, though.

 

Cheers

 

Tony