Zumo: gps for dummies ?

[chasr]

About time for a poll methinks. All those who use Garmins decide whether the absence of overrides to auto-route recalc and auto-zoom would preclude them buying a Zumo. Most of us upgrade/change our units so Garmin ought to be aware that potential sales would be lost if 'essential features' are missing.

I switch off the autozoom as, it seems in CN8, many minor junctions don't trigger the zoom-in. So I don't know which way to turn. Which, kind of, defeats the object of having the GPS in the first place

 

[shedracer]

Geoff, don’t worry about the Zumo, we're just picking the bones out of it. You’ll certainly be able to use it as a rolling map.

My understanding, having looked at it yesterday, you will only be able to have it as a rolling map, if you don't have a route running, otherwise it will keep zooming in and out at junctions. But as I have said in my other post, this could be sorted by Garmin.

I have sent an e-mail to Garmin this morning concerning "Auto zoom" and " Auto recalculation off route" on the Zumo. I suggest those interested in the Zumo do the same. With a bit of luck there will be an update for the Zumo via the "WebUpdater" in the near future.

 

[xpi0t0s]

We know that there are Garmin people who read this section

If that's true, here's another vote for disabling Auto Route Recalculation.

When I'm leading an Advanced Motorcycling run I use the GPS to guide me down a carefully planned route. I turn off automatic recalculation on these runs because if I do go off route for whatever reason I can use the GPS as a moving map and find my own way back to the route. Forced recalculation and the consequent loss of my careful planning will *absolutely prevent* me upgrading from my 2610; otherwise the Zumo looks great, honest, but this is a showstopper for me and you *will not* get a purchase from me until route recalc can be disabled.

I'm all in favour of dumbing down the GPS to compete with other units, but could you provide an Advanced mode for those of use who are seasoned experts and want, or even need, advanced features? Even if this is via a secret "undocumented" key combination or something - stuff like the Microsoft Powertoys that are documented, downloadable and unsupported. Or you could implement it like the MS powertoys - a firmware upgrade that gives you extra features.

Please in the drive to make the unit palatable to n00bs and simpletons don't forget your power user customers.

Come on Garmin, LISTEN to your CUSTOMERS.

 

[Kritou]

.... I turn off automatic recalculation on these runs because if I do go off route for whatever reason I can use the GPS as a moving map and find my own way back to the route....

OK, so when you go off route why not press the "stop navigation" soft key - the map remains and a compass rose is displayed. When you want to return to your route reselect navigation

 

[jefformston]

- You can't switch off neither AutoZoom nor Off Route Recalculation. This makes, in my opinion, the Zumo useless for all kinds of active riding. It can't be used as a Moving Map nor as a Co-Driver showing up-coming bends.

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Maybe they've just sorted out a better AutoZoom.

I've very recenty purchased a 2610 and have been comparing it with my GPS PDA over the last few days and one of the big downsides to the 2610 is, imho, the poor Autozoom and lack of detail shown sometimes. My PDA makes a brilliant co-pilot all the time, it doesn't need to be manually Zoomed in to enable the road ahead to be read, the Autozoom does an excellent job.

Each to his own, but if the Zumo had the same AutoZoom as my PDA then it's a winner in my opinion Saying that the facility to switch it off is a useful feature, not one I've ever used on the PDA but it does have it.

 

[BurnieM]

Autozoom is a bad feature even on road only in-car units

Every unit I try, I turn it off (if the unit allows).

 

[shedracer]

I sent an e-mail to garmin yesterday and I received a reply almost straight away. Thought you might like to read it (at the bottom in blue text).

Here's a link to the Customer support, for anybody who wishes to contact Garmin.

http://www.garmin.com/contactUs/techSupport.jsp

As I said before, do e-mail Garmin about your concerns/wishes for the Zumo, as they will almost certainly do something if enough people contact them. If you don't do anything apart from discuss it on here, then Garmin probably wont do anything. they want to get feedback from their current customers and their potential new customers.

Here's the reply I received:

Dear Paul

Thank you for contacting Garmin Europe

The highest complement a customer can give a company is to be concerned
enough to offer suggestions for improvement of a product. We appreciate you
comments & opinions regarding our products.

I have forwarded your email to the design team as they are always interested
on customer feedback. Many of the comments/suggestions we receive (such as
yours) are often evaluated towards potential implementation into future
GARMIN products or current unit software releases. We cannot guarantee that
what you have suggested will occur, however we do appreciate you passing
along your opinions.

Regards,
Andy Phillips
Product Support Garmin (Europe) Ltd

 

[meyerweb]

I emailed Garmin tech support in the U.S. and let them know I will not, under any circumstances, buy a Zumo with the current dumbed-down interface. Particularly the inability to shut off auto-recalc and auto-zoom. I got back a polite reply stating that the responder would forward my comments to the proper people at Garmin. If they hear from enough of us, they'll pay attention, I suspect.

 

[HMR]

Next week the swedish Garmin distributor will ship me a Zumo 550 for testing. It will indeed be interesting to find out if all concerns and doubts will prove to be true.

- 1. Automatic Recalculation. It's of course stupid that they have omitted the option to switch it off. But is this really a show stopper? The Zumo recalculates only to the next turn so maybe this is not a big issue after all?

- 2. Autozoom. Personally I think this is the big problem. But the implementation of Autozoom is smarter on the Zumo so it's quite interesting to find out how it works "on the road". Moving map? Can I use the Zumo as a co-driver?

- 3. Uploading Tracks. I arrange Alp tours for the BMW MC Club in Sweden. Typically the MapSource files I create and share at those tours contains 25 routes (paved) and 10 tracks (gravel). Will the Zumo be able to upload tracks and show them on its screen? If not, is there a simple workaround or do you have to convert the tracks to routes before upload?

- 4. User Interface. I expect the Zumo to much easier to operate than f ex the 276C. Will be interesting to see how it works with winter glowes and all.

- 5. Screen Resolution. Compared with SP2820 and 276C the screen resolution on the Zumo is poor. Very poor. In addition to that the space available for the map is smaller. About the same as SP3, Quest and 60Cx. Is this a problem "on the road"?

- And a few more things...

Stay tuned!

 

[Eastriding2002]

Have I read this thread correctly, some people use the GPS as a co-driver for what bends lie ahead?

What's wrong with the two eyes the good lord stuck in the front of our heads?

Andy T


PS: I'm a dummy who basically wants to plan my routes on road and get from A to B maybe sometimes via C.

 

[Vampire]

This has to be one of the most dopey threads I have read so far.
If you don't want the computer to recalculate the route, the process is REALLY SIMPLE.
Turn NAVIGATE to OFF !!!!
The purpose of the Navigate function is to navigate.
Asking for an option to have the navigate function NOT navigate is like asking for the ignition system to have an option to not create sparks.
Navigation systems, by design, navigate.
If you don't want it to navigate, tell it not to.
What's so hard about that ???????
Really chaps .................

 

[skellum]

This has to be one of the most dopey threads I have read so far.
If you don't want the computer to recalculate the route, the process is REALLY SIMPLE.
Turn NAVIGATE to OFF !!!!
The purpose of the Navigate function is to navigate.
Asking for an option to have the navigate function NOT navigate is like asking for the ignition system to have an option to not create sparks.
Navigation systems, by design, navigate.
If you don't want it to navigate, tell it not to.
What's so hard about that ???????
Really chaps .................

The original thread asked ""Will the zūmo 550 have a setting to *ask* you to recalculate instead of automatically recalculating?

No, the unit will automatically recalculate the route to the next point. It will not ask you if you wish to recalculate"

That is what it is all about - if I download a route that takes me over specific and pre planned roads and I am then detoured off that route for some reason, then I do not want my unit to recalculate my original route potentially using different roads than I had originally intended...

 

[Thunder]

That is what it is all about - if I download a route that takes me over specific and pre planned roads and I am then detoured off that route for some reason, then I do not want my unit to recalculate my original route potentially using different roads than I had originally intended...

The unit has a detour function which is included to deal with just such a situation. Not sure how it works though, will have to play with it and see.

 

[ebbo]

This has to be one of the most dopey threads I have read so far.
If you don't want the computer to recalculate the route, the process is REALLY SIMPLE.
Turn NAVIGATE to OFF !!!!
The purpose of the Navigate function is to navigate.
Asking for an option to have the navigate function NOT navigate is like asking for the ignition system to have an option to not create sparks.
Navigation systems, by design, navigate.
If you don't want it to navigate, tell it not to.
What's so hard about that ???????
Really chaps .................

For some people (I’m one of them) auto route recalc is a real pain, If I go off route because I’ve seen something of interest, I still want to see where my original route is, so I can ride back on to it in my own good time, its as simple as that. Giving us the option to turn it off is just that ‘an option’, one that Garmin fit too many of its GPS’s and one that belongs on the Zumo

 

[HMR]

This has to be one of the most dopey threads I have read so far.
If you don't want the computer to recalculate the route, the process is REALLY SIMPLE.
Turn NAVIGATE to OFF !!!!
The purpose of the Navigate function is to navigate.
Asking for an option to have the navigate function NOT navigate is like asking for the ignition system to have an option to not create sparks.
Navigation systems, by design, navigate.
If you don't want it to navigate, tell it not to.
What's so hard about that ???????
Really chaps .................

Well - if you understand you don't need an explanation. If you don't understand there is no way to explain. But I'll try anyway.

The purpose is NOT always to follow the instructions from a dumb computer until one reach a given address. Quite often, at least for some of us, we want to make decisions for ourselves. For example to deviate from the planned route when we see something interesting. When we do that we don't want the stupid computer to change our plan. We want it to sit tight (as a nuns a....) and do nothing until we are back again.

Turning navigation off is no solution. We want to see the original plan on the screen. People who can't read a map (most americans) just don't understand what I'm saying. Why am I writing this? Helloo? Anybody out there?

 

[Vampire]

Well - if you understand you don't need an explanation. If you don't understand there is no way to explain. But I'll try anyway.

The purpose is NOT always to follow the instructions from a dumb computer until one reach a given address. Quite often, at least for some of us, we want to make decisions for ourselves. For example to deviate from the planned route when we see something interesting. When we do that we don't want the stupid computer to change our plan. We want it to sit tight (as a nuns a....) and do nothing until we are back again.

Turning navigation off is no solution. We want to see the original plan on the screen. People who can't read a map (most americans) just don't understand what I'm saying. Why am I writing this? Helloo? Anybody out there?

You're right, I don't understand, but I'll accept that you have an issue for which you need a solution, and if turning Navigation off doesn't do it, I accept that too.
Garmin - are you listening? There is a feature needed here.

 

[Thunder]

Garmin - are you listening? There is a feature needed here.

I think you will find it's called "Detour" as mentioned above.

 

[HMR]

I think you will find it's called "Detour" as mentioned above.

No, I don't think "Detour" will help here. I have never used "Detour" since I had the understanding that it means only telling the GPS that the road is blocked at a point in front of me and that I want it to calculate an alternative route around the problem.

What I want to do is something else. I want to "freese" the planned route while I make a detour. While on this detour I just use the map on the screen as a map (!) without guiding. When I return to the planned route the guiding instructions should resume. This the way SP3, SP2610, Quest, 276C and many other models work. All you need to do is to set "Off route recalculation" = off.

 

[meyerweb]

This has to be one of the most dopey threads I have read so far.
If you don't want the computer to recalculate the route, the process is REALLY SIMPLE.
Turn NAVIGATE to OFF !!!!
The purpose of the Navigate function is to navigate.
Asking for an option to have the navigate function NOT navigate is like asking for the ignition system to have an option to not create sparks.
Navigation systems, by design, navigate.
If you don't want it to navigate, tell it not to.
What's so hard about that ???????
Really chaps .................

Sorry, but I'd have to say that's about the dopiest response I've read lately. If I program MY route, I want the GPSR to navigate according to MY route, not some programmer's idea of a route. What's the point of being able to define a route on your PC, if you can't guarantee the Zumo will follow it? This seems so obvious, it's hard for me to understand that you don't understand it.

 

[rodskogj]

Auto recalculate

When I TRAVEL on a bike (for pleasure) I want to travel the WHOLE route I painstakingly constructed in MapSource and not have it recalculate when I am off route. If I go off route for some reason I want to continue from where I got off. This is because riding a motorcycle is about the JOURNEY, not just a means to get to a destination. If all I cared about was the destination, then autorecalc is fine. If I care about the journey, then no autorecalc. Garmin, please give us the option!!! Navigate=OFF is not a good enough solution for some of us.