My Route nightmare

Barnoe · Jun 25, 2021

Yesterday i got back from a 7 day trip including the NC500 All planned as 7 different day routes using MyRoute App.
i am a gold subscriber and its the first time ive used it to plan a route.

I had a nightmare!
The scenic trip up ended up as a fastest route on A roads, and coming back i completely had the Cairngorms bypassed and saw nothing!

luckily the NC500 is now clearly signposted, so that part was ok.

On the NAV6 i tried routes and Tracks neither worked.
one just did straight lines ignoring roads completely, and the other completely ignores your route and calculated the fasted way to the destination.

Even before you set off, if you click map and zoom out you can see its using all the fastest roads!

We camped on the last day in Lauder which is about 20 miles SE of Edinburgh, it was a nice night weather wise, so i used the trip planner on the NAV6 itself to plan a trip home through Northumberland National Park, Kielder forest, the Pennines and Yorkshire dales.
it worked flawlessly and it was a really pleasant ride and we stopped off for a pub lunch near Hawes.

I have no idea what happened with my trips not working, and because i had no back up it ruined at least 2 days.
i will create some smaller routes locally and try again

ShakeyBMW · Jun 25, 2021

Here is the first and most important lesson in using GPS for planned routes.

Shakey’s first Law;

If you want the device to follow your carefully planned route, you MUST turn off Auto recalculate (if you have a Nav 6 you must also turn off auto waypoint skip). Either of these scenarios will allow the device to recalculate and in doing so it will strip out all your shaping points between you and the next Waypoint and will take you to that Waypoint using the settings in the GPS just like a dumb car GPS unit.

Here endeth the first and most important lesson. Shakey Hath Spoken.

It would be great if the auto recalculate could say “You have deviated from your planned route, I will be helpful and get you back on it” but that ain’t never going to happen. As a GS owner, I am deeply grateful for my whirly wheel zoom function.

Wapping · Jun 25, 2021

Complain to My Route, if they’ll listen.

Barnoe · Jun 25, 2021

ShakeyBMW said:
It would be great if the auto recalculate could say “You have deviated from your planned route, I will be helpful and get you back on it” but that ain’t never going to happen. As a GS owner, I am deeply grateful for my whirly wheel zoom function.

How i wish they would!!
And yes the wonder wheel is a blessing.

I will turn the auto calculate and waypoint skip and try another trip out, before i mess up another important one.

here is just 1 part of the trip... 1 hr in!!
I checked what i planned against the log the Nav6 recorded.

planned
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vGQtN7EuaDwEfGRjXiJ9L7FhLGn-iiZh/view?usp=sharing

Actual
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AoPcn1jC4oDm3IendUTh5lug2xphCf8H/view?usp=sharing

As you can see, it went a bit wrong, wasting time and fuel too

mark-forrest · Jun 25, 2021

Save as GPX 1.0 not 1.1 in MyRouteApp.

Mark

Sent from my G8441 using Tapatalk

Giles · Jun 25, 2021

ShakeyBMW said:
Here is the first and most important lesson in using GPS for planned routes.

Shakey’s first Law;

If you want the device to follow your carefully planned route, you MUST turn off Auto recalculate (if you have a Nav 6 you must also turn off auto waypoint skip). Either of these scenarios will allow the device to recalculate and in doing so it will strip out all your shaping points between you and the next Waypoint and will take you to that Waypoint using the settings in the GPS just like a dumb car GPS unit.

Here endeth the first and most important lesson. Shakey Hath Spoken.

It would be great if the auto recalculate could say “You have deviated from your planned route, I will be helpful and get you back on it” but that ain’t never going to happen. As a GS owner, I am deeply grateful for my whirly wheel zoom function.

Yes, Ive just signed up to my route app and watched a couple of videos on YT. I did notice one of the presenters saying exactly that - You must turn off auto recalculate. In fact it won't even down load a route to my nav V unless recalculate is off .. :thumb2

Engineer · Jun 25, 2021

DO NOT RELY ON A SAT NAV

EPG_19 · Jun 25, 2021

Barnoe said:
Yesterday i got back from a 7 day trip including the NC500 All planned as 7 different day routes using MyRoute App.
i am a gold subscriber and its the first time ive used it to plan a route.

I had a nightmare!
The scenic trip up ended up as a fastest route on A roads, and coming back i completely had the Cairngorms bypassed and saw nothing!

luckily the NC500 is now clearly signposted, so that part was ok.

On the NAV6 i tried routes and Tracks neither worked.
one just did straight lines ignoring roads completely, and the other completely ignores your route and calculated the fasted way to the destination.

Even before you set off, if you click map and zoom out you can see its using all the fastest roads!

We camped on the last day in Lauder which is about 20 miles SE of Edinburgh, it was a nice night weather wise, so i used the trip planner on the NAV6 itself to plan a trip home through Northumberland National Park, Kielder forest, the Pennines and Yorkshire dales.
it worked flawlessly and it was a really pleasant ride and we stopped off for a pub lunch near Hawes.

I have no idea what happened with my trips not working, and because i had no back up it ruined at least 2 days.
i will create some smaller routes locally and try again

if it shows straight lines, edit the route/trip on the nav, by changing point 1 to your Current location

it will then calculate and keep your shaping points.

JohnnyBoxer · Jun 25, 2021

Take a proper map too, next time

Giles · Jun 25, 2021

EPG_19 said:
if it shows straight lines, edit the route/trip on the nav, by changing point 1 to your Current location it will then calculate and keep your shaping points.

That works!! (I am playing with my route app and sat nav as we speak and when I open a route it is indeed just straight lines!! :nenau

)

Giles · Jun 25, 2021

Engineer said:
DO NOT RELY ON A SAT NAV

JohnnyBoxer said:
Take a proper map too, next time

That is all well and good, but if you're entering Paris from the North, and you need to pick up the A10 in the south of the city, a paper map aint much use to you!

JohnnyBoxer · Jun 25, 2021

Giles said:
That is all well and good, but if you're entering Paris from the North, and you need to pick up the A10 in the south of the city, a paper map aint much use to you!

I dunno
It always worked for me, traversing Paris
Remember a few place names in your direction of travel and then read the road signs, as you go
Fuck me ...in 1990 there was no other way
Steptoe used serviettes with a map of France

on them, from a chain of French restaurants to navigate France
How hard is it ?

Giles · Jun 25, 2021

JohnnyBoxer said:
I dunno
It always worked for me, traversing Paris
Remember a few place names in your direction of travel and then read the road signs, as you go
Fuck me ...in 1990 there was no other way
Steptoe used serviettes with a map of France on them, from a chain of French restaurants to navigate France
How hard is it ?

I dispatched in the 80's in London. Only for a year. I remember having a 'job interview' of sorts. 'How well do you know London' 'well .... I can read a map' 'Ok, you've got a job'.

Pick up Waterloo and take to Stoke Newington. Feck me! Id get three lefts and two rights and then have to stop .... map out .... its raining ... the pages stick together .... then they tear ... Until I got a basic grid in my head which took a few weeks it was a fucking nightmare !! Sheesh, If id have had a sat nav back then .....

DC · Jun 25, 2021

I use MyRoute without any issue at all ,as mentioned Auto Calc Off, auto skip off in the nav settings. When you draw the route save the file (as a Route not a track )GPX1.0 not a 1.1 or a BMW
nav File.
Once done, and loaded to the Nav the route drawn should be exactly what you wanted to draw, if its not and its gone to the fasted route, its the settings in the nav that are wrong not the my route software

casbar · Jun 26, 2021

DC said:
I use MyRoute without any issue at all ,as mentioned Auto Calc Off, auto skip off in the nav settings. When you draw the route save the file (as a Route not a track )GPX1.0 not a 1.1 or a BMW
nav File.
Once done, and loaded to the Nav the route drawn should be exactly what you wanted to draw, if its not and its gone to the fasted route, its the settings in the nav that are wrong not the my route software

Top tip, once you have saved and loaded, have a look at it on the device before you go on your trip. As above save as gpx 1.0, not the other options. Within the MRA help files there is a workaround for straight lines. But I always just use 1.0 then from within the Nav, change any waypoints to shaping points as needed. For info the gpx 1.1 and BMW Nav works fine on other Garmin devices, just not the Nav V and VI, which I assume means, there is something else going on in those devices when calculating routes.

Wapping · Jun 26, 2021

The problem, as the OP is learning, is the mixing of two pieces of software. One, My Route, the other whatever lurks within his Garmin device. That is not Garmin’s fault per-se, as their devices will work perfectly well, when used entirely with Garmin software from day one.

Of course the devices will run .gpx files quite happily from other sources, but not if the files themselves contain oddities, which (as has been seen before) files from My Route sometimes do have.

Lessons learned:

1. Always check the routes on the GPS device before you leave home. Fixing something in the comfort of your kitchen, is a lot easier than fixing it (or not) at the side of the road.

2. Do not assume that just because a route comes from a ‘By bikers, for bikers’ route creation lump of software (My Route, Kurviger etc etc etc) it will always work, straight off the bat.

3. Learn how your Garmin GPS device works. They are quite simple (dumb even) devices but, at the same time, hugely powerful.

4. Lean the difference between: Shaping points, unannounced points used to do nothing more than shape a bespoke route. Via points, announced points on the route (that can also be used to shape a route) that you have told the dumb device you must pass through, unless you chose to skip the point out. Waypoints, announced points of some interest (for example hotels, car parks, cash point machines etc etc) which, again you have told the device you must pass through unless you skip them and, can be used to shape a route, too.

5. Learn how the ‘Skip’ function works.

6. Learn how recalculate, in all its options, works.

Why is it all now so complicated? In essence, it isn’t. The latest Garmin devices - at a basic level - function just as they have always done, right back to the early days of the Quest device. What has happened is that bods have demanded more and more functions, whilst not bothering to learn how these operate. Mix in third party software and it can be an unholy mess, as the OP found out. We have got so used to ‘plug and play’ that when things don’t play nicely, then it surprises us. Frustrating perhaps but usually, nobody dies.

PS The straight lines you saw, were probably simply because (for whatever reasons) the device was unable to join the points up and match them to known roads. This happens for a variety of reasons, including:

A. No detailed map present

B. A mismatch between the maps the route was created in and the maps on the device

C. No recalculation having been made, when the route was imported into the device, probably from within its memory. This sort of recalculation is different to a recalculation that is made when the rider goes off-route.

Wreford Miles · Jun 26, 2021

JohnnyBoxer said:
Take a proper map too, next time

I’ve always used a GPS to guide MY decision making and not to make decisions for ME

To do that I always checked the route it’s planned either against a map or through just zooming out - They are great in cities but even then, I always zoom out to see if I agree with its planned route

casbar · Jun 26, 2021

Wapping said:
The problem, as the OP is learning, is the mixing of two pieces of software. One, My Route, the other whatever lurks within his Garmin device. That is not Garmin’s fault per-se, as their devices will work perfectly well, when used entirely with Garmin software from day one.

Of course the devices will run .gpx files quite happily from other sources, but not if the files themselves contain oddities, which (as has been seen before) files from My Route May sometimes do have.

Lessons learned:

1. Always check the routes on the GPS device before you leave home. Fixing something in the comfort of your kitchen, is a lot easier than fixing it (or not) at the side of the road.

2. Do not assume that just because a route comes from a ‘By bikers, for bikers’ route creation lump of software (My Route, Kurviger etc etc etc) it will always work, straight off the bat.

3. Learn how your Garmin GPS device works. They are quite simple (dumb even) devices but, at the same time, hugely powerful.

4. Lean the difference between: Shaping points, unannounced points used to do nothing more than shape a bespoke route. Via points, announced points on the route (that can also be used to shape a route) that you have told the dumb device you must pass through, unless you chose to skip the point out. Waypoints, announced points of some interest (for example hotels, car parks, cash point machines etc etc) which, again you have told the device you must pass through unless you skip them and, can be used to shape a route, too.

5. Learn how the ‘Skip’ function works.

6. Learn how recalculate, in all its options, works.

Why is it all now so complicated? In essence, it isn’t. The latest Garmin devices - at a basic level - function just as they have always done, right back to the early days of the Quest device. What has happened is that bods have demanded more and more functions, whilst not bothering to learn how these operate. Mix in third party software and it can be an unholy mess, as the OP found out. We have got so used to ‘plug and play’ that when things don’t play nicely, then it surprises us. Frustrating perhaps but usually, nobody dies.

PS The straight lines you saw, were probably simply because (for whatever reasons) the device was unable to join the points up and match them to known roads. This happens for a variety of reasons, including:

A. No detailed map present

B. A mismatch between the maps the route was created in and the maps on the device

C. No recalculation having been made, when the route was imported into the device, probably from within its memory. This sort of recalculation is different to a recalculation that is made when the rider goes off-route.

The straight lines is a known issue with MRA export files Gpx 1.1 or gpx new BMW. These two exports work fine with newer different garmin Navs.. Just not Nav V and VI. Like I said use gpx 1.0 which works every time, only difference between 1.0 and 1.1 is 1.0 is all waypoints, 1.1 is all shaping points. All I do is change waypoints to shaping points and visa versa in the device. The straight lines issue has been discussed on the MRA forums and their technical page, which does give a work around. If you look at the route once loaded to the Nav, straight lines are very obvious, so check the route before you use it.

Barnoe · Jun 26, 2021

I agree with what your saying.

I unwittingly went on a 1,500 mile trip planned on My Route and expected to perform flawlessly on my Garmin Nav6.
i had no back up plan other than my mate who had the same route thrown on his TomTom rider 5, he experienced pretty much the same problems but at different times?

I feel i was fortunate on this trip because the NC500 which was the main part of the trip was clearly signposted, you dont need a GPS at all for that part.
If i had been on a trip to Spain as i am planning for next year, the whole trip including stop off point and most importantly Fuel fill ups will be planned.

I dislike Basecamp because using it is frustrating.
i move the map or zoom in and out and it reloads the whole map pixel by pixel as if its downloading on an old 56k modem.... and that's with maps downloaded to the PC.
when you consider how many times you move the map while planning and having to wait 10-15 seconds each time for the map to refresh you end up pulling your hair out.
There is something not right about the whole thing.
Even though i have maps downloaded to the PC it still needs my Nav6 plugged in to the PC or i cant see map detail.... which suggests that basecamp is still using at least some part of the map over USB

What i might try is creating a route on My Route App and saving the GPX file and loading it into basecamp to check it before sending it to the GPS

Wapping · Jun 26, 2021

What i might try is creating a route on My Route App and saving the GPX file and loading it into basecamp to check it before sending it to the GPS

That is certainly what I would do. I’d also check that the route displays properly on my device and that something as simple as looking that the mileage / the estimated time matches. If it’s up to two or so miles different, I wouldn’t worry too much, but if it’s creeping up much north of say 10 miles, I’d have a look why.

I’d also check what Garmin / BaseCamp makes of the shaping points (or whatever My Map uses to pin routes to specific roads) and maybe amend them if necessary and / or I’d maybe add some more in BaseCamp, if only to ‘Garminise’ it.

All the above before I left home, not when I was on holiday.
I have no idea why your PC is misbehaving, as I use a Mac.

My Route nightmare

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