Garmin Map Updating - Does it suck or is it me?

[K_Flyer]

I found (and a Garmin tech confirmed) that BaseCamp and the 660 do not play well together. His solution, and it has worked well for me, is to set up your routes in BaseCamp, export them to MapSource and confirm they are correct, then load to the 660 from MapSource. I have to admit that, after a few months of futzing with BaseCamp, I went back to doing all my planning in MapSource. I hear BaseCamp has been upgraded so may give it another shot after travel season is over.

 

[RBEmerson]

AFAIK I have the latest and greatest Base Camp. Aside from correcting the incredibly stupid error that kept it from running under some Win10 versions, I don't see a lot of changes. I'll check out working with routing in automobile mode, using shaping points to create a non-direct route.

 

[rbentnail]

AFAIK I have the latest and greatest Base Camp. Aside from correcting the incredibly stupid error that kept it from running under some Win10 versions, I don't see a lot of changes. I'll check out working with routing in automobile mode, using shaping points to create a non-direct route.

Be sure to set both the Base Camp and the gps both to automobile

Another thing that I do (or more accurately don't do) is use the Device>Send to Device menu. I had problems with that. Now what I do is simply drag-and-drop my route, way points, etc. to my SD card, listed as 'User Data' when connected to Base Camp. No special set up of files or anything else, just drag-and-drop. Disconnect device, turn it on & let it boot up then go through whatever steps to import the route to preview it to make sure it is exactly what I want it to be.

In a previous version of Base Camp the Device>Send to Device was a little wonky when used with older devices like my nuvi 780. This work-around has never let me down. Plus to me it keeps the files more manageable, all on the SD card and easily copy-able by others. All we have to do is put my card in your gps and you get to import the exact same route to your device. This has been very useful for me & my riding buds more than once. Only thing is- the 595 is a micro SD whereas earlier gps units are regular sized SD. I simply dropped an adapter into my gps case.

 

[rbentnail]

I found (and a Garmin tech confirmed) that BaseCamp and the 660 do not play well together. His solution, and it has worked well for me, is to set up your routes in BaseCamp, export them to MapSource and confirm they are correct, then load to the 660 from MapSource. I have to admit that, after a few months of futzing with BaseCamp, I went back to doing all my planning in MapSource. I hear BaseCamp has been upgraded so may give it another shot after travel season is over.

BaseCamp is now up to version 2019.2, check yours. 2019.1 was glitchy, no one at Garmin will admit why AFAIK but thus far I've had no difficulty with the .2 version.

 

[RBEmerson]

Um, I think you've swapped the North America version number (2019.2) and Base Camp version number: 4.7.0 with USB driver gmnusb.sys 2.3.1.0

The previous iteration of Base Camp, as I think I said, had epic problems with Win10 - ditto for Garmin Express. The fix was to run them under compatibility for Win7. Garmin support, asked about the problem, said to take the machine to a tech, because the machine was probably broken! The new Garmin Express and Base Camp took care of the Win10 problem.

 

[RBEmerson]

I just checked the download page. The current rev. remains 4.7.0. BTW, the check reminded me that the Win10 problem came from MS updating their .NET tools. Garmin either wasn't in compliance with .NET specs or didn't deal with the pre-announced (for developers) change. Bottom line: Garmin screwed up.

 

[FJRPittsburgh]

Is there a possibility that there's some type of paved roads setting on the GPS or in Base Camp that is causing the dirt trails to come up in your route?

 

[RBEmerson]

In the Activity Profiles, there are options in Road Type Avoidances which include a check for unpaved road. Under Feature Type Avoidances I checked U-turns, Cable cars(!!!), Narrow trails, and Climbing paths.

It's possible that cow trails fit "none of the above". Or not. [/ shrug ]

The menu goes Edit -> Options (ctrl-O) -> Activity Profile. Use the Drop-down to pick Driving, Motorcycle, etc. BTW, motorcycle profile includes the option to find "curvy roads" (no idea what the criteria are). This isn't offered with Driving activity profile - TS all you MacClaren, Lotus, and Super-7 drivers. LOL

Ooooohhh, wait! There is a way to have a "cars get curves" profile. Duplicate the Motorcycle profile (+ next to activity name), and name the new profile "Sporty" or whatever. The new profile now includes "Curves" as a routing option. Add whatever avoidances make sense, scroll down to change the default speeds for trip planning, and there's a place for planning your next Caterham Super-7 trip. Woohoo! (The motorcycle image can be changed, too - how this is done is "left as an exercise for the student" - old textbook phrase)

 

[Fred W]

I found (and a Garmin tech confirmed) that BaseCamp and the 660 do not play well together. His solution, and it has worked well for me, is to set up your routes in BaseCamp, export them to MapSource and confirm they are correct, then load to the 660 from MapSource. I have to admit that, after a few months of futzing with BaseCamp, I went back to doing all my planning in MapSource. I hear BaseCamp has been upgraded so may give it another shot after travel season is over.

BaseCamp is now up to version 2019.2, check yours. 2019.1 was glitchy, no one at Garmin will admit why AFAIK but thus far I've had no difficulty with the .2 version.

Yeah, the first time I attempted to update to 2019.2 I went through the whole thing only to check and find that both the maps in base amp and map source ( yes I still use that) and the maps I loaded to my 8GB SD card for the zumo 550 were all still labeled as 2019.1. I checked at zumo forums and found some notes that other people had previously experienced the same phenomenon.
Digging around I found that the files downloaded from Garmin during the map update were forked up. Went back to my backup version of real 2019.1 and figured Id wait fir 2019.3 or whatever.

I later loaded 2019.2 on knifemakers zumo 550 and it seemed to go normally, so maybe they fixed that little glitch.

 

[RBEmerson]

I'm not sure where the problem is coming from. I use Garmin Express to my laptop, (edited) NA to the 660, and (edited) Europe to the SD (selected in Garmin Express). I don't recall any problems with the downloads, only that stupid error with .NET. For laughs and grins, I'll try downloading something, although my guess is that being up to date won't help. GE will just say I have everything I need.

 

[rbentnail]

Um, I think you've swapped the North America version number (2019.2) and Base Camp version number: 4.7.0 with USB driver gmnusb.sys 2.3.1.0
The previous iteration of Base Camp, as I think I said, had epic problems with Win10 - ditto for Garmin Express. The fix was to run them under compatibility for Win7. Garmin support, asked about the problem, said to take the machine to a tech, because the machine was probably broken! The new Garmin Express and Base Camp took care of the Win10 problem.

Yeah, that's what I meant

. The problems I had were not with the Base Camp version but with the maps version. I'm on a Win 10 laptop, selecting the prvious version of maps when making routes made my problems disappear.

 

[Uncle Hud]

Dirt road vs pavement was a big issue on this past Butt Lite.

Seems that there should be a GPS switch for "No Dirt Roads". There are GPS switches for no Interstates, no tolls, no ferries, etc.

 

[Fred W]

That is still an option in Mapsource, in Basecamp, and on both my zumo 550 and my Montana 650. Under Preferences, Avoidances, (called Road Type Avoidances in Basecamp) just select "Unpaved Roads". I do not have a zumo 59X so can't say if that is an option on that device or not, but if not that is a serious oversight and would cause drastic differences with how routes are recalculated when they are transferred to the device if they were originally calculated with that preference

I just updated myself to 2019.2 maps with no glitches this time, using Garmin Express. Downloaded the full map set to my PC, then sent just the eastern half of the US maps over to my zumo 550's SD card (to keep the time down) with Map Install utility, and then updated my Montana with the full Mapset just for grins.

 

[flars]

If you have 'faster route' selected, the GPS will apparently ignore your 'avoid unpaved roads' setting.

As mentioned by Uncle Hud, during the Butt Lite, we all had our GPS (which had 'avoid unpaved' checked) send us down gravel roads repeatedly, when there was a paved road that was maybe 2 feet longer just down the street.

On one bonus, the GPS tried to send me down five separate gravel roads. I stopped and zoomed out to see that a paved option was just a few miles away...I just had to keep ignoring the gps until I got to a paved road.

With that said, there was one place in Iowa where I had to ride 2.5 miles of gravel road (really, a very nice road, and would have been great if I wasn't such a wussy) to get back to the nearest route on pavement, because there just wasn't a real option, other than backtracking 10 miles.

 

[Fred W]

That is definitely not universally true. I know for certain that when running a route with fastest or shortest routing selected that changing the avoidance setting will alter the route to avoid some dirt roads. My guess is that not all unpaved roads are identified as such in the map database.

Yes, I have been routed down unpaved roads sometimes even though avoid unpaved is selected too, but that is the exception, not the rule. Also, I dont stress about dirt roads and actually like riding on the less congested unpaved byways.

My zumo 550 does duty on both my FJR and knobby shod Vstrom, so half the time I forget to change the no dirt setting when I switch between bikes.

 

[RBEmerson]

Some days Garmin just flat gets it wrong. It took Garmin over a year to recognize a nearby bridge, closed for repairs, was reopened.

'Course the same can be said for crowd sourced maps, too.

 

[Uncle Hud]

Typically, routing algorithms work for either (a) shorter distance, or (

shorter time.

Exclusions (no tolls, no dirt, no ferries) are applied to both algorithms, so that the user gets an apples-to-apples route comparison.

My guess is that the humongerously huge database of road segments across North America contains errors denoting paved/dirt, or whether a bridge is under construction. Already know they cant keep up with road closures or lane closures due to construction projects. Google has the ability to provide continuously updated estimates on travel time, so that's why I use them for my routing.

Isn't there a Garmin, NavTeq, or Google contact method to report errors?

<edit> stupid phone cant handle punctuation.

<edit 2> computer has now fixed punctuation omissions.

 

[FJRPittsburgh]

<edit> stupid phone cant handle punctuation.

You should get one of those smartphones......

 

[RBEmerson]

For comparison, try Kurviger (kurviger.de/en). It's a site to build routes specifically designed to avoid straight routes - 1 sorta curvy maybe, 2 starting to get serious, 3 bring it on! Local riding won't show much, if any real action. Around 50-100 miles+, it's hard to miss. But... the maps are crowd sourced. The good news is it's easy to report "residential road?!? - freakin' goat trail!". I admit to some early beta testing. During that process, an Alpine pass road wasn't marked as closed. A day or two later, the maps had that. A week later the road re-opened and that appeared a day or two later.

Base Camp this is not, but give it a try. And yes, routes can be uploaded phones and GPS' as .gpx files. See the web site for more about this. And, yes, there's an app for that. (AFAIK only Android)

If you wind up on the German language site, look for the little British flag, click on it, and all will be well.