Google Maps Export, iPhone, Turn-by-Turn... Finally!

So are you saying that the app doesn't automatically advance to the next waypoint? I use a Sena headset for turn-by-turn and leave my iPhone in my pocket... I don't want to spend the money on the navigon app if it means I'll also have to mount it somewhere to easily access it.

If you put your waypoint after the intersection (in the new direction of travel) as you approach the intersection, you will get the turn info.

If you place the point on top of the intersection, it will route there and not give you the information until after you arrive, so you may have to go past it before getting the next turn direction.

Got it! Looks like I'll be shelling out the cash for Navigon :)

EUREKA!

Well done. Desktop route planning with turn by turn navigation via your smartphone. It has honestly been my personal holy grail to find this. Thanks for sharing!

EDIT: Apparently route import is not possible with Android phones.....mother...f...

Well that doesn't seem right. What happens when you click on the .target file? Maybe on Android it has to be associated with the Navigon App somehow?

I'm going by a response a Danish guy recently got on Facebook from Navigon support.

Could be different in the U.S. but $50 is a lot of dough to shell out just to find out if it works or not.

Anyone out there that can verify this works on Android?

I wish I could help but only have the iPhone version. I do think that if you asked them if the iPhone version supports importing a route the official answer would be know. The way we are doing it is kind of a work around I think, I never saw any mention of it on their site.

Ran into that 25 waypoint limit. Slight bummer but can easily be worked around just by creating a second route. By the time you ride 25 waypoints you might want to take a break anyway.

So, after several hours of frustration, I finally got the import route function working on a Macbook Pro (OS 10.7.5) and an iPhone 4s. I was having problems with getting a "The selected destination not covered by the maps which are activated for this device" message, but I managed to find a workaround. Here's my process:

Necessary Software:
Download RouteConverter 2.10 for Mac 64-bit (No install necessary... it's a Java app and it's FREE!)
http://www.routeconverter.de/releases/en

Download and install Dropbox on both your Mac and your iPhone and sign up for a free Dropbox account (You can either give the OP your referral, or if you find this post super useful then you are more than welcome to use my email as a referral dhumberd@gmail.com)
www.dropbox.com

Step 1 - Design:
You can design your maps directly in RouteConverter, but I find it easier to design in Google Maps in my browser, save them under Maps in My Places and export the route as a .kml file. There are how-to's on google if you want to do it this way. If you design the map in the browser on Google, you will need to open the downloaded .kml in RouteConverter.

Step 2 - Confirm:
Confirm that all of your points are accurate in RouteConverter, and they all have an associated Lat/Long designation under the "Convert" tab (sometimes a waypoint or two will have blank Lat/Long designations). To avoid the "missed turn" issue discussed earlier in this post, I simply place routing points 500-1000 feet AFTER the turn onto the next road in the path.

Step 3 - Export:
Once you have confirmed that your route is accurate, in the menu bar go to Positionlist > Export to a File...
Name your route and export in file format "Navigon Mobile Navigator URL (*.txt)" and choose a destination folder. I export my files directly into my created "Navigon Routes" dropbox folder. If you choose a different destination, simply drag the file from wherever you exported it and into the Dropbox folder of your choosing.

Step 4 - Import:
Open up your dropbox app on your iPhone and navigate to the dropbox folder where you uploaded the route. Tap on the route file and it will pull up a new screen with a very long URL link. Tap that link, Navigon should open and voila! Your route is now loaded into your iPhone Navigon app. Make sure you save it in the Navigon app by hitting the calculator-looking button in the top-left of the screen, then the + in the bottom right corner and "Save Route".

Double-check that your route actually takes you where you want to go... The original route file may take some tweaking to make Navigon follow the exact roads that you want.

I'm going to go for my first turn-by-turn directed ride tomorrow! I have attached the test file I created if any of you are having problems and need a file to work with (the route is in Tennessee, and I had to change the extension from .txt to .gpx to upload it to the forum... once you have downloaded it just delete the .gpx part of the extension). Enjoy!

Bought Navigon and got the whole process working and NOW find out that I can't hear a word that lady is saying. I gotta do something with my ONeal BT helmet speakers!

Anybody notice this?

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/a-new-google-maps-app-for-smartphone.html

In summation, type 'ok maps' into the search bar and google maps makes the visible area of the map available offline. I discovered this feature about 5 minutes ago, so I'm still kind of exploring what it means, but it could be very interesting.

I can't tell you how happy I was to stumble across this thread. To avoid being too long-winded, let's just say that a couple months ago I reached my breaking point with my Garmin Zumo 550. So yesterday I began researching the possibility of using my iPhone, but was discouraged to learn that I couldn't create and upload ad hoc routes. I even called Navigon / Garmin to confirm this. It can be done on the actual GPS devices of course, but not with the smartphone app ... at least according to them!

I'm still a bit leery of the whole 25-waypoint-limit since the most critical on-bike use of the GPS comes on long trips. I know some of my previous routes have had dozens of waypoints to help ensure the GPS kept us on backroads and off the slab, but I suppose it may be feasible to simply split it up when necessary. Still weighing the pros and cons here so for those who have used this approach for awhile now, I'd love to hear more feedback ... good or bad! Thanks again for the post!

So far the 25 waypoint thing hasn't been that much of a problem for me. Remember in both the route planning tool and Navigon you can set the routing to avoid highways at all cost, and that helps it to stick to the back roads that you want.

The problem I have is with Navigon, it's just very frustrating to use. It's hard to zoom in and out and get a feel for what's around you, thae maps are just hard to read and work with in general. I was out in the middle of the state the other day, a little bit lost because the battery was dying on me, and I couldn't even determine what city I was in by looking at the map.

Unfortunately right now Navigon is the only option for voice turn-by-turn that I've found so I just work around the little problems. I tried the same dropbox trick with Copilot the other day and it doesn't work, even though ITN Converter has the ability to save to a copilot extension.

Navigon, for JUST routing is fine. But don't expect to use it's maps for any kind of discovery. Here are some screenshots of similiar zooms on Apple Maps and Navigon.

+1 for bdolnik's points.

If I have a route that requires more than 25 waypoints, I just break it up into separate route files. Not a big deal.

I also agree with his points in regards to Navigon. I usually have to zoom in so far before the minor roads appear and then I lose reference to other roads. The other thing that gets me about Nagivon is that it shuts down when my iphone battery is like 25% without an audible warning. It sends up a banner on the screen but I use my iphone via BT. The phone is usually in a pocket or tank bag so I don't see the banner. This has caused me to go miles off course before realizing Navigon is no longer running. Now I usually plug my phone in whenever I'm using navigation.

Considering the several cons of this setup, it is still better than having a separate GPS unit. At least for my purposes. I actually own a dedicated GPS but I prefer to not have to mount it and plug it in in addition to my phone.

That's an excellent point and may indeed reduce the number way points I'd need to use. The Garmin would try to hop on a highway any chance it got so that was a constant battle when routing near cities or just when the road I wanted to take paralleled a highway.

Also thanks to both of you for pointing out the lack-luster performance of the app when attempting to zoom and scroll for discovery. Thankfully for my purposes I don't *think* that will be too big an issue. At the very least it shouldn't be much of a step backward because the Zumo pretty much sucked in this category as well. Most of the time the only "discovery" I'm doing is a POI search for food or fuel ... not the scrolly kind.

I really appreciate the feedback! Given that I can try this for around $30, I think I may do it. I'll try and remember to come back after a bit and contribute my $.02 after some use as well.

I swear I've found more useful info on ADVRider ... love it!

Hi All
Great post, been pulling my hair out trying to figure this out...
Mac user also, and I have found another aid to make the job easier...

I used Tourstart to construct my route:
Add a start point, then your end point, a way point for the midway section, and inbetween use drag points to keep the route on the roads you want to use.
Then dowload the route as a .gpx
Open in the converter as stated (by Damnitdan) in a previous post here to change file ext name, and save it to dropbox.
Open dropbox on your phone, open the file, tap the link and there you go, the exact route as plotted on Tourstart.
Personally I find Tourstart much better than googlemaps, far more userfriendly and a lot quicker..And it has the benefit of making your routes public or private, so if you want to share an awesome route then you can, and by the way it's FREE!

See what you all think, give it a go, it takes minutes that way.

Thanks for sharing taity.

I've used Tourstart also and I like it. They have several 'export' options and I actually contacted the developer to see if they would add the ability to export to the .target format but didn't get anywhere with it. You might want to contact them also, maybe if they hear from enough people they would do it.

SO I have found Google Maps to be pretty good for on road stuff. I also have MotionXGPS and You Need A Map on my iPhone 4s. How do I get it to function as a GPS without a cell signal.

I know I am way behind the tech curve, but where am I going wrong.

The GPS functionality of your phone is separate from the cell service function. They should operate independent of each other.

When you say 'how do I get it to function'... have you tried it? Are you getting a specific error message? Or are you just asking in general?

The one thing that the cell service is required for is the downloading of maps. Navigon is not affected by this because it downloads it's maps and stores them on your phone.

Google maps and Apple maps do not, although I believe Google has just released the ability to do it as an option. I haven't played with it but I did see they were making it available. MotionXGPS also has the option to download sections of a map.

Hope that helps :)

I couldn't get it to work. I think the problem is that I'm unclear on what file ext I'm supposed to change the .gpx file to, and how I do that.