New Garmin Montana

[Hayastani]

Thanks for that bighopper, I shall check that out.

[Albie]

Originally Posted by snooker

OK, moving right along... We've established that we can have no more than 50 (or 51) Shaping points (a Via Point dropped in BC using the Insert tool) in a route we create in BaseCamp then send to the Montana that we intend to autoroute with. Set the Shaping points just AFTER critical intersections rather than ON the intersection (see below).

Next, how can we best use this route? One idea I hear a lot is to create the Route in BC using a non-Direct profile (e.g. Motorcycling) so it will auto-route, then adjust things until you like it. When done save it as a Track also. THEN change the Route to be Direct before you send both the Route and the Track to the Montana. Then on the Montana set the routing activity to be anything other than Direct (e.g. Motorcycle).

Then you have both a Route and Track to follow. The Track will always be correct and the Route is handy for things like Distance (or Time) to Destination. For me on an off-road trip where I don't want it to reroute if I take a slight detour I would also set: Setup->Routing->Off Route Recalculation to Off.

The best description of this I found is from DRTBYK at post 5746:



Those of you that have tried this, I assume both the Route and the Track are visible at the same time? Probably in different colors? But since you are navigating on the Route it will be big fat PINK line and most of the time overlap the Track I guess. Is this partial overlapping easy to see what is going on this way or do you have a suggestion?

Any other ideas or tips?

The simplest method for me is if I have to use more then 50 via points I create multiple routes.

What really sucks is I'm lazy and I usually just use the routes that my buddies create. Of course they have 276's which don't have the ridiculous 50 point max so their routes usually contain more.

As for displaying both route and track, it doesn't matter if you can't see the track under the route. When you do see the track then you know somethings up since the route and track are no longer following the same line.

[cablebandit]

As posted a few pages back before this latest rat hole, the below pic clearly shows the track is quite visible on the route. On the right you can see where the route deviates from the track.

I think all these issues have been answered time and time again in this thread.

[Rocky TFS]

Originally Posted by snooker

Restore Defaults is EVIL for motorcyclists on the move! grrrr.

I agree!!!!

However, I learned early on not to use much of anything besides the zoom buttons when going over 5 mph, and to place either a thumb or the heel of the hand on the bars or the side of the unit to help the index finger's accuracy. I haven't had a reset happen since.

The other REALLY dangerous Reset button is in the trip computer menu, last item....this will reset EVERYTHING, including all profiles. I NEVER use the trip computer menu unless stationary and also made a shortcut that uses the first menu option, reset trip timers, averages, etc. Much safer.

[Emoto]

Originally Posted by Rocky TFS

More testing at home:
Opened BaseCamp, set activity to Automobile Driving and map to CNNA.
Created route with 202 points and 103 via points and sent it to Montana
On Montana, set profile to Topo (Topo USA and route activity to Direct)
Upon GO, Montana shows route with 103 points, no limits.
Reset Montana to Automobile profile (CNNA and activity Automobile)
Reload route
Upon GO, it gives the 50 point limit message and gets in the loop between the map with the GO button and the message. I had to X back to home page where no route is active.
This is consistent with the previous test.

Test #2:
Opened BaseCamp, set activity to Direct and map to USA Topo.
Created route with 131 points and sent it to Montana
On Montana, set profile to Topo (Topo USA and route activity to Direct)
Upon GO, Montana shows route with 131 points, no limits. ( I haven't tested for 250+, but I'll bet it is a limit because when I first got it a year ago I tried importing some 300+ point routes from Mapsource and they were all truncated at 250.)
Reset Montana to Automobile profile (CNNA and route activity Automobile)
Part way through the profile change, it gives the 50 via point limit message and gets in the loop between the map with the GO button and the message. I had to X back to home page where no route is active.

Just for grins, I then went to Setup-Routing and changed the activity to direct, with the CNNA map still enabled:
Re-clicked that route and hit GO....No 50 point limit. Changed it back to Automobile driving and the 50 point message appeared instantly.

SO, it seems to be the routing activity in route setup on the unit that is the controlling factor, not the map itself.

Also, I believe that if you set the routing activity to Direct, no matter what map is enabled, you WILL NOT get turn by turn directions....(fairly well understood behavior).

Hope this helps SOMEBODY!!!

PS, for those who haven't read ALL 459 pages of this thread , whenever you send a route with a direct activity to the Montana, it is editable and reversible. When you send one with auto or motorcycle or other custom activity that doesn't use direct routing, it will NOT be editable or reversable.

Hey Rocky, if you woudl care to email me one of your 300+ point routes (to emoto1 at gmail dot com) , I would like to try importing it into my Zumo 350LM, just to see (and report) what happens. When I pulled in Darryl's 52 point route, it automatically made it into 2 routes. It would be cool to know if it would make a larger one into however many...

UPDATE: I pulled a 911 point route into a Zumo 350 and posted results in the 350 discussion thread here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...9#post20668779

[Albie]

Originally Posted by Rocky TFS

including all profiles. I NEVER use the trip computer menu unless stationary and also made a shortcut that uses the first menu option, reset trip timers, averages, etc. Much safer.

Sigh I did the reset everything once when I was just trying to reset the trip computer.I won't make that mistake again!

[snooker]

Thanks Cable and Albie... I see your example is Black for tracks and I guess the route is always PINK, so the skinny black line on the PINK shows up pretty well. I'll try that out, I was using Yellow or Green for tracks and it is not easy to see the track stacked up on top of PINK. Can you change the Route color?

I came from using only Tracks on my 60Csx and after this entire discussion I think for most of my offroad trips I will end up just using Tracks if I have them or else create my own Routes if I don't and then create tracks from them but may not use the routes much. For a quick "city" trip I may use Routes more. I'm not a long distance tourer type. But I'll keep experimenting.

So... all in all sortof anti-climactic, thinking how cool it will be to do Routes on this fabulous new toy. It is but I guess you just have to learn the beast and its limitations.

The clincher for me was yesterday when I ran across this admission by DRTBYK:

Originally Posted by DRTBYK

OK, you caught me. I don't use Routing much at all. I only create them so I can easily create Tracks. When I do use Routing, it's usually to just play with the settings to see how the code will behave. On rare occasions I'll use Routing when I'm in unfamiliar Cities (that have good maps) so I can get better visual guidance from the GPS.

But, again, I'm a Track guy and Routing is just a "toy" to be played with - not relied upon.

Cheers,

My bubble is popped. Long live Tracks!

[snooker]

Popped my cherry in another way today. First day with the Montana on my bike (been in a cage before today, experimenting without crashing)...

I have the Rugged Mount with the Montana in portrait mode fairly steep angle (vertical-ish like 60 degrees up from flat). It was often rotating either left or right into landscape mode. I fixed it by locking the display in Portrait, but is this a common "problem"? What seems to cause it, just vibration or ?

[Emmbeedee]

Originally Posted by snooker

I fixed it by locking the display in Portrait, but is this a common "problem"? What seems to cause it, just vibration or ?

Very common; even if using the Montana handheld, you're likely to want to lock the orientation. Inertia can cause the problem; acceleration, braking, leaning. You name it.

[Yossarian™]

Originally Posted by snooker

Popped my cherry in another way today. First day with the Montana on my bike (been in a cage before today, experimenting without crashing)...

I have the Rugged Mount with the Montana in portrait mode fairly steep angle (vertical-ish like 60 degrees up from flat). It was often rotating either left or right into landscape mode. I fixed it by locking the display in Portrait, but is this a common "problem"? What seems to cause it, just vibration or ?

The internal accelerometer gets 'fused.

[TravellingStrom]

Originally Posted by Yossarian™

The internal accelerometer gets 'fused.

That is a misleading term as fused means in electronics to have become hot and melted toegther.

In this instance I am sure you meant "confused" which would make sense

It is not a fault with the unit

[advNZer?]

Originally Posted by TravellingStrom

That is a misleading term as fused means in electronics to have become hot and melted toegther.

In this instance I am sure you meant "confused" which would make sense

It is not a fault with the unit

yes that why he put ' before the fused

[MasterMarine]

This thread is so massive, it is impossible to read. I just bought a Montana 600 yesterday. It seems like a great unit.

I found it only supports somwhere around 200 via points in direct routes. I cannot figure out the exact number as when I look at the routes from the unit in Basecamp, it shows the whole thing but when I look at it on the Montana (not hooked up to computer) the route is truncated. I would like to see more. How do I give this input to Garmin?

Perhaps someone else already ran into this limitation??

[Rocky TFS]

=MasterMarine;20685851
Perhaps someone else already ran into this limitation??

The limit on via points in a direct route should be 250. Try the attached 249 point route and see if it truncates on the Montana. Make sure both BC and the Montana are set to direct activity.

I checked it in mine, but I can't actually try navigating, since it's in Colorado and I'm in Idaho. All 249 points showed up in the edit page. Hint: the last point is called
2 ELHillElkMtnRd 537 (Requires a LOT of page downs to see.... Might be easier to show on map and zoom to last point in the SW corner.)

If it's there, the route has not been truncated. If you need more than that you're only choice is to make it a track, which has a 10,000 point limit.

[MasterMarine]

I was guessing on the number of via points before it truncated in direct mode. I tried to find specs but of course I could not. It could be closer to 250. Still it is not enough. I do not understand why they do not up the limits considerably. My old Lowrance iFinder allowed 9999 point tracks and I bought that way back in 2000. The Garmins with their 500 point max for tracks mystified me when I ran into the issue with my Garmin eTrex and 60csx. And now my new $500 Montana can do a 10000 point track... Finally caught up to the 13 year old Lowrance. Of course the screen on the Montana is worlds better than the Lowrance. Kind of like comparing Pong to Playstation3 or XBox.

Anyway, it seems strange that the thing is limited to such small numbers. In these days of 32 gigabyte micro-SD cards, it seems like we should be able to have tracks that are millions of points. We should not be running into any limitations like these.

Is there some Montana forum somewhere on the net? I found Garmin's forum but they only have sub forums for running and swimming GPS units.