Calculating the route from gpx file Etrex Touch

Since the H1 and Etrex Touch has similar interface, I have a question.

How fast, or to better ask, how slow is calculating a route from gpx sent to device?

I open the track from third party app by Garmin Connect, save it as a bike ride course, then send it (hardly after many attepmts it shows in the etrex) and want to ride happily.

So find the track, set is as a course and activate calculating the route. Etrex starts to calculate, option ride is inactive. After couple of minutes calculation level of 25 km route is by 16%, and suddenly drops to 10%, 5% and slowly starts to gain % again...

10 minutes - 65%, 15 minutes - 72%, 20 minutes - 69%,

Finally after 26 minutes the course is calculated and I can go! My frien, who has Edge 840 is already 15 km ahead....

So, do you have the same happy experience with navigation?

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0 JungleJim 9 days ago

If you navigate a course and enable Routing, the calculation of the route can indeed take very long. In my experience this mostly depends on how many roads/trails/crossroads/etc there are in the area of the course. The more "complex" the area, the longer it takes.

The Edge bike computers do some route caching and maybe even pre-calculation, which results in way faster loading of courses with turn by turn instructions. It seems the Etrex Touch (and GPSMAP H1 / H1i Plus, which share the software) do not have this functionality.

If you don't need turn-by-turn, you can navigate the course without Routing toggled to On. You can then follow the course as a breadcrumb trail but you won't get the turn by turn instructions.

0 tgurdziolek 8 days ago in reply to JungleJim

I've bought the new etrex as a wonder of improvement of my old etrex 30, wich was very simple but very efficient in "wired" times. Now in wireless times I hoped a new etrex would do navigation turn by turn (it has very big potential to do it), just by send the gpx from connect and last 100hrs on one charge. Unfortunatelly the software is at the newborn version and I don't know if the Garmin have a will to improve it?

If not the navigation turn by turn will be only annoying feature, which would be better to remove from device to not frustrate users...

0 Cargotourercommuter 8 days ago

Those times makes it absolutely useless, not to mention a huge drain on the battery. And if you have it set to recalculate route (if that is even possible) straying from a route, those times would make sure it is better as a door stopper.

What a waste of a product. No SD card slot, low res screen, no inreach connectivity, nixed ascend planning, no music control, can't do turn by turn without waiting a literal half hour, and on and on it goes.

Do Garmin actually want to sell these things? Do the team behind them actually want them to be used? To be relied upon?

0 SergZak 7 days ago in reply to Cargotourercommuter

My Garmin nuvi 3490 from 2012 calculates a full, complex route in under a minute and recalculations are pretty much in seconds.

Can't figure out what Garmin is doing in this respect as they market City Navigator as being a compatible mapping option. How is this to be used in a useful way for turn-by-turn navigation on the new H1 & eTrex Touch?