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Up ahead not working in reverse

Groovy Geek
over 3 years ago

The Up Ahead feature works fine on my Fenix 7 when traversing a course in the forward direction. However when I traverse in reverse this screen disappears and the watch shows only the distance to the final waypoint.

Please tell me that I am doing something dumb and this is not yet another limitation of Garmin's inscrutable mess of routes, courses, and 3 different pieces of software to do the exact same thing on incompatible formats.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to silentvoyager

    I really don't see how there could be any technical difficulty in the implementation. You have a series of points, you just take the array and run data.reverse() on it (in python lingo). The left and right turns are decided on the watch in real time anyway.  I can write the code for that in about half an hour, if that. There must be something really screwy about the methodoligy they use for the routing.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Groovy Geek

    Yes, what you suggested is a sane thing to do. But don't forget that Garmin's software probably has layers and layers of legacy code. For starters, imagine that some users have "Use Map" navigation mode activated instead of "Follow the Course". And to make it more complicated, the course might not align perfectly with the map. I am just speculating here but I wouldn't be surprised if the feature implementation tries and fails to account for all possible use cases.

    Groovy Geek said:
    The left and right turns are decided on the watch in real time anyway. 

    That isn't how it works. The course points with the specific turns are inserted into the course in advance. When using a "Follow course" mode the watch software doesn't see the map and doesn't know whether a turn is left or right. It just displays the course point that was inserted there in advance. Also don't forget that this type of navigation works on devices without maps.

    What you say is only true when navigating using the "Use the Map" navigation mode.

    If you search Garmin Forums you can find that there have been complaints about reversing the course not working in both the Fenix 6 and the Forerunner 945 forums, so this likely isn't a new issue. But I guess the number of users that try this feature is so small that there is very little priority for Garmin to fix it. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to silentvoyager

    Not sure that the left and right turns are predetermined. You can go off course on either side of the route so the software needs to be  able to respond in real time. Also the watch is supposed to be able to do intelligent rerouting when you go off course, the mapnis a vector map not a bitmap image like the Coros. In any case the Garmin mapping and routing framework clearly suffers from a multitude of legacy issues that have been allowed to accumulate over the years.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Groovy Geek

    You are talking about the "Use Map" mode where the routing is done on device. However many of not most users use the "Follow Course" mode where the watch map isn't used at all for the routing and all directions are saved in the course in advance - they are injected by Garmin Connect..

    The use of the " Use Map" is limited to situations where the map quality is high. In reality the course may be following trails that aren't on the map at all or even going off trail. On top of that, users use a previously recorded activity as a course, which, considering the GPS accuracy, would often not match the map. Also the " Use Map" mode doesn't work well on long courses and it consumes more battery power. Furthermore, there are situations where re-routing is undesired, for example when following a race course. That would get you disqualified. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Heidstocker

    Ugh I am having the same issue and this is a year after this post ! Seems like no fixes have been put in place ? It was extremely disappointing since I was off grid for a 5 day expedition on a GPX import I reversed direction. I was relying on these waypoints for the 5 days and as soon as I started the trek they did show up on the watch up ahead screen.. for about 5 seconds in the wrong direction. Then they disappeared and were gone the entire trip :( this is crazy has anyone applied for a bug fix ?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 1858576

    To say that I am disappointed with the Garmin software ecosystem would be an understatement. It is a clusterf**k of partially functioning apps and it is never clear whatgadget uses which app. Garmin Connect, Garmin Connect IQ, Earthmate, Explore, and I am sure there are 3 other that I am not aware of. It is a disgrace that Garmin has not consolidated and modernized their software stack for so long. The Fenix 7 and the Garmin Inreach are going to be the first and last Garmin products I am going to buy this century. Apple is already putting pressure on them with respect to satellite 2 way communication and watches from both Google and Apple are already doing pretty much everything the Fenix 7 does, with better connectivity.