Garmin Edge 530 - Route displayed on screen is not accurate to ground conditions

7695427 said:

I have uploaded a route to my Garmin Edge 530 unit and started following it, but the route on the Garmin display is not accurate to the actual ground conditions.

Is the magenta (purplish) line offset from the real road or is your cyan (light blue) track/recorded line offset?

I suspect it’s the first thing (which means the map needs updating).

In any case, to really know what’s going on, you’d need to provide the course and indicate exactly where along it the issue occurred.

Screenshots are really helpful in determining the cause of these type of issues , see “insert” in the posting tools along the bottom of the reply window, although they are sometimes as frustrating to use as the 530 device itself, must be a Garmin speciality?

Thanks for your reply.  There is no 'map' background on the Garmin display - despite me checking that all available maps are enabled on the Garmin and I have been to Garmin Express and ensured the Garmin is synced and states it is up-to-date.  I have software version 9.75.   

On the Garmin display the magenta line with the arrows on it showing the 'route' and then there is the cyan line of my track which is offset from the magenta line.  The cyan line appears to be accurate to the path I am traveling on the ground and which should be the route (based on the turns I take it is accurate following my turns).  I also double checked it to the Gaia GPS at the same time - where the route on Gaia is following the road which is the route and my track is closely tracking the road and the route (obviously I can move approx 2 - 3 m across a forestry road as I avoid potholes).   When I looked at the course on Garmin Connect on my computer it is generally accurate to the map background (in that it is following the road, there are a couple of small cut corners), but it is certainly not offset from the road.     

The issue is occurring at many locations along the course where my cyan line and magenta line are offset and it is stating I am off course.  What I am generally seeing is that for climbing Pro it is starting climbs approx 100 m too early (distance traveled along road not elevation) and likewise finishing them approx 100 m too soon; also most corners on the magenta line seem to occur too early and my cyan line is offset from the magneta line.  I am happy to send in the course if that helps?  Not sure what that will do since I assume you need to see a image of the actual garmin display when I am out of the route? 

Thanks for any help you can provide.        

Not sure how to screenshot the Garmin - it is not like a iPhone where you can take a screen shot.  But I can try to take a photo of the Garmin display when I go out next time and upload that.    

support.garmin.com/.../

Where are you getting the course?

How is it being created?

What map is it based on?

Are you seeing big white arrows indicating when to make turns?

What map is Gaia using?

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Usually, the course is created by tracing along roads on some map. If your your course was created that way, the course being offset from the real road (generally) means the map isn’t correct.

Keep in mind that different maps will, fairly often, have the same road not be in exactly the same location.

Garmin Connect lets you use different maps.

The devices use Openstreetmap (OSM) maps. But you say you aren’t seeing “roads” on the device. So, either the “road” you are using isn’t on the OSM map or you don’t have maps installed.

The cyan line is just a recording of your successive positions as determined by GPS. It is what it is whether or not you are using a route.

Thanks. Next time I am out riding I will capture a screenshot and upload it.  

7695427 said:

am happy to send in the course if that helps?

This would be much better than nothing. You can provide a link to the course.

The course is from topofusion.   Not sure where that base map it is coming from.   My Gaia states it is using Gaia Topo (meters) - based on OpenStreetMap data and styled similarly to use USGS topo maps.   As I said above when I look at the course on Garmin connect on my computer it is following the road (generally).  Likewise when I look at the course for the same section of road on Gaia it is also following the road (generally) and has the exact same small locations where it cuts a corner.  This section of road is the same for the basemap on both Garmin connect and Gaia.  The section of road is well maintained forestry road heading out from a small mountain town in Canada.   

Yes big white arrows were coming up on the route indicating where I needed to turn, until I turned that off as it was driving me nuts with all the off course beeping, Route re-calculations etc.  

It sounds like I need to install more maps to my Garmin 530 head unit?  How frustrating that you pay all this $$ and still need to fork out more so that the darn thing works for what one needs a GPS for!    So now to work out how to upload new maps to my Garmin 530.  Appreciate your insight here.