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Edge Explore: Experiments in Initial Route Calculations and Enabled Maps

First the preliminaries: Firmware: 5.30; Unit is North American version, pre-loaded with North American maps; Turn by Turn Navigation is enabled in the Rider Settings; Bluetooth and peripheral connectivity all disabled; battery saver mode is enabled; Navigate to course start refused. All tests done at the desktop.

The course being calculated is 192KM long, was created in Garmin Connect, then sync'ed to the Explore via Garmin Express.

  1.  One Stock Garmin Map Enabled: a) AMR Standard Basemap, NR. Initial Route Calculation: 1 minute. Notes: This config ended in a Route calculation Error. Unusable.
  2.  Two Stock Garmin Maps Enabled: a) AMR Standard Basemap, NR; b) Garmin Cycle Map Amer, North. Initial Route Calculation: 9 minutes.
  3.  Four Stock Garmin Maps Enabled: a) AMR Standard Basemap, NR; b) Garmin Cycle Map Amer, North; c) Garmin DEM Map North America; d) Garmin Geocode Map North America. Initial Route Calculation: 9 minutesNotes: No difference from having two maps enabled.
  4.  One Third Party OSM Map Installed and Enabled: A Routable Bicycle Map (Openfietsmap Lite) for Ontario, Canada (downloaded from garmin.openstreetmap.nl/). Initial Route Calculation: 8 minutes.

Conclusion: Looks like 8-9 minutes is the best case reference for calculating the 192km course with TBT navigation. NOTE: This is not the Ride Settings-->Routing-->Recalculation option which is OFF in this case. (That feature really gums up the works IMO). 

This is the longest course I've ridden with the Edge Explorer and the unit performed adequately however every feature that wasn't essential for the ride was disabled; it was operating in a bare bones minimalist capacity.

Addendum: It seems the onerous route calculation times are just the nature of the beast. Various active map configurations don't seem to make that much of a difference for TBT enabled courses. That leaves the hardware--can't do anything about that--and firmware. In other threads it's been noted that firmware 5.30 may be aggravating calculation times and commenters remember earlier versions to be much speedier. I'm willing to try reverting back to version 5.xx but don't know where they're archived or the installation process. Any insights?

  • My 2 cents... 220km route, created in RideWithGps, then exported to gpx, imported into Garmin connect, then synced to Edge Explore.

    Only stock maps all enabled, TBT enabled, Recalculation option to Off, Battery Saver ON, navigate to start canceled. Phone disconnected, ANT+ Magene cadence sensor connected.

    Calculation time shy under 2 minutes.

    EU maps updated to latest, Garmin FW freshly downgraded from 5.30 to 5.10 (because of better battery life supposedly).

    GPS version: 6.17.14

    TSC: 85.06.00

    Connect IQ: 3.1.3

    Sensor Hub: 4.70

    Device is brand new, got it as replacement because old one started being quirky with battery and random freezes.

    So, 2 minutes is ok, 20 minutes with previous device was not!

  • Wow, the 20 minutes on the previous device was with the same course? What's involved in downgrading to an earlier firmware?

  • Not the same course, but similar distance. And created in komoot, not RWGPS.

    As for downgrade, it's as simple as putting older FW file into Garmin folder on device, restarting and accepting the downgrade.

  • That much I've figured out. But where to get the older FW files?

  • Ive found it here on some topic, but can't remember now...

  • Another Experiment:

    All parameters the same as above. This time I just left two Garmin Maps enabled (#2 in the above series): a) AMR Standard Basemap, NR; b) Garmin Cycle Map Amer, North.

    I signed up to Komoot and created a 225KM loop (which didn't have as many TBT points as the previous 192KM course used in the above series of tests). I exported a GPX of the 225KM course, imported it into Garmin Connect, then sync'ed it to the Explore via Express. Initial Route Calculation: 7 min.

    The initial calculation times are consistent in their longevity.

  • I'm guessing you are updated to the latest... I would be very interested in seeing the calculation times of the same route and settings, but on the 5.10 fw.

    That could point out to the part, or even the whole problem.

    Shame we have to do the testing while Garmin coders are sitting there with thumbs in their asses...

  • Yes, I'm running firmware 5.30 (which is the latest version available). My maps have all been updated to the most recent versions. That's my interest in getting my hands on older firmware: to eliminate or implicate it in these extended calculation times. 

    It's a simple test. If the older firmware has similar calculation times then it's a good bet that after multiple iterations it's already fully optimised and a mediocre CPU or hardware is behind the glacial processing. At least then we could reconcile ourselves to buying a substandard product and move on.

  • There are some that says updated maps are to blame, but I don't know... 2 bad you are using American maps, if you were in Europe, we could calculate the same route.

    Let me check if I can find the firmware link.

  • Here it is...

    drive.google.com/.../view

    Just remove _510 from the name, so it's GUPDATE.GCD