Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Any way to improve naviagtion?

Thomas
over 3 years ago

I have found navigation on both my previous 520 Plus and my current 1030 to be problematic at best. It's barely acceptable on road rides, and pretty much useless for mtb and gravel. Why? because it seems to regularly lose the course/track and bombard me with 'Off Course' and 'Make a U-Turn' messages even though I'm right where I need to be. I've tried native courses from Garmin Connect, Strava Routes, dragging & dropping .FIT files from ridewithgps.com right into the Edge file system - all courses produce (to varying degrees) the same errors & issues. I've tried all the different GPS settings available in Activity Profiles and nothing seems to improve it.  I've bailed on multiple new courses in the last several weeks because the navigation simply cannot tell me where I need to go. 

After five years of riding with Edge computers, I'm coming to the said realiztion that Garmin navigation is complete and utter ***. Before I dump this thing and defect to Karoo or Wahoo, I wanted to see if the Community had any ideas.

Thanks in advance for your advice...

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    I use the navigation on my 1030 almost weekly and it's working fine.
    The fact that it doesn't work well on your devices does not mean that navigation fails on any Garmin device.

    Maybe there is something wrong with your device or the settings. Is the satellite connection ok? Did the navigation change after a firmware update?
    Maybe you can try a factory reset (I hate it but sometimes it works) and see if that helps.
    Instead of resetting it you could make a new profile that you set up from scratch with the default settings for navigation.

    You could try a different GPS Mode. I use GPS + Glonass which works for me in the Netherlands.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Without denying that you seem to have problems, all I can say is that's not my experience. I regularly navigate with my 1030 on rides (45 to 90 km) made with RidewithGPS without problem.

    Have you tried to ride with a friend on the same .FIT file both using Edges?

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to ejdevries

    Thanks for the response EJ. I'm curious if you use your 1030 only on the road, or if you also use it for mtb and/or gravel rides? The issues I described are much more accute for mtb & gravel, although they do occur regularly on road rides as well. And I saw exactly the same behavior on my old 520 Plus as on the 1030, which leads me to beleive whatever logic is built into Garmin's navigation simply isn't suitable in my area. My riding buddies with Wahoos and Karoos don't seem to experience these problems. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to cactus2002b

    Thanks for the response Cactus. As asked EJ, I'm curious if you use your 1030 only on the road, or if you also use it for mtb and/or gravel rides? 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Thomas

    I don't do MTB rides... My gravel rides are made on unpaved roads included in regular rides...

    With the same .FIT loaded on your Garmins from RWGPS, you should compare with a friend. Does the bugs appear on both Garmins at the same time, etc... ? If not, compare your settings, maps, etc...

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Thomas

    Hi, I use it mostly on the road bike and the gravel bike.
    I must admit that the Edge 1030 mostly works fine but if I go away just a few meters form the route the device tells me I'm off course,
    Yesterday me and my friend stoppend besides the road to eat something, we were only two meters away from the road and both our Edges were off course.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to ejdevries

    Why is that an issue. If you back to riding the course after a bit of time it should find the course back and resume as if nothing happened.  Also personally I most of the time have TurnByTurn Navigation and OffCourseAlerts turned off. I still get the magenta course line on the map, and a subtle alert when I leave the course, but no navigation thing to get me back on course. Much less intrusive that way and that lesser navigation aid is enough for me. Added bonus the Edge does not have to "Calculating..." the course when I load it, it just goes right away. Reason is that TBT and OCW requires the Edge to match the course with the map database, so if you disablele those two it does not do it anymore - the course is just a line on the map.  Anyhow these devices do a lot and there are subtleties to them, but they work.