Incredibly slow route calculation - Garmin Edge Explore

Financially embarrassed at the moment but there's no harm in looking and the 530 is one model I have been looking at. How do you find it? Another option is the Wahoo Bolt. There's no money now but a future purchase is between these two.

linguinee said:

I recommend just leaving the recalculation option permanently disabled

linguinee said:

I always opt to NOT be guided to the course start when loading a saved course.

The thread didn't come up here for nothing.
It is exactly these settings that all the other users including me have also made or tested.
Nevertheless, a "New" calculation of the already loaded route is performed.
This does not happen with the GARMIN watches. I am from the trail runnig and use the watches and navigation very often. Without problems.
The reason for the annoying recalculation of already loaded routes on garmin edge explore I just can not find.

Which software version runs on your Garmin Edge Explore?

At the risk of repeating what you may already know, for the sake of others that may be confused, let me clarify the Edge Explore's behavior. There are two categories of calculations performed on an active course. 

1. There is the initial calculation which is performed when activating (i.e., loading) a saved course. The greatest factor determining the speed of this calculation is whether you have turn-by-turn guidance enabled at the time. If you do, this calculation can take a loooong time as a table of turns, street names and distances is generated for the purpose of guiding you.

If you've disabled TBT guidance for the course, you'll be presented with a highlighted route on the map and a moving cursor denoting your position. It's up to you to take the proper turns and follow the highlighted route as there's no TBT guidance. In this scenario the initial course calculation takes seconds, almost instantaneous, as no table of directions need be generated.

So, if all you want is your position and course highlighted on the map then disable TBT guidance. You'll save time and cpu cycles. Home-->Courses-->Saved Courses-->Hamburger Menu Lower Right-->Turn Guidance: ON/OFF

2. Then there's the subsequent course calculations--'recalculations'--the one's I've been referring to. They take place after the course is loaded, with turn-by-turn guidance enabled, as you're actually navigating your way through the route. These recalculations (when enabled) are geared toward returning you to the course if the Explore perceives you're straying. These can also take a loooong time, and tie up the device for the duration (as you're riding). I find the feature basically useless and once disabled, under Settings-->Ride Settings-->Routing-->Recalculation:ON/OFF, a loaded course will NOT be recalculated after the initial calculation (at the time it was loaded). Even if you're off-course. 

The above applies to all firmware iterations from 5.1 to the current one, 5.4. 

It is not about the recalculation after routedeviation. by the way, this recalculation runs without problems for me.
It is in the thread question (initial question) about the repeated initial calculation of complete routes already loaded on the device and created and calculated on Garmin Connect. These routes if they are loaded, for example, on a GARMIN watch (with much less processing power than this Garmin Edge Explore) are not recalculated again, but are immediately available. (Also with all turn-by-turn directions).
The Workarount here to turn off exactly these turn-by-turn directions (TBT) helps logically but is not really useful. I think most customers buy such a device to use exactly this feature of turn-by-turn directions.
The loading of a finished created route and that can also happen at a longer intermediate stop a repeated time, can take up to 15 minutes for a 50km route. It's just pretty annoying to wait 15 min in front of the bike until you can go for planned ride.

The question I ask myself is: Why works without delay on the small watches but not on the big Edge Explore?

Ok, I think I understand now.

The courses which are sent (sync'ed) to the Edge Explore via Garmin Connect/Express are not loaded or activated until the user navigates to them through the Explore's menu and selects "Ride". Just so we're clear. AFAIK, sync'ing or sending the course to the Explore does not process it in any way, it just copies a GPX file (I think that's the format) to the designated directory of the Explore.

Again, I have no experience with Garmin's watches. By your description what I suspect is happening there is when the course is either sync'ed to, or activated on, the watch, the software writes the data from that course's calculations to the device locally so they can be quickly retrieved if the corresponding course is unloaded and reloaded later (or the GPS is lost, etc). In that way the calculations are saved between sessions so no need for it to be re-generated with every subsequent reloading.

With the Explore, because all the calculations are regenerated with every course's loading, I expect that they're stored in RAM and not written to the device's drive for subsequent retrieval. The firmware frees up that memory when the course is unloaded, or perhaps when the device has a hiccup, so we start from zero every time.

Why this is, you'll have to ask Garmin. I agree the process is unsatisfactory. And so is the clunky software and user experience in general.

It's not only the Edge Explore. Even the 1030 spends time uselessly 'calculating' a route that it's been given (a gpx or tcx uploaded to the unit through Connect),  before it's ready to let you ride it, unless you turn off turn by turn directions. In fact I turned everything off, TBT, route recalculation - every option I could find that might stop it doing the one thing I wanted it to do, which was simply display my route on the map and let me start my ride immediately. Then it's fine. But it shouldn't be necessary for it to 'calculate' anything before you start a pre-uploaded ride. It knows where you are, it knows where you are going and should easily be able to see on the fly where, within a short distance, a turn is coming up. It should be possible for it to indicate turns as they come up without any route processing and calculating, IMO. It seems as though there is a software flaw in its algorithms. 

It's a property 'by design' of all Edge models. If you can't live with this behavior Garmin has other navigation series like the outdoor models (Oregon, Etrex, Montana, GPSMAP) and other brands are available too.

I don't bother the initial calculation time when I want to have Turn Guidance. The first thing I do coming outside is letting the Explore get GPS fix, then load the Course I'm planning to ride and let it calculate the TBT overlay.
In the meantime I put on my shoes and helmet, grab spare tyre, small tools, pump the tyres, etc., etc.. In my situation this takes about 5 minutes and nearly all the time the Explore is ready to ride then.
If I start my course on a remote location I do the same - still being at home get GPS fix, load the course, initial calculation, etc. - do NOT start the Timer! - and then put the device in sleep mode. Once arrived at the start location, wakeup the device, wait for GPS fix and the Course is still there, ready to ride. Don't forget to start the timer (or configure Auto Start).

In any situation allways bypass the option to route to the Course Start, also when you are already at the start location when activating the Course.

Good news for you! Check the new model Edge Explore 2. In this model the initial calculation of the TBT data has changed significantly. After just a few seconds the Course is ready for riding - including the TBT directions (white arrows and text). Supposedly the remainder of the calculations are performed in the background and cached for later use.
Much broader set of features, among which Power Meter support to make the Explore 2 usable for training purposes. Barometric height meter (gives you slope % datafield now), Climbpro support, Temperature sensor (and Tempe support), etc..
Check the specs. If all functions work as designed...? Future will learn.

Good news would be a firmware upgrade that actually improves the user experience of the hardware we've already paid for. The base model of the Explore 2 is going for $390 Cdn. Add $50 for HST and that "good" news comes at a cost of ~$440. Nothing good about that, is there?

Regardless, I was curious and watched the few videos posted thus far on the Explore 2, most notably from "GPLama" and "Gravel Cyclist". Yup, the device is an upgrade from version 1 with a barometric altimeter, significantly (claimed) longer battery life, a relocated (now USB-C) port, etc.

But neither detailed route loading/calculation and what, if anything, has changed there. Where did you learn of the route calculation protocols being improved? I can find nothing on that topic.