Navigator V weirdness

[semimojo]

I've noticed on several occasions that my Navigator V will sometimes give me oddball instructions that really don't make any sense at all.

 

For example, earlier today I was en route from Dallas to Paris, Texas, and my Nav told me to take the exit from highway 24 to highway 11, then to take the on ramp onto highway 24. I just ignored it and stayed on 24 instead of taking the 100 yard diversion. It did the same thing on my ride back. Why would it do such a thing?

 

When going through small towns, it sometimes will route me off the main drag through town and onto a parallel route through a residential neighborhood or an industrial area. Again, it seems pretty weird and unnecessary.

 

I have the option set to make the Nav prefer twisty roads, but that should not come into play when you are traveling through a town.

 

I wish I had more control over the Nav's route preference settings. They aren't granular enough. I'd like to tell it to prefer twisty roads when I'm not in a town or population center, but to calculate the quickest and most direct route through town whenever I encounter one.

[Mike the Ghoul]

Do you have the settings set for shortest distance or quickest time? I think shortest distance may do things like that.

[Bill_Walker]

I've seen that "take the off ramp then take the on ramp" instruction from various Garmin units a number of times over the years. I've always suspected that that particular stretch of highway was closed for construction, or the mapping car stopped for gas, when the map data was being collected. I've seen this regardless of whether shortest or fastest route was selected. As far as I can tell, they just do that sometimes.

 

Your other issue, of rerouting through town, probably is down to your route preference settings. This is why I often preplan routes with BaseCamp. But yeah, it'd be nice to have a "do what I want now" feature that would somehow know what you really had in mind.

[semimojo]

Do you have the settings set for shortest distance or quickest time? I think shortest distance may do things like that.

 

Mike, the Route Preferences options under Settings > Navigation > Calculation Mode are, Faster Time, Shorter Distance, Curvy Roads, and Off Road.

 

The descriptions are as follows:

 

Faster Time - Calculates routes that are faster to drive but can be longer in distance.

 

Shorter Distance - Calculates routes that are shorter in distance but can take more time to drive.

 

Off Road - Calculates a direct line from your location to your destination.

 

There is no description in the help panels for "Curvy Roads", but it seems self-explanatory.

 

You can only select one option. I have it set for Curvy Roads, what I referred to as Twisty Roads in my original post, but that is a misnomer. I guess I was thinking of the "maze of twisty passages" phrase from the Colossal Caves Adventure game of my youth.

 

 

And about the Curvy Roads option, it seems that the Navigator sometimes honors it, and sometimes not. I let it calculate the route from Dallas to Paris, and it stuck to secondary highways with no "curvy road" selections. Then when I was in Paris, I told it to calculate the route back, and it chose basically the same route, but this time it took a number of detours off the main highway through county and state roads that were slightly more curvy. The trip home was more fun as a result.

 

It would be nice if it had a "most fun" setting, and it knew what that meant to me. But I'd settle for being able to give it different calculation mode preferences based on population density or some reasonable approximation of that (such as "in a town or city" or "in rural areas").

[Doug_Baliko]

The problem is that there aren't any curvy roads between Dallas and Paris!

 

Doug

[semimojo]

I've seen that "take the off ramp then take the on ramp" instruction from various Garmin units a number of times over the years. I've always suspected that that particular stretch of highway was closed for construction, ...

 

My guess was that it was due to construction closures also, because every time it's done that to me, it's either been at an overpass where one highway crosses another, or a small two or three block detour around a perfectly clear intersection in a town.

 

Your other issue, of rerouting through town, probably is down to your route preference settings. This is why I often preplan routes with BaseCamp.

 

Now that sounds promising. What is BaseCamp, and how do I use it?

 

But yeah, it'd be nice to have a "do what I want now" feature that would somehow know what you really had in mind.

 

It's a complex problem to code, but it is possible. A first step would be to add more options to the route preference settings and to allow for combinations of options with user-selectable prioritization. And then it could be extended by adding Nav prompts and voice command capabilities to allow for verbal on-the-fly changes to preferences. Improvements of that sort are sure to come eventually. One can hope, anyway.

[semimojo]

The problem is that there aren't any curvy roads between Dallas and Paris!

 

Doug

 

You're pretty much right Doug! But, given the terrain, I was happy when it took me down a country road that made some 90 degree turns around the perimeters of farms. That's about as close as it gets to curvy in that area.

[Doug_Baliko]

LOL....... Maybe the Garmin was just trying to give you what you asked for. Throw in a few exit ramps to give you a few cuves... Ha! In all seriousness my NAV IV does the same thing from time to time. As did mt 665 and 2710..... They aren't perfect but the do get you where you want to go.

 

Base Camp is a Garmin mapping product. You can map out routes and transfer them to your Garmin unit. It's a bit of a PIA to use but is very useful for mapping out trips. It's a free download from Garmin.

 

And if you want REAL curvy roads around here... There is no choice but Arkansas....

 

Doug

[marcopolo]

Basecamp is free Garmin route-planning software. It comes in PC and Mac versions. Just go to their website to download it. If you also download Garmin Express, you can use it, with your Nav V connected to your computer, to download your GPS maps to your computer. You need maps in order to do anything with Basecamp. Your Nav V has "lifetime" map updates, so there's no charge to load the same maps on your PC/Mac.

[semimojo]

Thanks for Base Camp and Garmin Express info, guys. I'll download and check them out.

 

Doug, trips to Arkansas, parts of Oklahoma, and the Texas hill country are on my list for the near future. Those are longer trips from home than what I've been doing so far. Right now, after not riding for over a decade, I'm working my way up slowly to longer rides until I get adjusted to being in the saddle again.

 

The trip from Dallas northwest to St. Jo has a few curvy roads, btw, especially right around St. Jo. I've been up there a few times, and I'll be exploring more around there in the future.

[Doug_Baliko]

There are a few decent day rides in this area. As you said, St. Jo and on to Muenster is a decent ride from the Dallas area. But still on the boring side. And east Texas around Edom/Canton is a nice ride and more woodsy. But even the Hill Country can't compare to riding Arkansas. When you get your riding legs back you'll enjoy it. And then there's always Colorado........

 

Doug

[semimojo]

I've toured Colorado before, and I agree it is some of the best riding around. That was 30 years ago, and I was riding a Suzuki GS 1100E, not exactly a touring machine. I'm looking forward to seeing Colorado again, but this time on my RT. I'm sure I'll be a lot more comfortable when I go there on my RT than I was 30 years ago on that GS 1100E. It's all relative though. Thirty years ago, comfort wasn't as important to me as it is now.