Any long distance trekking Garmin users care to share the practical aspects of being on the road for several weeks running a device and recording their ride details. Interested in Touring, 810 and 1000 devices.
I am specifically interested in managing recharging strategies and non mains charging as to what works and what doesn’t and any dodges and work a rounds that you have found. I am aware that certain later Garmin devices had a glitch that had been cured in earlier devices such as turning itself on when recharging and becoming self draining. Is this cured now?
One thing I am specifically interested in is the ability to navigate on the fly if using a loaded .gpx route. Can you re route yourself or does it always try to steer you back to loaded route? I want to include a Cairngorm Loop on a visit to Scotland. Target time is 56hrs and I need to submit my ride/route data to be considered for completion listing. Can this data be continually recorded to SD card or do I have to do this manually each day and if I lose power at any time will this data be lost or stored until I can get the battery back up.
I am also thinking about a hike a bike into Inverie on the Knoydart. Will a device give me a route A-B when there are no recognisable or recorded paths?
The more I think about the more I want to revert to maps but with so many events only publishing their routes as .gpx there must be a good knowledge base available now based on experiences with these devices. Not really interested in reviews of devices or opinions but the actual practical user experience (can’t believe I actually said that) of using a device over an extended period without access to mains charging or map editor.
Practical GPS 101
Re: Practical GPS 101
I used a Garmin Edge 800 for a 4-month tour, so my experiences are probably quite similar to what you'd get with the 810.
Power - A day's riding used about 60% battery so it needed charging every single day. Where possible I connected it to mains power for a couple of hours but failing that I had an Anker backup battery which worked fine. I then took advantage of whatever power I could get to keep the Anker battery charged.
Navigation - you can only have a single active route at any one time, either following a GPX track/route or using the device to navigate to a particular point. So you can navigate to a point away from your GPX route and the Edge will create a new route between your current location and destination. Getting back to your GPX route is straightforward. When you first load the route be sure to choose "Always Display = ON". This means the Edge will always show it on the map even if it is not the active route. Then to get back to your route you just need to find that line on the map and set it as your destination. When you make it back to your planned route just re load the original GPX route and select "No" to "Navigate to start of route?".
Routing with no paths - unless the map you are using has the paths recorded then you won't be able to do A-to-B navigation on the device. The only workaround would be to create a GPX track on your computer, send it to your device and navigate using "Turn Guidance = Off" in the course settings. You won't get the Turn Left/Turn Right alerts but it will be displayed as a purple line on top of the map.
Saving ride data - I think the data is only saved when you press the reset button. So if you have a long ride over multiple days just don't press reset and you'll get one file with all ride data. If you make a mistake it's not the end of the world as it's possible to join/split/edit GPX tracks.
The only issue with routing on the device is that it's pretty inflexible. If you want to go from A to B via C then you're going to need to do A - C then C - B, and it's even harder if you'd prefer to take one road over another. There are a few settings that let you tweak how the device creates routes, and if you are using OpenCycleMap then the map data is set up to make the device favour bike routes. But you need a PC/Tablet to get a high level of control over where you are going. On my trip I was following pre-planned routes 95% of the time but would let the device navigate to supermarkets, campsites, etc that were a few miles away. I wouldn't have trusted it to create 40-50 mile+ routes that avoided major roads.
Power - A day's riding used about 60% battery so it needed charging every single day. Where possible I connected it to mains power for a couple of hours but failing that I had an Anker backup battery which worked fine. I then took advantage of whatever power I could get to keep the Anker battery charged.
Navigation - you can only have a single active route at any one time, either following a GPX track/route or using the device to navigate to a particular point. So you can navigate to a point away from your GPX route and the Edge will create a new route between your current location and destination. Getting back to your GPX route is straightforward. When you first load the route be sure to choose "Always Display = ON". This means the Edge will always show it on the map even if it is not the active route. Then to get back to your route you just need to find that line on the map and set it as your destination. When you make it back to your planned route just re load the original GPX route and select "No" to "Navigate to start of route?".
Routing with no paths - unless the map you are using has the paths recorded then you won't be able to do A-to-B navigation on the device. The only workaround would be to create a GPX track on your computer, send it to your device and navigate using "Turn Guidance = Off" in the course settings. You won't get the Turn Left/Turn Right alerts but it will be displayed as a purple line on top of the map.
Saving ride data - I think the data is only saved when you press the reset button. So if you have a long ride over multiple days just don't press reset and you'll get one file with all ride data. If you make a mistake it's not the end of the world as it's possible to join/split/edit GPX tracks.
The only issue with routing on the device is that it's pretty inflexible. If you want to go from A to B via C then you're going to need to do A - C then C - B, and it's even harder if you'd prefer to take one road over another. There are a few settings that let you tweak how the device creates routes, and if you are using OpenCycleMap then the map data is set up to make the device favour bike routes. But you need a PC/Tablet to get a high level of control over where you are going. On my trip I was following pre-planned routes 95% of the time but would let the device navigate to supermarkets, campsites, etc that were a few miles away. I wouldn't have trusted it to create 40-50 mile+ routes that avoided major roads.
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tempsperdu
- Posts: 131
- Joined: 9 Jan 2014, 8:31pm
Re: Practical GPS 101
bohrsatom
Thanks for that information especially the tracking. I dont know if I would trust a device to record a number of days without saving.
How long does recharging take using charging device and how long does charging device take to charge?
What is the rating (mAh) of your Anker device and will it provide more than one charge?
I can see myself getting into a world of dynamos and/or solar chargers. I never yet had a map run out of power.
Thanks for that information especially the tracking. I dont know if I would trust a device to record a number of days without saving.
How long does recharging take using charging device and how long does charging device take to charge?
What is the rating (mAh) of your Anker device and will it provide more than one charge?
I can see myself getting into a world of dynamos and/or solar chargers. I never yet had a map run out of power.
Re: Practical GPS 101
I use a different make of GPS but the issues are the same. You have 3 choices, use dry batteries, charge it up every night when you stop, or use a hub dynamo and something like a E-werk to give you a charging current.
Battery packs are fine for a couple of days or so but not a solution if you are away from civilisation for any extended period. Solar is very iffy, I've not heard of anyone having real success with it on a bike though no doubt there have been exceptions.
I record each day's ride as a separate GPX file.
Battery packs are fine for a couple of days or so but not a solution if you are away from civilisation for any extended period. Solar is very iffy, I've not heard of anyone having real success with it on a bike though no doubt there have been exceptions.
I record each day's ride as a separate GPX file.
Re: Practical GPS 101
Do you have a late model smartphone, if so, create a route in Garmin Connect with your phone, then download the route into your phone via the Garmin Connect app. If you can create a route with your phone, then you can plan your route on the fly, because phones will transfer routes to the 510, 810 and 1000. I have an iPhone 4s and can't create a route in Garmin connect but the later phones might, or it could be my browser that's struggling.
My mate had the 800, got rid of that when the 810 came out, but that gave trouble so now he's got the 1000 and doesn't think it's much better, screen wise than the 810, even though it's bigger, the resolution aint that great, the smartphones rock in the mapping department, that's why I bought the 510. I regularly turn my 510 off when recording a route, I'll commute to work, turn it off and resume the recording when I ride home. The unit turned it'self off when in my pocket the other day and saved the data, so I had two logs for that day. Charging wise, I take a big battery with me when touring and hiking, but didn't use it on my last tour because I was staying in accommodation along the way, but have used the battery over a five day hike and that charged the Gps which was used day in day out plus the phone which was used for photo's. I just bought a Shimano dyno and AXA lights, that should charge both the GPS and phone, but we'll see.
My mate had the 800, got rid of that when the 810 came out, but that gave trouble so now he's got the 1000 and doesn't think it's much better, screen wise than the 810, even though it's bigger, the resolution aint that great, the smartphones rock in the mapping department, that's why I bought the 510. I regularly turn my 510 off when recording a route, I'll commute to work, turn it off and resume the recording when I ride home. The unit turned it'self off when in my pocket the other day and saved the data, so I had two logs for that day. Charging wise, I take a big battery with me when touring and hiking, but didn't use it on my last tour because I was staying in accommodation along the way, but have used the battery over a five day hike and that charged the Gps which was used day in day out plus the phone which was used for photo's. I just bought a Shimano dyno and AXA lights, that should charge both the GPS and phone, but we'll see.
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mcallaghan
- Posts: 252
- Joined: 10 Oct 2011, 8:54pm
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Re: Practical GPS 101
I have the Garmin 62s. Worked fine for me - I think it gets about 6hrs of continuous use. The big catch, though, is that it uses AA Batteries - which you can find virtually everywhere. I used rechargeable AA batteries. If, for some reason, they ever died on me, it would be rather easy to find fresh AA Batteries to replace them with.
I preloaded my routes and it shows where all the ups and downs are on the roads, along with POI's etc.
I preloaded my routes and it shows where all the ups and downs are on the roads, along with POI's etc.
Re: Practical GPS 101
tempsperdu wrote:bohrsatom
How long does recharging take using charging device and how long does charging device take to charge?
What is the rating (mAh) of your Anker device and will it provide more than one charge?
I can see myself getting into a world of dynamos and/or solar chargers. I never yet had a map run out of power.
I don't remember how long it took to charge but it wasn't long. An hour to an hour and a half tops.
My Anker device is 15000mAh and if my research is correct the Edge 800/810 has a 1000mAh battery. So allowing for some charge loss due to heat etc you could get 13 or 14 charges from one Anker battery.