Basecamp and NAV 5 Issues

[cberry]

I've 28000 miles on my 2015 GSA and still am uncomfortable with the NAV 5. Would one of you who are geeks please call...I have some simple questions? Call 321-258-1396 and we can arrange a convenient time to talk. I'm not getting the kind of help I need from forums.

 

[exgman]

Chuck - It's a pretty dense program. Garmin has some very elementary videos to help you here: http://www8.garmin.com/learningcenter/training/basecamp/

Here's another one reduced by a user: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m85sTGB4Sko

Maybe this will give you something to do while you wait for the call...

On another subject, how's "Johnny B. Goode?"

 

[cruisincruzan]

It might be best if you give an idea as to what topic(s) you need help with. The program has many features that some of us are better at than others.

 

[BMW Triumphant]

I've 28000 miles on my 2015 GSA and still am uncomfortable with the NAV 5. Would one of you who are geeks please call...I have some simple questions? Call 321-258-1396 and we can arrange a convenient time to talk. I'm not getting the kind of help I need from forums.

Chuck, it was nice talking to you on the phone. Do let me know if your problems get sorted out and what you learned on the way.

The videos at the top of the Gear forum are very good and you should learn a lot about shaping points from them. With the same profiles on Basecamp and the Nav V, the Nav V should respect any shaping points you add. Let me know if I am wrong... .

 

[BMW Triumphant]

Chuck, I did a bit more reading and others are saying that routes exported from Basecamp do not get recalculated, just used as is.

That would mean the profiles on Basecamp and the Nav V don't have to be identical.

As I said, I have not done a careful experiment to prove this out, but it does make sense that Garmin would do things that way. This might not have been the case with earlier Zumo models and others, but it should be this way now. One would hope.

Best to do an experiment and satisfy yourself.

 

[marcopolo]

That's certainly not my understanding. Every route transferred to a GPS from Basecamp must indeed be "calculated" by the device, otherwise you wouldn't be able to navigate it. So, yes, it is important that the routing settings in Basecamp, and on the device, be as consistent as possible. That way, the route calculated by the GPS upon import stands the best chance of being the same as that laid out on your computer. This should not be confused with the option to set your GPS not to recalculate a route while navigating.

See this post on ADVRider:

http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/how-do-i-keep-the-gps-from-recalculating-my-route.1101155/

 

[BMW Triumphant]

That's certainly not my understanding. Every route transferred to a GPS from Basecamp must indeed be "calculated" by the device, otherwise you wouldn't be able to navigate it. So, yes, it is important that the routing settings in Basecamp, and on the device, be as consistent as possible. That way, the route calculated by the GPS upon import stands the best chance of being the same as that laid out on your computer. This should not be confused with the option to set your GPS not to recalculate a route while navigating.

See this post on ADVRider:

http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/how-do-i-keep-the-gps-from-recalculating-my-route.1101155/

Sigh. You have one source that contradicts my source. I think the term "recalculate a route" may mean one thing when you create a route on the Nav V and quite another when you import a route with shaping and via points. I would expect that the imported route shaping and via points are respected. If they are far apart, would the two routes be different? I've not done that experiment. Here is my link and a snip from the area titled Trip Planner:


http://globeriders.com/article_pages/article07_gps/article07_nav5.shtml


Another feature of the NAV5 is that it supports Mixed-Travel Routes from BaseCamp which means it also does not recalculate Routes Transferred to the unit. This is quite beneficial for those times when the road you want to travel is not shown on your map. If you read your NAV5 Owners Manual it stated that you could have up to 29 Via Points (Stops) plus the final Destination and each of the segments defined by those Via Points can have up to 50 Shaping Points (points not Flagged or Announced in the route). I guess some one at BMW must have upped the requirements because the actual number of Shaping Points between Via's is now 125. So, if you do the math; 30 x 125 = 3750 shaping points you can use to define or shape your route path in BaseCamp. - See more at: http://globeriders.com/article_pages/article07_gps/article07_nav5.shtml#sthash.t4CS7sDX.dpuf

 

[cberry]

With respect to the Nav 5...I find the old axiom "You've got to be smarter than the equipment you're operating" to be true in my case! When the going gets tough I revert to my gpsMAP376. It has everything I need: Map, XM radio, and XM radar; except a current map.

My friend Paul and I spend well over an hour with the experts at Garmin trying (finally successfully) to clear out all our old data and reset everything back to 00. There was stuff hidden everywhere. That's because I had hundreds of waypoints in memory that I will not likely be returning to.

Ed, thanks for your help the other day. It helped motivate me to really dig in to the basecamp program. I'm still diggin'.

 

[marcopolo]

Sigh. You have one source that contradicts my source. I think the term "recalculate a route" may mean one thing when you create a route on the Nav V and quite another when you import a route with shaping and via points. I would expect that the imported route shaping and via points are respected. If they are far apart, would the two routes be different? I've not done that experiment. Here is my link and a snip from the area titled Trip Planner:


http://globeriders.com/article_pages/article07_gps/article07_nav5.shtml


Another feature of the NAV5 is that it supports Mixed-Travel Routes from BaseCamp which means it also does not recalculate Routes Transferred to the unit. This is quite beneficial for those times when the road you want to travel is not shown on your map. If you read your NAV5 Owners Manual it stated that you could have up to 29 Via Points (Stops) plus the final Destination and each of the segments defined by those Via Points can have up to 50 Shaping Points (points not Flagged or Announced in the route). I guess some one at BMW must have upped the requirements because the actual number of Shaping Points between Via's is now 125. So, if you do the math; 30 x 125 = 3750 shaping points you can use to define or shape your route path in BaseCamp. - See more at: http://globeriders.com/article_pages/article07_gps/article07_nav5.shtml#sthash.t4CS7sDX.dpuf

Actually, the "source" whose post on ADVRider I linked to, and the author of that article on the GlobeRiders site that you linked to, is one and the same person -- Dan Townsley! He is a wealth of knowledge on all things GPS, and especially the Nav V. He is quite amenable to answering questions over at ADVRider (even hopelessly naive ones. I know, I've asked some).

The thing to note is that the GPS "calculates" the route on import (he/I didn't say re-calculate). Certainly, the more points in the route, the better the chance the route that you navigate on your GPS will be the same as the one you planned on your computer in Basecamp. I have a Nav V, and as Dan points out, the Nav V allows an incredible number of Via points/shaping points. There should be little, or no, reason why the route "calculated" by the GPS on import will be different than the one in Basecamp. That said, it's still wise to make sure the navigation settings on the GPS and in Basecamp are as close as you can get them (things like avoidances etc.).

 

[BMW Triumphant]

Thanks Mark

I do intend to do an experiment and will report on it. I would like to see if the route changes much if the Nav V profile is much different from the one in Basecamp.

In thinking about this between posts an idea came to me. Suppose the profile settings used at the time a route was created in Basecamp were included in the saved file that went to the Nav V? That would allow the Nav V to use those profile settings while the route was being used.

Garmin might well have taken this approach, I don't know. It would be handy in the extreme.

In talking to Chuck Berry, we discovered some things about Profiles that I did not know. One was the Motorcycle profile allows you to choose the Curvy Road option (which gives a wildly unusual route in one test I did) but this option is grayed out in Driving profile. I wonder why, given many motorcyclists are also auto enthusiasts.

Just some of the mysteries of Garmin!

 

[marcopolo]

Speaking of profiles, I use Driving and not Motorcycling. Why, because Dan Townsley said he got better results that way (can't recall now whether that was in BC, or on the GPS, or both)? I still use "curvy roads" on my Nav V from time to time, though generally it's when I'm simply navigating to a destination, as opposed to navigating a planned route imported from Basecamp.

 

[cberry]

I've logged a lot of time in the office since this thread was started. Basecamp and I are on slightly better terms. For example: I can selectively download a single route from BC to the 5 by highlighting it on BC and then right click and select 'send to device' ( I think). Previously I had downloaded multiple routes which took too long to be imported after being downloaded. If the route was 'sent' with a start date and time and you later want to not specify a starting date, it can be done by viewing the route and its starting point. Conversely, if you want to add a start date to an unspecified start time route there is no such labeled button. However, if you click on 'change time' you will also get a chance to change the date. I know this is confusing...because I am confused too.

For my upcoming Key West to Prudhoe Bay ride i have downloaded all the routes with a start date a month or more further out than actually planned. That is because I had real problems finding a route if its departure date/time had come and gone. That's just me.

 

[marcopolo]

Here's a thought. I've never used a start date/time, because I could never see any reason to do that. Maybe you should consider doing that too, unless you have a compelling reason to have a date/time (though it sounds like you don't). By the way, all my Basecamp experience is with the Mac version.

 

[alancoles]

Chuck, I'm presuming your are referring to BC when you say "had real problems finding a route if its departure date/time had come and gone". I use date time quite often on my GPS under "Trip Planning" and fine that very easy, but have only just started using BC so don't have much experience with trips in the past. Should they not appear in the upper left window "Library/My Collection"?

 

[BMW Triumphant]

Did the Routes Experiment

For Chuck and others, I did as promised and did the experiment. See today's post about it in the Gear forum, which is the appropriate place for the info, IMHO.

Worked out well! I learned a few things, see the post

http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?85738-Results-of-Nav-V-Routes-Experiment