Your Garmin help, please

Hows the battery life?

I'm off to Mexico tomorrow and so I've been trying to stick a map on my 800. I've downloaded it from garmin.openstreetmap.nl and stuck it in the GARMIN folder on the micro SD but the img file isn't showing up when I turn the garmin on. Am I doing something wrong?

ignore my last post it's on there!

Well after a couple of weeks use of my Garmin Touring, I can say that I'm happy with it. I'm yet to use any of Garmin's route features, but for navigation it's been stellar. I added Californian maps on there without a hitch and I can zoom in on them in incredible detail, which is exactly what I need. Very happy with the purchase so far. The only niggle is that I've got lost a few times and it certainly enjoys trying to re-route you down bridleways. I've not found a way to turn this off, so you just have to stick to the main road until it re-routes again.

^ The first thing I did with mine was turn this off.
Settings-Routing Options-Recalculation-Off.
This obviously assumes you're following a downloaded route or perhaps I've misunderstood?

Hows the battery life?

Okay so far. It went from 100>63% in about six hours of use.

You're correct 7ven. Thanks!

I purchased an 810, i quite like the connectivity gimmick, even with bluetooth on after just over 2 hrs I'm down to 83%. It has also proven that over the same commute 10.5 miles I am not much faster on Crabon than on a steel SS. 30 secs if that (balls out effort on both)

Blaming wind conditions, tired legs, Sahara dust etc... :(

What's the best mapping software available now? Garmin MapSource is clunky and can't do 'Get Directions' type stuff, Google Maps is downright unusable, Earth doesn't seem to have the ability to do a 'Get Directions' either. Is Garmin Connect any good? Can RideWithGPS do direction finding as well as accept more than 8 or 10 waypoints (GMap limit)? Any other ideas? Standalone software might be better as all the online ones fail as they're all based on poxy Google Shit Maps. Google, wankers >>>

I honestly think Garmin Connect is the best. I have used most of the main ones over the past 6 months and I think GC is the easiest to use. Plus, the fact that it uses Google Maps makes for easy referencing to Google Street View if needed.

However... The big flaw with GC is that it does not allow you to "Save As" a course. To modify an existing course you therefore have to be prepared to lose the original, or completely recreate the course in a new route.

Why Garmin have not addressed this is beyond me. The internet is awash with people complaining about the lack of this feature.

Thanks. There's no way I'm modifying this course only to lose it. I think I'll try MapSource first and keep it offline until I run out of luck with features (or more likely frustration) and go back to an online offering.

Ridewithgps all the way for me. Lots of maps to use including Google maps and OSM. I'm using the OSM maps on my Garmin now so it's pretty much perfect for that. Shows lots of little roads/cycle paths/bridleways that won't show up on Google maps. Which is great. Until you get to the bridleway and you wished you had a mountain bike/4x4...

Have you tried basecamp instead of mapsource?. It is as clunky as ever but does make splitting and joining tracks easier as well as the ability to move track points.

I thought basecamp was a Mac thing?

I thought basecamp was a Mac thing?

Basecamp is garmins replacement for mapsource on both the windows and mac platforms.
http://www.garmin.com/en-GB/shop/downloads/basecamp

Thanks. There's no way I'm modifying this course only to lose it. I think I'll try MapSource first and keep it offline until I run out of luck with features (or more likely frustration) and go back to an online offering.

Makes sense. I have so far only been creating routes of up to 50 miles, so duplicating it usually isn't too bad if you want to make a modification.

For 100 mile+ routes however, this could soon get tiring!

Basecamp is garmins replacement for mapsource on both the windows and mac platforms.
http://www.garmin.com/en-GB/shop/downloads/basecamp

Is it free? Cool, I'll check it out

I'm close to pushing the button on one of these. JB what are you using to create routes with sat nav style navigation? I really want to use this as back up (read: I will got lost at every turn possible) on Audax rides.

Have only downloaded other peoples tcx files so far. I will be using ridewithgps to plan my tour though.

I will be using ridewithgps to plan my tour though.

^ This. I've been using Ride With GPS exclusively to plan all of my routes (including LEJOG) and not once had an issue.

I had a few issues in the states with ride with gps.
Would still use again, and still do use.
Check your roads on Street view if they look small on RwG.

^ The first thing I did with mine was turn this off.
Settings-Routing Options-Recalculation-Off.
This obviously assumes you're following a downloaded route or perhaps I've misunderstood?

A few pages back when I was complaining about the battery life on the Edge Touring, I found this tip somewhere else and tried it too. It did make a difference to the battery performance, however if you go off course having this off means it won't guide you back.

Okay so far. It went from 100>63% in about six hours of use.

My battery is behaving much better. I rode back down to London from Manchester over the last week, and it performed really well.

Ridewithgps all the way for me. Lots of maps to use including Google maps and OSM. ..

Ridewithgps has stayed as my route planning and ride info gathering source. I tried Connect and Strava, both are whizzier and have some nice things however there are really annoying things. Which is why I went back to rwgps. I haven't used the 'Write' feature since Linux is not supported, but the exported GPX files work flawlessly for me.

I had a few issues in the states with ride with gps.
Would still use again, and still do use.
Check your roads on Street view if they look small on RwG.

I took a few routes from GPSIES to modify for my trip. I imported them into rwgps, and some of the route points became point-to-point lines rather than following the road. I tried the file in another mapping tool, and again the same happened. So I resorted to editing the sections, no idea what the route was authored in originally.

If you look at the gpx file header it will tell you what program created it. Use notepad or similar plain text viewer.

Any idea what the latest Garmin City Navigator Europe map is? When was the last update?

Appears to be this
Garmin City Navigator Europe NT 2014.40
Not sure of last update

Ta. Might have to get an update.

Using basecamp. It's a bit fiddly but I'm dragging shit to make a route. Should I stick with route or track for Garmin?

Depends which garmin, if the edge series you can use either and the unit converts to a fit file. On balance probably best with a track. You can use the auto follow roads when creating a route and just convert that to a track to either send directly to the device or save as a gpx for use either on the device or elsewhere.
If using other garmin devices you need to decide as they treat gpx routes and tracks differently. A bit of navigation finesse missing from the edge series.