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eRide planning & GPS thread

Can't blame it on the smartphone.
They could and they did, having recorded the same ride with multiple devices to compare accuracy.
Google maps has the same kind of discrepancies between the satellite image and the map road layout
Wow - an imperfect technology. I must demand a refund from Google. (They can pass the claim on to Zenrin, who will say "Wha...??")
 
Aha, back after hours devoted to paid work and minutes devoted to my Garmin 800, I have something working. I copied a map in img format into /GARMIN on the Micro-SD -- if only I'd been using the world's best-loved OS, that would have been \GARMIN -- and stuck it into the 800; when I next turned on the 800, there it was. (Which surprised me. Shouldn't I have had to select it? Not that I miss the crap default map, of course.)

Well, the Garmin's interface is something that I shall learn to love. (I mean, considering how much this plasticky little thing cost me, it had better be lovable. Somehow.)

Joe's version of the "boob" route at ridewithgps seemed like something I might want to unthinkingly follow. (After all, blood normally used by my brain for interpreting maps, etc, would be consumed by other organs. Thighs and such.) The gpx derivative sounded the most useful. So I downloaded that and copied to /GARMIN too. Is this the right place for it? (Garmin's own PDF for the 800 doesn't deign to say.) Common sense (for what this is worth) suggests that I should find it under "Courses", but the only option I see there is "Create New Course". Meanwhile, "Locations" seems to mean particular points. What have I overlooked?

(Another unexpectedly difficult element was the Micro-SD to SD adapter card. I already possessed one or two of these, but gods know where. I assumed that konbini would stock them. None that I tried did. Eventually I found them in a "Lawson 100"; I splurged 210 yen and bought two.)
 
The gpx derivative sounded the most useful. So I downloaded that and copied to /GARMIN too. Is this the right place for it? (Garmin's own PDF for the 800 doesn't deign to say.) Common sense (for what this is worth) suggests that I should find it under "Courses", but the only option I see there is "Create New Course". Meanwhile, "Locations" seems to mean particular points. What have I overlooked?

The TCX or GPX goes into the "NewFiles" folder inside the "Garmin" folder (same on a Garmin Edge 500). See "OK, so how do I get the file on my GPS?".
 
The TCX or GPX goes into the "NewFiles" folder inside the "Garmin" folder (same on a Garmin Edge 500). See "OK, so how do I get the file on my GPS?".
I don't know what happens on nonMacOSes, but when I plug my Edge 800/810 to recharge and transfer data two desktop icons appear - one for the Edge unit, and one for the microSD card with the map on.

I put new .gpx/.tcx files in the Edge/Garmin/NewFiles/ folder. On next power-up it gets moved to /Courses and transmuted to whatever internal format the Edge wants to work with.

Note that by default newly-loaded courses do not actually appear on the map - you have to change the Map Display settings individually if you want this.
 
I don't know what happens on nonMacOSes, but when I plug my Edge 800/810 to recharge and transfer data two desktop icons appear - one for the Edge unit, and one for the microSD card with the map on.

That's because the main flash memory of the unit is one storage device and the SDcard is another. The latter should only be used for the maps, while the former holds everything else (firmware, user recorded data, courses to follow, etc).

I put new .gpx/.tcx files in the Edge/Garmin/NewFiles/ folder. On next power-up it gets moved to /Courses and transmuted to whatever internal format the Edge wants to work with.

It works exactly the same way on the Garmin Edge 500, except that it doesn't have the SDcard slot.
 
The TCX or GPX goes into the "NewFiles" folder inside the "Garmin" folder (same on a Garmin Edge 500). See "OK, so how do I get the file on my GPS?".

Odd: when I'd previously, disconsolately looked through that page, I hadn't noticed that straightforward piece of advice. Well well, it works. Excellent. I now find myself gazing at my Garmin thingie with something other than irritation/disgust. I wonder why it took me so long to get around to turning off the beeping noises (the first thing I do with any camera). The rubber flap that's supposed to cover the Micro-SD card fits poorly but maybe I'll just cover it with duct tape once I've sucked in a few more rides by my illustrious predecessors. And then, time to tinker with the bike and to restart riding.
 
the map hadn't bothered to label any point as 何とか峠. Would I recognize the actual high point if I reached it, or only after descending from it? Maybe this was the societally defined high point or whatever.
Stupid map. When you next get up there, you'll find that there is some more steep stuff (with great views) and then the top flattens out and rolls up and down for a while on both sides of Kazahari-tōge before plummeting back to the lake.

ircq.jpg


At the very top you'll see a black gate and a road leading off to the right. That's the Kazahari-rindō. You must never go there, Sinba.

The Tomin-no-mori car park is the turnaround point for many cyclists, I think, because there are toilets, drinks machines, a small café etc. None of these facilities further on up the road.

Anyway, this file, if added to your NewFiles folder as described above, should populate your GPS with some of (what I consider) the major tōge, tunnels and junctions for cycling in these parts. Many of them have altitude in both the name and the metadata.

http://halffastcycling.com/download/20130715edge810waypoints.gpx

Let me know if it works OK for you.

If you (or anyone else) has suggestions for additions to this file, I'm happy to consider them. It should work for Edge 500, Forerunner, and other GPS devices even if they don't include maps.
 
The rubber flap that's supposed to cover the Micro-SD card fits poorly
That certainly a 'known issue'.

Take a few moments to learn the knack. It will seat and seal properly, once you get it at the right angle with the right amount of force.

Much less fiddly on the Edge 810, although that doesn't help you much.
 
Google just downgraded the Google Maps app on my Android. No, it's not an upgrade. Grrrr!

A huge problem is that they removed "My Maps": You can no longer layer a KML route from a file exported in RWGPS onto the map display. This is how I navigated on most of my brevets and long personal rides. Maps on iOS didn't have that feature. Please Google, why do you have to dumb down Maps on your flagship product to the level of the crippled version on your competitor's OS?

I just uninstalled this so called "update" and went back to the factory version of the app (6.11.1). All is good again for my ride to Izu and Yamanakako tomorrow.
 
Another part of the Google Maps lobotomy: The latest Google Maps on Android (7.0.2) no longer has an option to display a ruler on the map: You can no longer tell if the width of the screen corresponds to 1 km or 10 km! In prior versions (6.xx) this was an option you could turn on or off (Settings > Display > Scale Bar).

When I uninstalled all Google Maps updates on my Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE, it had been reinstalled by noon the following day. I then went to my older SIM-less Google Nexus S, which was still running Maps 6.14 because it was in airplane mode. Fortunately, Google Play has an option to completely turn off auto-updates of apps. This is what I then selected on both mobiles. So now I have 6.11 on the Galaxy S3 and 6.14 on the Nexus S.

Hopefully that way I will be able to continue using "My Maps" and the Scale Bar until Google adds those features back into their crippled new version.
 
But it's a premium user-only function. Not for me, then.

During beta-testing, that is (I guess they want to keep initial volume manageable). After beta, it will be available to free account users too.

I like that they use GPX tracks with actual courses cycled/run from their database for routing. That's a neat idea. It will effectively make local knowledge available to everybody.
 
About time. They really needed to do this - but I wonder how the competition will deal with it, as Strava seems to have a huge userbase now.
 
I'm on my Length of Japan ride now and went through the same investigations. I have a Oregon 450 with a Japan GPS map from the travelbygps site. I plotted the route using Garmin Basecamp, which easily sends the routes to Google Earth so you can see elevation profile, photos, and more detail. Then I transferred each route to the unit.

Sounds easy, but it was a real pain in the ass working with Basecamp. I did it, but the program is VERY quirky, especially if you start customizing the route from what the software+map recommend. I just started my Japan tour, and so far so good.
 
I am thinking of buying a Garmin Edge 810. Here is the reasoning...

1. We need to a buy a replacement for my wife's Edge 500 that has strangely disappeared somewhere between the computer it was plugged into and the bike it was bound for.
2. I currently prepare courses using Garmin Connect and then download them to my Edge 500 and use the "Etch A Sketch" (look it up at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etch_A_Sketch if you are to young to have seen one of these) like courses in an attempt to navigate with it. This normally results in my wife looking at me with a disapprovingly when we miss a turn that results in us having to turn around and ride back up the hill that the turn was at the top of.
3. We rarely ride the same route so relying on my memory of the route is not a good a move.
4. Using the a cell phone sucks down the battery, takes time, blah, blah.....

So here are the questions...

What base maps are people using on their Garmins? I saw a good article from DC Rainmaker (http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/05/download-garmin-705800810.html) on how to use free Open Maps. These maps are "free" (donation suggested) but I am prepared to pay a little money for a reasonable base map. The quality of these maps looks ok for Japan, but has anybody used these with success here? Has anybody tried to make a route using Garmin Connect and then load it onto the Edge 810 and try to follow it using the downloaded base map? Any other tips?

Thanks, Adam.
 
What base maps are people using on their Garmins? I saw a good article from DC Rainmaker (http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/05/download-garmin-705800810.html) on how to use free Open Maps. These maps are "free" (donation suggested) but I am prepared to pay a little money for a reasonable base map. The quality of these maps looks ok for Japan, but has anybody used these with success here? Has anybody tried to make a route using Garmin Connect and then load it onto the Edge 810 and try to follow it using the downloaded base map? Any other tips?
How did you get on, despite the lack of responses?

We're having a related conversation over here.

To address your questions:

The OSM map sets work fine. They're not as detailed as the paid-for maps from UpUpDown but are free and are updated more frequently.

Using Garmin Connect to plan routes is usually a deeply unsatisfactory experience. I recommend RideWithGPS.com for this. Also Strava's new route building feature is out of ß so available to non-paying users. I'll be exploring this over the next few weeks.
 
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Also Strava's new route building feature is out of ß so available to non-paying users.
Looking interesting. I can't see a perfect way for it to display another existing route while you draw your own (i.e. tracing the first route) - that would be a winning feature for me as some of the other bells and whistles it has are quite good (removing non-cycle paths; allowing you to cycle up one way streets; etc). I thought the segment explore would do it, but after refreshing it just sits there showing one or two routes miles from where I've zoomed the map too.
 
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