Explore and Mapshare questions

[Bryan]

(Note I do not have an inreach or subscription). But the Zumo Xt is intended to interface with Explore.

Zumo XT set up encourages the set up and use of Explore, but the Zumo XT shows up as an unsupported device in Explore. Is that what others experience? Any explanation?

Explore on a website has a road map layer option. The iOS app does not allow for the download of a road or street map. Is that consistent with other users? Any explanation?

From an Explore website, my current location appears to be placed on one of my tracks, not where I am currently physically located. It never changes. On an iOS app I’ve allowed use of my location and Explore accurately shows my location on the map. I’ve enabled MapShare, but my current location and prior track points are not updating to my MapShare site. Note that MapShare says that it will update from a mobile device (phone) but is not doing so. Consistent with others experience???

I have tried and tested my use of the XT and my workflow both with and without Explore, and prefer to use Explore. That experience would be better if the above were resolved. Thanks!

[Bryan]

I’ve submitted to Garmin support via email as well.

[jfheath]

Zumo XT set up encourages the set up and use of Explore, but the Zumo XT shows up as an unsupported device in Explore. Is that what others experience? Any explanation?

Yes. Ignore it. There are three things that come under the name 'Explore'

1) Explore on the XT - Where To -> Explore.
2) The Explore Website - at explore.garmin.com - links to your data int he Explore database on Garmin's servers.
3) The Explore App - which provides similar access to the Explore website

Your smartphone needs to have the Garmin Drive App set up to allow your XT to communicate with the Website.

The Explore App is also used on other devices, and some of these can communicate directly with certain hand held devices. However, it cannot communicate with the XT. It is incomaptible with it. But it doesn't need to be compatible - your Explore App on your phone can communicate with the Explore Database by Bluetooth and it can also communicate to the XT through the Drive App on your phone. So you get the same result with different connections.

Ignore the message and set it up.

There are some video guidelines here - which cover setting up all aspects of the links between the explore website, drive the xt and your phone - and which explain it with diagrams as to what is talking to what.viewtopic.php?t=1184

Once set up you can (fairly easily) disconnect from Explore, and reconnect again instantly - it remembers all of your settings.

There is also some info in section 7 here: viewtopic.php?t=1464

I would be very curious to hear what Garmin have to say about this your plea for help. My guess is that they will not have even noticed the confusion that can arise from their 'not compatible' message .

Explore on a website has a road map layer option. The iOS app does not allow for the download of a road or street map. Is that consistent with other users? Any explanation?

I have installed the App and have got road maps on my Ipad. I don't remember how I did it, but it was from within the app. You need to have your account at explore.garmin.com set up already. I have not been able to load the satellite images - which is a pity, becasue I find that you need to zoom in to that level in order to place point precisely.

From an Explore website, my current location appears to be placed on one of my tracks, not where I am currently physically located. It never changes. On an iOS app I’ve allowed use of my location and Explore accurately shows my location on the map. I’ve enabled MapShare, but my current location and prior track points are not updating to my MapShare site. Note that MapShare says that it will update from a mobile device (phone) but is not doing so. Consistent with others experience???

I believe that your location is displayed on whatever map is displayed - but it get your location from the device that you are using. I don't think it gets transferred with the Explore data. By the time that the site has synchronised with your mobile device, you will have moved.

Mapshare does not create live tracking. It displays whatever waypoints, routes and tracks you have put into your mapshare collection - or any collection that you have added the visibility option for mapshare (the eye icon). The only tracks that are synchronised with Explore are the ones that are in 'Tracks' on the XT. If you record a track while you are riding, and then stop it, that track can be added to a shared collection from options on the XT screen. That shared collection will then be synchronised with your Explore data and it will be visible to anyone that has your mapshare link. But it isn't done in real time. The logging of your track on the XT is done in real time, but you have to stop the recording and put the track into a shared collection before it becomes visible. Then start a new recording.

There may be other ways - I haven't investigated beyond this.

I did ask the question of Garmin on the day that I got the XT - because I quite liked the live tracking facility on the 595 - but I was told that it was not possible at the time - and I don't see anything that has changed that yet.

[rbentnail]

So are you saying that if I buy an XT, I have to install and learn a website (explore.garmin.com), an app to access it and another app (drive) just to use the XT?

I ask because try as I might I simply get lost in all the techno-babble. I'd like to go to an XT but obviously I am not a technology advanced person. Simple is better and it's sounding like the XT is not for me.

[jfheath]

So are you saying that if I buy an XT, I have to install and learn a website (explore.garmin.com), an app to access it and another app (drive) just to use the XT?

No. I was answering the questions that @Bryan asked - he has the XT, he likes the Explore facility and wants to use it, but was confused by Garmin's statement that the Explore App is incompatible with the XT. You can still use it, but it doesn't talk directly to the XT. It does it in a different way - although I am not sure that Garmin know this !

You don't have to have Explore Set up. In my opinion, the mapping program isn't brilliant, and at present, it is nothing like the facility that Basecamp or MyRouteApp offers for on-road route creation. I only use it to answer question on this forum - I had high hopes for it so I found out everything that I could, but was left completely underwhelmed by it. But it is an option. I turn it on when I want to, but mostly I disconnect it.

So don't let that put you off the XT. There are plenty of other reasons that I can think of that might do that.

The Drive app is useful for other stuff, and provides some of the features that Garmin Smartphone Link can provide on your 396.
eg traffic information for your route ahead, weather on route, parking, hands free calling, .... - but again, you don't have to set that up either. But you set it up on your phone, pair your phone with the XT and forget about it. Features on the XT suddenly become available.

[TripleThreat719]

So are you saying that if I buy an XT, I have to install and learn a website (explore.garmin.com), an app to access it and another app (drive) just to use the XT?

I agree with @jfheath. You do not have to use the Explore or Drive App on your phone, nor do you have to utilize the Explore website.

Unless... (and this is not a disagreement with @jfheath, just the scenario that drives me to utilize these apps and the website).

You want the ability to wirelessly transfer routes and tracks to your XT.
You want the ability to utilize custom icons for waypoints within Routes or Tracks.

For me, I find it pretty essential because the XT doesn't currently support custom waypoint icon import through the normal process of uploading a GPX file to the XT from basecamp. It's the only Garmin motorcycle specific, or handheld device, that I have ever owned that doesn't, and that's a huge pain for me.

I frequently attend organized off road, dual sport, or sport touring motorcycle events on my bikes where the organizers of the events create tracks or routes to follow and they embed waypoints in the tracks or routes with custom icons to alert you of an upcoming obstacle or point of interest. For example, water crossings, bridges, gas stops, dangerous changes in conditions, etc. These on-screen visual cues prove to be important at times.

A standard gpx file import from basecamp turns all of those custom icons into green squares with a heart in them. They take up a lot of screen real estate and they don't tell you a damned thing from looking at them.

Now, my workflow is as follows:

• Receive GPX file (by downloading from a ride website, or via email).
  Load it onto basecamp to preview.
  Text it to myself.
  Open the gpx file on my phone and share it with the Explore App on my phone
  The Explore App imports the file and creates a new collection.
  The drive app will then send the GPX file to my Zumo XT through a bluetooth connection when the phone and XT are both on and in proximity
  I can now view that collection on the map and the custom icons are maintained.

I also usually open each track on the XT and create a "trip" from it. I then have the collection visible, with the Trip displayed on top of the track it was created from, which allows me to see if I have inadvertently wondered off the original "track" This trip allows me to receive turn-by-turn directions of what was just a "track". You can also create the trip from "start-to-finish" or "finish-to-start".

The XT will faithfully follow the trip, providing turn by turn directions. When the trip ventures off-road, turn by turn directions pause, but then resume once I return to a legal road.

All of this takes less than five minutes to accomplish once you understand the workflow, and I never have to get out a cable to connect to any of my devices.

If Garmin would ever support complete gpx file transfer on the XT, I would probably revert to just utilizing basecamp alone because there are some features of Explore and Collections that I do not like. For example, when you make a collection visible on the map, every track in that collection is visible. You can't turn off individual tracks within a collection, which I personally would like to be able to do, because when multiple tracks cross each other, it is a lot easier to get confused and take a wrong turn.

The converted trip, with turn-by-turn directions is the saving grace here, because you only navigate one trip at a time, and the trip becomes the magenta colored line (like a route) when you activate it. The tracks retain whatever color they were set to be.

[jfheath]

And @TripleThreat719 's explanation describe exactly what the Explore site and features seem to have been designed for.

If I may - I will add a couple of additional things.

I have started to Email the GPX files to myself rather than send by USB. My phone receives the email, Drive intercepts when I click on the attachment and it transfers it to the Zumo. No need for Explore for this. I find it much easier than connecting/disconnecting the USB cable abd putting wear and tear on the USB connector.

The Track to Trip solution is an excellent feature. It contains no Waypoints that you might have plotted on the route - but they appear independently on the map. They are not set as shaping points or via points as an integral part if the route. So they are visible, but can not be set to announce.

When you deviate from these 'Trip-Tracks', the Zumo will calculate a route to the point on the origianl that is closest to you and lead you back in that direction. This isn't fixed - if you ignore its instructions, then it finds the latest nearest point and takes you to that.

But that isn't foolproof. If you have a narrow circular route (a thin oval) or a figure of 8, the closest point from your current position may be on the return leg rather than on the section that you have just daviated from - which can be quite a surprise when you see it happen. I don't see this as a problem. Just something to be aware of.

[rbentnail]

So despite studying on both of these replies for some 30 minutes I think I can disregard pretty much everything that's been said:

- I do not use tracks;
- I do not use special waypoints;
- I do not go off road;
- I will not be emailing anything;
- I will not use wifi to transfer routes;

Etc. Etc. Etc.

I just want a gps that I can plug into my laptop and transfer routes and to make a route on the device. Exactly what I do with my 595 now, that's it. No comms, no music, no weather, no traffic, no phone calls, no texts- none of it. The other thing that concerns me: would I be required to have something Bluetooth (either earbuds or speakers) to have audio turn instructions? With the 595 there's an audio out jack on the octopus cable and I just plug into that with my earbuds, does the XT have that?

[jfheath]

No.

You picked up on questions that were asked by @bryan - and wanted more information - which we have provided for you.

Please don't beat us up about the XT not being what you want.

It sounds like the 595 already does everything that you need.

[colirv]

he other thing that concerns me: would I be required to have something Bluetooth (either earbuds or speakers) to have audio turn instructions? With the 595 there's an audio out jack on the octopus cable and I just plug into that with my earbuds, does the XT have that?

You'll need Bluetooth. The XT doesn't have extra leads or sockets.