Zumo XT and Basecamp - Everything That You Need to Know

[jfheath]

Thanks for the comment and the info.

My buttons still do not have labels, but do now show text as soon as I touch them. However, this unit is not behaving in the same way that my previous unit did on these test pages (my previous one was replaced after it completely died). When I decribed the symptoms, they just said, send it back, I'ver ordered another one for you which we will send out as soon as your arrives. Which they did. Its a slightly later model than my previous one.

[Stu]

Thanks for the comment and the info.

My buttons still do not have labels, but do now show text as soon as I touch them. However, this unit is not behaving in the same way that my previous unit did on these test pages (my previous one was replaced after it completely died). When I decribed the symptoms, they just said, send it back, I'ver ordered another one for you which we will send out as soon as your arrives. Which they did. Its a slightly later model than my previous one.

I have had my unit replaced due to an issue too and the buttons did have labels until I updated the firmware then they disappeared until you touch them

I wonder if this has been done intentional to stop the end user messing

[Grispoil]

I have read 'Zumo XT and Basecamp - Everything That You Need to Know' but I am still trying to wrap my head over the way the XT calculates how to reach it's next route point once you deviate from the original route.

I am returning from a trip and the XT (software level 6.30 - latest) did not behave as I expected. To make it simple:

In basecamp:

Created 2 waypoints and then created a 2 points CAR trip:

1) Start: Waypoint #1 KM 0
2) End: Waypoint #2 KM 800

Sent the basecamp created route to the SD card on the XT, imported it, set the GPS in CAR mode with automatic rerouting and started driving.

Now, at one point, I deviated from the route. I took an exit out of the highway I was following and stopped at a town nearby. The town was located between 2 highway access points and was closer to the second access point.

At one point, I would have expected the XT to take me to the second access point and rejoin the highway because it was closer now. However, it did not, it insisted that I return to the access point I used to get off the highway. Only when I was very close to the second highway access point, did the XT stopped nagging me to go back and to just go ahead and rejoin the highway.

I have included a picture showing this.
At point A, I deviated from the route to reach point B and the XT kept nagging me to go back to point A.
At point B, now closer to point C, the XT was still nagging me to go back to point A.
Only when I reached point D that the XT told me to continue on the road and rejoin the highway at point C.

Is it normal that the XT takes me back to the point I deviated instead of recalculating a better route to get to my final distination?

[jfheath]

Just a question before I answer this as best I can.

Think about it carefully, your answer will affect mine!

Did you at any point before this behaviour select the option to skip a point or select the option to edit the route. I don't mean immediately before - I mean at any time after pressing Go! - which might have been earlier in the day.

[Grispoil]

Just a question before I answer this as best I can.

Think about it carefully, your answer will affect mine!

Did you at any point before this behaviour select the option to skip a point or select the option to edit the route. I don't mean immediately before - I mean at any time after pressing Go! - which might have been earlier in the day.

On my way to my target, no, I did not do any skipping or editing but I did use a different route at one point but the XT recalculated properly that time.
On my return trip, I added a via point to the route and I have observed a similar behaviour when I was almost home. Instead of taking the major streets to get home, I used a shortcut using smaller streets and the XT keep nagging me to go back to the major street even when I was very close to my home.

[jfheath]

The XT prefers to use faster roads for its navigation - and it seems to go a long way out if its way to get to them.

This makes it difficult to predict its behaviour.

I have also noticed that on occasions it will re-route and instead of finding its way to the next route point, it calculates a way to get to the closest point on the route. As soon as it has made one re-calculation, the closest point on the route is now and behind you taking you back in the other direction.

My observations led me to believe that this only happened after Skip had been pressed. Your observations suggest that this is not the case, so thank you for describing that so well

I noted this behaviour a while ago and I have reported both of the issues to Garmin.

Please, the more people that report it the more likely it is that they will do something about it. I hope. But it has been a long time since v6.30 was released and I have a fair number of issues lodged with them that they have acknowledged and still not produced a solution.

The only solutions available that I can think of are
1. Turn off auto recalculate
2. Stop the route, and reload it choosing closest entry point or the next Via point from the list. CEP will only improve the situation if the closest point is not behind you.

It seems to me that the XT is not good at navigating the sequence of route points. It seems to make a higher priority of getting you back to the plotted course, no matter what.

Question. Would you say that it only started navigating you forward when you were closer to the correct route ahead than you were to the place where it last recalculated the route to go back ?

[Grispoil]

Question. Would you say that it only started navigating you forward when you were closer to the correct route ahead than you were to the place where it last recalculated the route to go back ?

At point B, I was already passed the midpoint between A and C. After point B, the XT kept telling me to do u-turns and each time I passed the suggested u-turn point, it told me to do another u-turn farther ahead on the road to get back to point A. Only when I was very close to point C, has the XT stopped telling me to do u-turns. It probably ran out of u-turn possibilities at point D forcing it to do a full recalculation maybe.

I will try your suggestions and see what works better for me.

Thanks for your time.

[Raf]

I can't understand these steps:
pg74 Zumo XT Categories- Organising Waypoints
My Main Screen is Where To? -> Saved.
In "Saved" there is no ‘All Favourites’ .
I can't create a category. Can anyone describe to me step by step how to do it?
Or I work only in Basecamp?

[jfheath]

I can't understand these steps:
pg74 Zumo XT Categories- Organising Waypoints
My Main Screen is Where To? -> Saved.
In "Saved" there is no ‘All Favourites’ .

'Saved' is also what appears on USA screens. On Italian screens it labels it as 'Salvate'.
Both of these make much more sense than the word 'Favourites' which is what we have in UK.
If you change the language in Settings -> Language and Keyboard (Impostaz. -> Lingua e tastiera) - then the labels on the icons change as well.
Whatever it is labelled, this is where the Garmin Waypoints appear when they have been transferred.

'All Favourites' is something that appears when some of the Waypoints are assigned to a category.

I can't create a category. Can anyone describe to me step by step how to do it?
Or I work only in Basecamp?

It took me ages to work out how to do this. I was searching all over.
In Basecamp, when you create a waypoint, you can assign other information to it - like a phone number, a website etc etc.
But you can also put it into a category. You make up the name of the category that you want, and you can assign the same waypoint to a few different categories.

How to do that is described on P74 - beneath the bit that you couldn't understand : app.php/ZXT-P74
When you import your waypoints, the categories are created on the Zumo.

But Categories do not work if you have set up the link with EXPLORE. EXPLORE uses 'Collections' instead.

You can find out if you have set up a link with EXPLORE. That is described on P56. app.php/ZXT-P56

And it tells you how to break the connection with EXPLORE. It is much easier to re-connect than it was to create the connection in the first place. Because I am answering people's questions quite a lot, I am forever switching my XT connnection to EXPLORE on and off.

[Raf]

EXPLORE is not active.
I can only create categories in Basecamp. The pg74 that you have indicated to me I have read several times. But I can't create categories directly in Zumo.
I repeat : If you do not create them in Basecamp and transfer them ,only in this way appears in the first screen - 'All Favourites'