Zumo XT

[August44]

Good morning from the USA! I bought a Garmen Zumo XT about 2 years ago but have never learned how to use it and would like to ask for help. I am 78 yrs old and maybe a bit dense. All I want it for is to go trail/road riding on my CanAm 2 up and look for pre-bonsai trees. I only collect in early spring or late fall and the rest of the time I would tag them and put a mark on the map with a description of what the tree is. Then I would like to save the ride somehow for later use. I have tried to practice when riding around after designating vehicle as a motorcycle as I don't see a 4 wheeler on there. Along the way I put my finger on the road and leave a flag. Is that the way to do this? I see that I can then add a description. After practicing, how do I delete a mark/flag? I have tried a lot of things and can't figure that out. Can I assume that when I get to the end of the ride, that all I need to do is follow the line back to the beginning? I have downloaded a paper copy of the directions but they are not to much help sometimes. Help appreciated and thanks, August

[rbentnail]

Ok, you've asked several different questions so in the hopes of not confusing the issue, I'm going to try to answer this one:

"Along the way I put my finger on the road and leave a flag. Is that the way to do this? I see that I can then add a description. After practicing, how do I delete a mark/flag? I have tried a lot of things and can't figure that out."

It all kind of meshes together so read and maybe re-read the whole thing. It'll make sense, I promise!

Here's what I do- I do not touch the map to leave a flag. Try this instead- touch the vehicle icon on the map. When you do, the icon will blink. [Side note: I use a large icon and not the motorcycle one. It's easier to hit the bigger icon! See Settings/Map & Vehicle/Vehicle.] This will automatically bring up a page with coordinates of the exact spot where you are. [Side note: Keep in mind that if you leave your vehicle and you take your XT with you, it marks where you are and not where the vehicle is. Very helpful for finding trees in the woods later!] Once the spot is marked, touch the "Save" button. Then name it and touch "Done" and you'll see that it gets saved in [Where To/]Saved Places. Touch "OK". Now touch and hold the back arrow, bottom left. This takes you to the menu beginning. From there, touch "Where to?" then "Saved" then "All Saved Places". Pick a place, then either to preview pick the 'i" in the circle or to go pick "Go!" to route to it. You can delete saved places completely by using the hamburger icon top left after Where To?/Saved, then pick "Delete Saved Places" then tick the box(es) of item(s) and touch "Delete".

If you leave your vehicle and don't want to get lost in the woods, do this same process at your vehicle to mark and label its location, then take the XT with you to mark an exact spot, then delete the vehicle location later when you find your way back to it.

For flags that you have already made that you want to delete, see if they are in where To?/Saved/All Saved Places. They might be there. Use the hamburger icon as described above to delete if they are. If they aren't there, I have no idea, maybe someone else can help you there.

Another handy item is: touch "Where to?" then "Saved" then "All Saved Places". There's a goofy icon top right corner. Touch it. You should see a map of your area with your vehicle, round green dots for towns and best of all green squares with hearts in them. Those hearts are your saved places! Pinch or "+" zoom in on one and touch the heart. Whammo!, you should see the name you gave the place and the "Go!" button. Very handy, eh? If that's not the place you want, touch the icon top right again and you'll be back at the map with the hearts to try again. Also, when the name and the GO! button show, touch the name to get some details.

I know it's a lot of info to digest but if your gps works indoors, you can follow along. If it doesn't work indoors, do you know how to turn on the "GPS Simulator" so you can practice while indoors? And lastly, other people may have other ways of doing this. I hope they do, maybe one method will work better for you than another. This is the way I learned to do it and being non-techno-geeky I find it simple and straightforward. Good luck! And please, if there's anything else you think of, just ask!!

You technogeeky guys out there, KEEP IT SIMPLE!! Use short words, and the fewer the better!!

[rbentnail]

Edit:

Good news! I did some checking about deleting flags you made earlier. Yes indeed, they are listed as a Saved place and can be deleted there. Touch "Where To?" then "Saved". Touch the hamburger icon top left, then "Delete Saved Places". Tick the box(es) then touch "Delete" and confirm.

Doing this, you should see how important it is to have unique names for your Saved places, yes? If you're not sure of the correct place to delete, combine tactics! Use the map with the hearts described before and touch the name to get the coordinates. Then when you pick hamburger/Delete, the coordinates of each place show too, so then you can be sure you are deleting the correct place.

[August44]

Thank you Russ B., I appreciate you taking your time to help me. I will work on this with your knowledge and see how I do. I'm sure you will be hearing from me again. Best, August

[jfheath]

A completely different technique is available on the Zumo XT. It may or may not suit your needs better - depending on what you are wanting to do with it. But you can record your ride and then use the file to get you back to the same location along exactly the same roads.

To do this, you start the track recorder when you set off, and stop it when you finish your ride. You then have a perfect record of where you went and can use it to plot route points at your leisure. This is very easy to do. Just select the Track menu from the main screen and tap Start before you set off. Go to Track on the main screen and tap stop when you have finished. It is worth practicing a few times before using it to record a long trip.

I'll add more detail in a later post.

[jfheath]

Much more detail and pictures and step by step instructions to expand on my previous post.
(@rbentnail - is this me being a geek, or am I just trying to be helpful ?? )


To Record a Track


Main Screen -> Track

Main Screen.png (113.08 KiB) Viewed 12113 times

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Tap Start (The button changes to Stop when you do this. Don't press it again.)

Press Start.png (66.88 KiB) Viewed 12113 times

Click Back to get back to the main screen.


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On the Main Screen, note the orange circle that shows that a track is recording.

Main Recording.png (113.27 KiB) Viewed 12113 times

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Load route as normal, go ride, come back home.

When you return home, you need to stop the recording.

Select: Main Screen -> Track

Stop Recording.png (113.39 KiB) Viewed 12113 times

Select Stop

Press Stop.png (70.19 KiB) Viewed 12113 times

Tap Save.

You may get a message referring to collections. This will appear if you have Garmin Explore set up on your XT. Dismiss the message, and you will get a screen that looks like this:

Track Properties.png (76.86 KiB) Viewed 12113 times

You can set the name of the track, or leave it as the date and time. You can change the colour of the track and the track width.
If you have Explore set up, you will have other options available. I'm not going into those options here.
Remember to click 'Done' when you have finished.

Your track is saved.

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To Use your Saved Track

Select Main Screen -> Tracks

Main Screen.png (113.08 KiB) Viewed 12113 times

Select the Track Icon in the Top Left corner (Landscape View)

Load Track.png (66.64 KiB) Viewed 12113 times

Your track will be saved with the date and time or with the name that you changed it to.
Select your track from the list

Track List.png (32.08 KiB) Viewed 12113 times

With the track loaded, you can use the XT to navigate it. Simply press Go!

Or you can click the Spanner in the top left hand corner.

Track Properties Extended Menu.png (86.9 KiB) Viewed 12113 times

This displays the track options screen, but now it has options to Convert to a Trip and Show on Map - depending on whether you have Garmin Explore set up or not. I prefer my XT not to have Explore set up. More information on this is here - app.php/ZXT-P56

If you navigate the track, there are no spoken instructions, but it alerts you to how far you have strayed, and the direction to head to rejoin the track if you deviate.

If you convert the track to a trip, you can load the trip from the Trip Planner App on the main screen. With this type of Trip (I call it a track-trip), you get navigational instructions, the route never changes and if you stray from the route, it navigates you back to it. It has no route points, but it stays fixed anyway.

[shealbi]

New related question...recorded a track someone took me on yesterday, but at two areas, it used the same section of two respective roads on the way back. I know this is going to cause issues following this when i convert to a trip w turn by turns. Anybody know if there's a way to adjust a saved track (move to different road) for those sections to avoid the overlaps?

[jfheath]

Not on the XT there isn't a way to split it - no.

There are two ways that you can deal with it.

You know which way you are intending to go after the shared section of route. So keep an eye on the screen and when you get close to the parting of the ways, make sure you take the correct road. Ignore anything that the satnav might tell you - because you don't know which road IT thinks that you are on. Then continue. Do the same on the way back.

If it gets confused and/or when starting back, you can reload the track after you have gone well past the shared road, and tell it to start at the closest entry point.

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Curiously, this is what the 660 used to do. You could take any of the two options at the parting of the routes after a shared section, and it would navigate quite happily from there. You could even go back and take the other route and it would navigate that just as readily. This caused some users quite a few problems, although it wasn't difficult to cope with the issue, but I reckon that they were better at complaining than they were at following a map. Whatever, the next generation of Zumos included Via Points as well as Shaping points - which forced the route to be divided into sections and the unforgiving Via Point would not let you pass without visiting it. This ensure that the correct route in a figure of eight was followed. So key was this feature, that Garmin didn't even bother to offer a facility to Skip it. I believe it was the BMW users that complained about that and got the skip feature added later.

Its a pity BMW did not adopt the XT. They were a significant boot in getting the 590/595 to behave sensibly (albeit in the guise of the Nav V and Nav VI)

So full circle, we now have routes that are similar in behaviur to the old 660 routes ! Actually, to be fair, we have always had the ability to replicate the 660 behaviour - simply create a route with only shaping points.

[August44]

Thanks for the replies. August

[August44]

I have found that using a Garmen with a vehicle (car, off road vehicle etc) is fine, but taking it with you on trails or just through the woods spotting and marking trees is really a pain in the neck IMO. It is very cumbersome, will not fit in pockets, and the battery certainly has limits. I am going to have to go with a phone and a good app I'm afraid. Many thanks for trying to help me. August