Poll : Curious about the Zumo XT2 ? Read on....

[jfheath]

I have just acquired an XT2. If like me you have been wanting to find answers to questions, and have been unable to find a reasonable response - you are not alone. Except that now I have the means to answer my own questions. First impressions are mostly positive.

As you can imagine, I am putting it through its paces.

If you have any questions that you want answering about the XT2 - before you splash out your hard earned cash - here is the place to do it. Unlike other forums, I will write an answer to your question directly onto your post - to make the answer easier to find for everyone (moderator privilege). So keep them short and snappy and I'll do the same with my answers. Ask as many as you like - but one question per post please. It would help if you tell me what you are currently using - I cannot get that from the poll.

The poll above is to get a feel of where members are with the familiarty of Garmins and route planning software. Simple questions - one about your current satnavs, one about your preferred route planning software. You are allowed to modify your answer, but the results will show only the latest amendment.

[FrankB]

@jfheath
The fact that you can now 'play with the XT2' is good news John! And what an excellent idea to open a poll!
As long as my XT keeps working I have no intentation to buy an XT2, but I am interested in its workings. So I will keep an eye on the thread.

And should I able to help you with anything, let me know.

[Oop North John]

I have a 396, 590 and 595 as well as the XT.

Order of usage is 595, 590, 396 and lastly the XT. The 595 / 590 do routing that is how I'm used to on Garmins. The 396 and XT both have the "fastest" route type errors, but with the 396 not having to save routes so that they avoid the RUT.

If the XT could easily import routes from Basecamp which then don't suffer from the RUT and the XT doesn't suffer the fastest routing problems, I might be interested in getting one. So it'll be interesting to hear your thoughts on it.

Jfh (mod) : That is yet to be established. I took XT and XT2 out on Saturday for a 230 mile spin including the well tested section where I did the identification of the RUT issue, and proved that routes created on the Zumo did not behave the same way. Here the XT chose the faster way - aiming for the main road. I took the shorter and slightly slower way (according to Zumo) - which triggered the RUT behaviour.

The XT2 ruined that test by choosing my way to start off with - so its algorithm is not quite the same. But later it did spot another way to reach the XT's faster road - for which it requested two u-turns and then gave up and navigated ahead. I checked when I got home. That was entirely reasonable. It gives me hope. But I will certainly trying to provoke a RUT scenario.

I did check the mImport flag in the trip file for the Basecamp created and imported route. The XT2 does not differentitiate betwene 'saved' and 'imported' like the XT did. If you remember, setting the mImport Flag to zero (ie not imported) prevented RUT behaviour. Once transferred and imported, that flag was zero. Now that does look promising.

[gwilki]

I chose Zumo XT from the list. I am using an XT2, but I'm assuming that my choice covers that.

Jfh (mod): The thread is related to people thinking about getting an XT2. So I assumed that they would not have one already !
I'll be calling on you for backup / disagreement on XT2 stuff then! Please PM me if I make a comment which doesn't match with your experience.

[gwilki]

I chose Zumo XT from the list. I am using an XT2, but I'm assuming that my choice covers that.

Jfh (mod): The thread is related to people thinking about getting an XT2. So I assumed that they would not have one already !
I'll be calling on you for backup / disagreement on XT2 stuff then! Please PM me if I make a comment which doesn't match with your experience.

I'll do my best. I am really only starting to use the XT2 with any regularity. Bike season was late in coming this year. I do not have an XT so I cannot compare as you can. I have used Basecamp for quite a few years, but my experience until now was with making tracks for use on a Montana and kayaking. Using BC for routes is new. You and others here have been very helpful with my learning curve. I hope to be able to contribute, too.

[Mzokk]

I use an XT on my Honda Africa twin along with testing MyRoute app and OSMand+ on Android Auto which the AT supports. I use a Zumo 390 and 340 on my old BMWR1150GS and have a BMW Nav IV and Garmin Streetpilot 2610 in reserve. For route planning I use Basecamp and MRA routeplanner the main advantage of MRA routeplanner is on the fly route planning when travelling without having to carry a windows device to use Basecamp. The best navigation devices out of that lot are the old 2610 and the Zumo 3XX devices. The XT is visually superb and I can use it well, now I'm aware of its foibles, but I was tearing my hear out getting used to it!!

The way Garmin are going they will completely lose the motorcycle navigation market to phone apps.

[jfheath]

Main Screen.png (227.5 KiB) Viewed 2852 times

The XT2's main screen layout contains the same set of icons with the top four entries to the right of 'Where To'?' being new additions.

The XT2 looks much bigger than the XT - but the case is just 1cm wider. But the visible display is about 21% larger.

The presence of the Explore icon is initially alarming - but so far it is brilliant. Out of the box, the XT2 has all of the tools that you need to manage 'Collections' - which can be used to organise tracks, routes, courses and waypoints and to enable / prevent their display on the XT screen.
eg Organise everything for one day in one collection.

The Tread App on the phone comminicates traffic, weather, and digital data such as email and message alerts to the XT2. (This has taken over from the XT's Drive App.) This can be set up without having the XT2 synch to the Explore database. The Tread App for the phone also has route planning facilities, but so far it doesn't look to be anything to get too excitied about. But I have yet to enable the Synchronisation.

The XT2 cradle is a similar design to the Zumo XT, but the latching is firmer, requiring a good push and a reassuring loud click as the latch snaps into place. The XT2 will fit in the XT cradle and feels to be just as secure (and actually feels more positive than the XT when pushing the XT2 into the XT cradle). However, the Zumo XT will not fit into the XT2 cradle - this is to do with the locating ridges.

The USB cable is short and is of the USB 'C' type - an oval connector as used by many devices now - but the supplied connector does not provide enough power from a 2.1A wall socket to charge the Zumo XT2 when the screen is on. But it does delay the drain of the battery when using it away from the mount. (This was true of the XT as well - I have had the XT battery go flat when I have been using it and it has been plugged into the wall socket USB outlet).

The above may be the reason that the XT2 is a motorcycle only device. There is no car or off-road profile, and the unit is not provided with a car cradle - although it retains the inbuilt speaker for use when not on the bike.

The XT2 has no inbuilt fuse or step down transformer in the cable. It comes with a separate fuse to use when you wire it into the bike. I didn't bother - my accessory wiring is adequately fused. There must be a transformer - but it is either in the unit itself, or in the mount - which now comes pre-assembled.

Eventually, I will collect these notes together and place them in sequence in a brand new thread.

[jfheath]

The Explore Icon

Nothing to be wary of here. This opens up a new way of managing the tracks, routes, courses and waypoints on the Zumo - terms which we are familiar with if we have dabbled with Explore on the XT, but what I can only assume was an experiment on the XT, now seems to be a fully-fledged solution for organising routes, tracks and waypoints no matter where they were created. And unlike the XT, it doesn't need to be synched to anything to use it.

For these screen shots, I have not made the link between the XT2 and the Explore database.
Click the image to see a larger version.

Explore-Collections.png (99.76 KiB) Viewed 2822 times

Collections

The screen on the left of the above image is actually obtained by tapping the green bar on any of the Explore screens - and shows what kinds of data are managed by this utility. From here I selected collection.

The next images shows the collections that created - 1 collection for each day of a small tour that we did a few years back. 15 would have been the 15th September. Note that Queensferry is the only entry that doesn't have its eye icon (eyecon ?) crossed out. Only the queensferry tracks and waypoints will show up on the map.

The next image shows all of the data items that I have placed in this collection. The Exit - the first Via point to pass through after setting off, 3 cafes, the final hotel, a route and a track. All collected together in one place.

At the top of the previous image is a colelction called '00 Everything'. As well as belonging to a collection like Queensferry for the day, I have added everything to the my Everything Collection. I didn't need to - there is an option to show 'All' in the first screen !

Route - Track Preview.png (328.65 KiB) Viewed 2820 times

The above image shows the route screen and the track screen. The track screen is shown on the right. On the left is the route screen, showing the magenta route, the start, finish, three Via points and a couple of shaping points (small blue discs). But it is also showing the track peeping out under the route.


Route and Track Together

Drawing1.png (99.8 KiB) Viewed 2816 times

The above image shows the route in progress (under simulations on the XT2). Out of the box, the route and the track are the same width, and you rarely get to see it to confirm that it is there. I have edited one of the standard theme files to make the track wider. I took a copu of the United Kingdom theme and edited it in notepad. The changes in the top box are at the start of the file. The changes in the bottom box are located near to the bottom of the file. 3.00 might be a bit wide. I've used 2.00 in the past on the XT and it is not quite enough.

What I haven't mentione in all of the above - all tracks and waypoints can be sorted into different orders. By Name, by proximity (where appropriate); latest first. I get round the lack of ability to sort by date of trip by including the date in the name.

Eventually, I will collect these notes together and place them in sequence in a brand new thread.

[Sean OZ]

Lots of excellent information! Thank You!

[Sean OZ]

Very new to using my XT2. I see the anacronym "RUT" used a couple of times in the above posts.
Could you please tell me what RUT stands for?
I'm thinking it might be "Request U-Turn".
I'm Looking forward to seeing more of your insights Jfheath into your experiences with the all new XT2.
From my own personal observations, I have also found that the XT2 when in use away from the MC cradle, will not charge the battery from a 5V USB charger using the supplied USB cable that comes with the new unit, when the screen is on. But once the unit is shut down and it is still connected to a 5V USB wall charger, it will then actually re-charge the internal XT2 battery.  

Thanks.


Apologies for adding my answer to your page. It keeps the answers together with the questions.


The thought that came to me once I had worked out what the Zumo XT was doing was 'It has got itself 'stuck in a rut'.
The phrase seemed appropriate since the main symptom is repeated u turn requests. But just because you get a lot of those doesn't mean you have a RUT issue. we do have a fix for it though.

I put a detailed description of RUT behaviour on these pages starting at the link below.

app.php/ZXT-P104

------------

Does RUT behaviour affect the XT2? I don't know.

Coincidentally, I happened to be going in the direction of one of my established RUT tests routes yesterday.
So I loaded up the test route and did what I did when testing the XT.

The XT2 behaves differently, but it still shows signs of RUT behaviour, but it recovered from it by itself and displayed some very interesting changes of behaviour. But I'll report on that once I've reviewed my route, commentary and the track logs.



Thank you for the detailed answer Jfheath and the link to the other page with the example of RUT behaviour