Zumo XT2 Solutions

[jfheath]

An Index Page of Solutions that we have located.

1. Fixing the RUT issue on the XT2
2. XT2 Changes Route After Importing ..
3. A Possible WorkAround for Changed Imported Routes (eg BaseCamp, MRA, etc)
4. A better solution to the moved shaping point, changed route issue...... And the RUT issue.


Using Tread: Videos (Also evidence of issues awaiting solutions)

V1. Creating a Route on Tread App - Using Stops / Vias. - Converted to Shaping

That's the end of the list so far !!


This thread will be moderated and edited. But please if you have anything to add or just a comment - just make a post. I will add it to the index so that it is easy to find the solutions amongst the other posts in the thread.

[jfheath]

The RUT Issue

This first presented itself to us with the Zumo XT1. In brief it is when the Zumo gets stuck trying to get you to go back to the place where you first deviated from a route. It shows itself by repeatedly asking you to turn back when it is fairly obvious that the direction in which you are traveling has become the best way to get to the next route point.

A detailed description of the behaviour that I first described as RUT can be found here with diagrams (3 pages).

The XT2 can display the same symptoms - but it behaves differently. From a small number of tests, it seems that after a couple of U turn requests - it stops issuing U turn instructions and starts to look further ahead. THis may be to simply turn you round in a hosuing estate or a lay-by - but it is also more likely to find a different way back to the magenta line. If it does it will lead you ahead to it.

But on one of my test routes it behaved jsutas badly as the XT1. On another it found the next route point 10 miles ahead, rather than waiting until it was 0.9 miles from it.

The JavaWa Solution has been found to work with the XT2 just as well as it did with the XT1

The "Resave the Route" solution also works - but it is much easier to do on the XT1. Here's a short videoof me copying a route. I tend to put an '@' sign inf ront of a routename if it is a copy.

Both methods change the mIpmported byte to 'false' and subsequently the Zumo thinks that it is a route that has been created on the XT2 itself.

[jfheath]

Imported routes tend to become altered on the XT2 if they are synchronised via the Tread App on your phone.

Here is an example of the problem. The route one the left is what I planned and sent to the XT2 as a gpx file on the SD card.
This route stays like this - as long as it isn't synched with the Tread App. As soon as it synchs, then it changes the route and moves the shaping points.

XT2 Synched route.png (559.57 KiB) Viewed 2743 times

A few of us have reported this to Garmin - but please, if you come across it then report it as well. THe more they realise that it is a big problem the more chance that they might do something about it.


In the meantime - a working solutions seems to be that:

• If the Tread App is swiped off the phone screen, then the XT2 can no longer synch with it -so the route remains intact.

For the Android at least, the Tread App is still available for relaying weather, traffic, road works, messages etc to the phone in thsi state. I am unable to test that aspect of it on an iphone.

It remains to be seen how effective this is on a ride -- eg whether or not the XT2 can also be responsible for moving shaping points.

[m326]

Many thanks to you and others for your dedication in finding work-arounds to these issues. I hope Garmin will take note and keep us updated with their progress in updating their softwares and firmwares.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by 'swiping Tread off the screen'? Do you mean tap the 3 vertical bars bottom left and swiping it from there? I thought that closed the running program - but you say other Tread services still continue to operate.

I had deleted Tread from my phone because of this issue but found it good for route planning on the go with a stylus.. though it does involve a lot of zooming in and out. I might give it a second chance.

XT2 & Android phone.

[jfheath]

Can you elaborate on what you mean by 'swiping Tread off the screen'? Do you mean tap the 3 vertical bars bottom left and swiping it from there? I thought that closed the running program - but you say other Tread services still continue to operate.

On the Android - yes tap the three bar button at the bottom and it shows all of the 'open' Apps. If Tread is one of those apps, then it is still able to synch with the XT2. If it is swiped up off that screen then it cannot synch. But I found out yesterday (to my surprise) that I was still getting weather, traffic, email, text message alerts. And I tried intitiating a group ride - and that seemed to work - but I had no one with an XT with whom I could test it out.

I cannot say what happens with the iphone. I've tried with an ipad and it appears that when I swipe that off the screen - all connection to the XT2 is broken - so everything stops. But the ipad isn't a phone so the traffic, weather etc were not running anyway. Whatever - if the app isn't on the screen or on the recent programs screen - it seems it cannot synch. And that stops the XT2 from changing the route.

So far anyway ! As I said - I am not sure what happen if the XT2 has to recalculate an imported route.

[m326]

That's a very interesting find thank-you.
I guess the next logical question is after your phone has been rebooted and the Tread app isn't initially run and subsequently swiped off the screen.. will any of it work, I'm guessing not. I'm leading a run this morning but in the next days I'll reinstall Tread and try this for myself. Handy to know either way.

[jfheath]

I guess the next logical question is after your phone has been rebooted and the Tread app isn't initially run and subsequently swiped off the screen.. will any of it work, I'm guessing not.

When my phone reboots - Tread is already active. But it is not on the screen. I don't know what the various states of an app are called - but here's a numbered list

1. Not installed. You have to go to Play Store to get it.
2. Installed, but has yet to be run.
3. App is installed and has been run once. There is nothing visible on the screen except a little Tread Icon on the top row alongside the time. You can stop it from running in Settings / Apps / Tread and using 'Force Stop' . The Tread icon then disappears. While that Tread Icon is visible other aspects of the Tread app - data - traffic, weather, road works, closures - ( and I think Group Ride) - are still available). But it seems that Synch will not work.
4. Running - App is on the main screen.
5. App is on screen, but is not the one that is currently visible. The app goes into this state when you open another app. The 3 bar menu gives you access to it. It will still synch with the XT2 even if it isn't on the main screen. To return it bacl to state 3, you have to swipe it off the screen.

When you close down your phone and restart it - I think Tread goes back to state 3. Data works, synch doesn't until the app is opened.

I'm just finding this stuff out. One of these states is described as running in the background. I don't know if it is State 3 or State 5. On a computer, running in the background would be like the programs in the system tray. Time, Antivirus, Speaker etc. Nothing on the screen just sitting there quietly doing stuff. So that would be State 3. I just don't know if thats how the phone uses the term.

Please let uis know what you find out. Im keen to know if your experience matches mine. Even more interested if it doesn't !

[jfheath]

A WorkAround Fix for Routes which Move Shaping Points

We - a few of us - have this issue lodged with product support:

A Route in a Gpx file placed on SD card or Internal Storage is frequently altered when the Tread App is involved.
A new route is calculated which seems to ignore some of the existing shaping points and shaping points are then placed on the new route.

This is Described in an earlier post. here.

A Better Solution ?

Yesterday I discovered something which I think is quite significant: If the GPX file is imported into the Tread app on your phone, rather than being placed on the XT2 GPX folder, then behaviour is very much improved. Ie Early tests show that the route doesn't change when it is sent to the XT2. Neither does it change if the route is modified on the XT2 and relayed back and forth to the Tread App.

This also works with few Basecamp files that I have tested. Create the GPX file. Email it to your phone.
On the phone, open the email, click the attached gpx file and open it with tread.

When synch'd with the XT2, the route is complete, as it should be, and passes through the original route points.
Tread will always calculate the route for itself, so some route variation between route points is to be expected.

The route is also treated by the XT2 as a 'saved' route so it should not display RUT behaviour.

(mImported is set to False in the trip file)



This is early days. And it needs testing properly. I could use your help please.

Try it. Let us know what you find. Let us know whether or not it works for you.
If it doesn't work , please send us your gpx file.

It may be that Tread cannot import the Basecamp file. I have yet to encounter that issue.
I suspect that creating the route as 'direct', rather than motorcycle may get round the problem as it keeps the route points but non of the road information.

MRA Gpx v1.1 contains only route points - so may not have that issue either.

As I say. Early days.


Garmin still needs to come up with a solution, but this technique may make route planning without using the Tread app possible.

[Oop North John]

I constructed the attached route in Basecamp, and exported it into Tread on my Android phone. The XT2 was not turned on.

Opened up the route in Tread and the shaping points were in the same location, and the faster roads problem seems to have been ignored for the route I see in Basecamp. The faster roads usally wants to go through Alford.

I then turned on my XT2, and let it sync, and the route is almost the same, BUT both shaping points moved, not a lot, and the route hasn't materially altered. The "Road" one is near to Tillyfourie and has moved 0.3 miles "Road1" near to Glenkindle moved 0.9 miles.

Edit #1

Sent the same route to the XT2 opened it up, looked ok, then opened the Tread app, and saw that the faster route algorithm had messed with it. Closed the route on the XT2, re-opened it to the same mess as Tread, first "Road" is now on a "faster" road, "Road1" has moved to the closest junction to the faster road.

NB: In both cases the shaping points have relocated to a junction.

[Oop North John]

The point about the shaping points going to junctions intrigued me. So I played around with the same basic route as before, but putting the shaping points on junctions. Initially it looked ok, but once Tread and the XT2 had synched a couple of times, back to the faster roads mess, shaping points being ignored.

I'm now convince that Tread and the XT2 are incompatible, they mess with each others data, and "adjust" things on how they want it to be. What a PITA!