Upgrade from 595 to XT2?

[Peobody]

Yep, I have a non-reflective screen protector.

Me too, the NuShield DayVue as recommended by @rbentnail, but I don't find it to be very helpful, likely due to my choice in gear. I ride wearing a hi-viz jacket and either a white or a hi-viz helmet. They reflect terribly in the screen of the XT at certain sun angles, making the XT screen extremely hard to see. The non-reflective film only diffuses that glare. In some instances I think the film makes it worse because the diffusion increases the area of the glare. I have kept it in place for its protective properties though.

[OldRS]

550 and 595 centred on one of my favourite locations. Interesting to see that 550 has a very noticable refesh rate unlike the 595

sun on right.JPG (483.39 KiB) Viewed 2130 times

sun behind.JPG (532.58 KiB) Viewed 2130 times

[Treve]

Halo al of you.
Fore two month ago I decided to upgrade from 595 to XT2. The main reason was the pour screen and a sever battery issue on my 595. As usual there are a more or less steep learning curve when one upgrade to a new device. Now - after a 4000 km ride from Sweden trout Europe down to Croatia and back I must say I am very satisfied with my new XT2.
- Crisp screen even in direct sunlight and a little bigger screen
- Battery life way, way better than ever before
- Now the maps really are maps. I use to be a paper map lover but now I think this device are enough. You can zoom in and out and see details like never before. The onboard topo map give a new dimension of details. Very easy to locate alternative roads when you heads up to a temporary closed road.
- And the map updates fairly quick and smooth when you zoom in and out.
- And the possibility to show tracks simultaneously with the routs is really a good feature.
- Its fairly easy to make routs direct with the Routplaner in XT2 (tough a little time to learn the proper ways)
- Comes with possibility to load maps from most al of the world.

- I plan my routs i BC with waypoints and shapingpoints.
- I convert the routs to track in BC.
- Move tracks and routes to SD-card onboard.
- Import the tracks and routs to the internal memory when I need them.
- Often I copy the imported routs. It seams that the routs behave better as a copy made by XT2
- Despite XT2:s recalculation when starting a route it still up to 95% follows the origin BC route. Especially if you press "start" when you are at the route and have made the routs in BC with al the care that Zumos need - as we have learned at this forum.
- The use of collektions are also a nice feature

I don´t use the Tread-app - yet. Of principle I don´t like the idea to have a lot of personal data i a cloud - supported and runed by a commercial company earning money on my behalf. I like to keep my life as private as possible. That´s why I don´t allows "location" on my cellphone. And as a consequences miss some features that comes with Tread. But I can and will live with that.

There are some issues - of course:
- I really miss the possibility to transfer GPX-files with bluetooth to other bluetooth-devices. (stupidity)
- The stupid Tripadvisor info shown at destination arrival. At least it should be possible to enable and disenabel.

One funny thing happened with a BC-route. Mûnchen to Sazznitz - 958 km. Both highways and local roads. 5-6 waypoints and around 25 shapingpoints. Imported from SD. Made a copy and pressed "Drive". XT2 recalculat and the distant was said to be 41038 km and the calculated time of 13 hour and 17 minutes??!! The earth around the equator is about 40075 km!?? In 13 hours and 17 minutes??!! I don´t think even the Concorde made it. We followed that route without any problems. It followed the track almost to 100%. Howe can this be??

So over al I am very satisfied with this beast.
Have a nice day.
Anders

[jfheath]

Just revisiting this thread having spent a little while with the XT2.

At the present moment, I am thinking that on a long trip I'd take the XT, not the XT2.

I really liked the XT2 at the outset - the routing seemed to be consistent - I could use the XT2 screen, the phone app and my ipad app. Start on one, modify on another - as long as I gave it time to synch before starting to edit on a different device....

But then I hit what I consider to be a big problem. The Tread App on the phone changes the route when it receives it - typically leaving the Via points alone, but often (so far) ignoring the shaping points and plotting its own route - and then putting in shaping points to keep the changed route in place.
But it doesn't happen if Tread isn't connected.

So I decided to ditch tread - but if I do that, I lose all BT connections - so no traffic, no weather, no group ride.


Having sorted out the RUT issue between us, I think the XT is pretty reliable now. I can make it do what I want - as I could the 590 and the 595. I've got used to the faster roads, rather than faster time issue. And I know it behave very differently after Skip is pressed. But unless I get a positive answer to my query to Garmin - the XT2 will be coming off and the XT1 will be going back onto the dash for day to day use.

I'd look out for a good used XT .... (No - not mine. I'm keeping it along with the 590 and 595 in my collection).

[Oop North John]

But then I hit what I consider to be a big problem. The Tread App on the phone changes the route when it receives it - typically leaving the Via points alone, but often (so far) ignoring the shaping points and plotting its own route - and then putting in shaping points to keep the changed route in place.
But it doesn't happen if Tread isn't connected.

So I decided to ditch tread - but if I do that, I lose all BT connections - so no traffic, no weather, no group ride.

How did you use Tread to send routes to the XT2? Generate them in Tread, or a PC and then send them via BlueTooth or cable?

I only use Tread for weather / traffic and only ever send routes through a cable from the PC to the XT2. So I don't recollect seeing it messing with shaping points, but that might be because I've been lucky / not checked it!

I was an early XT adopter, so I don't expect the battery to last much longer, so probably will stick with the XT2 even though collections / explore generates a whole new level of complexity which I think isn't really needed. Saying that, they are useful, if you don't mind spending almost as much time setting up the route / track as you do riding it!

[jfheath]

But then I hit what I consider to be a big problem. The Tread App on the phone changes the route when it receives it - typically leaving the Via points alone, but often (so far) ignoring the shaping points and plotting its own route - and then putting in shaping points to keep the changed route in place.
But it doesn't happen if Tread isn't connected.

So I decided to ditch tread - but if I do that, I lose all BT connections - so no traffic, no weather, no group ride.

How did you use Tread to send routes to the XT2? Generate them in Tread, or a PC and then send them via BlueTooth or cable?

This was a basecamp route sent to the XT2 using the USB cable, but I also repeated the exercise by putting a gpx file on the Zumo GPX folder.

The route was initially Ok.
What appeared to happen is that it synched with Tread (ie Tread received it). The route changed in the Tread app, and then it synched back to the XT2.

I managed to verify this behaviour by turning off bluetooth. As soon as it was turned on again, the same thing happened.

I then managed to catch it as soon as the transfer to the tread app had finished, and before it was sent back to the XT2. Again turning off BT on the XT2. The Tread app showed the changed route.

They weren't major changes But I put two shaping points deliberately to prevent the use of a very narrow lane shortcut. The change put two shaping points on the shortcut I was trying to avoid. Someone else on the forum has seen significant route changes.

[smfollen]

jfheath wrote:
Someone else on the forum has seen significant route changes.

See https://www.zumouserforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=3007

I am currently in contact with Garmin support about the issue. I will update that post with the outcome of the support interaction.

[jfheath]

@OldRS

Did you arrive at a decision?

In recent weeks we have been trying to address an issue with the XT2. It is to do with how routes that have been prepared as gpx files and then put onto the Internal Storage seem to be drastically altered. Garmin shrug their shoulders and mutter "The XT2 is not compatible with Basecamp". It is designed to use Tread for route planning. Indeed it is, but it also happens with GPX files that are created by Tread - which Garmin were not aware of, and they may do something about that.

What happens is that when It synchs with the Tread app, shaping points and the route are often moved - changing the route dramatically.

It is not a game changer. You can work round it. But it is annoying.

Ways around it are:

1. Create routes using Tread. No problem. Excellent control over routing, with different settings possible for segemnentd (between via points). Fiddly to use the app on a phone and on XT2 screen. Better on an ipad.
2. Don't have tread running on your phone, If it cannot synchronise, it doesn't alter the route.

We are currently working on other solution.

Other issues are that some BC routes will not calculate. Not sure why that is yet.
XT2 will also display RUT behaviour but the same fix works, as does using a copy of the route instead of the original.
Copy is a facility on the XT2.

I still like it. Tread is not as good as I thought, but on my ipad I can create a decent route pretty quickly.

On top of each other the XT2 is not that much bigger than the XT. The screen is visibly larger and is noticeably brighter. Whiter, brighter lighting. It's still in prime position on the bike. But I also load my XT with the same routes when we tour. I haven't broken the tie yet.

[OldRS]

Hi John

Nope, not splashed any cash, largely because a chum has said that I can have his XT if he stops riding - something which is highly likely.

Regards

Richard

[jfheath]

Hi John

Nope, not splashed any cash, largely because a chum has said that I can have his XT if he stops riding - something which is highly likely.

Regards

Richard

That is a very easy decision to make then. When you get it - let me know and I'll tell you how to make it behave so that there is hardly any learning curve from the 595.

John