How to know where I am on a trip!

[tedpaper]

Hi Guys,
I'm a bit of casual user of my 340LM - mainly once a year for when I have a 4 or 5 day holiday
The problem I have is that during a days riding following a route, is if I stop for coffee and cake and turn the satnav off, when I switch it back on again I have to tell it at which point on the route I am re-starting my trip. As these tend to be numerous small roads, I have a lot of what I think are shaping points and can't really tell how far along my planned route I am.
I'm not that familiar with all the nuances of route planning so might be making basics errors.
Hope I've explained my problem clearly and would welcome any comments.
Thanks

[jfheath]

Welcome to the forum @tedpaper

I do not know the 340LM as such - but since I have a lot of experience with the Zumos at the bottom of my post, I can quite safely say - that I do not know !!

First of all - your stanav should resume navigation when it is powered up again. If it doesn't, then probably there is an issue with the battery. I know that was the case with the 590 and the 595. After a while they would hold a charge for only a few minutes. Possibly due to the poor connector which never allowed it to fully charge.

So check that you are only doing a 'soft' power off - ie putting it into standby mode. THis requires a short press of the power button, or simply removing it from the powered cradle. If you hold the power button in for a long time and then follow the screen prompt to turn it off, then it is likely that it will not keep your current route active. But all of my Zumos have kept their route active when simply put into standby mode.

So that is worth checking out first. And it very neatly avoids answering your question.

So I will try and answer that now. The 340 series manual says very little about pre-prepared routes or using GPX files.

If your route consists only of shaping points then choose one that you have already gone past and ignore the instructions - just head towards the magenta line. It should navigate you from there without taking you back to earlier ones.

Looking at a few videos and screen shots - this unit seems to be quite old - Sometime after the Zumo 550 - the case seems to be a similar style and around the time of the 660. So if I am right, there was no distinction between via points and shaping point (you will wonder what I am talking about?)

But I know with the 660 I could start a route - no I don't want to navigate to the start - so it would plot the route from start to finish. So witht he route on the map, I could see my position and could zoom out to see the route. Make my own way to the magenta line and join it. As soon as I joined the line it would navigate me ahead.

Just to illustrate that - Suppose I had a figure of 8 route, and I came to the point where the two parts of the route cross over each other. It is a cross roads. Straight ahead would be the correct way to go. Turning right would take me on the last part of the route back to the beginning.
If I turned right, it would start to navigate me towards the end ignoring the fact it had missed out over half of the route. If I then turned back to the cross roads and rode the correct way - it would navigate me ahead from there.

This is guesswork - I'm assuming that the same logic applies to your 340 as it did the 660, but I may be wrong. Hopefully someone else with a 340 or 350 will be able to help - but there aren't many posts in that section. I might need some screen shots to guide me towards the correct answer.
Come back to me if this doesn't make sense and no one else with a 340 can help.

[tedpaper]

Thanks for the reply.
Yes, it is an oldie but goodie!! Special offer in Aldi many years ago ...
No problem at all with the battery, either on or off the docking mount.

I'm attaching (hopefully) a screen shot from my Zumo and also of the route (in magenta) in Basecamp. As we can see, the Zumo is asking to" select next destination" which brings me back to - where am I an the route!?!
I don't know if it's the way I'm using Basecamp?
Thanks again.

DSC_0356.JPG (420.83 KiB) Viewed 566 times

DSC_0355.JPG (201.27 KiB) Viewed 566 times

[jfheath]

OK

Thanks for that Info - so the Zumo is treating those Basecamp flags as Via Points. (Alert on Arrival).

Good to know that the battery is OK. It should retain your route and just continue to navigate when you plug it in. But that doesn't answer your question either.

A few things that you can try. (ie they work for the later Zumos, and may work for you). It will involve a little experimentation.

1. Load the navigation map and zoom out. That should show your current position and also the various flags via points.

2. I believe that the 340 has a Skip button. If you tap that, it will remove the next route point from its list - but on later versions it prompts you beforehand and gives you the name. eg "Skip Tan Y Bryn" and then to buttons - Yes & No. I couldn't say whether the early ones did this, or whether they just skipped the point, or didn't give the name. You'd need to check. If it gives the name, then that is the next point that you have not yet ridden through. So then cancel the Skip operation.

3. In Bascamp, double click the route and higlight all of the points between the first and the last point. (Don't highlight the first or last).
Right click on one of the highlighted points and select the option to "Don't Alert on Arrival (Shaping Point). Then choose one in the middle (your stopping place) and right click on that and set that to "Alert on Arrival" from the pop up menu. Send that modified route to the Zumo and see what it looks like when you start a route.

What I am trying to find out is whether your 340 knows the difference between:-

* Via points (Alert on Arrival) (flags)
* Shaping Points (Do not alert on arrival) (discs)

On later models, only Via points which Alert on Arrival are listed as the next destination.

So What you get when you start the route is just 3 points - the start, the finish and the coffee stop to choose from. But there are disadvantages with that - which I explain in #5 below,

4. When you load a route, and say GO - do you get a preview map of the route ? If so, that can tell you where you are in relation to the various route points. MY 595 has the option under System->Navigation->Route Preview. But my earlier 590 does not have the option - the preview map just shows up automatically.

When I had my 660 and when I used my 590 I used to name all of the route points with a 3 digit number. The 3 digit number referred to the milage from the start - something that I obtained from the Route planner list in BAsecamp (with 'More Info' selected at the bottom of the route list). Double click the route or the name of the route to get the route list. Then by doubleclicking on each route point, I could add the milage.
eg 123 Tan Y Bryn

At the start of each ride, I would set the trip meter - either on the satnav or on the bike (On most zumos you tap the speed display button, bottom left) From the menu on the display that follows, you can reset the trips. Then you have a figure that you can compare with your route points.

I hardly ever did this in this country - but when going abroad, it was essential - I had no idea where the places were in relation to the route. It was the only way that I could come up with that I could use to get out of problems.

So your list would look something like :

023 A470
050 Tan y Bryn
087 B4391

So if your trip meter says 065 - you know where you are in the list.

It is contrived and a bit of extra effort. But I did use it in Spain and Austria - and it worked. In fact I still put the milage in front of the names of locations - something that was scuppered by the later Zumos - they rename the route points, but I found a way round that.

5. Now if you change most of your route points to shaping points to reduce your list, then when you select the next destination - it will take you straight to that. So Say your only stop is at Betws, and you are heading north. You stop somewhere near Dolgellau and you need to retsart your route. Your only point is Betws, becasue the others are shaping points. If you select Betws - it treats that as your start point and takes you direct to Betws - so it will miss out all of thos excellent roads to the east, and take you up through Barmouth and Harlech instead.

So there are pros and cons about using Shaping Points. The mileage method worked well for me. I don't mind standing and working things out at the side of the road, but with a pillion. In the rain. Getting Cold. Feeling hungry. Fed up. Tired. Getting dark........ I like to have a security blanket, and naming my route points with the mileage was mine.

So 2 favourite methods.

* Use the preview map and count the number of flags that are behind your bike. You want the one after that.
* Use mileage in front of names and remember to set a trip meter when you set off.

Stick with using all Via points for now. Shaping points provide flexibility but they are a lot to take in if you have only ever used Via Points.

Later Zumos - starting with the 595, and similar Zumos - get around the problem. In the list of route points, they have "Closest Entry Point" and that takes you to the closest point on your route and navigates from that point onwards.

Incidentally - you have one of my favourite N Wales ride in there. That high valley side road SE of Bala - and my absolute favourite NW from Llyn Celyn. Memories of the long annual trip to N Wales as a kid on that road, and I would go out of my way to get to Bangor University with my m/bike and sidecar, just to ride it. I don't mention the road number - it is still not widely used. Its nice to keep it like that. Follow that with the now wide sweeping Crimea Pass. It used to be a narrow twisty route with rock outcrops sticking out at helmet height for the long section before Betws. Horrible. But now...... !! Spent a big birthday over there with the bike recently.

[tedpaper]

Thank you for taking the time to supply such a detailed answer - there is a lot of information and tips in there
( I particularly like the idea of naming the points as mileage).
I will take a bit of time and try to experiment with local routes using lots of waypoints and shaping points.
With regards to the Wales route, yes it was a good days ride out!

[lkraus]

I don't have a 340, but I did take a look at the manual. I think the 340 should work like other Zumo models. For a short break, a tap on the power key should just put it in a sleep mode - the screen goes dark, but your current route should remain active. Another tap on the power button to wake it up and you should be able to resume your route with no need to select a via point. A long press of the power button and onscreen confirmation is needed only for a complete shutdown.

[Mzokk]

Yip that's how they work I have a 340 and a 390. They also route better than the Zumo XT I also have i.e. faster routes are just that not faster roads and basecamp routes are faithfully rendered without "Work arounds" . While they have a not so bright screen and no do da's or fancy functions as navigation devices they are great.