Leave the Road

[carolinarider09]

I just made a trip to the Florida Panhandle. The first day was ok except for the rain.

Second day was sort of OK except I got directed onto a paved road that turned to dirt but that is not my main issue (although it is a big thing).

I was traveling North on US 27 in Alabama. My route had four points. A starting point (Motel) and two points on the way and an ending point (Motel).

The two "way" points were on US 27 North. I just checked to verify the above and the points indicate that I should be in the North Bound Lanes (Four Lane Divided Highway with large medium between the North and South Bound lanes.

All of a sudden, as we were riding along, I get the commabd "Leave the Road". I figured I had put the "Waypoint" in the grassy medium so I kept going straight ahead. As I did, the time to reach my destination kept going up Indicating I was going the wrong way. I said "Crap, Another Garmin programming error". Why can't Garmin just take me to the next destination??????

Well after about 100 miles or so, the GPS final gave in and time and distance to the destination became "as expected".

This is the second time this happened on my trip.

I have used Garmin GPS devices since 2005 or so. All have worked well (except for a music playing error on one). I could generate routes using Microsoft Streets and Trips and I went were I wanted no real issues.

Now I get a Garmin 595 and I have the crap above happening. It makes no real sense. I could see that if I had put the "Waypoint" on the South bound lane and I was traveling North that could be an issue (although the software should be smart enough to know that it was a mistake).

This happened the day before as well. I was directed to "Leave the Road" somewhere in Florida.

Anybody got a clue what causes this????

[MSTOCK27370]

There are likely other responders that will have more insight. I use a 590 and also have lots of years using Garmin GPS devices.

Could you post a gpx file of the route so that it could be looked at?

Did you look at the route in Basecamp or just on your 595?

[Oop North John]

I'd try to look at the track the GPS says you were doing when the routing became a problem. The 590 etc rubber band themselves to where the road is displayed, so if the road isn't correctly placed then weirdness can occur.

If you post the track, then someone with USA mapping might be able to see if my educated guess is correct.

[Peobody]

Second day was sort of OK except I got directed onto a paved road that turned to dirt but that is not my main issue (although it is a big thing).

This is not uncommon. I have experienced the "paved road is actually unpaved" issue numerous time over that past few years that I have had my XT.

The opposite happens as well.

All of a sudden, as we were riding along, I get the commabd "Leave the Road". I figured I had put the "Waypoint" in the grassy medium so I kept going straight ahead. As I did, the time to reach my destination kept going up Indicating I was going the wrong way. I said "Crap, Another Garmin programming error". Why can't Garmin just take me to the next destination??????

This is the behavior of a misplaced waypoint. The 595 WAS taking you to that waypoint as the next destination. The misplacement could have been in route creation or due to a map error. Heck, on a multi-lane divided highway, I would not be surprised that a waypoint place on the leftmost side of the lane could be 'missed' if passed while riding on the rightmost side, especially if it is more than two lanes. IMO, all you can do is look at the planned route and determine if there is anything you could have done to prevent the issue (misplaced point?, better as non-alerting?). If not, just vent and then move on.

[carolinarider09]

I "exported" the GPX file and it is attached below.

Day Four.GPX

(254.17 KiB) Downloaded 12 times

[Peobody]

The route points look fine.

Was the route navigating normally up until it misbehaved on US-27? I ask because your starting point was a hotel, or more specifically, what appears to be where the hotel lobby entrance is. It is unlikely that your satnav got close enough to that point to have considered it visited unless you were parked right outside the door. A good rule of thumb is to always create a start point that is a ways away from your physical location. The satnav will calculate you to it, acknowledge that you visited it, and then continue on the route, rather than be left functioning as if you never visited the starting point. In the case of your route, I would have placed the starting point on the southeastern bound lane of 321 a couple of hundred yards away from the hotel.

[carolinarider09]

The route points look fine.

Was the route navigating normally up until it misbehaved on US-27? I ask because your starting point was a hotel, or more specifically, what appears to be where the hotel lobby entrance is. It is unlikely that your satnav got close enough to that point to have considered it visited unless you were parked right outside the door. A good rule of thumb is to always create a start point that is a ways away from your physical location. The satnav will calculate you to it, acknowledge that you visited it, and then continue on the route, rather than be left functioning as if you never visited the starting point. In the case of your route, I would have placed the starting point on the southeastern bound lane of 321 a couple of hundred yards away from the hotel.

I believe I was locoing the motel using Basecamp and then making whatever Basecamp identified as the hotel location a starting or ending point. I actually copy the point from Day one to Day two. I will consider following your advice.

The leave the road commands were miles down the road from the staring location.

[Peobody]

It certainly is possible that there was a mess-up either with your position or with the road location on the map. I have not experienced your specific scenario but I regularly get advised that I am off-route when I'm not. My recalculation is set to "Prompt" so when it happens, I get the 'off-route, do you want to recalculate' prompt which I respond "No" to and then continue on like nothing happened. Perhaps the map has the road, or an intersection, misplaced compared to reality. Maybe a brief loss of satellite does it. IDK.