zumo XT First (and continuing) impressions

[Tom Schmitz]

OK, probably a stupid question but is Garmin Explore the new Garmin Basecamp?
Is this what you would now use to route plan? I had a look at it on my PC, although I don't have a compatable device as yet, and it didn't seem anything like Basecamp so I'm guessing it maybe isn't.
And if it isn't, what is??

viewtopic.php?f=48&t=654

It's not Basecamp, and there is no 'new' Basecamp. Read the thread to find out what the Explore website and Explore app are and can do.

[V-Tom]

I've had my XT for 5 days so haven't had that much time with it. Only about 800 km / 500 miles of riding.
I own a Zumo 660 and a Zumo 590. The 590 is still on the bike as is the XT.

Initial impressions:

When I got it I used the wi-fi to do the initial updates. Went smoothly with no issues. My internet is not that fast so took a few hours. Pairing with the phone and my Cardo Packtalk Bold was quick and easy. Copying all my waypoints from my 590 using Basecamp worked as expected. I was able to drag and drop routes that I put on my computer with Furkot and load them as expected.

Unit feels like a very well built, quality device. Screen is BEAUTIFUL! It is bright and works extremely well! Haven't had too much bright sunshine around here this past week but the bit of sun that did hit the screen was a non-issue, way better than the 590.

I have my music working perfectly on the XT for the most part. I synced my music from iTunes using Doubletwist. Doubletwist copies all selected music and playlists to a folder on the (64 gig) SC card called "music". I realized there is something odd in the mp3 folder. if you change the name of the mp3 folder (say to "oldmp3" or "oldmp" and rename the "music" folder to "mp3") it doesn't work. the XT does not see the music files. After lots of trial and error I got it to work by copying all the "music" folder contents to the original mp3 folder (which I had renamed back to "mp3" and it all worked well. The music player is nicer than before with the little widget having previous song as well as next song. "Ok Cardo" "previous track" and "Next track" work as well. Coming through bluetooth you do get the odd momentary dropout but that is a minor annoyance. More annoying is that if you use make a phone call from the Cardo (ok google call...) then sometimes the XT bluetooth connection gets messed up and generally disabling and re-enabling the bluetooth on the XT fixes it. The quality of sound to me sound quite good. (I wear hearing aids when off the bike and earplugs when riding to protect what hearing I have left so take that for what it's worth.)

Traffic, weather and traffic camera worked similar on the 590. The radar screen is much nicer and defaults to showing the history which is nice (which slows down the initial loading a bit but then I always hit the history and waited in the past.)

On the subject of Bluetooth the XT also receives emails, text messages and other messages like Facebook messenger and gives notifications on the screen. Once you tell the XT that you're a passenger you can read them or have the XT read them for you. You can't reply to them on the XT but can mark an FB messenger with "like". (Of course you can reply with the Cardo headset using "Ok google")

The bird's eye view is kind of fun to play with. There are three quality levels and I would not use anything other than the highest. You can save the files on the SD card so no worry about using space. It isn't nearly as good as google Satellite view but is still useable.

I also got the car mount. Unlike the 660 and 590 car mounts that have the drop in and go power connection with this mount you have to plug in the USB cable if you want to power it. A minor annoyance that I hope they address in the future.

I'm still learning the device and am very happy with it!

..Tom

[Hati]

I had mine out on a trip yesterday with a lot of sun to test it under. Due to the glass screen and my light coloured jacket, the reflections are stronger compared to the 595, but even these do not render the screen useless. Could play with the angle that would certainly help with how much and what exactly reflects on the glass, but for me it was easy enough to work around it. The screen is definitely a waste improvement.

Came across the first "bad" unfortunately. I was unable to turn off the audio warnings for speed zone changes and other such annoyances. I tried unticking the relevant boxes, restarting the XT, turning volumes down in the mixer, but ultimately I had to mute the device to stop the warnings. This is however session dependant, so gotta re-mute it when resuming the ride. The lack of sound does not bother me because I always ride using visual clues from the screen, even when being guided, but I am sure this is not the same for everyone. Since I use intercom all the time, it gets quite annoying because it interrupts it. I use Cardo Freecom 4+ and on this device there is no warning tone when the intercom is suspended or resumed, so until I muted the XT I never knew how much of the conversation was heard before the XT cut me off. Will be very happy when I find a permanent "shut the hell up" for the warnings on the device.

Visibility of the track overlay is better, easier to follow, no questions. Converting tracks to trips also works better. I didn't use it yet for guidance (that will happen today), but looking at the route generated, it seems to follow the original track better with all routing settings left at default. The option to be routed to the nearest part of the trip is probably the second best improvement after the screen for me and the way I use the device.

So far so good, was worth spending the money on the upgrade.

[Tom Schmitz]

I find the screen to be better with an anti-glare protector on it.

The first one I used was for a SmartDrive 55, which covered the screen area. It worked OK in bright sun and the glass screen was protected from my wet, muddy, grit-encrusted index finger, but I thought it would be better to cover the entire front of the unit.

This is the SmartDrive protector in place.


Fetching up a laptop screen protector, I cut a full-size piece. It seems to work well and I wonder who will be the first to bring a proper anti-glare to market for the XT.

[Hati]

Before I set off for today's ride, I checked all the audible warnings. Everything is off that can be ticked/turned off, yet I still get them. I think a support ticket will go in on this one.

On the positive side, the track to trip conversion works wonders. I made slight deviations off the guided suggestions, it auto-corrected and we motored on happily, no more annoying u-turn attempts. It also replicated the track exactly as it was created on MyRoute, using Google maps.

Solved the glare/reflection problem. The angle of the XT needs to be dead on vertical on my bike (R1200 RT) to eliminate all the reflections (sky, jacket, tankbag). It is as near perfect as it can be I think. Fully visible in bright direct sunlight (including thin track lines) and for me at least, there is no need to stick any plastic layers, it would just take away from the beauty of the screen.

[V-Tom]

Rode for a little bit today (about 325 km.). Perfectly clear sky.

Using the XT with regular and topo maps it was as good as I could imagine. Could always see everything clearly with my sunglasses on no matter where the sun was (disclosure: because I need reading glasses I locate the unit fairly close to me so with sun directly behind me it's in my shadow. The odd time I moved over to move my shadow out if the way no problem.

I would like if there was a way to make bird's eye view lighter but that isn't a big deal for me.

..Tom

[jfheath]

You need to have at least one waypoint in Saved just to get to the menu that allows you to select the waypoints to import. It seems like a decent protocol. I'd rather have it this way than automatically import every waypoint that is stored on the SD card, considering that I have the potential to store almost 27000 waypoints if I were to choose to go that route.

Just spotted this comment. That is likely to be correct. I hoped that they would have fixed this little 'feature' in the XT, but it would appear not. It was there in the 590 and in the 595 - in fact I mentioned it in the post a couple above your observations. There may be other issues with using the SD card for storage, like there were on the 590 and 595.

On the above point. When out and about, if you discover that you cannot import your Waypoints from your SD card, then as you say, it is because you don't have any saved in internal memory. If you add a single saved point (Favourite on the 590/5) from the screen, then the ones on the SD card will show up under the Import option. The Zumos often arrive with Garmin locations saved in internal memory. I guess they didn't test it with no locations On the SD card.

On the 590/5, all you had to do was transfer the route to the Zumo from Basecamp. No need to transfer the Waypoints separately. Any Waypoints that formed part of the route would be automatically transferred with it. If you transferred to internal memory, they would also be automatically imported. Of course, if you had Waypoints that did not form part of the route, then these would have to be transferred as a separate step.

It sounds like the XT is behaving in the same way as the 590/5 in this respect. I will be investigating when mine arrives - hopefully at the end of this week. Assuming there isn't a block put on deliveries before then !

[communicator]

I have road books that contain a starting point, several dozens of crossing points (some up to more than 100) and an arrival point...Classic.

Example: this road book containing 250 steps elaborated with MapSource
(http://www.wachter.fr/transpy2020/trans ... s_2020.gpx)

Question 1:
Can it be loaded onto the Zumo XT from MapSource?

Question 2:
Can it be loaded onto Zumo XT from BasecCamp?

Question 3:
When connecting the Zumo XT to a PC, can I load the road book into a folder via copy and paste and into which folder?

Question 4:
Is there a limit of 29 steps as in other Zumo's?

Thank you in advance for your answers

[Tom Schmitz]

I have road books that contain a starting point, several dozens of crossing points (some up to more than 100) and an arrival point...Classic.

Example: this road book containing 250 steps elaborated with MapSource
(http://www.wachter.fr/transpy2020/trans ... s_2020.gpx)

Question 1:
Can it be loaded onto the Zumo XT from MapSource?
I don't know as I don't use MapSource

Question 2:
Can it be loaded onto Zumo XT from BasecCamp?
Yes, I was able to transfer it to the SD card via the 'drag and drop' method. The XT can see the file.

Question 3:
When connecting the Zumo XT to a PC, can I load the road book into a folder via copy and paste and into which folder?
Yes, I put the file into the Garmin>GPX folder on my SD card. I could have as easily put it into the same structure in internal memory. The XT can see the file.

I put it in a newly-created directory on the SD card at the root level. The XT could not see the file.

Question 4:
Is there a limit of 29 steps as in other Zumo's?
I don't know what the step limit is. Though I could see the file, the XT reported it could not calculate the route when I attempted to import it. This could be due to exceeding a step limit or it could be due to my not having detailed maps that include the Pyrenees.

Thank you in advance for your answers

See embedded responses.

[Tom Schmitz]

Investigating further, I edited your road book to be only points 1 through 100. When I imported it, I got the following message:

Transpyrenees 2020 100 has more than 29 via points. Route was split into 4 trips.

I have to go out for a bit, but when I return I wll attempt to find out what number of points are importable, though the XT will break them into trips.