zumo XT First (and continuing) impressions

[Stu]

phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Limited sez:
"You cannot delete posts in this forum."

Well, that's just silly.

I can

I may have to look at settings and allow deletion of own posts

[Tom Schmitz]

Things are easing up here and I managed to get away for a ride of a couple of hundred miles.

I continue to be impressed. I like the depth of the navigation guidance. This is not something I have used in the past but it does seem more worthwhile on the XT than it was on the 660. The instructions are more concise and to the point. It seemed to know that I was in an HOV lane and gave me instructions for that lane positioning. I also noticed that there were times when it advised me to be aware that I would have merging traffic on the left.

I have the unit paired with my iPhone and my Sena. Garmin Drive is on the phone, so I get traffic information. It correctly advised of lane closures ahead and of reported objects in the road. When notifications (news, emails, etc) come to the phone it displays them. If I tap on the wee arrow on the notification, it reads them to me. I can't help but wonder if I can get it to read my Kindle books to me...

On the return leg, I set up a waypoint a few miles north of my route and then deliberately blew it off to see how it would react. I was hoping that it would try to route me back to that waypoint three or four times and then give up. Nope. It nagged me all the way home. For 20 miles. Calling up the current route and deleting the waypoint is not much of a chore and doesn't take much time, but that is time and attention paid to the zumo and not to the road. C'mon, lady, give it up. Don't hang on to the issue. Take a poop. Figure it out, already... Towards the end of the ride she seemed to get positively pissed about it; the music got turned off and I got a "BONG! BONG! Turn left at the traffic light (you idiot, I've been going on about this for 20 minutes)". I have to read up on a few things and see if there is a quick screen stab that will take care of the issue.

As I said, I am very favorably impressed with the thing.

[Tom Schmitz]

I have enabled "Skip Next Stop Confirmation" in Map and Vehicle. I'll see if that helps any with missed waypoints.

[Tom Schmitz]

"Skip Next Stop Confirmation" does the trick. I haven't figured the algorithm (on my quick test I couldn't really discern if it waited until you missed 'x' number of redirects or if you ignored 'y' number of reasonable attempts at redirection), but suffice it to say that very soon after you miss the directions to take you to a waypoint a dialog box will pop up asking if you want to skip that waypoint.

Tap 'Yes' and it drops the waypoint from the route and you carry on with no more nagging.

[jfheath]

I managed to do some testing on this yesterday - sat in the passenger seat in the car on the way to the shops, while the route taken ignored the various deviations that I planned.

If you ignore navigation instructions to take a turning to visit a Via Point - twice - it will pop up a message asking if you want to Skip the Via Point, and displays its name. Providing that the setting is ticked in "Map&Vehicle / Skip Next Stop Confirmation"
There are 3 options for the pop up. Say Yes, Say No, or Ignore it and keep your hands an the handlebars.
If you say Yes, it skips the Via Point and calculates a new route to the next route point.
If you say No, it keeps nagging you to go back to the Via point - forever, No second chance is given to get the pop up message.
If you ignore the pop up message, it disappears and will reappear after another 2 instructions to turn have been ignored.

I noted that a U turn does not seem to be included in the count of two navigation instructions.

This is very similar to the 595.

I couldn't get the XT to do the same with a missed shaping point, however. Unlike the 595. I prefer the XT. If you miss a Shaping Point the Zumo XT will continue to nag you to go back to it, recalculating the route (if allowed) and the magenta line in front of you. If you head for the original magenta line beyond the shaping point that it is trying to take you to, then it is happy that you are back on route. You can miss any number of Shaping points like this, but not if you bypass a Via Point. I think it will insist that you visit that and maybe pop up the message - but I haven't tested that. I tend to use Via Points to mark my route away from stopping places or key landmarks like bridges, ferries that I definitely have to visit, so I am unlikely to bypass them.


These are very useful skip features. The actual skip button is always on the navigation screen unless you have some other display set up on the right hand side. (Trip Data, Media Player, Traffic, Weather etc), but the button in the lower right corner (3 dots or a cross) removes that to reveal the skip and puts it back again when you are done.

Less useful in my opinion is the Edit Route feature available from the 3 dot menu, which allows you to choose whether to skip the next Via Point or the next Shaping Point, and displays the name of each one. But which one is coming up next? You might be able to see the flag or the blue circle on the map ahead to be able to tell. If you choose the point which is not the next one, it will remove that point from its list of routing points and calculate a new route between the points either side of it. It takes a little while to do this, so where you will end up going will be a nice surprise when you get there. But it won't include the route point that you skipped.
In any case, by the time you have finished fiddling with that, you could have lost your licence, or worse.

[TripleThreat719]

Received my new Zumo XT On Wednesday of this week. It is replacing a well used and dead nuts reliable Zumo 660 that I have had and used since it was released years ago...

I was able to set it up very quickly and perform all of the updates.

I paired it with our home WiFi easily (which is a hidden network).
Connected to Garmin Express and updated maps (amazing to me that a unit just produced and shipped didn't have the most up-to-date maps installed).
Installed the Garmin Drive app on my iPhone XR and paired the Zumo with my phone.
Did all of my configurations to turn off a bunch of notification types that I don't want to see when riding.
Downloaded 12GB of MP3s onto a card that also had a section of 24K Topo Maps on it.
Installed the card in the Zumo and it identified everything straight away.
Paired the Zumo with my SENA SMH 10 bluetooth headset.
Installed the Mount on my BMW R1150RT, which was straight forward with only power.
Setup was a breeze...

So Thursday night I took about an hour ride after work and tested out various functions on the XT...

I entered the name of a nearby town in the search function of the "where to" function and allowed the XT to create an adventurous route to it.
I started up the track recording feature as I was leaving.
I started streaming Amazon Music, and headed off.
My brother called me about 15 minutes into my ride.
I was able to control the streaming music from the Zumo to switch songs if I wanted. (It even displays Album Art)
The Zumo paused the stream to provide turn-by-turn directions.
The phone call appeared on my screen and a touch to answer notification was very easy to read with caller name and an easy to access answer button.
Text notifications also popped up on the screen (it's easy to disable alerts by type).
After arriving home, I ended the track recording.
I then shared the recorded track with the Garmin Drive app on my phone and was able to email the GPX file to some friends without ever connecting a cable to anything. You can also share tracks via bluetooth between Garmin devices.

Finally, and best of all.... The Screen! It's bright, vivid colors and high resolution display make reading it easy, even for these old eyes, without reading glasses!

Super stoked about how easy everything is to use... Now I just need to install another mount on the other bike...

Quite the upgrade from my Zumo 660...

This thing ROCKS!

[Oop North John]

Checked for updates on the XT it said none, connected it to Garmin Express on my laptop and it showed that there was an update for the Cyclops speed camera data

Anyone know if the Garmin Cyclops data shows "danger zones" in France and therefore the location of speed cameras?

[Skipper]

Yes, it does.

Toured France last summer and they showed up as danger zones, so you know that it is ther somwhere along the road.

Also be aware that cameras in France also records speed and take pictures in both directions.

[sussamb]

Some, not all do. Be aware that in France thy also have 'mobile' cameras that are unmanned but can be lifted and moved, and also cars run by a private company that measure your speed while you and they are moving. Best advice in France is not to speed, as indeed you shouldn't elsewhere.

See the photo in this link and note the comment on tolerances:

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/car ... itain.html

[lehug]

Checked for updates on the XT it said none, connected it to Garmin Express on my laptop and it showed that there was an update for the Cyclops speed camera data

Anyone know if the Garmin Cyclops data shows "danger zones" in France and therefore the location of speed cameras?

Hey, french here.
I am a bit late on the subject, but

"Danger zones" are 500m/2km long (city/countryside) and the speedcam can bee anwhere in this area.

Types of speed cam in france :
- Grey poles roadside (that can take both front/rear for the most recent ones)
- Temporary "trailer", big squary grey things usually in tricky areas (dangerous areas 70kph, roadworks ...)
- Section cams, from 5 to 10km measuring your average speed (not tricky)
- Red light cams found on junctions AND train rails crossing (just stop and you are ok)
- Mobile cars -> standard unbranded wagon parked on the side (will be find in very tricky places, where they score a lot )
- Mobile mobile cars -> standard unbranded car on the road flashing front for the opposite lane, flashes rear for passing vehicules (not really annoying since there is not that much cars and they can't stay in high scoring areas,also 10% uncertainty measurmeent margin applied to your speed, all the other are 5%)

And the one especially for uk people :
- Bikes/Megan RS with gogles waiting on motorway for high speed (usually only get people from 30kph over the limit, and they score a lot of UK sports car from Calais sorry )

For all the mobile ones, they use Waze/Coyote, when tag, they move.

And if you still want to go faster than the speed limit, just remember that 1-30 kph over the limit 135€ fine, then 30kph over the limit it's more expensive, your case goes to court and you will not be able do drive in france anymore for months.