Caution Audaxers: Etrex 20 factory settings suppress alerts in OFF ROAD mode

[arallsopp]

On my old Etrex, I've become accustomed to routing as follows:

• Create Route with 1 via point per route sheet instruction, named 01 SOX, 02 LT, 03 E2, 04 RTL, etc...
• Create track to display underneath route
  
• Navigate route as OFF ROAD so that I can see the distance, name and direction of next instruction
• Let Etrex light up and do its little "tiddly pop" as I approach each instruction

This is great, as it switches to the map automatically and lights up when I have to do something other than follow the road.

I have a loaner Etrex 20 at the moment, and am running it alongside the Etrex HCx whilst I get used to things. Using the same maps with the same routes I'm seeing:

• OFF ROAD always points at the first waypoint, even if I ride directly over it (distance 0ft)
• No audible or display warnings are issued
• As I approach the second waypoint, its still telling me that the first one is behind me

Clearly that doesn't work. If I set it to ON ROAD (for distance) it gives me the alerts, but also calculates what it feels is the best route between each via point. Often, this involves three sides of a square instead of a road it doesn't favour. If I add a waypoint to the 4th side of the square, I get to travel around the other three first, then double back to pick up the 4th.

If I'm OFF ROAD routing, it doesn't even seem to think it has an active route, which is exactly how its behaving, tbh.

Anyone had any experience with this? My old method (and handset) has proven very reliable, so I'm not sure I'll be keeping the new one if Garmin has managed to break things.

Cheers in advance for anything you can offer.

[fuaran]

What do you have the option for "Off road transitions" set as? (on Setup menu -> Routing)

[arallsopp]

What do you have the option for "Off road transitions" set as? (on Setup menu -> Routing)

At present, manual. Previously auto. Been walking around the block most of today peering at the little bugger. Can't detect any change in the way it operates...

[arallsopp]

Hmmm... With "Off Road Transitions" set to "Manual" it does issue a beep at the first waypoint. It doesn't advance to the next waypoint though, at least in Simulation mode anyway. Going to take her around the block again in a few mins to see if this is an oddity in simulation mode or not.

Thanks for the pointer. Would welcome any other ideas

[DrMekon]

This would be a deal breaker for me. Hope there is a fix, as I'd love a 30 with a HRM belt.

[arallsopp]

Find it hard to believe that things are right. If this trip around the block doesn't solve it, I'll try rolling back to another BIOS version.

[arallsopp]

Ok. Found a workaround. Here's my steps to fix:

• In shipped configuration (and updated to software v2.70) off road transition = AUTO seems to give a radius of 0 for waypoint detection. You have to stand directly over the waypoint (and wait for GPS jitter to die) to trigger an advance to the next one. Until you do, no alerts are issued
• If you switch this to off road transition = MANUAL, it looks like you get the same behaviour (though were you to position yourself directly over the waypoint, I suppose you would still need to advance manually using the active route).
• If you then switch to off road transition = DISTANCE, and set a radius of 30 ft, you will find you can pass within half a road's width of the waypoint without detection. Behaviour is as case 1. No alerts until you trigger it. I couldn't set it off from the pavement on either side of the marker.
• If you keep off road transition = DISTANCE, and set a radius of 100 ft, you will find waypoint collision works fine (even from the pavement) and the alerts are then restored. The GPS will make a sound (but not light up) to tell you there is a waypoint approaching. On foot, you will not trigger the approaching waypoint alert until you are about 60ft from the instruction, which means that by the time the beep has happened, the GPS will already be telling you about a different junction. This is bad if you are walking towards 04 L and it changes to 05 R then beeps to warn you about a now invisible instruction.
• Finally, you set off road transition = AUTO. Having been through the above, waypoints are flagged, the unit lights up, and it advances correctly without needing any teasing.

Just to ensure I'm not going crazy, I rolled back to factory settings and repeated the above. Exactly the same issues. I expect this will be fixed in a future software revision without needing the workaround, so its likely not a deal breaker. Far from ideal though.

The other trick is not to read 'tones' as key press sounds. If you turn this off in the settings menu, you get no audio alerts at all. That cost me the first lap by itself

Oh, and FAO DrMekon, be advised that I can't find a way to have the next waypoint name shown in anything other than a really tiny font, even if its only 3 characters long.   

[frankly frankie]

I've been using an E30 in Off Road mode for the last 3 days non-stop (it feels like!!) and it has been generating bleeps, though I agree not 100% reliably if I'm climbing slowly.  The software is the original as shipped last October.

My big beef, in this mode, is that the waypoint names, as descibed by Arallsopp in the OP, just don't work.  There are two parts to this problem -
1. however short the name, the font is far too small for me to read, in the 'next waypoint' data field.
2. in any case, that field is not displaying the name, it's displaying the Comment (which is usually a road name or two road names).
see my Waypoint naming and the Dakota for more about this (though on the E30 its subtly different again).

If, with a route and a track both available, instead of following the Route I follow the Track - then I do get to see the upcomong waypoint names as I want (though still too small of course).  But in this mode there are no alerts either visual or audible - I tried it for half a day but reverted to Off Road Route as the better way of doing it.

[arallsopp]

The name instead of comment problem has been fixed in later firmware, I believe. Actually, I'd prefer the comment as non unique is allowed and thus RIGHT or LEFT can be repeated.

Time to hit garmin forums about fontsize, I fear.

[frankly frankie]

Its the same with all the models that use the new UI.  Of course that was originally devised for the Oregon which has a larger screen ...

[arallsopp]

I hear you there FF, but still think they could have implemented the variable font size based on length. I mean, even if you set the data fields so that waypoint at next is one of the double width double height fields, it still only uses the very bottom bit to show the name. The etrex HCx software would have spotted that 01 SOX was tiny and used a larger font to fill the space.

[arallsopp]

Took the unit on a 50 miler down to Brighton with the wife. Off road routing via around 40 instructions. Behaved flawlessly in terms of alerts.