Garmin Etrex30x - odd route behaviour

[chillmoister]

Hi Folks

Last week replaced my broken Extrex Lengend HCX with a new Etrex30x and I  used Francis' Etrex setup essays (aukadia.net) to set the unit configuration.   I always used routes on my Legend (selecting the 'off road' option when selecting / loading the Route on the unit ) as I like the proximity warning the unit gives when approaching each route point; i.e. it wakes me up from the dozies on an Audax night section!  I usually create these routes in Basecamp; loading in the GPX file from the organiser and coverting to a route with a max of 250 route points.  This method has worked faultlessly for years!   However I had an issue with my new Garmin 30x at the weekend.  I took a Strava GPS track (a 100km track created by a friend and followed the usual process and created a route in Basecamp that resulted in having 209 route-points; all good!  Everything seemed to be working perfectly on the ride; I was following the magenta line between route points and getting the proximity warnings.   When we are about 12k from the finish of the ride we took a route through a local town that was different from the route loaded in the Etrex to avoid traffic etc; rejoining the loaded route less than 1/2 a km later.  This where things seemed to have gone wrong as I soon noticed that the distance to the destination was now increasing even though we were back on the route and nearing our destination.   It seems that because I missed a route point due to the diversion it got it's knickers in a twist!   Can anyone confirm if this is why I saw this behaviour or otherwise and if I need to adjust the setting in my Etrex to avoid this in the future.

[frankly frankie]

I'm using a 30x these days and sad to report it's nowhere near as reliable when using Routes as the old Legend/Vista was.  Even in off-road mode.  In follow-road it's almost unusable, due to not having a menu option to switch off auto-recalculate, an option which nearly all other Garmin models old and new do have.  I mostly use it in Track mode (ie Where To then select a Track) but often with added Waypoints to mark the turns, it will count down to these in Track mode just like the Legend does with a Route.

So, it sounds as though it was a 'circular' route?  But that shouldn't cause a problem when you are close to the end.  The E30 will always try to direct you to the nearest unvisited route point.  If that happens to be behind you, it will show the (now increasing) distance to that for as long as it is closer than any other unvisited point in the list.  And when you do pass the equidstance between the two points, it may still take 20 seconds or so to realise and start counting down again.   No settings that affect this behaviour, as far as I know.

[chillmoister]

thanks for the reply and if I can't get it to work reliably with route I'll resort to tracks and way points.  I'll try creatign a few short local routes to test and see if I replicate the behaviour or work reliably as i desire!

[Martin]

+1 to FF's comments about the 30 c/f the Vista but other than that I find it a very reliable little workhorse; I generally have no problem using it with routes (subject to the usual problems relating to visiting points you've missed) in fact as soon as it realises you've moved on from the unvisited waypoint (actually a Viapoint, I think there's a difference) it just recalculates the rest of the route no problem. I only use Routes and "where to?" if I get lost; although the ability to switch off recalculation was good on the Vista the 30 manages very well without; the ability to overlay the track on screen is a plus

have you got it set to Driving mode for a delivery vehicle? IIRC it has problems otherwise in both BC and on the device

[chillmoister]

I just performed a short test ride around town.  My E30x is definitely not re-calculating my offroad route if i deliberately miss a route-point / via-point in my Basecamp generated route and then pass a point further on the route . The distance to destination increases as if I need to go back to the missed point and I get no more proximity warnings.  If I stop and restart navigation then it continues as normal with proximity warnings to the points and counts down correctly to the destination.  Weird and frustrating.  In the route settings I have :  Guidance = Prompted,  Calculates route for = Car/Motorcycle, lock on road = No, Off road transitions = Distance, Avoidance setup = Road Features.     Any thoughts?

[chillmoister]

I appear to have fixed it by changing the 'Off road transitions' in the Routing settings from Distance to Auto.  After couple of test rides deliberately missing points the countdown and proximity warnings work as expectd when I'm back on the route.     Thanks for your help.