Author Topic: Garmin 810 tips  (Read 17563 times)

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #25 on: 19 March, 2015, 12:19:36 pm »
I've been having difficulty getting TBT (turn by turn) directions on my 810 recently.

I just discovered something 'new' (at least to me).

I was deleting a couple of courses from last weekend and after I had done so I noticed in the bottom right hand corner of the courses menu a few white lines a bit like a representation of a tiny page, so I clicktouched it and got another menu of options including

Course Guidance   with an 'ENABLE' button, which was not enabled, so I did so !!

I'll report back if that cures it !!!!!

(light goes on).  Had the same thing, could not work out what the heck was going on trying to follow a course on Saturday - wondered why TBT had stopped.  Cant wait to get home to check!

bikey-mikey

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Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #26 on: 19 March, 2015, 11:39:16 pm »
It's definitely done the trick for me..

Sorry I forgot to report back sooner..

 8)
I’ve decided I’m not old. I’m 25 .....plus shipping and handling.

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Paul Smith SRCC

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Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #27 on: 04 April, 2015, 09:01:53 am »
I have the 810 with microSD-City Navigator NT, I confess it sends me around the bend as much as it navigates me around one! The main issue for me is Garmin Connect course planning, it's not cycling specific, sharing routing with runners.

I bought my 810 primarily to enjoy plotting (one of the best bits on a cold wet winter evening planning a tour-ride), then following that plotted route, with that route backed up on my smartphone, reassuring on a two week tour. Sadly that means plotting a route on Garmin Connect. I live in a London Suburb and the Garmin Connnect repeatedly navigates the wrong way down one way streets and roundabouts, when I do finally get a route planned I normally lose turn by turn navigation after about 10 miles! The latter is less of an issue as I am happy to follow a highlighted route without TBT; infact I would like to be able to select that as an option on occasion as I dare say it would reduce battery usage plus often I don't need TBT. At RRP £479.99 (as it was at the time, I bought it when it first came out) including mapping I expected GC route planning and the 810 to be far far better than it is to be honest.

GC route planning should be cycling specific, no excuses, it should be; they offer that on Garmin Basecamp so I can't see why they can't/don't on Garmin Connect. This is especially frustrating as Garmin promote the fact that you can sync and store the courses on your Smartphone. The trouble is that requires the courses to actually be on GC, seeing as everyone I know doesn't use GC course planning, then that is a next to useless feature, that we as the consumer have invested in, only for it to not work anywhere near as well as it should.

So what is the best way to add a route? Well we all have our favourites, www.mapmyride.com, www.bikeroutetoaster.com, www.bikehike.co.uk, www.ridewithgps.com and www.gpsies.com are all quite popular and all have their quirks. Personally if it's a quiet country side course with few roundabouts then I will still use Garmin Connect to create a course then sync that to the 810 via my smartphone app, handy if I haven't got the USB lead, which is often the case if as I have a 100 mile commute, which I drive, but will often put the bike in the back of the car and do a quick loop somewhere on the way home.

I don't like Garmin Connect for urban riding though as although you can select 'Google Maps' you can't zoom in far enough to see the indicated one way streets and I've learned that effectively going 'off course' often confuses the 810, it can then lose TBT Navigation, both arrows and text, the latter freezing where it stopped working. For urban riding I prefer www.mapmyride.com and www.ridewithgps.com then exporting adding via the' new files folder', both enable easy editing either during composition or once created, plus you can toggle between walking-cycling-driving, which can be handy if you want to walk over a footbridge for example. Those two are my choices, I normally use www.ridewithgps.com purely because the file name seems to upload better the 810, www.mapmyride.com course names seem to get scrambled when I view them on the device, although the course itself is OK.

If you want to import a course into GC that you created on another site, which is done via the 'Activities' page, it can be problematic, you will see the import normally fails even though the exported file from that site appears to be correct, GC seems to reject it. However there is a site called www.gpsies.com that will convert the data to what Garmin Connect will accept for the manual upload. So, via their 'Convert' page you 'choose' the '.gpx' file you've exported and saved from another site, select 'convert' to a 'GPX Track', when converted this will then load into Garmin Connect; (via the import link on the 'Activities' page) note it uploads it as an 'Activity' that you then save as a 'Course'. Note as you will read below this can still be problematic as it sometimes doesn't upload as you have planned, so proofread the route before using to make sure it's been uploaded exactly as created.

Not that the smartphone apps seem to be syncing great at the moment, many, myself included have had 'sync' failures when trying to upload a route. I deleted app and re installed via Googleplay on phone and it didn't work, so I unistalled again, cleaned phoned with CCleaner, then reinstalled app via Garmin site by syncing laptop with phone; works now....

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #28 on: 04 April, 2015, 09:08:34 am »
Ever get the feeling that navigation is an afterthought on Garmin bike GPS units?

Paul Smith SRCC

  • Surrey Road Cyling Club
  • 45+ years a club rider, 33+ years in cycle trade.
    • www.plsmith.co.uk
Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #29 on: 04 April, 2015, 09:15:44 am »
Ever get the feeling that navigation is an afterthought on Garmin bike GPS units?
Very much so, but for the devices like the 810 that require courses on GC, then in short; it shouldn't be.

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #30 on: 04 April, 2015, 10:52:15 am »
I wouldn't dream of plotting a route on Garmin Connect.
Bikehike is my favourite site. I just create the route, add any controls as course points, then send it straight to my Edge 800 as a .tcx
I then load this and ride to the line, no turn directions or anything annoying. By having only controls marked on the route you can set one of your data fields as distance to the next point- this means I always know exactly how far I am from the nearest control and to the end :)

There is nothing to go wrong with this method since no calculations are going on. When approaching a junction I just glance down to check which road I need, I really don't need a bleep and arrow when I can see a map right in front of my face. Each to their own and all that- but when you're touring and want a really reliable and incredibly easy system it's definitely worth giving this a go if you're having any issues.

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #31 on: 04 April, 2015, 11:06:26 am »
Yeah yeah we know that  ::-)   ;D

Unfortunately you can't back up your routes on bikehike, and download them to a mobile phone via 3g/4g, which is the whole point of Paul's post.  You can save them on Garmin Connect and download them via mobile data or wireless. It is quite a useful feature, but he is bemoaning the issues with plotting routes on Garmin Connect.

Bikehike is great, as it is fast and easy, and the OS map pane is highly useful....but you can't upload routes to a cloud.  You used to be able to.

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #32 on: 04 April, 2015, 11:13:23 am »
Yeah yeah we know that  ::-)   ;D

Unfortunately you can't back up your routes on bikehike, and download them to a mobile phone via 3g/4g, which is the whole point of Paul's post.  You can save them on Garmin Connect and download them via mobile data or wireless. It is quite a useful feature, but he is bemoaning the issues with plotting routes on Garmin Connect.

Bikehike is great, as it is fast and easy, and the OS map pane is highly useful....but you can't upload routes to a cloud.  You used to be able to.

I was responding to Paul asking which method we use and why :D
I generally download a backup of routes I create to the laptop at the same time as sending to the Garmin. Is there any reason why you can't send these to Dropbox? I don't know how the Garmin wireless interface works since I have the 800 which can't do that.

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #33 on: 04 April, 2015, 11:14:46 am »
Ever get the feeling that navigation is an afterthought on Garmin bike GPS units?

That feeling celebrates its tenth birthday this year.

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #34 on: 04 April, 2015, 11:15:51 am »
Ever get the feeling that navigation is an afterthought on Garmin bike GPS units?

That feeling celebrates its tenth birthday this year.

I once had a Garmin car Satnav, I got the feeling that navigation wasn't it's primary function even though it didn't actually have any other function ....

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #35 on: 04 April, 2015, 11:32:06 am »
Actually, to be fair, my 705 worked near-flawlessly. I only remember it crashing once in years of use.

I think the 800 series is trying to appeal to geargeeks who want the latest, flashest 'training aid', without necessarily wanting to use its functions.

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #36 on: 04 April, 2015, 11:34:59 am »
Yeah yeah we know that  ::-)   ;D

Unfortunately you can't back up your routes on bikehike, and download them to a mobile phone via 3g/4g, which is the whole point of Paul's post.  You can save them on Garmin Connect and download them via mobile data or wireless. It is quite a useful feature, but he is bemoaning the issues with plotting routes on Garmin Connect.

Bikehike is great, as it is fast and easy, and the OS map pane is highly useful....but you can't upload routes to a cloud.  You used to be able to.

I was responding to Paul asking which method we use and why :D
I generally download a backup of routes I create to the laptop at the same time as sending to the Garmin. Is there any reason why you can't send these to Dropbox? I don't know how the Garmin wireless interface works since I have the 800 which can't do that.

It bluetooths as well.  Certainly on my phone, you cant transfer from dropbox into the garmin as the phone wont recognise the garmin as a drive.


Paul Smith SRCC

  • Surrey Road Cyling Club
  • 45+ years a club rider, 33+ years in cycle trade.
    • www.plsmith.co.uk
Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #37 on: 04 April, 2015, 11:35:27 am »
...Bikehike is my favourite site. ....

I actually like www.bikehike.co.uk as well, especially as you get two maps to view, plotting a route is very good although I find editing it once created not quite as easy as I do with www.ridewithgps.com. I dare say www.bikehike.co.uk course editing is quite good as well, it' just that in my few trial goes of each I personally got on better with www.ridewithgps.com.

In any event GC Course planning should be at least as good as these free websites, yes I realise that Garmin are not really focusing on software, but when their systems are set up focused on being used with their software to use them to their potential; then really Garmin, your software should be better.

StuAff

  • Folding not boring
Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #38 on: 04 April, 2015, 11:53:01 am »
After five years of 705 ownership, same as it ever was: routing, whichever web site you use and whichever routing method, is more problematic than it should be. Only last Saturday, I went to Winchester to meet up for a group ride, plotted a course on bikehike. Which was fine for a few miles (the ones I knew well anyway...) until it decided I should make a turn into a field. Not a field with a marked cycle path (a Sustrans speciality), just a field, with a hedge...I decided to ignore it and instead followed road signs to Winchester, for some reason that got me there OK. Then there was the ride I did to Cardiff a couple of years back, when OSM routing thought Savernake Forest was a good way northwest (yes, if you like big chunks of gravel, not if you're on 25mm tyres), then an extensive tour of bridle paths, private roads....Basic rule of thumb: if the Garmin says 'this way' and 'that way' is known to you/looks more sensible/not into a hedge, go that way.

Garmin has the ongoing policy of using end users as beta test customers (every new Edge has had software issues out of the box) , producing a few revisions of software that never seem to fix all the issues, and then they just stop bothering and create a newfangled bit of kit that creates more bugs of its own. The likes of Magellan (aka Mio), Bryton et al seem little better. Garmin are the leader in the bike GPS market because they make the least worst products, not the best. I'm on my third 705 as the USB ports on the previous two stopped connecting to computers.....

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #39 on: 13 April, 2015, 08:51:17 am »
All these issues seem to be really alien to me with my 810. I have TBT off as I hate it. Also course correction is off as the purple line is just fine. But that just me  ;D

When I start a route by selecting it through courses, it asks if I want to navigate to the beginning of the route. I ALWAYS say no. and therefore it never course corrects.

I do have one problem: My cadence sensor never EVER seems to get picked up. It'll pick up other people's sensors fine. Changed batteries and did a full discharge/recharge etc. Beyond me.

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #40 on: 13 April, 2015, 09:26:04 am »
All these issues seem to be really alien to me with my 810. I have TBT off as I hate it. Also course correction is off as the purple line is just fine. But that just me  ;D

When I start a route by selecting it through courses, it asks if I want to navigate to the beginning of the route. I ALWAYS say no. and therefore it never course corrects.

I do have one problem: My cadence sensor never EVER seems to get picked up. It'll pick up other people's sensors fine. Changed batteries and did a full discharge/recharge etc. Beyond me.

Is the sensor definitely picking up it's magnet signal? (Press the button and check you get red and green flashing lights with each pedal rev and rear wheel rev on a work stand). It can also be worth swapping the ugly crank sensor magnet for a neat little round neodymium magnet stuck to the inside of the pedal bolt then line the cad sensor up with that- the magnet is stronger and more reliable as well as being hidden from view.

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #41 on: 14 August, 2015, 03:01:37 pm »
jonathan notp has just bought a garmin 810  :o. he has no idea how to use it and has asked me . this is a case of the blind leading the blind  ::-) . I did recommend the satmap 10 which at least I understand . I can follow the quick start instruction's but after that I am lost . any advice /tips gratefully received  :) 
the slower you go the more you see

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #42 on: 25 August, 2015, 07:57:11 pm »
Don't be too hasty, oranj.

I had the same experience and reaction as you. Then I installed the latest beta firmware (link on Garmin 810 forum) and the thing gas worked brilliantly.

Aunt Maud

  • Le Flâneur.
Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #43 on: 25 August, 2015, 08:30:07 pm »
I tried the 810 and sent it back, the 800 is much better to use.

fuaran

  • rothair gasta
Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #44 on: 26 August, 2015, 02:19:23 pm »
I've been running v3.60, the latest version of the software, all along.
Version 4.20 is now available.

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #45 on: 30 August, 2015, 10:39:36 am »
After my 4th Edge 500 in as many years died the other day, Garmin decided to give me an 810...

I loaded it with maps from (url=http://somewhere), but found them to be faaarrr too detailed/cluttered to be of much cycling use, so binned it off for the ones from here - http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/a-quick-guide-to-free-osm-maps-for-garmin-gps-devices/

Took it for a spin round inner Northumberland yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised by it all.

Quick question re: those silicone cases. Worth buying from a rain/clumsiness POV? This one feels more computerry and delicate than the 500.

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #46 on: 30 August, 2015, 11:35:48 am »
I bought a bright blue case for a couple of quid. More to remind me to remove the unit at cafe stops more than anything else

robgul

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Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #47 on: 30 August, 2015, 11:41:55 am »
I bought a bright blue case for a couple of quid. More to remind me to remove the unit at cafe stops more than anything else

On the subject of cases - I loaned my Garmin Edge 200 to a friend for our recent club tour (I used the Touring) but not before fitting it with a neon pink silicone case to make sure she remembered it was on the bike!

Rob

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #48 on: 23 October, 2015, 07:35:02 pm »
I updated my firmware this week but haven't used it yet.

I used it a week ago on blacksheep's 200. I used his tcx file and for some reason it didn't give me TBT routing.

Re: Garmin 810 tips
« Reply #49 on: 23 October, 2015, 07:46:09 pm »
I don't know how Mark creates his but they are sometimes a bit idiosyncratic.  Because he usually supplies them as a separate file per stage I have to merge them into one (can't be arsed with loading up a new file every 50k.)