does an etrex 30 navigate anything?

[frankly frankie]

Yes either will do, but I recommend avoiding putting stuff on the Garmin memory itself because sooner or later (if it were me) I would fail to unmount the device cleanly and then forever get warning messages in Windows about "there is a problem with this disk".
(The same can happen with the mSD card but then it's no real hassle to re-format it.)

... one issue seems to be that Waypoint Manager only recognises waypoints I've marked on the device, anything sent from my PC does not show up 

Then (assuming something's not broken) the Route composed on your PC is made up of Route points not Waypoints.  That's OK, and quite normal.
Only Waypoints will appear in Waypoint manager, but either type (or a mixture of both) can be used to define a Route.  (To be more precise, a Route is always made only of Route points, but often a Route point and a Waypoint are created co-incidentally, in which case the latter sits on top of the former and appears to replace it.)

If I create a Route on my GPS (as you say, tedious, but still, a useful thing to be able to do) I do it by clicking my way across the map - before each click I 'hover' to make sure the pointer is actually over a road (the road name or number pops up) - and not, for example, a contour line - if it's not over a road I nudge it until it is before clicking to define the point.

This procedure (I think, without checking) creates Route points but not Waypoints, in the same way that Mapsource (or I assume Basecamp) does.  Each point inherits its attributes from the underlying co-incident Map point, which seems to be very efficient.
http://www.aukadia.net/gps/lwg_41.htm (shows the procedure on an old Etrex, but it's just the same on an E30)

[Martin]

thanks; the gps thing is odd; it will show a track on the map together with high and low points (new, on the elevation screen you get to see what hill you are about to grimp up if you are following a previously ridden track) and show the correct distance to the end of the track on the "bike computer" screen, but it won't navigate 

I'll try reducing it to 50 points but by the time I do that I might as well draw a new route on Mapsource / Basecamp

mine happily uploads tracks from the device in Mapsource; knows the serial no. of the device too 

[frankly frankie]

Oh, well, now we're talking about a Track, and not a Route.  The E30 will not navigate a Track in the sense of providing turn prompts etc.  If you deviate from the Track it will not attempt to re-calculate.  A Track is just a digital line drawn on a digital map with a digital felt-tip pen.

If you use 'Where To?' the visual difference between a Track, and a Route in 'on road' mode is intially subtle.  But the Route is calculated on the fly by the GPS - it:
a) is not absolutely guaranteed to go the way you would want it to - not a big problem if you use enough points
b) would generate turn prompts (it may depend on your GPS settings whether these are seen/heard or not).  The prompts derive information (eg road names) from the map in the GPS, and not from any other source - not, for example, from the GPX file.
c) if you divert significantly, it will recalculate (no option in the E30 to turn this feature off) - which is not always helpful.

I was riding with someone the other day who was using an Edge 810 with a Track loaded, but no detailed map loaded.  It bleeped at every Track point (actually I think it was at every perceived change in direction, but since it was a simplified 500-point Track, that amounted to much the same thing).  Comical, I thought.

[Oaky]

That sounds a lot like the behaviour when navigating a track (Got To... -> Tracks) rather than a route (Go To... -> Routes).  There's no turn-by-turn, but there is a purple line of righteousness, and the unit knows how far to your destination along the track (and how far to the next waypoint on the track if you happen to have defined any and/or high/low points).

Are you sure that the .gpx you loaded contains a route and not just a track?

[Martin]

That sounds a lot like the behaviour when navigating a track (Got To... -> Tracks) rather than a route (Go To... -> Routes).  There's no turn-by-turn, but there is a purple line of righteousness, and the unit knows how far to your destination along the track (and how far to the next waypoint on the track if you happen to have defined any and/or high/low points).

Are you sure that the .gpx you loaded contains a route and not just a track?

no it's just a track,

oh well back to Mapsource / Basecamp and dotting waypoints around an existing track, was rather hoping the 30 would be better than the Vista in that respect (and more like an Edge although AIUI Edges need tcx files to navigate) at least the battery problem is resolved 

as an aside, I had the thing on last night just to record my own perm and had it set to navigate back home, it had some very weird ideas about the shortest way (and resolutely refused to allow me to use the A22 for the last 6km) is there something I need to change on Routing setup to force it down the shortest route? (I have it on distance and cycle I think, maybe walking)

[fuaran]

as an aside, I had the thing on last night just to record my own perm and had it set to navigate back home, it had some very weird ideas about the shortest way (and resolutely refused to allow me to use the A22 for the last 6km) is there something I need to change on Routing setup to force it down the shortest route? (I have it on distance and cycle I think, maybe walking)

Garmin's City Navigator maps don't really work in bicycle mode. If you set it to bicycle or walking, then it will avoid main roads wherever possible. It will route you along minor roads, even if it is a much greater distance. If you want to route along main roads, set the Etrex to car routing.
If you want a nice route for cycling, better to use some maps designed for that, eg OpenFietsMap.

[Martin]

OK; just had another play; if I create a route on Mapsource and send it it only sends a route, no waypoints (the box is greyed out) and the device does not recognise via points which is what the route consists of; it displays the route on the map but won't navigate as it says the maps are not routeable  (even though it routes on anything that's defined or found on the device)

if I click the Waypoints tool I can mark a few; send them to the device and then construct a route on it which navigates,

so what I need is a way of constructing a route that uses waypoints rather than via points on either Mapsource or Basecamp, the device will then route via those waypoints

[Feanor]

it displays the route on the map but won't navigate as it says the maps are not routeable 

There's something wrong with the maps on your device.

Do you have more than 1 mapset on the device covering the same area?

Earlier, you said:

it's City Navigator from my old etrex

What format was the map supplied in?
Did it come on an SD card which you've transferred over?
Or how exactly did you transfer the maps over?
What I'm getting at is: is the City Navigator mapset actually unlocked on your new handset?
Go into the map selection screen and see what maps are available and enabled.

[Martin]

it displays the route on the map but won't navigate as it says the maps are not routeable 

There's something wrong with the maps on your device.

Do you have more than 1 mapset on the device covering the same area?

Earlier, you said:

it's City Navigator from my old etrex

What format was the map supplied in?
Did it come on an SD card which you've transferred over?
Or how exactly did you transfer the maps over?
What I'm getting at is: is the City Navigator mapset actually unlocked on your new handset?
Go into the map selection screen and see what maps are available and enabled.

yes it's unlocked and enabled; basemap is disabled. I copied it onto the card from a DVD.

If I create a route using Waypoints instead of Via Points it transfers both Waypoints and Routes and navigates  still a faff though

[Martin]

more playing;

BaseCamp is the way to go it interacts much more with the device; the no routable maps error has gone 

I've created routes transferred them and got them to navigate turn by turn; still very flaky though, it only navigates from the start of the route from not where you happen to be at the time; and doesn't work with every route I've tried (eg 200k one that starts 30k away only has two directions)

and also once you are on the route it does not recalculate if you go off route 

[Ningishzidda]

more playing;

BaseCamp is the way to go it interacts much more with the device; the no routable maps error has gone 

I've created routes transferred them and got them to navigate turn by turn; still very flaky though, it only navigates from the start of the route from not where you happen to be at the time; and doesn't work with every route I've tried (eg 200k one that starts 30k away only has two directions)

and also once you are on the route it does not recalculate if you go off route 

The 'Recalculate' switch is deep in a sub-menu IIRC.

[frankly frankie]

I've not found anything in the E30 to control 'recalculate'.  It's on all the time, but it doesn't kick in until you are significantly off-route (ie, it gives you a bit of a chance to find your own way back first).

[Martin]

I've not found anything in the E30 to control 'recalculate'.  It's on all the time, but it doesn't kick in until you are significantly off-route (ie, it gives you a bit of a chance to find your own way back first).

it doesn't seem to work on foot either, it was doing it every 5 seconds on the train this morning,

what's annoying is that on the 30 there is no option to look at the track (ie waypoints etc) or reverse it, you have to do this on BaseCamp

[Ningishzidda]

I've not found anything in the E30 to control 'recalculate'.  It's on all the time, but it doesn't kick in until you are significantly off-route (ie, it gives you a bit of a chance to find your own way back first).

it doesn't seem to work on foot either, it was doing it every 5 seconds on the train this morning,

what's annoying is that on the 30 there is no option to look at the track (ie waypoints etc) or reverse it, you have to do this on BaseCamp

This intrigued me. Page 13 in the manual.

[Martin]

Thanks;

also in the manual, profile change has to be Automotive (profile not dashboard) to get it to navigate a drving route, I just changed it and it's now navigating me round a 200 

anyone tried converting a track to a route on Basecamp yet?

actually we need a whole thread just on Basecamp