I've been having some very unsatisfactory experiences with the roads routing
features of this GPS using the MetroGuide software. I'm sure hoping the
problems don't translate into similar issues when using it on the boat.

Anybody want to talk about this or know of a discussion group specific to
it?

Anybody had problems with ignored waypoints and strange routing on the water
using Blue Charts?

--
Roger Long

In article , rlong003
@maine.rr.com says...
I've been having some very unsatisfactory experiences with the roads routing
features of this GPS using the MetroGuide software. I'm sure hoping the
problems don't translate into similar issues when using it on the boat.

Anybody want to talk about this or know of a discussion group specific to
it?

Anybody had problems with ignored waypoints and strange routing on the water
using Blue Charts?


I used my 76C (Not X with compass) last summer to record track and for
general cockpit usage last summer in Desolation Sound. I didn't use
it for tracks, although I did have the Canadian chart pack loaded.
I didn't notice any egregious errors when compared to the papter
charts--but I was sightseeing and gunkholing in daylight and
the accuracy of the Blue Charts was not an issue.

The tracks along the major highways on our trip to California
also looked OK for the most part between Corvallis and Sacramento.



Mark Borgerson

Mark Borgerson wrote:

In article , rlong003
@maine.rr.com says...
I've been having some very unsatisfactory experiences with the
roads routing features of this GPS using the MetroGuide software.
I'm sure hoping the problems don't translate into similar issues
when using it on the boat.

Anybody want to talk about this or know of a discussion group
specific to it?

Anybody had problems with ignored waypoints and strange routing on
the water using Blue Charts?


I used my 76C (Not X with compass) last summer to record track and
for general cockpit usage last summer in Desolation Sound. I didn't
use it for tracks, although I did have the Canadian chart pack loaded.
I didn't notice any egregious errors when compared to the papter
charts--but I was sightseeing and gunkholing in daylight and
the accuracy of the Blue Charts was not an issue.

The tracks along the major highways on our trip to California
also looked OK for the most part between Corvallis and Sacramento.



Mark Borgerson

Desolation Sound is a great area to sail. We've done it three times and
are going to do it again within the next year or two. Where are you
located? We're in Boise,Id and trailer sail an Irwin 28. Jim



--

In article ,
says...
Mark Borgerson wrote:

In article , rlong003
@maine.rr.com says...
I've been having some very unsatisfactory experiences with the
roads routing features of this GPS using the MetroGuide software.
I'm sure hoping the problems don't translate into similar issues
when using it on the boat.

Anybody want to talk about this or know of a discussion group
specific to it?

Anybody had problems with ignored waypoints and strange routing on
the water using Blue Charts?


I used my 76C (Not X with compass) last summer to record track and
for general cockpit usage last summer in Desolation Sound. I didn't
use it for tracks, although I did have the Canadian chart pack loaded.
I didn't notice any egregious errors when compared to the papter
charts--but I was sightseeing and gunkholing in daylight and
the accuracy of the Blue Charts was not an issue.

The tracks along the major highways on our trip to California
also looked OK for the most part between Corvallis and Sacramento.



Mark Borgerson

Desolation Sound is a great area to sail. We've done it three times and
are going to do it again within the next year or two. Where are you
located? We're in Boise,Id and trailer sail an Irwin 28. Jim


I live in Corvallis, Oregon. My trips to Desolation Sound have been
in charter boats, either from Desolation Sound Yacht Charters, or
more recently, Cooper Boating.

We have an 18' Windrose trailerable pocket cruiser that my wife
and I or my son and I have sailed around Puget Sound or the
San Juans. It's not really suitable for more than day sailing
for more than two people, though. We have taken it to
Lopez Island and done day trips to Friday harbor from our
rented beach cabin, though.

Mark Borgerson

Roger Long wrote:
I've been having some very unsatisfactory experiences with the roads
routing features of this GPS using the MetroGuide software. I'm sure
hoping the problems don't translate into similar issues when using it
on the boat.

Anybody want to talk about this or know of a discussion group
specific to it?

Anybody had problems with ignored waypoints and strange routing on
the water using Blue Charts?

In view of the complexity of these modern map GPS units, I have found that
most problems are due to lack of knowledge (by the user) of the vast range
of functions available. I learnt more from Mehaffey and Weazels' site at
http://gpsinformation.net/ than from the supplied garmin manuals.

Be warned however that this is a vast knowledge store, and you may take a
while to discover the right section(s).

A good start would be the site's review of the 76cx.

I have used a 60CS on the water and found Bluecharts to be excellent, both
on the laptop and on the instrument itself. The biggest difficulty is
persuading died-in-the-wool navigators who have been brought up on a diet of
Columbus-style navigation that we really DO live in the 21st century, and
things really HAVE moved on! This is particularly the case with the
"traditionalists" who have acquired Yachtmaster status some years ago, and
believe that modern gadgetry has no place on a sailboat.

By the way, has anyone noticed how the chart table has diminished in size on
many new boats, and has disappeared altogether on some?


Dennis.

"Dennis Pogson" wrote in message
...
Roger Long wrote:
I've been having some very unsatisfactory experiences with the roads
routing features of this GPS using the MetroGuide software. I'm sure
hoping the problems don't translate into similar issues when using it
on the boat.

Anybody want to talk about this or know of a discussion group
specific to it?

Anybody had problems with ignored waypoints and strange routing on
the water using Blue Charts?

In view of the complexity of these modern map GPS units, I have found that
most problems are due to lack of knowledge (by the user) of the vast range
of functions available. I learnt more from Mehaffey and Weazels' site at
http://gpsinformation.net/ than from the supplied garmin manuals.

Be warned however that this is a vast knowledge store, and you may take a
while to discover the right section(s).

A good start would be the site's review of the 76cx.

I have used a 60CS on the water and found Bluecharts to be excellent, both
on the laptop and on the instrument itself. The biggest difficulty is
persuading died-in-the-wool navigators who have been brought up on a diet
of
Columbus-style navigation that we really DO live in the 21st century, and
things really HAVE moved on! This is particularly the case with the
"traditionalists" who have acquired Yachtmaster status some years ago, and
believe that modern gadgetry has no place on a sailboat.

By the way, has anyone noticed how the chart table has diminished in size
on
many new boats, and has disappeared altogether on some?


Dennis.

"Dennis Pogson" wrote

In view of the complexity of these modern map GPS units, I have found that
most problems are due to lack of knowledge (by the user) .......

Here is the specific issue that prompts my post:

I set up a route on the computer with MetroGuide and everything is fine. I
transfer it, with the waypoints to the GPS, and it looks fine. As soon as I
activate or recalculate it, it drops two of the waypoints and moves the
route to crossing the harbor (by car) and then back across the bridge to go
through the waypoint I put in to force that route instead of the more round
about one it selected first. I verified that the waypoints are in the
correct order and active.

I tried deleting all routes and recreating the route on the GPS. It then
comes up with the same weird, amphibious car required directions.

Does this sound like a user error?

Everything worked fine the first time I used it on a complex route in the
Washington DC area. I was just learing it and, whew, I'd still be circling
around down there with a puzzled look on my face without it. Up here, with
that learning experience behind me, I can't make it work on the roads I know
best.

I'm suspecting an error in the local map. It seemed to work fine away from
Portand and on a different route from our destination to the airport to drop
off my father.

--
Roger Long

Roger Long wrote:
"Dennis Pogson" wrote

In view of the complexity of these modern map GPS units, I have
found that most problems are due to lack of knowledge (by the user)
.......

Here is the specific issue that prompts my post:

I set up a route on the computer with MetroGuide and everything is
fine. I transfer it, with the waypoints to the GPS, and it looks
fine. As soon as I activate or recalculate it, it drops two of the
waypoints and moves the route to crossing the harbor (by car) and
then back across the bridge to go through the waypoint I put in to
force that route instead of the more round about one it selected
first. I verified that the waypoints are in the correct order and
active.

I tried deleting all routes and recreating the route on the GPS. It
then comes up with the same weird, amphibious car required directions.

Does this sound like a user error?

Everything worked fine the first time I used it on a complex route in
the Washington DC area. I was just learing it and, whew, I'd still
be circling around down there with a puzzled look on my face without
it. Up here, with that learning experience behind me, I can't make
it work on the roads I know best.

I'm suspecting an error in the local map. It seemed to work fine
away from Portand and on a different route from our destination to
the airport to drop off my father.

Metroguide in the UK does not autoroute at all. My understanding is that the
US version does autoroute. We have to use City Select Europe to invoke
autorouting, and this works extremely well, but is expensive, and requires
an unlock key, which Metroguide does not. It would be interesting to try one
of the other Garmin mapping software applications for the US and see whether
it is the Metroguide software that is the problem.

Bluecharts Atlantic also requires an unlock key, but I have found it to be
totally reliable, with one exception, if I have the same coastal area loaded
to my GPS which is covered by both Bluecharts and City Select software, the
City Select maps assume precedence over the Bluecharts, so that sailing near
the coast, one loses the marine chart. The solution is to untick the road
map in the "map page" to allow the Bluecharts chart to display. I found this
annoying, but I suppose we sailors are a unique bunch of users in that we
want to use our cars to get down to the boat, then use the same instrument
on the boat as a navigation tool. Running down to the coast the other day, I
found that I ran out of road completely and seemed to be motoring across
country, even though I was on a major highway!

It would be interesting to try your route in another Garmin equipped with
the City Select software, or whatever the US equivalent is, and to see
whether the same anomalies apply.

Dennis.

"Dennis Pogson" wrote

Bluecharts Atlantic also requires an unlock key, but I have found it to be
totally reliable, with one exception, if I have the same coastal area
loaded
to my GPS which is covered by both Bluecharts and City Select software,
the
City Select maps assume precedence over the Bluecharts, so that sailing
near
the coast, one loses the marine chart.

I experienced a similar thing with my earlier 76 so one thing I tried this
time was unchecking the base map. No difference. This is one reason I like
the data cards. I'm going to put the land maps on one card and segregate
the charts on another.

It all points out why working with the GPS a lot before using it for real is
valuable. As a former pilot, I know there are a lot of pilots who hit
things or lost control while trying to figure out why the GPS was doing
something unexpected.

The other weirdness I was experiencing was having the "REF" marker for
distance measuring come on and remain stubbornly in the middle of the
display every time I paged to the map.
The location marker would then move off the screen. Clicking "Stop
Measuring" would fix it but it would start again as soon as I paged to
something other than the map and back. I went through the manual and every
setting and couldn't find anything that seemed to address the behavior. I
finally clicked "Restore Defaults" and everything has been fine since. I
can't find anything that will reproduce this behavior so the system
evidently can get accidently switched into an odd mode. Imagine this
happeing when you are sick, bone tired, scared, and making a tight harbor
entrance.

--
Roger Long

In article ,
"Roger Long" wrote:

"Dennis Pogson" wrote

In view of the complexity of these modern map GPS units, I have found that
most problems are due to lack of knowledge (by the user) .......

Here is the specific issue that prompts my post:

I set up a route on the computer with MetroGuide and everything is fine. I
transfer it, with the waypoints to the GPS, and it looks fine. As soon as I
activate or recalculate it, it drops two of the waypoints and moves the
route to crossing the harbor (by car) and then back across the bridge to go
through the waypoint I put in to force that route instead of the more round
about one it selected first. I verified that the waypoints are in the
correct order and active.

I tried deleting all routes and recreating the route on the GPS. It then
comes up with the same weird, amphibious car required directions.

Does this sound like a user error?

Whenever I go backpacking, I do basically the same thing that you've
done except I'm working with digitized topo maps instead of charts.

After I transfer the route to my 76CSx, I change the "Guidance Method"
from "Follow the Road" to "Off Road" (see page 70 of your Users Manual).

If I don't, the unit behaves as weirdly as yours does.

Actually, I've set the "Guidance
Method" to "Prompted" because
I've reached the age where I keep
forgetting to change the setting
from one to the other as I switch
between "Road" and "Off Road" usage.

I suspect that's your problem.

Your Garmin thinks you're in a car.




Although I agree with Dennis Pogson in general when he says,

"In view of the complexity of these modern map GPS units, I have found
that most problems are due to lack of knowledge (by the user) .......",

I think that in this case the "lack of knowledge" is due to the
documentation that comes with the 76CSx.

The manual documents all the features available with the 76CSx but says
nothing regarding the various roles they may play as you consider one
use of the GPSr as opposed to another.

Ron