Before we started on our big trip, we headed a few thoughts about as we plan our routes and would then navigate. We knew we would have outside of Western Europe only maps with very little details, not exactly ideal to find a quiet side streets and us not getting lost in big cities.
During our tests in England, we started playing around with the Garmin eTrex H . It is a fairly priced navigation device (about € 80) with high accuracy and a rugged housing. invites you to navigate its own "track" high, and follows a line from the beginning to the end of the track. However, one can not maps loaded onto the device, and it will tell you not where the next Cafe, but it is an affordable solution that has served us well over the last 10,000 km.
EQUIPMENT
- Garmin eTrex H GPS.
- Laptop for the route planning on the Internet, and upload tracks to the navigation device.
- Serial-to-USB cable. The eTrex H comes with a serial cable, but the newer version should have USB.
- Garmin Map Source software including Garmin eTrex H driver.
- holder to mount the eTrex H to the handlebars.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF OUR SOLUTION WITH THE GARMIN ETREX H
How always, there is this solution the advantages and disadvantages. We have tried to list all of them down. Two of the disadvantages can be eliminated by using a newer version of the Garmin eTrex H.
| BENEFITS | DISADVANTAGES |
| Reliable, accurate and fast GPS | laptop and Internet access are notwending to plan new tracks and upload |
| You do not need expensive GPS card can buy | the initial setup of the device are a bit complicated |
| Affordable - only a small initial investment to purchase the device | No indication of guidance or cities, you see only the line of the track one has uploaded |
| One can the height profile of a route in advance to see | Average battery life is about 17 hours without recording the traveled route (newer version should have better battery life) |
| altimeter information is useful in the mountains and on longer climbs | The Garmin eTrex H is limited to 750 points per track, so that his tracks therefore must divide (new version more points to take) |
| access to accurate coordinates. Useful if you give someone your exact position has | |
| One can record his genuine, driven route and then download |
THE END
This looks at first glance look like much work, but if it has a few times, it goes pretty fast. We usually plan a couple of weeks in advance, which takes about half an hour. This time you will then save then quickly on again when you consider how much time can it cost to get lost - especially in other countries where they might not speak the language and read the street signs can not.
steps 1-4 may be useful even if you have a GPS device, and I want only the height profile of different routes for a route planning.
- Internet access in the website www.bikeroutetoaster.com and Course Creator click
- find the starting point on the integrated Google Map (annoyingly you can not search for it, and the webmaster does not respond to our ! Bidding) set
- The options: "Auto Routing" and "Data: Google" menu. Click
- along the desired route (if the road is not found, remove the "Auto Routing" selection), and a track is created automatically. While creating the track, you can also occasionally see on the "Summary" tab, the height profile (height and distance). During our planning, we often find ourselves in a few different routes to find the best combination of quiet roads, beautiful scenery and not too many steep climbs.
- If the track is finished, click on the "Summary" tab and download To File (GPX) select .
- We often make a photo of the route profile with our phone, so we look at the go. It is useful to know where exactly is the beginning of the large increase.
- If the file is downloaded, we use Garmin Map Source to the file on our GPS device upload. If you do not have Map Source You can also use one of the many free applications online, but might need a different driver to install the Garmin eTrex H.
- Before uploading the tracks you have to ensure that the number of points is less than 750, because you can not upload more points per track on the Garmin eTrex H. This step can be skipped if you have a newer GPS model that allows more points per track. To split a track, we make the following in Map Source: Edit -> Properties . The Shift key and select the first 750 points, then copy it. A Map Source to open the second time and Edit -> New Track . Then add the points. This is the first track. If the original document is less than 750 points nachbleiben, this is the second track. If nachbleiben but still more than 750 points, repeat the above process until the original track is split into smaller tracks, each containing not more than 750 points.
- To upload the track that ensure the Garmin eTrex H employed and connected to the computer. > Select Send to Device - Then transfer . If you can not see the device, the Garmin eTrex H off and do. On initial application to ensure that the driver was successfully installed and has identified the operating system, the GPS device. During the upload, the instrument feedback and then indicates whether the track has been uploaded successfully.
CONCLUSION
This solution works well for us, because Google Maps is the most detailed and reliable map. A major advantage of this solution is that we need to buy expensive GPS maps for each country. Of course, you will sometimes spontaneously a different route, but you can at least see where you are in relation to the proposed route, and how far away from the target.
The route planning can save you as much time and hassle because we therefore rarely get lost, that we never go without the Garmin eTrex H. go Every time we through cities, know exactly where the passport is or find the small road that is not even marked on our map, we bless our little GPS device and the little time we have invested in our route planning.
If you have further thoughts or tips on route planning and navigation have, we would appreciate a comment.
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