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Messages - NinjaBob

#1
General Discussion / Re: Turning breadcrumbs into a route
November 11, 2011, 06:48:54 AM
I downloaded the Mapwel trial and succesfully converted a Nuvi 550 track to routeable, transparent map. I live near the Mississippi River and in May they completed a bridge, replacing the ferry which was the only crossing for 30 miles. I used my Nuvi 550 to create a track of the bridge and approach roads. I loaded this into the Mapwel trial and on my second try succesfully uploaded the map to my 550. The trail version limits the size of the map and zoom level options but the trail map is visible at some zoom levels over City Nav. The map is ONLY routeable with City Nav deselected.

Mapwel seems to be pretty sophisticated but not easy to use, at least for me, and the manual is not very detailed.

There are several advanced looking tools for creating maps that are over my head and   I only tried the converting existing vector data (GDB, GPX, etc.) method . On my first try at uploading the map I selected "merge with existing map". This went on for over two hours and from what I can tell it was attempting to merge my map with John M's SE USA, which is what I had installed as my supplemental map. It eventually indicated successful completetion but when I unplugged the Nuvi and tried to select maps the supplemental map did not show up at all, only City Nav.

On the second try I did NOT select merge with existing maps and the operation took only seconds and I now have City Nav, SE USA and my new Audubon Bridge Map in the Map Info screen.
#2
I have multiple maps loaded as well but the add ons are not transparent so I can only see the one that I select. I think the SE  USA topo map  I downloaded here is far better than the topo map shipped with the 500.  One thing I find very lacking in City Navigator is hydrography so often I will make a route with CN but set SE USA or one of the others for display.
#3
GPSr Units / Re: Nuvi 550 crashing
November 09, 2011, 09:15:39 AM
Quote from: alpine on November 09, 2011, 07:56:42 AM
Quote from: NinjaBob on November 03, 2011, 01:15:52 PM
The mode options are driving, walking, cycling or scootering. I only use driving, although I usualy use the GPS for motorcycling. I am not sure what "they have in mind by "scootering".

Also I don't use many waypoints at all, usualy just my start and end points. I do use a dozen or so via points.  On the first two crash episodes I was able to see that it was saying the closest fuel stations were 200+ miles away just before the crash. Subsequently it would crash before any POI were displayed.

I am wondering if the crashes could be due to map version discrepancies.

I use my 500 in "scooter mode" when using it in my truck or on the ATV. Of course I have removed all the other language voices and help stuff from the unit to gain more available memory, and have never had it crash when searching for bathrooms or other stuff.
I assume you mean a truck in off road operation. Can you describe any differences between driving mode and scootering mode? I have also deleted superflous stuff from flash memory but if I undertsand Boyd's comment above that is different from high speed ram which I think is what the unit uses for route navigation and calculation and search results.
#4
GPSr Units / Re: Nuvi 550 crashing
November 04, 2011, 05:01:36 AM
Quote from: Boyd on November 04, 2011, 04:34:25 AM
Using different maps doesn't usually cause crashes, but it can cause routing problems. Regardless of the cause, I doubt there is much you can do other than break the route into smaller pieces.
That is good to know. I am familar with the routing problems and have learned to avoid them pretty well. Are there any tips or tutorials on how to make efficient routes and avoid crashes? Any way to maximize available RAM?

Thanks
#5
GPSr Units / Re: Nuvi 550 crashing
November 03, 2011, 02:40:18 PM
Quote from: Seldom on November 03, 2011, 01:39:19 PM
Quote from: NinjaBob on November 03, 2011, 01:15:52 PM
I am wondering if the crashes could be due to map version discrepancies.

How many map versions do you have installed?
CN NA NT 2011.40 US & Canada is installed on the Nuvi 550 but I use CN NA NT 2011.10 US to make routes on my Desktop PC.
#6
GPSr Units / Re: Nuvi 550 crashing
November 03, 2011, 01:15:52 PM
The mode options are driving, walking, cycling or scootering. I only use driving, although I usualy use the GPS for motorcycling. I am not sure what "they have in mind by "scootering".

Also I don't use many waypoints at all, usualy just my start and end points. I do use a dozen or so via points.  On the first two crash episodes I was able to see that it was saying the closest fuel stations were 200+ miles away just before the crash. Subsequently it would crash before any POI were displayed.

I am wondering if the crashes could be due to map version discrepancies.
#7
GPSr Units / Nuvi 550 crashing
November 03, 2011, 06:18:24 AM
I made a 1400 mile road trip last weekend on my motorcycle. While navigating some long routes my Nuvi 550 would crash everytime I tried to search for fuel along my route. The first 7 or 8 crashes the unit would just cycle off and back on but on the last it just went black and would not come back on until I temporarily removed the battery. After that I avoided any further "along my route" searches.

My guess is that my routes were too long and the unit ran out of memory. Anyone have any ideas how to work around this other than breaking the routes into shorter legs? One route was 730 miles but the other was only 350.
#8
GPSr Units / Re: Odometer error on Nuvi 500
February 25, 2011, 04:28:00 PM
Quote from: seldom_sn on February 25, 2011, 03:58:15 PM
Good catch.  The Max speed is about a fifth of the moving average and overall average.  Ninjabob, if it's not too incriminating what's the real max speed?
Promise not to reveal my true identity. The max speed was set on an earlier ride and I beleive it is accurate. I do have a pretty fast mortorcycle, they say it will go about 155 but I can't vouch for that. The consensus among GPS using motorcyclists is that GPS speed and odometer measurents are very accurate. But we occasioanlly see some obvious errors on the optimistic side.
#9
GPSr Units / Re: Odometer error on Nuvi 500
February 23, 2011, 02:06:19 PM
I did specifically clear the log since I was gowing on another longer ride the following day. I typically save my logs to my desktop but not this time, thinking it was junk due to the 2000 mile error. But now I realize it would have been interesting to see it for the same reason.
#10
GPSr Units / Re: Odometer error on Nuvi 500
February 22, 2011, 09:22:06 PM
I don't recall missing any time on that trip but ya never know  ???
Unfortunately I did not save the track.
#11
GPSr Units / Odometer error on Nuvi 500
February 22, 2011, 02:53:33 PM
I made a 200 mile ride with my Nuvi 500 last Saturday. I checked my trip screen periodically and all was well up to about mile 140. At some point after that it went crazy.


Any ideas what caused this?
#12
GPSr Units / Re: Device I/O errors
February 01, 2011, 03:45:17 PM
Quote from: seldom_sn on February 01, 2011, 11:45:12 AM
A cheaper fix would be to swap cables and see if the problem goes with the swap.
I bought the netbook for a trip not to fix the GPS problem. But yes I did try swapping th cables and no improvement. However I did try a 190 meg mapset from the netbook and it worked. I will try someting even larger. One intersting thing is that every time I connect the Nuvi to tthe netbook, Windows 7 says: "there may be a problem with the Nuvi flash drive, do you want to check it to eliminate possible future problems" (not a vebatim quote)  I answer yes. The first time in foumd a lost file, the 2nd and 3rd time all was well. So at least it seems Win 7 is a littlemore sophisticated at communication with USB devices than XP.
#13
GPSr Units / Re: Device I/O errors
February 01, 2011, 07:19:24 AM
Quote from: seldom_sn on February 01, 2011, 07:03:45 AM
Quote from: NinjaBob on February 01, 2011, 06:47:03 AM
I just bought a new netbook with Win 7 and after the trouble of installing Mapsource and map data on it I have tried one transfer of 90 mb and it worked. So it could be an issue with my desktop USB hardware or XP. I will try a larger transfer and see waht happens.

Did you use the same cable to do both transfers?  I've had a problem with one of my cables.
Good point. NO it was a different cable. A short one without a resistor. I wonder if the expensive cables that Garmin sells would be worth trying?
#14
GPSr Units / Re: Device I/O errors
February 01, 2011, 06:47:03 AM
I am still having the I/O errors communicationg between my Win XP desktop and the Nuvi. I was wrong about the GarminDevice.xml file, it is not causing the problem. If I delete the file Mapsource sees the Nuvi internal memory as a data card or another drive and the same I/O error occurs with large transfers. I have not found any consistency in the error now after about 20 attemps but the failures occur with most mapsets larger than 60 mb. However a couple larger than 150 mb have worked and  3 or 4 less than 20 mb have failed.

I have finally upgraded to the latest version of Mapsource (which required a remote login by Garmin Support) but the update has not helped any.

I just bought a new netbook with Win 7 and after the trouble of installing Mapsource and map data on it I have tried one transfer of 90 mb and it worked. So it could be an issue with my desktop USB hardware or XP. I will try a larger transfer and see waht happens.


Thanks to all who bother to read this compicated thread!
#15
Sorry for the mess. Part of the confusion is that I am having simultaneous problem with Mapsource but will leave that out of this thread.

But as for the Nuvi connection problem:  Progress, maybe fixed. I googled "Problem communicating with Garmin Device" and found lots of posts, some from here, although none that included the I/O error. Most involved failure of the PC to recognize the  GPS. The common denominator was the GarminDevice.xml file which is apparently used in most or all Nuvis in the Garmin folder. There is a description on the Garmin site.This file apparently controls a lot of the units behavior and is generated on each bootup of the Nuvi. Some posters say if you plug in the Nuvi to your PC before it is fully booted up the GarminDevice.xml is truncated or improperly generated. The file includes a section defining Mass Storage Mode and I think this is where the comunication and I/O errors are coming from.

As far as I can recall I have always had my Nuvi turned off whenver I connected it to my PC as this is how I interpret the instructions in the manual.

So I tried turning the Nuvi on first before connecting to my PC. So far I have successfully installed a 60 mb mapset from one of the map products I downloaded from this site using Mapsource. In a few minutes I will try somwthing larger.