Review of different phone apps and Garmin devices

A couple of other things I thought of. Neither the GPS map 276Cx nor at the moment the Montana 7xx can deal with UK 6 digit postcodes - they are 4 digit only, which may limit their usefulness as road riding devices in the UK.

Also, the phone based apps mostly have the capability to take traffic into account. Noe of the Zumo 590, 595, Montana 6xx, or GPS maps can do that, I don't know about the XT and the 7xx - they do have more connectivity via a variety of Garmin phone apps

Quick update here, the 595 does do traffic, via an app on your phone, but I never had any idea if it worked.
The XT does, via the Garmin Drive app, and it seems quite good even showing a traffic map with all the closures, road works etc.
 
Morning Wapping. I did a very quick précis a few posts ago, but I’ve never seen one in real life. One of the big issues to my mind with phones was lack of a good charging solution, since the usb connectors are not a great answer, and the Carpe Iter device solved that. Now there’s wireless charging though, so it’s maybe lost a bit of that. I’ll post some pictures of my Hondo Garage mount and charger shortly.
 
The XT does, via the Garmin Drive app

Yes and it works extremely well to be honest.
Maybe it is just a bit overzealous with notifications when it proposes a new route.
 
Yes and it works extremely well to be honest.
Maybe it is just a bit overzealous with notifications when it proposes a new route.

Interesting - on my car sat nav I basically don't bother with the new route unless it s delay of 5 min or more
 
I tripped over CalTopo, looking for something else. It might be something for you to look at, perhaps?

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I tripped over CalTopo, looking for something else. It might be something for you to look at, perhaps?

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Thanks, I’ll take a look.

At the moment I’m still grappling with Locus.

One of the plus points for locus was the ability to use Garmin maps. For UK trail riding an OS map is an enormous help, and none of the OSM maps I’ve looked at really understand the nuances of our rights of way system, what with BOATS and RB’s and UCR’s and ORPA’s, so to be able to use a Garmin .img OS would be great.

However it doesn’t work. On the plus side there are stacks of other, free, OSM maps which will be fine for furrin use. On the plus plus side, most of these work in a Garmin as well.

And, Locus can work with Map Overlays so it may be possible to do something to make an overlay. On the other hand, why bother when Garmin have done it for us.

Still, I’ll persevere, though like all of the phone apps that can cope with unsurfaced roads, it’s really aimed at ramblers and cyclists.

So far, Garmin still wins.


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All good points and thank you for persevering.

What struck me about the CalTrop software was the apparent ease with which the bod drew a line along the hiking trail.
 
Just a bit of an update. Having done a reasonable amount of research into the various apps available, I’ve decided to stick with Garmin for my main navigation devices,

I’ve bought a Montana 700i for trail and dual sport use, and a Garmin XT for road use.

Here’s the reasons;

Firstly, devices. I bought a ulefone armor 7E rugged phone to use pretty much solely as a nav device. It was £200, and it’s certainly a solid piece of kit, tactical even:). But it’s got buttons all over which means it has to be carefully positioned in a cradle, and it’s easy to press a button when picking it up and handling it. Also reports say that most of the phones can overheat in sunlight and the screen doesn’t work well in rain, can’t attest to that as yet. It has wireless charging which gets around the usb cable issue, but the wireless charging mounts (rugged enough for off road use) are expensive. So in my opinion the devices aren’t as good as a dedicated gps device.

Second, for road navigation, city navigator and Garmin gives a good experience, with search along route, junction view, auto zooms, and the XT now does facilitate getting routes and tracks into the device without a pc, and even has reasonable route planning on the device, as good as a phone at any rate. OSM maps can be added (though see my note in the XT section about routing no longer working, I hope this is a bug)

For tracks and trails, you can’t beat the the profile feature of the Montana’s which allows you to switch between OS maps and a trail riding profile and a road riding profile with City Navigator. The new Montana screen is good, it works in the rain, it’s milspec tough, the mount is good, it doesn’t overheat, it can be used with gloves on, and also OSM maps can be loaded. Again, tracks and routes can be loaded without a computer. Also it does have the Garmin Inreach satellite messenger built in, which means you can send messages and get emergency assistance with no phone signal.


Third, Basecamp. It’s a good route planning tool, and copes with road routes, tracks, track splitting and joining, it has a good library function, you can install maps on the computer (again see my note in the XT section, you can’t with the latest firmware on XT)

I couldn’t find one single android app that does all I want, and the full function ones like Locus are super complex and also buggy, with a bit community of hard core software developer types and GPS experts whose ability is far beyond mine. All of the ones with any off tarmac capability are mostly hiking and mountain bike apps that have been hijacked by trail riders

There’s the issue with OS maps for UK trail riding, currently ViewRanger is ok but is really only any good for following a trail and it’s not clear whether the new owners will support dual sport use. When leaving the trail, you need to switch to another app to get home or to your digs. On the Montana I have a trail bike road profile which takes the shortest distance, avoids major roads and motorways and doesn’t avoid unpaved roads and it takes 3 seconds to switch to this,

Of the android apps, Locus seems the most powerful and configurable, there’s a big update coming soon too. It probably does all of the above, and I’m going to press on with it to use as a back up device. It doesn’t really have a road navigation mode, but there may be a road dashboard view that some gps geek has made that’s useable. Drive mode dashboard may also be good, but there’s also a big update on that coming soon so I’m not looking at it till then, it’s also got a huge gps and developer geek community making things for it, and also it is made for motorcycle and dual sport (included in some AJP’s, I think)

In fact, I will use the android as a back up since it’s handy to say, use Google maps to find something, but basically as a long time Garmin, Basecamp and Apple user I find the world of Android a bit weird.
 
After some live testing, I’ve found another drawback to the phone apps, which is that even with maps downloaded they need an internet connection for search and/or routing.

I tried MyRoute-app navigation, Kurviger Pro and Locus Maps on my Android which has no sim. Kurviger Pro has limited offline routing but still needs t’internet to search.
I didn’t bother with Osmand etc but I guess they are the same.

I could have hot spotted the Android to my iphone but just put the address straight into the XT instead, which worked as expected.
I did also have the address as a way point in Locus so mirrored with that, it was pretty easy to follow but doesn’t have things like junction view.

So I’m confirming my view that the phone apps aren’t a substitute for gps, but good as a back up and for specific things like a hotel or B&B, though the Garmin databases are quite good now.

I might buy a cheap data sim for the android too.


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Depends what you want it for but have you tried Calimoto? All maps download to phone. Great bike orientated routes.

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Depends what you want it for but have you tried Calimoto? All maps download to phone. Great bike orientated routes.

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No, I haven’t, as you’ve seen if you’ve read the thread there are lots and lots of choices.

What does Calimoto have to recommend it above Locus, OSMand, MyRoute, Mapsme, Kurviger, Scenic, ViewRanger, TomTom, DMD,
Wikiloc etc? Happy to learn more.

All the apps above, btw, have downloadable maps but all need the internet to search a destination, which was sort of my point there.


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Route planning update. I persevered with Furkot and planned out our trip to ScotlandShire and the Western Isles using it. In the end it worked well, it seems a bit nanny state in that it looks like it's forcing you to stay in places you don't want to, but as always it's only using the parameters you gave it. The planner section is actually quite good, and the Sleep and Find functions give you good options on where to stay and what to see.
All of the information is captured in one place and in fact it highlighted I'd forgotten one stop that was needed to avoid far too many miles in a day.

I did most of this in the free version, the paid version allows a bit more like export and sharing. I used the export before my trial expired and was able to import the routes day by day into Basecamp for further tweaks and to send down to my XT. It even knew about the Raiders Road in Galloway, and has other points like cafe's and fuel. They'll need checking of course to see if they are still there.

On another note, it seems that many people who are using the phone apps are still using Basecamp for their final planning, if the chatter on Advrider and other forums is anything to go by.
 
Having been a Garmin user for well over 30 years I have just bought a TomTom Rider 550 to try alongside my Nav VI.

My "go to" route planner is Basecamp, I find it local and well specified.

I consider the TomTom user interface to be "childlike' and obviously geared to those who primarily use it to put a destination in and let the TomTom decide what route to take. The Connect App is useless and I revert to using MyRoute to plan routes and load them as .itn files to the TomTom.

I'm also experimenting using DMD & a Cape-iter CI Control with a Samsung Active Tab 2 with Locus Map Pro (3.52) and the new Locus Map (4.1).

I've got my GS set up to be able to run my Nav VI in its normal position with either the TomTom or the Active Tab above it so I can compare them as I ride.

So far it's;

1st: Basecamp/Garmin
2nd: MRA/TomTom
But still evaluating Active Tab/DVD/Locus
 
A bit more - since I clicked though some links for accommodation I got a free upgrade to Pro.

You get a choice of export formats, I exported “gpx for modern Garmins”, route by day, the tracks and the way points, nicely ordered by day.

As far as I can see the routes went into Basecamp without alteration, though now I have to get them into the XT intact. Tracks are exported too so it’s easy to see if the transferred route varies.


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I’ve been using Locus as a fall back, but Locus 4 seems incomplete still so I’m still on Locus 3.5.

What’s the advantage of using Locus with DMD?


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