Garmin 395 Power Supply Testing ?

Yep, 5v - checked the in line fuse?

p.s. I should add that I have had a power cable fail at the step down converter (if that's what the rectangular box in the cable is called).

 

almost as bad as those blue snap together wire-cutter type things. Useful to have in the tool roll for emergency use but for a permanent install you're asking for trouble down the line. Crimp or solder and heat-shrink is best way to go IMHO.

Glad you managed to find the cause though.

 

That temporary roadside repair that became permanent... to be honest I've been there myself. It's far too easy to not to have to strip down and do a more durable repair, just await the inevitable eventual failure

Not sure about the Zumo 395 but on all my Garmins that have the capability I've never relied on the winding route option, just gone for plain-jane navigation with me deciding via Basecamp or more recently MyRouteApp where I'm going. Have a look in the avoidances settings on the GPS itself whilst in motorcycle mode. If it's anything like my 590 (same era), and my 660 before, then there are some in there that mean that it produces crazy illogical routes. Best just to remove the crazies from both Basecamp and the GPS and do your own routes.

 

When making new routes in Basecamp I tend to stick to the "fastest" option but put in sufficient waypoints to make it go where I want. If just using the satnav unit to find a route to a location I will select the desired routing option but expect to have to go off route. Always seems to be a compromise (or complete fcuk up!)

 

On the new Zumo XT you can plan on your phone quite easily in MyRouteApp, with a few via points, and then send that directly to the GPS. All doable at the side of the road in a few minutes. OK, would take longer to completely finesse a route into something special but as a quick and dirty fix possible.

 

What level of detail are you using in Basecamp? This will have a significant effect on performance. If you don't have a drop down menu in the toolbar at the top of the Basecamp screen with 'Lowest though to Highest' as options then go to 'View' > 'Toolbars' and check 'Detail Level'. I tend to run on the Medium setting on my 6 year old PC and it's swift enough. This only effects what you see when zoomed out, all the detail is there when you zoom in. You PC doesn't need to struggle with rendering all the minor detail at 'high altitude' views, just the major roads and borders. As you zoom in the finer detail appears.

Have you downloaded mapping to your PC rather than having the GPS plugged in and Basecamp retrieving it over the slow USB connection? That could improve performance further and get you working quicker too. Downside is that it's a lengthy download and takes some 4GB of disk space. You need to use Garmin Express to do this and look at the extra options in mapping downloads for the save to PC option. Best to set this up and let the happen overnight, change the settings on your PC so it doesn't go to sleep though. This wait will be very much improved if you have a fibre connection but still takes a while in my experience.

When route planning just plan a day at a time, or even pre lunch and post lunch as separate routes, upload the lot to your GPS but then load these as you need them on the road. A long route for a few days, or more, tour is unwieldy for your PC to cope with and crippling for your Zumo to recalculate, load or run.

Basecamp isn't that logical until you get to a certain stage on the learning curve, then everything should 'click' into place. Until recently it was my main planning tool with ITN Converter as an addition. The latter lost the use of Google Mapping a while back, which, along with Michelin mapping, was it's start quality, but then MyRouteApp came to the rescue and frankly I rarely use Basecamp any more. It tends to pretty well do it all, with the exception of intermediate way-points (as opposed to routing nodes). Meaning that you can't set arrival and departure delays. Not a huge loss and with the XT you can actually set these on the GPS itself if you can be arsed.

 

No additional payment.

 

Wot 'e says. Recent Garmins come with Lifetime Mapping; updates for the life of your GPS. Mapping can be updated on your unit by plugging it into your PC and running Garmin Express. At the same time you can opt to also save the mapping data to your PC though you need to manually select this option. You can, if the mapping is current on the GPS, download it to the PC itself. You will still need the GPS to be plugged in to do this as it will validate your download.

There is a global base-map included in Basecamp that, from a high altitude, gives an impression that there is mapping data to display. However, this only has main roads and is very inaccurate. Once you zoom in this is obvious, no fine detail.

Once you've downloaded the proper current mapping data you no longer need to have your GPS plugged in whilst route plotting. If you do Basecamp still tries to read the mapping data on the unit. I tended to plot my route/s and then export them to a GPX file before transferring them to the GPX folder on the SD card in my Zumo.

 

Andy, sorry if you've misunderstood. It's not a case of getting mapping off of the Zumo and onto your PC but a download of the data from Garmin's servers.

Have a look at this video


If the mapping on your Zumo is not the current set then you can kill two birds with one stone and update both your GPS and download to your PC at the same time.

Looks like, from what you've said, you're currently working using the method this guy demonstrates in the 2nd half of the video. You need to follow the first method to put the maps on your PC. Despite the fact that you already have Basecamp installed it's the same procedure. I won't install Basecamp a second time unless your version isn't the current one.

As to creating routes in Basecamp here's a video I did 8 years ago, not a lot has changed since so the majority is still valid. The routing nodes not being announced on the GPS is now a valid thing, those set that way are, since my Zumo 590, no longer called out to you by the GPS. At the time I had a Zumo 660 that called out everything irrespective of how it was set. You should need no more than 15 routing nodes or way-points for a day's riding to follow the roads you want to ride. I've been using Garmins and creating routes since the days of the Garmin Quest, more than 20 years.

If creating a non circular route, i.e. from one point to another. Say a hotel on tour to another 250 miles away. I would add both locations to your map first along with any must see way-points (lunch stop, meet point, col summit, museum etc), create a route between these in the order that you prefer and then finesse the route to do as you please by adding nodes using the insert tool (I on your keyboard).

Way-points tend to be places you must visit, your Garmin will insist on taking your there (unless you use the delete next point feature on your GPS whilst riding the route). Routing nodes are sort of optional and the GPS will give up trying to take you there after a few attempts to redirect you via them. That's the way it was, routing algorithms change and I haven't had a chance to tinker with those that the XT uses yet to find out if that's the same.

Adapting to using the keyboard short-cuts in Basecamp makes for much faster work.

H = Hand - use to click and drag the view-port to move around the map. Use scroll-wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out.
R = Route - create a new route; click to define start point the click to add points to that route.
S = Select - allows you to select points of interest and existing routes
I = Insert - add intermediate points in an existing route; hover over point in route and a straight line appears between the two nearest way-points and/or routing nodes. Click once and a three point elastic-band is created allowing you to drag and add the intermediate point by clicking again. Press the Esc key to exit this.
M = Move - click and drag a routing node or way-point to move it.
E = Erase - removed a way-point or routing node from a route
W = Way-point - Add an orphaned way-point that you can then add to a route.

There are others, see the tools menu which gives you the short-cut key for each. Note that Insert, Move and Erase require you to have a route selected for them to activate. Using either Select or Hand tools click on the route you wish to edit.

Good luck and ask if you want any more help.

 

We're about the same era. A classmate at school had a dad who travelled as part of his job. Came back from the States with a present for my friend. It was a Texas Instruments four function calculator, we were in complete awe of this space aged piece of technology... even more impressed that entering 80085 looked like Boobs on the display

Basecamp should recognise that you've loaded the mapping set. If it's still showing the base-map without the GPS plugged in then select 'City Navigator Europe' followed by, possibly NTU, and a year and version number from the maps drop-down at the top of the screen. Should show your new mapping on start-up from then onwards.

 

If you have a flakey broadband connection or your PC has a sleep time-out then it will do this. For the latter check Windows Settings > System > Power & Sleep. Make sure PC goes to sleep is set to 'Never'. If you like, on a laptop maybe, then set this back again after the update.

For best results leave the PC be for the duration to avoid potentially disturbing the download.

Just go back to Garmin Express and start again, it may possibly recognise that you already have a partial download. I don't recall if it does this.