Garmin 305 Edge Software
stoobydale
Posts: 535
Hi, Just waiting for the arrival of a 305. Could anyone give me their views of the bundled software? I am just changing over from a HAC5 so was hoping to get something as useful, I quite like the look of Motionbased but don't like the price.
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well it comes with training centre, which i find a bit disapointing, the base maps that come with the garmin for the UK are pretty much useless, roads near me are straight lines, no sweeping corners as they should be, pretty apualing really.
I still use training centre, as you need it to download courses to your device, and plan advanced workouts (you can do it on the device though), i.e. Gentle warm up keeping HR under 120 for 10 mins, then start doing intervals for set distances, rest distances etc (i.e. 2 x 20)
What i use to record my workouts is sporttracks, free program that is great
http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTracks/Downloads/
Has great reporting functionality etc for a free product
I do use motionbased to upload for friends to see etc, but like you i didn't like the idea of paying so just use the free version0 -
Agree with willbevan, sporttracks is way better than both training centre and motion based and it's free
. If you happen to have a mac try Ascent.
http://www.montebellosoftware.com/'Hello to Jason Isaacs'0 -
Thanks for that. Sporttracks looks like what I'm after.0
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one thing i think is worth mentioning, sporttracks uses maps from google, including sat photos (which are good over most of the UK now even if you don't live in london)
Tracklogs and Training centre you have to pay for maps (Training centre if you want to upgrade from the base maps, which does make it a bit better but why should you have to pay!)
Motionbased again uses maps from google...
fto-si or someone please correct me if im wrong, Tracklogs doesn't act as a training diary, use it to plot routes etc?
I use memory map for his, but like tracklogs you have to pay for it :S
EDIT - I am going to have to have a look at tracklogs as i know someone that uses it for his 305, and looking at a couple of tutorials online it looks better than memory map to plot routes (dam i have the entire UK in memory map :S)0 -
Anothing peice of software to add
http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx
Its a webapp that uses google, you can plot routes with this, it does auto route, and automatically put course points in telling you to turn left/right etc (doesnt deal with roundabouts well mind you) and then this you can load into the edge as a course.
Really handy, its how i navigate round on my long rides (80mi odd) and gets me with ease around. okay sometimes i do miss turnings but the edge quickly says 'off course' and i just look at the map and think 'doh i wasnt paying attention'0 -
I think i've found the package that I was looking for. "my tourbook" Free software that will allow me to transfer over all my HAC5 and HAC4 stuff and will also accept input from the Garmin 305. 0
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Just took delivery of the 305. Initial impressions is that it looks like a good piece of kit however in the instructions it says it can only store 3.5 hrs of info @ 1 sec intervals with the only other option for smart recording. how does this work in practice?0
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The smart recording thing works very well and dramatically increases the amount of info that the 305 stores. I'd suggest starting with smart recording and see how you go, I suspect you'll be very surprised and won't change it to 1 sec recording.'Hello to Jason Isaacs'0
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Thanks for the info so far guys. Did my first ride with the 305 today, I am impressed. The battery life and the memory size might become an issue for me as I have a 4 day ride coming up in the summer and probably no means of downloading the info at the end of each day. The other question is , How do I get the map to show up in training centre? I have a yellow line but no reference points/places around it.0
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The battery life and the memory size might become an issue for me as I have a 4 day ride coming up in the summer and probably no means of downloading the info at the end of each day.
Memory size is not a problem. I've been running mine for a year, and the memory is still not full. In any case, when it becomes full, then I think it just overwrites the oldest data.
I'd be interested to know your solution for battery life, though, as I have a 12 hour ride coming up. I understand that some people have used battery extenders designed for mobiles and iPod/mp3 players, either lithium batteries that can be re-charged themselves, or simple boxes that can take AA batteries. But I'd appreciate some real user feedback.How do I get the map to show up in training centre?
Don't bother. Use MotionBased or another piece of software.0 -
Memory is an issue in that it will only store aggregate totals after around 250km or so of riding (depends on the complexity of the course and your riding style.) Aggregate totals excludes all the actual course/elevation information (not just the actual GPS route) and even things like max altitude, total climb, etc.
I did find this very annoying having done the Camino de Santiago with it. I was left with only the last two days. For some reason I had managed to forget that it was going to do this before I set out.
It will store things like lap distances, average speed, etc. pretty much indefinately though.0 -
OK, so the issue is memory per ride. How do you get around that? By dividing the ride at convenient points? I'm doing the Vatternrundan in Sweden this year, and it's 300km, but I could easily stop/start at the meal stop half way around.0
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Actually this is addressed here: http://forums.motionbased.com/smf/index ... pic=7915.0.
It's not memory per ride, but an overall trackpoint limit which, depending on speed looks like a maximum of about 800 miles. After that the detail will be overwritten. So, depending on the distance you're doing, 4 days might be OK.0 -
Yes, it's a trackpoint limit. As such it does depend on your course and riding style. Riding at a constant speed in a straight line (using smart recording) should allow you to record a longer distance. You can see this in the downloaded results- the trackpoints are more concentrated where there is variation in the road, your speed, etc.
I think you would be well turning the thing off at the meal stop, more from a battery life point of view than anything else.0 -
I gave up with Sport tracks today. Was unable to get any maps up with the software, installed and uninstalled many times, read the forums and tried the patches, no joy. Motionbased looked ok and the maps worked but again I dont really want to pay to store my info. How do I get maps into Training Centre? I think it would do for the time being and eventually I will probably transfer everything over to Mytourbook. The main thing for me is comparing tours, so that I can compare the same races from different years.0
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stoobydale wrote:I gave up with Sport tracks today. Was unable to get any maps up with the software, installed and uninstalled many times, read the forums and tried the patches, no joy. Motionbased looked ok and the maps worked but again I dont really want to pay to store my info. How do I get maps into Training Centre? I think it would do for the time being and eventually I will probably transfer everything over to Mytourbook. The main thing for me is comparing tours, so that I can compare the same races from different years.
Think i might know the problem you had with sporttracks (if its something you have tried ignore me)
At one point when i first installed it, it displayed no maps behind my routes.
Reason being it had defaulted to displaying 'None' for the maps, rather than 'Street', 'Photo' etc.
If you want to try this if you do reisntall (would recommned the program)
Open sport tracks, select an activity
On the right of the summary section, you will see Route, click the arrrow down next to it, and select Street
Hope that helps0 -
blorg wrote:I think you would be well turning the thing off at the meal stop, more from a battery life point of view than anything else.
Won't reset you're current ride either, when you turn it back on, it will just allow you to start the timer again and carry on from where you left off0 -
I had this same problem, was driving me nuts. The above fixed it, and the maps really are great. It's a bad default.willbevan wrote:Reason being it had defaulted to displaying 'None' for the maps, rather than 'Street', 'Photo' etc.
If you want to try this if you do reisntall (would recommned the program)
Open sport tracks, select an activity
On the right of the summary section, you will see Route, click the arrrow down next to it, and select Street
Note with the Garmin that turning it off and on will indeed not interrupt your ride recording (I do this on sportives myself), but plugging it into a computer while on will automatically create a new ride. I think this is only if it is on, and that charging from a plug will not have the same effect. Probably won't be an issue but good to know if you were thinking of recharging in a very long ride.0 -
So do you turn it off wit the button on the side or just press the start/stop button on the front. This would be good, I stopped at a cafe today and when I downloaded it there was a pause which meant that the average HR was not correct for the ride. I can not see any way of deleting this section in the software.0
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I turn it off with the button on the side, e.g. completely off. Simply pausing isn't saving any battery life. I don't imagine this would make any difference to your issue though.0
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when i stop, i press the start button to pause the timer, and turn the device off
When i turn it back on, gets its sats, i start again and press start to start the timer0
