Garmin 800

Eskimo427
Eskimo427 Posts: 288
edited July 2011 in Road buying advice
I'm planning on doing LEJoG and riding the most direct route. To help me with the route I've been looking at a Garmin 800.

Th unit looks great, however I'm a little worried I will not be able to store all the way points for the route and will have to store them on seperate SD cards.

Could anyone clarify if this is the case. I think I'll be looking at 10,000+ waypoints for the entire route.

Thanks

Comments

  • rich164h
    rich164h Posts: 433
    Just get a bigger SD card! I'd be amazed if you manage to fill something like a 8GB SD card over several years of riding, let alone a single LEJoG. Using the internal memory would be a bit touch and go so I wouldn't recommend relying on that though.
  • Eskimo427
    Eskimo427 Posts: 288
    Thanks for the reply rich164h.

    I already have the route so I'm hoping to import it into the unit to follow. I didn't make that clear.

    Thanks
  • Secteur
    Secteur Posts: 1,971
    It only hold one memory card at a time, so how could you have the maps on one card and the route on another, and get it to work?

    Is there really not enough memory internally for the whole LEJOG route?
  • alfablue
    alfablue Posts: 8,497
    There may be a limit on the number of waypoints (I have a Garmin Dakota 20, which has 1GB internal memory and I have a 4gb SD card). If its like the Dakota then the limit is 500 waypoints and it is irrespective of SD card size. The answer is to use Tracks (gpx tracks) rather than routes, then you can have up to 10 000 trackpoints per track and up to 200 tracks.

    You can convert your route to a gpx track on gpsies.com

    gpsies also allows you to "simplify" the track and reduce track points (without messing the track up), as can many other sites and software.

    I did a 2 week tour in NL and I made a track for each day, all went on my Garmin, no problem.

    I bought the Dakota in preferance to the Edge because it runs on 2 AA batteries rather than an internal Li battery so it is good for multi-day tours when there are no recharging possibilities.
  • Eskimo427
    Eskimo427 Posts: 288
    I think things are starting to go off on a tangent here.

    Let me try and be a little clearer about what I'm after.

    According to Garmins website the device will only hold 200 waypoints\favourites\locations.

    What I would like to do is import my own pre-defined route (gpx file) into the device and use it for navigation. Currently the route has about 10,000 points which I created using bikely. My plan however is to drive the route and using a laptop and a GPS receiver accurately record the exact route.

    Would the device do this and will I have to pay for a UK map?

    Thanks
  • Eskimo427
    Eskimo427 Posts: 288
    alfablue wrote:

    I bought the Dakota in preferance to the Edge because it runs on 2 AA batteries rather than an internal Li battery so it is good for multi-day tours when there are no recharging possibilities.

    That is something else I was worried about. According to Garmins site the unit will only last 15hrs. Would I then have to wait until it was recharged or can I replace the batteries with normal ones?

    Thanks
  • alfablue
    alfablue Posts: 8,497
    Eskimo427 wrote:
    alfablue wrote:

    I bought the Dakota in preferance to the Edge because it runs on 2 AA batteries rather than an internal Li battery so it is good for multi-day tours when there are no recharging possibilities.

    That is something else I was worried about. According to Garmins site the unit will only last 15hrs. Would I then have to wait until it was recharged or can I replace the batteries with normal ones?

    Thanks
    As far as I know the battery in the Edge is not (officially) user replaceable. The AA's in my Dakota will last about 2 days ride, I take several sets of rechargeable AA's for a long tour, works out fine.
  • alfablue
    alfablue Posts: 8,497
    edited July 2011
    Eskimo427 wrote:
    I think things are starting to go off on a tangent here.

    Let me try and be a little clearer about what I'm after.

    According to Garmins website the device will only hold 200 waypoints\favourites\locations.

    What I would like to do is import my own pre-defined route (gpx file) into the device and use it for navigation. Currently the route has about 10,000 points which I created using bikely. My plan however is to drive the route and using a laptop and a GPS receiver accurately record the exact route.

    Would the device do this and will I have to pay for a UK map?

    Thanks
    Again, the issue is routes and waypoints, this won't work; tracks and trackpoints will.

    Are you saying you would drive the whole route just to get it on the device for a subsequent cycle ride??? Sounds a bit extreme.

    Anyway, the garmin will record the route, but if it is like my one, when the current track memory is full it will archive portions to free up space. They are retrievable from the archive. Rather than doing this though, I would save the current track each day and then clear the memory.
  • alfablue
    alfablue Posts: 8,497
    You don't need to buy a uk map, just get the UK/British Isles Open Street Map with Contours from Talkytoaster ( http://talkytoaster.info/ukmaps.htm ), and Velomap GB from velomap.org ( http://www.velomap.org/download/ ). These will work fine and are free.
  • derbygrimpeur
    derbygrimpeur Posts: 822
    Forget about waypoints, it's not a problem. Just use something like mapmyride.com* to create the route. Then download as a tcx file (not gpx, which is poor) and store on the Garmin. Simple. I've had loads of route on (well over 1000 miles worth) and not come near to storage space problems.

    I wouldn't have it all as one long route though, it will take too long to load.

    * not sure if bikely allows exports as tcx or crs files rather than gpx?
  • alfablue
    alfablue Posts: 8,497
    There is a difference between GPX track and GPX Route, GPX track is good, GPX route is poor. TCX will work but is a course and lacks directions (may not be an issue). GPX tracks are not limited in the way GPX routes are. I use GPX tracks with great success.

    http://www.rubbertotheroad.com/?page_id=756
  • Eskimo427
    Eskimo427 Posts: 288
    alfablue wrote:

    Are you saying you would drive the whole route just to get it on the device for a subsequent cycle ride??? Sounds a bit extreme.

    Your right it is.

    My goal is to do the whole route in one go without stops (well, as few as possible) so the route has to be correct hence the driving it first. I'm doing it for charity and as a personal goal too.

    Thanks
  • alfablue
    alfablue Posts: 8,497
    Wow! I understand , amazing. Are you attempting a record?
  • Eskimo427
    Eskimo427 Posts: 288
    alfablue wrote:
    Wow! I understand , amazing. Are you attempting a record?

    No I'm not! Just being able to do it in one go will be a record enough for me.

    I'll have my partner and friend sort of following me in a campervan so if I do need some much needed zzz's then I'll be able to grab an hour or so.

    Anyway, will the Garmin do what I want it to do or is there a better alternative?

    Thanks
  • banditvic
    banditvic Posts: 549
    Just done LEJOG using garmin 800 bit hit and miss really. Mapped out routes for each day, went ok until a road closure, so we followed road signs as we knew roughly where we were going. Then garmin keeps wanting to take you back to where we went wrong. Luckily we took maps with us. Found it best just to tap in addresses on route, so have an ideal of where you are going before hand. If you go wrong the garmin will recalculate the route which it dosent seem to when you have downloaded it through Biktoaster.
  • Eskimo427
    Eskimo427 Posts: 288
    thanks for the replys.

    Does anyone know of an alternative to the Garmin 800. I don't just want a sat-nav I would like some of the training features too.

    Thanks
  • northpole
    northpole Posts: 1,499
    I recently got an 800 and took part in the recent Dunwich Dynamo overnight ride for a bit of fun. One thing that sapped my sense of humour was finding the battery completely drained before completing the route. It could not have been more than 12 hours and the backlight was used very sparingly (not sparingly enough!).

    Another problem I have come across is the mapping feature. I bought mine with the city maps hoewever, alot of my cycling is done out in the sticks. The base map on the 800 is pathetic and the memory available is a fraction of that on the 705. I'm sure there is a way around this but at the moment I can't load the open maps as a base map due to lack of memory on the unit. I don't think I can save it on the memory card at the same time as the city maps is on the card. So unless I get another card and save the city map card for when I'm on town or on A roads, I appear to be a bit stuffed. Anyone know where I could find another more flexible solution which would avoid having to switch cards around regularly - a sure fired recipe for disaster.

    Peter
  • Eskimo427
    Eskimo427 Posts: 288
    Northpole, would not increasing the sd card size get around the problem?

    Also I get the impression the 705 would suit my needs better, is this correct?

    Thanks

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