[gps-talkusers] Re: my first trip with 4.0--not good

Hi Charles,
This is just a suggestion, but can there be a discussion about needs
concerning what modes to have turned off and on?
I think some of us who is relatively new like I am could use a breakdown on
what to have turned off while creating a route.
I do study the manual, but would like to see how some settings can or can
not supply information without getting to much information at one time.

                                        James
-----Original Message-----
From: gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:gps-talkusers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Charles LaPierre
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2007 8:12 PM
To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gps-talkusers] Re: my first trip with 4.0--not good

Hi Alex, let me try to explain some issues you are encountering.
See below.

At 06:27 PM 7/29/2007, Alex Parks wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I just tried to walk a simple, half-mile route then come back. 
>Because of the Blue Logger I had to create the route partway through, 
>but as soon as I did I had "skipped 2 points along route".
>How could I since I had created the route not five seconds previous to 
>that message?

A possible reason why this may occur.
GPS does jump around and before you created the route your GPS position
could have been quite far from where you are, and therefor the starting
point you already passed and then the nearest point may be a non-turning
waypoint and therefore the next waypoint you are trying to get to is the
next turn at Waypoint #3.

Waypoint 1 is the GPS location when you pressed create route, Waypoint #2 is
either going to be the next intersection ahead (if your GPS location is less
than 50 feet from the nearest street), or Waypoint #2 is going to be  the
perpendicular bisection from the GPS location to a point on the street which
forms a 90 degree angle) (i.e. a straight line from your GPS to the street)
which will be a turning point on the street and then Waypoint #3 will be the
next intersection.

So after the route is created then the system looks to see where your new
"current" location is along the route and will take distance readings
between yourself and WP1, WP2, WP3 etc.  and if you are closer to WP3 then
it will say skipped x number of waypoints.

Sorry if that is confusing, but behind the scene that is what is going on,
the system is constantly looking to see if you are on route, which waypoints
you are closer to and if you never reach a specific one and you are all of a
sudden closer to a waypoint further down your route that is when you will
get the skipped x # of waypoints along your route.  Unless you turn on
"Force sequential route following"  Then it won't skip waypoints.


>Anyway, all turns were announced very early and I kept getting 
>sequences of messages like "Approaching xxx street in 250 ft." "Turn 
>right on xxx street". "xxx street, 100 ft ahead". Why would it say I 
>was approaching, tell me to turn, then tell me I had not even reached 
>the street onto which it just told me to turn??? BTW, my accuracy 
>through this little treck was between 25 and 54 ft (4-7 satellites).

Ok first it sounds like you also have Lookaround mode "Intersections" 
turned on, this could be causing the duplicate messages about upcoming
intersections as well as the route announcements.

The system will give you 2 messages, one announcing the "Approaching" 
turn, and then when you get closer to the turn a "Turn Now" 
message.  These messages are should be announced ahead of time, to give you
enough time to prepare yourself for the upcoming turn.  With GPS error and
map error the last thing we want to do is for you to actually hit the
street, cross the street and then the system tells you "oh by the way that
was the street you were soposto turn on".

The BlueLogger by the way isn't as accurate as the newer Holux Slim
237 (Sirf III) GPS receiver which is smaller, alot more accurate, and has a
very fast time to first fix (I usually get a GPS fix within about 15-20
seconds).

>I love the new interface and bluetooth receiver handling. I love the 
>new POI database and other updates to the maps. The routes and accuracy 
>are quite bad, though. I will say they are not as bad as they were in 
>3.5, but it is like routes are planned from either your starting or 
>ending point in a previous route or something and not from where you 
>are at the time at which you create the route. I must just be lucky--I 
>seem to always be the one with the bad experiences with these updates. 
><smile

Alex this doesn't sound right, the system does pick your current GPS
location as the starting point (as long as you are in GPS mode.  If you are
in Virtual mode it will pick your Virtual location as the starting point.

Please send me a route in your opinion is "bad" and I will look to see what
the system did.  Also tell me what the route should have done instead.  Also
it may help to send me a "Replay" of your GPS when you create the route so I
can see what is going on.

Thanks.
Charles.


>Have a great day,
>Alex

Charles M. La Pierre CTO
Sendero Group, LLC

Lat. 37 15' 25" N  Lon: 121 53' 04" W

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