Joe24 said:
Is the bit on navigation how the edge 205 works aswell?
Yes. I think the software on them's pretty similar.
Only thing different is I think the etrex vista has a nicer 'odo/stats' screen, where you can choose what fields go on it -although you may be able to do that on the 205 as well, i'm not sure i had it for long enough to try.
How is it best to sort a route out on that? Do it how you say about straight lines, or just log the route on the programme you linked to Bonj(or another one if there is one) and go by that? Really, i dont think i will need more then a line to follow.
Then what i think you want is to use the unit in 'off road' mode as opposed to 'follow roads' mode.
When you've downloaded a route that you've created (how, i'll get to in a minute) to the unit, you choose the route, and choose navigate. It then asks you whether you want 'follow roads' mode or 'off road' mode. You want to choose 'off road' mode.
The advantage of off road mode is the line that it shows as your route is the exact same line that you drew when creating your route - NOT the line that IT has come up with (IT as in the unit, not the route creation software) that it *thinks* you want to take in order to visit all the *points* that your route is made up of, as it does in 'follow roads' mode. With me so far? ok - the advantage of follow roads mode is that in taking you along the line that IT has come up with, it has a concept of junctions, so it can prompt you before you get to them, with a nice little picture of the junction and a countdown in yards, like a car's sat nav. The *disadvantage* however, and (to me anyway) it is a big disadvantage, is that the line that IT has come up with to connect all the *points* of your route, may be wildly different from the route that you actually drew!
Can you put in points of what to look for, IE a near village or something?
Also can you put in the points of a cafe, and save those into the 205, so if you need one it can point you in the direction of one(but obviously not work out the route for you)
Yes, you can create 'waypoints' when creating your route, and they come up as little flags. i know how to create them on mapsource, not sure on bikehike but i'm sure you can.
If you *don't know* where there's a caff, and you just want any one nearby, then there is a 'points of interest nearby' mode where it will list all the POIs of various types - e.g. cash machine, train station, cafe, cinema, etc etc. and how far they are away. You can then choose one and navigate to it (it will have to use follow roads mode here, because you haven't already created the route to follow to that POI, so it will have to create it - but since it's only got one target destination, it can usually be trusted to do it correctly).
On off road mode, when following a route that you've created, it beeps and says something like 'approaching pt4' when you are approaching one of the points that you drew on a route.
for off road mode: what you want to do when creating the route is create just enough points to make the line indicate the way to go at junctions, but not too many to cause clutter (it puts a little label on the map for ech point, so if you have too many then when you're going through a village there will be a plethora of labels and these will obscure the roads, using bike hike in 'follow road' mode causes it to automatically put too many points on, which will cause obsurity. If you don't understand what i mean let me know and i'll draw a pic!
also make sure you understand the different between using 'follow roads' mode on the route creation software, e.g. bike hike, mapsource, and using follow roads mode on the unit itself.
