Garmin BaseCamp... About to pull my hair out...

[ADVFireFighter]

This program is about to be the end of me... I HATE IT...
Just trying to get from point A to point B and I can't make it do it.
ARGGGGG

Anyone else have issues?

 

[coastie]

Yes I think it sucks. I have had much better luck making a route in map quest. Then just tweaking it in Basecamp and send it to my montana.

 

[wfopete]

I am not a Base camp fan, I still use Map Source. The nice part is if someone sends me tracks/routes from BC I can copy/paste them into MS quickly.

I'm not saying BC is that bad it just that I don't find it that EZ to play with after using MS for so long.

 

[LousyPups]

This program is about to be the end of me... I HATE IT...
Just trying to get from point A to point B and I can't make it do it.
ARGGGGG

Anyone else have issues?

::026::

I haven't tried the latest updates but am not holding out any hope.

 

[offcamber]

Its not the best...guess that's why it s free....

I spent a lot of time creating Routes and then when I transfer it to my Montana..even with the settings being the same the Montana recalculates the route anyway...very annoying. I just make tracks and follow that...I use the turn by turn when I just want to get somewhere and the route doesn't matter.

 

[bloodline]

ridewithgps.com

it's for bicycles, but it works great. One of the owners just got in to motorcycles and I've had a few conversations with him. If you don't like something or need help, ask them.

It uses google maps. Very fast. You can even print route sheets with a cheap subscription, if you like.

I HATE basecamp and mapsource.

 

[offcamber]

ridewithgps.com

it's for bicycles, but it works great. One of the owners just got in to motorcycles and I've had a few conversations with him. If you don't like something or need help, ask them.

It uses google maps. Very fast. You can even print route sheets with a cheap subscription, if you like.

I HATE basecamp and mapsource.

NICE....I just made a route from here to my friends camp in ME and it transfered NP to my Montana....

In BC I'd have to break it up into multiple routes...

THANKS! ::008::

 

[ADVFireFighter]

Thanks all...
Thought it was just me...
Funny thing is I'm a GIS specialist and I thought I lost it lol

 

[xr400guy]

That #%^$$%^*# ::010:: Base camp sucks!
I recently spent 2 hours creating custom back road and unpaved routes throughout New Hampshire, I did this my Montana plugged into the Mac. It had a 24 k topo map card in it and I had no problem creating the route. I unplugged the Montana and saw the named route route in the gps and put it away for the night.
The next morning, I rode over 100 miles north on the Interstate to my starting point and the hit the GO button and it just said "ready to navigate" and I tried everything possible with the Montana to give me the route without success. What a frustrating day! I eventually made it back to my camp but did not ride the areas I had planned since I only had a basic paper map..And had to take out reading glasses every time.
I will welcome any suggestions on easier ways to use the Montana. I am a big fan of the ease of use of Apple products. The Garmin engineers and programmers must be from Russia or someplace like that!

 

[coastie]

That #%^$$%^*# ::010:: Base camp sucks!
I recently spent 2 hours creating custom back road and unpaved routes throughout New Hampshire, I did this my Montana plugged into the Mac. It had a 24 k topo map card in it and I had no problem creating the route. I unplugged the Montana and saw the named route route in the gps and put it away for the night.
The next morning, I rode over 100 miles north on the Interstate to my starting point and the hit the GO button and it just said "ready to navigate" and I tried everything possible with the Montana to give me the route without success. What a frustrating day! I eventually made it back to my camp but did not ride the areas I had planned since I only had a basic paper map..And had to take out reading glasses every time.
I will welcome any suggestions on easier ways to use the Montana. I am a big fan of the ease of use of Apple products. The Garmin engineers and programmers must be from Russia or someplace like that!

I started playing with dropping pins on the Montana. Stop at the end of a section, make sure the Garmin is set to shortest route, and not set to avoid dirt roads, drip a pin on where you want to go and it should route you over the section you want to ride or pretty close to it, especially if you have to topo maps installed. This technique ended taking me on some nice dirt roads.

 

[markjenn]

I'm not a BaseCamp fan either, but I can usually make it do what I want. (It's bad but Mapsource was just as bad - we just got used to it.) If you're having issues and really want help, describe what you trying to do and what you've tried.

- Mark

 

[offcamber]

The biggest issue IMO with the Montana is the limitation of 50 waypoints in a route...that sounds like a lot but apparently when you create a Route is BC is uses a lot a waypoints to a create even a short route. My solution has been to create the route in BC then convert it to a track. Then upload the track and follow it on the GPS...no turn by turn directions. With that said I created a route of about 400 miles on the sight Bloodline recommended above and it loaded the route into the Montana and and I was able to have it go into Navigation mode without the to many waypoint message...I wasn't even close to the starting point and it was routing me to that point and then the rest of the route....I hope all this rambling makes sense....I'm going to test this route Saturday and will report back on how it worked.

The Montana is a great unit but has limitations when it comes to routes...

 

[xr400guy]

I did not know that it would not route more than 50 waypoints. Maybe that is why I could not see the route.
Does anyone know how to keep Montana from zooming out randomly while following a route?
I would like the zoom level not to change as I am riding. I tried just about all of the settings and nothing worked.

 

[offcamber]

I did not know that it would not route more than 50 waypoints. Maybe that is why I could not see the route.
Does anyone know how to keep Montana from zooming out randomly while following a route?
I would like the zoom level not to change as I am riding. I tried just about all of the settings and nothing worked.

Somewhere in the many setting the Montana has there is a way to adjust the zoom settings. The Montana is very customizable this is an advantage and disadvantage. You really need to spend time learning it to get it to work they way you want it.

Here is a very good Wiki with lots of info... http://garminmontanagpsr.wikispaces.com/

I don't have my Montana on hand but I believe the Auto zoom setting is under the Map settings.

SETUP-MAPS-ADVANCED-AUTO ZOOM ON/OFF

 

[offcamber]

A little info on Montana Waypoint/routing

With 'Direct' routing selected, the Montana is limited to a total of 250 waypoints per route.
While using any routing activity other than 'Direct', the Montana is limited to 50 waypoints in total, per route.
Routes exceeding these limitations may be truncated, and will not route or display as expected.
Routes transferred from BaseCamp can not be edited on the Montana unless they are first set to 'Direct' in BaseCamp.

 

[Karson]

I'm not very familiar with Mapsource or Basecamp. For someone just picking it up, Mapsource is no longer maintained by Garmin, right? If so, since I'm starting with a clean slate, should I just commit to Basecamp and be naive to the issues or stick with the deprecated Mapsource client?

 

[offcamber]

correct Mapsource is no longer supported....Garmin wants you to use BaseCamp.

 

[AVGeek]

Karson, definitely go straight to Basecamp. Many of the features of the newer GPS units are not supported by Mapsource.

The Garmin Montana thread on ADVRider has been an invaluable resource in learning the unit. One of the tricks to keep the Montana from recalculating the route when transferred is to change the activity to Direct before sending it over from BC.