Garmin - add this feature to this screen please! Finish it!

One of the things I've learned after years of using Garmin GPS devices is that the GPS can be trusted 95% of the time.  But that last 5% of the time - watch out!  Therefore, I always take a quick glance at Garmin's selected route to make sure it makes sense to me.  Garmin makes this fairly easy.

1) After a route is calculated, press the horizontal green bar at the very top center of the screen.
2) An route overview list is shown.
3) Click on the menu icon in the upper left of the screen.
4) Click on the word MAP.

Here you will see an overview map of the calculated route.

One of my continued critiques of Garmin is that their devices never seem to be completely done in terms of functionality.  They never seal the deal.  As the industry leader who still tries to push devices at the $399 price point, I expect the devices to be done.  Here is a perfect example of being almost-done.

So, here we are shown a nice route overview map.  It is relatively easily accessible in 3 clicks from the main navigation screen.  Some Garmin devices, this being one of them, includes the ability to be shown multiple routes to your destination.  That is a nice feature.  But in typical almost-done style, Garmin doesn't connect the dots.  What if I don't like the chosen route above?

It would make perfect sense to invoke the multiple route selection feature from this screen. With a simple menu icon in the upper left corner of this screen, we could be provided with a multiple route selection screen complete with ETA, miles and traffic delay on each of the chosen routes.  Select one and go!

In fact, no where on a Garmin GPS, once you are navigating a route, can you ever initiate an overview screen of route choices to your destination.  Take the example above.  There are three perfectly good options to get from Des Moines to Dubuque.  There are all within 10 miles and 15 minutes of each other on this 3.5 hour trip.    But once you commit to a route, there becomes multiple ways to traverse a portion of your route after that.  Let's say that I commit to the route above.  Once I am near Cedar Rapids on I-80, there becomes three legitimate ways to get from there to Dubuque.  As I approach Cedar Rapids, I'd love to regenerate route options quickly to select my preferred route for the remainder of the trip.

The multiple route option feature can only be selected on the initial activation of a route. So to be presented with those options again, you essentially have to select your destination again and start over.  Hint: if you select your destination from the History list you can do this quicker.

From the screen above it is 9 button clicks in order to see route options other than the route shown on the screen.  It could be done in 2 mouse clicks from the screen above if implemented correctly.

Garmin: have the courage to go all the way with your devices.  Finish it.

Use your smartphone calendar as a GPS trip planning tool!

You wouldn't initially think about using your smartphone calendar as a GPS trip planning tool.  One of the drawbacks of Google Navigation, or any of the other navigation apps, is that they lack a planning tool.   A trip planning tool is convenient when you are taking a trip that has multiple stops.  Various 3rd party apps have been developed to attempt to fill this gap.  But no one needs a 3rd party app to do this. Even more powerful is combining your smartphone calendar with your Smartphone Link compatible Nuvi to achieve some great functionality.

When we take our motorhome across the US it is not unusual to have a route that might contain 4, 5 or more stopovers including preferred truck stops, overnight campgrounds, or along-the-way sightseeing opportunities.  Some of these stops can be somewhat tricky to find, especially remote campgrounds.  Once we arrive at our destination, some of our sightseeing locations can be remote and difficult to find as well.  While the motorhome gives us freedom, it also allows us to travel to remote areas that can't be navigated to with a standard street address.  Trip planning to a series of stopovers with very defined street addresses may not warrant using this method.  Users may find it easier to simply write the addresses on an index card and use the voice recognition features of your GPS to input them along your route.  However, this method is most useful when your locations can only be described using latitude / longitude.  Another example of this is when you want to take a specific route to a destination that you know the GPS won't calculate using the automatic method.  The easiest way to do this is to find the latitude / longitude of the center drive lane of the road of interest and enter that latitude / longitude as a stopover point in your route.

If you are fortunate enough to have an Android smartphone, a Garmin GPS and Garmin Smartphone Link, I will show you how to use your smartphone's calendar as the ultimate trip planning tool that is especially useful for navigating to even the most remote places in the US.  

This method leverages a little known fact about Google Maps for Mobile.  It allows you to pass a latitude / longitude to it from 3rd party apps (like the Calendar app).  The format is as follows:

loc:latitude,-longitude

There can be no spaces within that syntax. It all runs together, including the comma and the "-" ahead of the longitude.  In one of my first posts about Garmin Smartphone Link I went into great detail about how you can use the Location field of the smartphone calendar to pass street addresses from your calendar appointments to your Garmin GPS. This technique builds on this wonderful capability and leverages the loc: syntax noted above.

At this point, some of you may be thinking I am crazy.  After all, any Garmin GPS that can use Smartphone Link also has a built-in trip planning tool.  True, however, in my experience at least, I have found that Garmin has a horrible track record of preserving the functionality of your trip plan across map updates.  So if I am going to spend the time building a trip plan, I am going to build it in something that is fully under my control.

Let's pretend that we want to visit the Grand Canyon.  I've read an article about a great scenic view from a place called Toroweap Overlook. Google Earth is a fantastic tool for finding places like this.  Here is a view of the location of Toroweap Overlook from Google Earth. The actual location of the lookout is where the small photo icon is located.  You can see the road on Google Earth.

Google Earth location of desired destination

A great feature of Google Earth is that wherever you hover your mouse, the latitude and longitude is shown at the bottom of the screen.  As you zoom in closer you can get down to a very close level of detail, in this case to what appears to be a turn out along the road.  Hover your mouse there and then write down the latitude and longitude. I continue using Google Earth until my entire trip stopovers and all of my sightseeing destinations are found and I've recorded the latitude and longitude.  I prefer to put my entire trip in my calendar so I will also keep a list of destinations that include good street addresses as well.

From here, I move to my calendar.  You can perform this step in multiple ways depending on the calendar you use on your phone.  You can enter it directly into your phone's calendar, enter it in Outlook if you use Exchange sync or enter it on the web in Google Calendar.  I will enter these directly into my Android device's calendar in this example.

After I've collected all of my trip data from Google Earth, I now enter it into my calendar.  Using the calendar has the added advantage of being able to invite friends and family to the appointment, entering the travel itinerary in a way that is time-appropriate, having your work's free/busy functionality be accurate for your trip, etc.

Here is what this appointment looks like in my Android calendar, by putting the loc: syntax discussed above in the Location field of the calendar appointment:

Android calendar appointment for travel destination

All of the steps discussed above would be performed as a pre-trip, planning activity.  Your calendar should be populated with all of the individual locations that you need on your trip on the days and times you plan to travel to them.  Once your calendar contains all of your locations, you can head out on your trip.

Now we will discuss what happens on your trip.  You should read this post first in order to better understand the capabilities of Garmin Smartphone Link.

When you head to your first destination, open your smartphone's calendar appointment and click on the loc: syntax in the Location field.  It should be underlined.  This will open Google Maps automatically and zoom into your desired location.  You can visually confirm from Google Maps that the location is the same as what you manually found in Google Earth.

Google Maps for Mobile location of latitude / longitude of destination

Now, as outlined in my previous post, click on the latitude and longitude shown above in Google Maps.  Click on the word "Direction" on the next screen.  Then click on the blue navigation triangle at the bottom left of the next screen. Select "Smartphone Link" as the fulfillment action.  This will pass your location to your Garmin GPS.

Here is the result of this location being passed to my Garmin Nuvi 3590LMT.  Notice that the Garmin doesn't include this road, rather the closest known road is the north/south road to the west where the backwards "C" curve is located.  This perfectly illustrates that it would be impossible to find and navigate to this specific location without the use of a tool like Google Earth as there is no viable street address.

As your travel day or vacation week continues, you simply return to your smartphone calendar for each stop and repeat this procedure.  The actual procedure of clicking on the link in the calendar and transferring it to your GPS through Smartphone Link takes about 5 - 10 seconds. Arguably you can't enter a street address manually into your GPS in this amount of time.  Even better, your co-traveling companion could do this for you while you drive.

Enjoy this great method of traveling planning.  Follow me on Twitter for more.