Observations from a new user
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I used the app on a long trip for the first time, starting last Thursday and after the full release and here are my observations. I only joined the beta program 4 weeks ago so some of these items might be known or have been discussed before.
My trip was 900 miles over 4 days from Kent UK to Arnhem Netherlands and back with some exploring around Arnhem on local roads.
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Routing leaves and immediately joins the motorway at junctions. This happened a few times, the route would guide me off at a junction and immediately back on. I experienced this behaviour under lots of different scenarios; when following a route from routelab as a track, as a route and also when I created a route in the app by searching for a location. Recalculating the route with different maps (OSM, Here, TomTom) didn’t seem to change the behaviour. Screen shot below.
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I had created a set of POIs and added them to my library but they didn't appear when searching for a location in app. I assume this is by design but I would find this extremely useful, in the same way that my Zumo allows a custom POI category that is used when searching.
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I persuaded 2 friends to run the app alongside their Garmins, they both downloaded the trial. We connected to each other as friends and I set the sharing on my routes to 'friends' but initially they could not see them. I then realised the as the routes are in a folder, I had to set the folder permission to friends as well. You may wish to add a note in the manual as it wasn't obvious that I had to do this.
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Traffic, am I correct in think that to display traffic I have to check the traffic box when choosing the map and building the route in routeLab? I only seemed to get traffic sometimes. I'm still very new to the app so there may be a setting I have not found yet.
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I find the Stop Navigation functionality odd and I know there is some discussion on this on the forum so I'll add my thought there but I would like to have a master configuration setting so I could choose the Stop Navigation auto or manual.
Overall, I felt that I could use the app in place of my Zumo most of the time (I'm trying to simplify and reduce the amount of equipment I carry/have attached to the bike) and with more use it will become more familiar. For me, it is point 1 & 2 that will stop me using it 100% for longer trips at this time.
I hope these observations from a new user are helpful.
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I have tracked down the place in your second photograph and recreated what I think was your direction of travel.
Using my iPad and the HERE version of the maps, my route did not deviate from the motorway. In other words, I was not taken off the motorway, onto a loop road and brought back onto the motorway again.
Here’s two screen shots:
Why your version deviated, might well be down to a number of factors.
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In your first picture example.
If you switch between HERE, TomTom and Default (Open Street Map) versions, I think you’ll be able to see that there is what appears to be:
A. A big difference in the roads shown on the three different maps.
B. What appears to be a load of road closures.
I suspect that, depending on a number of possible variables, that you were routed correctly.
I looked at the same very complicated junction in Google Traffic. Of course I can’t know exactly what it was like when you went through the junction but it’s certainly congested. I wonder if the app routed you past it deliberately?
I guess it’s also possible, that the app at the time thought you were elsewhere in the junction (a possible GPS positional error) and routed you accordingly?
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Agreed there were a lot of works aroud the first above but the route shown was the one that was closed. Given the works this is understandable.
The second one is just an example of many instances where the routing jumped off and then back on for no reason and having tried the various map options they all did the same. So this one is a bit more challenging to understand.
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On the second, the short route I created, does something bizarre if I switch into TomTom mode. But that itself is not unusual, as the base maps differ.
Can you share your actual route file(s) with the forum, please. That way someone might be able to see what is going on.
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@DJP66 said in Observations from a new user:
Routing leaves and immediately joins the motorway at junctions.
This is typical behaviour if you base your routes on the OSM map and navigate them as a track.
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I have seen similar things when the avoid option is set on to avoid highways and you place waypoints on the highway.
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I'm going to check routes later and will share files in due course.
However, I am sure that
a) the journey from which the screenshots were taken was being navigated as a route. However, I saw the same behaviour on another journey that was a track.
b) no avoid options were selected for any of my planned routes
c) Being a new user of MRA planner/nav, I was trying the different map options so I cannot be 100% whether the routes were originally created with OSM maps and then changed to Here or TomTom and back again. I think I planned a number of routes starting with different maps to see which I preferred, which map type was the original of the above examples I can't be sure any more. -
I've had a chance to look in some more detail, I now think this is just to the different maps types when creating the route.
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Market Garden HQ to Eurotunnel - Motorway.
This was based on the TomTom map and navigated as a route. It exhibited the off/on junction behaviour. -
HQ to Hartenstein. This was based on the OSM and navigated as a track. It exhibited the behaviour
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Hartenstein to Overlook. Originally based on OSM but I swapped just now in routeLab to Here maps and the route changed to ignore the junction as I would expect.
Therefore I've concluded that it is the algorithm associated with the map type. Now I have figured that out, I can work with it.
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@DJP66 Keep in mind that when planning a route in any other map type (TomTom, OSM etc) than Here maps, when you navigate using the MRA app, it will only use Here maps. So you are likely to get some deviation between planned and navigated routes as it was planned using one algorithm but navigated using a different algorithm.
If you intend to use the inbuilt Navigation, always plan your route using Here maps. Only use other types if you're going to export the route and import on a matching map type... TomTom to a TomTom device for example.
One other possibility for your initial query regarding coming off and on motorways etc, did you plan your route using the "windy" option? Is it possible that it's taken you off the motorway and back on in it's way to provide a more windy route?
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@Frappawotsit said in Observations from a new user:
@DJP66 Keep in mind that when planning a route in any other map type (TomTom, OSM etc) than Here maps, when you navigate using the MRA app, it will only use Here maps. So you are likely to get some deviation between planned and navigated routes as it was planned using one algorithm but navigated using a different algorithm.
If you intend to use the inbuilt Navigation, always plan your route using Here maps. Only use other types if you're going to export the route and import on a matching map type... TomTom to a TomTom device for example.
I've found I get the best result by building the route in HERE, and then comparing with TomTom (you'll need to be a Gold member, and the option is in the Tools menu). Then I can see the differences between the two systems, which can be quite enlightening, and I can build the 'best' route by adding a few more waypoints in the areas where they differ.
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@richtea999, That is of course the whole idea behind that function
Sometimes we forget, but the planner is older than Navigation. The planner was purpose built to suit TomTom and Garmin users, as well as mixed groups.
