My first experience with V 4.2.0 - 321

Michael Doherty 0

I did a 116 mile test ride today and have experienced a few issues that i hope are my fault and not bugs with the new version. If anyone has any suggestions, i would greatly appreciate any input.

I have the app navigation settings to "offline" mode for remote area riding. I Selected to ride it as a "Route". My phone is an Android.

The biggest issue is that the app randomly stops navigating and a promp pops up asking if i want to continue to navigate. When i touch navigate it is sluggish to continue and the waypoints are now off my route and the app attempts to reroute me. In the 116 mile ride this happened 10 to 15 times.

The second issue i have is how sluggish the app responds to continue to navigate. it takes up to thirty seconds to continue. while riding i accidently pushed the continue button several times and the app locked up.

Personally i am sad that the option to just follow the blue line has been discontinued. I wish i could turn that back on.

Any suggestions would be very helpful.

MikeD

M. Schrijver

@Corjan-Meijerink
Please delete the "Continue Navigation" functionailty. It doesn't add anything useful.
Most people want to proceed navigation after a stop. There is already a "Stop" button on the screen.

Marinus van Deudekom

@Michael-Doherty-0 my guess would be something with the receiption witch is odd since you're riding offline
Maybe @Corjan-Meijerink can add some tips for you
Maybe you can share your ride as well so we can check if there's something wrong with the route. Make sure it is set to public

M. Schrijver

@Peter-Schiefer
I understand what you are saying. There is truth in it. But this is one of my issues with MRA.
It relies on user input. While the software should know this by itself.

Maybe on the smartphone it is not really an issue. But on AA/ACP it is a problem. Every time the connection is lost, even briefly, is see this message. I need to push to "Navigate". Very annoying.

When i make a stop. I just put the phone in pocket. In leave it powered on and don't stop navigating. Nothing strange did ever happens. The phone remains cold or cools down and the battery level stays constant. It seems MRA senses you are not navigating anymore. After a stop i put the phone back on the bike and want to navigate again. But then this unuseful message appears.
When using TomTom Go. After a stop it senses you are riding again and starts navigating. This happens within approx. 100 meters after picking up speed.

The confirmation message when pressing stop is also kind of unneccesary. When confirm the question a button at bottom appears if you want to resume again. The last one is good but it makes the confirmation sort of useless.

Michael Doherty 0

@Marinus-van-Deudekom Thank you. I thought that also. I doubled checked and it was set to navigate offline. I may try uninstalling and reinstalling next. I'm disappointed this update was made in mid riding season. Personally i would rather have a less complicated version. I feel most motorcycle riders are more interested in the functionality while riding. We don't really need another app that tries to be like Google Maps. For the rest of this season i will use a second phone with DMD2 as a back up because i do not want to be frustrated while riding. MD

Michael Doherty 0

@Marinus-van-Deudekom The route is a route i have previously ridden with the older version (just following the blue line as i call it) . I have much experience making routes with MRA and have literally hundreds of routes saved in my account. Do you think uninstalling and reinstalling might fix this glitch?

Marinus van Deudekom

@Michael-Doherty-0 Maybe reinstalling r app might Hello since the rest of us dont have similar problems. Our wat until @Corjan-Meijerink gives his expert opinion

Con Hennekens

@Michael-Doherty-0 said in My first experience with V 4.2.0 - 321:

The biggest issue is that the app randomly stops navigating and a promp pops up asking if i want to continue to navigate.

This, in my opinion, is a clear indication that the app crashed and your phone restarted it. If a navigation gets interrupted, that is the question that is thrown after a restart. The question is why it crashed. I have never seen any spontaneous crashes like that.

Personally i am sad that the option to just follow the blue line has been discontinued. I wish i could turn that back on.

It has not been discontinued. Just press "Open route" instead of "Navigate" and press the compass once.

Con Hennekens

@M-Schrijver said in My first experience with V 4.2.0 - 321:

Please delete the "Continue Navigation" functionailty. It doesn't add anything useful.

You must be joking, right?

@Peter-Schiefer said in My first experience with V 4.2.0 - 321:

With my previous Garmin it was easy, a short press of the „on/off“ button brings the Nav in a sleep modus and I let in my car, somewhere hidden. Back I need to press the button short again and the Nav wake up to continue.

This is exactly what happens on my Android, when I simply put it in standby with the power button.

@Marinus-van-Deudekom said in My first experience with V 4.2.0 - 321:

my guess would be something with the reception witch is odd since you're riding offline

Online / Offline has NOTHING to do with GPS reception at all.

@M-Schrijver said in My first experience with V 4.2.0 - 321:

When i make a stop. I just put the phone in pocket. In leave it powered on and don't stop navigating. .... It seems MRA senses you are not navigating anymore. After a stop i put the phone back on the bike and want to navigate again. But then this unuseful message appears.

No sensing is done. When you black your screen, the app goes in standby. When I take it out of standby mode, the app continues without this incredibly useful message. The usefulness is in accidentally stopping the navigation, or stopping by crash, or some user malfunction ;-). Hitting resume immediately continuous where it left off.

Michael Doherty 0

@Con-Hennekens On my app it wont allow me to press the compass button more than one time. A second press does nothing. MD

M. Schrijver

@Con-Hennekens said in My first experience with V 4.2.0 - 321:

@M-Schrijver said in My first experience with V 4.2.0 - 321:

Please delete the "Continue Navigation" functionailty. It doesn't add anything useful.

You must be joking, right?

Nope.
If you asked me (and you did). Just a START button for starting a route and a STOP button for emerencies. Everything else should be handled by the software.

In my opnion the goal is to create a software package that is so easy to use that all peope ditch their Zumo or TomTom Rider and start using MRA Next.
The group of people i'm focusing on, is the group of people who takes the bike for holidays (long or short), currently get their GPX files from a third party (travel agency or friends) and just put those files unchecked in their navgation device. Those people just press START and expect everything goes smooth until the end of the trip.
This is a very big group of people. But it is a hard group to create software for.

Saying this won't mean MRA should ditch the current functionality. But should put the intellengence in the planner.
The current functionality is great, but can be to difficult to use. Keep the entry level at a low level.
There is also a group of people who wants more from their navigation. Those are mostly early adopters and are the people who are frequently here on the forum. Those people should also be served but for this group it is not real an issue to put those extra functionality on a level deeper. They will find this level in the software. Also those people tends to create/check their routes by themselves before driving the routes. This loops back to my sentence "put the intellengence in the planner".

By putting the intellengence in the planner can cause a rise in users. Because third partys could starting using MRA to share routes. Doing this. Entry level users can get routes which are easy to use and have all the functionality you can put in a route as a route creator.

I see it every day on my work. We have multiple machines which do more or less the same from multiple brands. We have 1 machine from a brand which did write the software/gui brilliant. It is very easy to use and very easy to learn. Despite this you can do the same as the other brands which are more diffucult to learn and use.
The group of people who uses these machines is the same type of people who gets their GPX/Routes from a third party and put them unchecked in the navigation devices.

Corjan Meijerink

The continue prompt makes quite some sense as how else will you continue your route using CP/AA?
That functionality is great by itself.

If it however starts randomly showing it means CP/AA was reconnected (disconnected & connected again) or a crash happened. The continue prompt does it work as well, you only need one click to continue.

If we’d remove it, you’d need a lot more clicks to reload the route from AA/CP and skip the necessary waypoints.

I’d rather investigate why it’s prompted so often unnecessarily.

M. Schrijver

@Corjan-Meijerink said in My first experience with V 4.2.0 - 321:

The continue prompt makes quite some sense as how else will you continue your route using CP/AA?

That is on your part as a developer. I can not tell you that. I can only tell you how it works in TomTom Go.

I fully switch off the phone with a route active in TomTom Go before a break.
After the break i start the phone again.
Start/open TomTom GO. The active route is still there
I connect the phone to Android Auto
TomTom Go opens on the Android Auto screen with the route active.
I just start driving. TomTom Go notice this and starts navigating.

I know i talk much about TomTom Go. That is for a reason.
MRA does have great features. But on pure navigation basics. TomTom Go is still far ahead of MRA. I think it will be very hard to beat this. But if it can be on par with TomTom Go it will be a great improvement.

On my Holidays i talk to different people every time. There are always one or two who know and tried MRA Next. Everytime the reaction is more or less the same.
It is good app. Nice features. It becomes better with every update but for most people it is not good enough to ditch the Garmin Zumo or TomTom Rider.
Why not. People don't get a feeling it is a better alternative to their current device.

Corjan Meijerink

@M-Schrijver I totally understand what you say.
So regarding MRA, the procedure is exactly the same with only one click difference.

When opening the app again, as you do with TT, you can resume the navigation by clicking the big yellow button right there om your screen When doing so, navigation will start.

If you then connect CP/AA, the navigation will also pick up, exactly as in TT. If you didn’t start navigation from your phone, the prompt will be shown in CP/AA to resume.

I believe quite a lot are happy about this and I don’t really see the big issue.

That said, the issue where the prompt is shown excessively because there apparently was an issue and the app crashed / the route was ended is something that actually needs to be addressed.

M. Schrijver

The sync of GPX is indeed complicated. I totally agree. I don't like it also. When you follow the correct procedure it works everytime direct. In the end most users find their way with it. About this i get the most questions.

Maps are somewhat simple but the quality is great and POI are indeed mostly abscent.
For my single day trips in de The Netherlands. I don't care about them. There are enough locations for a stop and enough gasstations along the route.
Most people i talk with, do not care about them either. Riding a route is the goal.
To be fair. For my trip to i.e Scotland, Norway, Romania, etc. I like the functionality to add colors, extra icons and extra info to routepoints. Because these holidays are not just about riding but also about sightseeing.

It sounds to me that you are, just like me, pretty picky. We both want a good experience.

But like i write before. The largest group just want to drop the GPX in de navigation software. Select the route and press start. Nothing more.
When riding they don't want to fiddle with the device. They expect the navigation follows the route exactly as possible and guides them accordingly. If this is not possible (unexpected roadblock). Many people look on the map and just turn around and go as they see fit. In this case the navigation software needs follow and guide them back to the route without any questions or user input.

M. Schrijver

@Corjan-Meijerink said in My first experience with V 4.2.0 - 321:

If you then connect CP/AA, the navigation will also pick up, exactly as in TT. If you didn’t start navigation from your phone, the prompt will be shown in CP/AA to resume.

This is not what i see.
After the first initial start. You are right.
But somewhere halfway the day or when starting from a partical routepoint. I get the message on my Android Auto screen.

But still i think it a strange message.
You start route of 200 km (daytrip). You stop after 50 km to take a coffee break. After the break you want to proceed with the route but your navigation is not sure about it. So it ask you if you are sure. Strange.
But i guess i loose this discussion also. Just like the one when the route ends. And the one about autosave the tracklog.
I just don't like unneseccary user input. But i like a lot of settings just to setup the software how i want to use it. This means less user input as possible.

Corjan Meijerink

@M-Schrijver it is not about winning or losing
Just trying to get insight in how people use it and what makes more or less sense.

Con Hennekens

@M-Schrijver said in My first experience with V 4.2.0 - 321:

In my opnion the goal is to create a software package that is so easy to use that all peope ditch their Zumo or TomTom Rider and start using MRA Next.

I ditched my Zumo's already for Navigation "Previous" years ago. Never needed to look back.

@Peter-Schiefer said in My first experience with V 4.2.0 - 321:

May there is a chance to set the iPhone in flight mode, but then the GPS is also down.

I have said this before: flightmode does not shut the GPS down, and if it does on IOS, that's Apple's f*ck-up.

Con Hennekens

@Peter-Schiefer, well then I have to correct myself too. I did not know this about old iPhones, but then again, I am no iphone guy Good that they corrected that, because it really makes no sense to shutdown GPS, since it does not send anything.

Imagine a speedcam ticket for flying by in a plane