Nuvi 350 - Loves the back roads!

NIKO-007 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 18, 2007 Posts: 23

Just read the whole thread and I am as pi**ed as you lot, I bought the Nuvi 350 a month ago from overclockers UK for £250 & I am having the same routing probs in Ireland, (NT9 maps & firmware 3.60) its a total joke.

I have tested the same routes on Microsoft autoroute 2007 which uses NAVTEQ data, and it does not send you cross country, it sticks to the major roads just as it should do.

This needs to be fixed ASAP.

I cannot trust the unit as it is, every route that you do on this unit needs a visual inspection before you set off, I really wish I had bought a tom tom now.

All that needs to be done is for the unit to be told to ignore unclassified roads unless they are VITAL to get to your destination, its that simple.

This is my 1st garmin Satnav and by the look of things will be my last garmin product.

I have e-mailed Garmin about this problem twice & have been ignored both times.. looks like they are sick of hearing about it and will do nothing.

I e-mailed them previous to this about making the input keyboard layout qwerty style but realised later that it would make the keys on the screen even smaller which would be a bad thing, i got a reply to this the next day.

I will update here if i hear anything at all.. I wonder if i can return my garmin?

************* UPDATE *****************

I was messing with my Nuvi 350 just now and found that if i select truck mode it re-calculated the route and avoided minor roads.

I read earlier in this thread that whatever vehicle you selected made no difference, maybe this was only applicable to previous firmware and maps and got fixed in firmware 3.60 and NT9 maps which i am using.

Can any1 give me any feedback on their findings.

NIKO-007 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 18, 2007 Posts: 23

Finaly got a reply from garmin:-

Dear NickGmail,

Thank you for contacting Garmin International, This may be due to an
error in our mapping software. I certainly hope our newer version
mapping update will correct this for you. Mapping updates are available
every 12 to 15 months and our next update is coming very soon. If I
could guess maybe by next month. Even though an avoidance is set, if
the only route is to take the b road, the Garmin will take the b road.
The routes that are set to the Garmin will navigate to the best of its
ability and it appears that the b roads are the best route. This again
may be due to the mapping software version. With adding an additional
avoidance to our menu, this would require a software update. I will be
sure to forward this along to our software department for further
review.

With Best Regards,

Dewan B
Product Support Specialist
2nd Shift Marine Team
Garmin International
913-397-8200
800-800-1020
913-397-8282 (fax) Att: Dewan B
www.garmin.com

NIKO-007 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 18, 2007 Posts: 23

Forget the truck mode, i think i have found the problem, De-select "U-turns" in your avoidances menu, It looks like there is a bug in the routing logic that is to do with this option, this fixes the back road rally problem for me :D .

Try some of your routes now ppl and let me know if this fixes it for you.

Any 1 awake in here? Exclamation

BeatO · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:19 am Post subject:

Hi M8

I've tested this on my Quest 2 (I know, it's a different unit, but I suspect the calculation algo. is the same in all their products, even in Mapsource), as I've the problem of extensive B-Road usage as well. My favorite is to enter a trip from Bude to Crackington Haven (both in north Cornwall). If it's through the windy B-Road along the coast, you'll have about twice as long as going away from the sea to the A-Road, drive up north and then back in the direction of the sea to the town centre.

This does not change with the change you suggested on my unit. What I've found is, that if I use the "fastest" calculation method, it takes the A-Road, in all other instances, it goes through the B-Road.

Can you test this on your unit to see what it does?

Thanks and Cheers!
BeatO

oddsock · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:02 pm Post subject:

NIKO-007 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 18, 2007 Posts: 23

I have tested your route BeatO on my Nuvi 350 and regardless of what I change it will still take the coastal B road, I have noticed though that if routes are short my Nuvi 350 will consider B roads but on long routes they will be avoided.. For example the route from Donegal to Belleek in north west Ireland will take a B road near the end of the journey but if I do Donegal to Manorhamilton (Same route but a continuation from Belleek) that B road is not taken, and the faster route through Ballyshannon is taken.

Microsoft autoroute 2007 uses your A road on your route as I expected but then its routing has always been good.

An option in the avoidances menu to avoid B roads would be a godsend.

Something weird is going on though because with U turn avoidance ON my unit avoided an A road junction the other day and cut round it using 3 B roads.. the route looked bizarre to say the least.. (there must be a leper colony living on the junction) :D the junction type was a slip road off to the left and then a right turn to take me over the top of the road I had just been on, nothing too unusual I am sure.

This has improved routing for me but only if I have the Avoid U turns off.

Nick.

BigPerk · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:17 pm Post subject:

I've found this thread very interesting, as I also (but only occasionally) get some strange results with routing on my C510, which I have enquired about on GPSWorld. Some comments here I've found useful, though I have yet to test them out.

Just one point I have noticed in the discussions is a bit of a dispute as to whether changing vehicle type has any effect on routing, with Garmin saying no. However the point has also been made that legal speed limits seem to be taken into account (eg 60mph being assumed on minor roads). Now the maximum legal speeds for goods vehicles are different from cars outside built-up areas - is it possible that this influences the route calculation?

Dubgps · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 20, 2007 Posts: 1

I registered specifically to share this since a google search turned up this thread.

I, like everyone else here, have encountered this problem countless times with my Garmin Nuvi 660 and while it was simply annoying at times while at home (Ireland) it turns out to be bloody frustrating here in Germany.

While touring around the Eifel region (we were visiting the Nurburgring) the unit would constantly try to send us down not just back-roads but frequently actual dirt-tracks and twice dirt-tracks that were completely blocked off.

As i'm permanently suspecious of the directions we can usually avoid taking these turns (and just head roughly where we feel is the right direction) and let the garmin recalculate it's way along but on more than one occasion we had already taken the turn and had to back up when the narrow lane turned into dirt-track.

Despite what some have written (and seemingly even Garmin themselves suggest) i can recommend simply changing 'Vehicle Type' to 'Truck' COMBINED with 'route preferance' set to 'faster time'.

Having done this it appears to have eliminated 90% of the problem.

As an example set your location to the Hotel 'Historisches Haus/Blau Ecke' in Adenau, Germany and attempt to navigate to the restaurant 'Pistenklause' just a few miles south from there.

With vehicle set to car the route diverts off into an estate in Quiddelbach and then down a very narrow winding road (i.e. both wing mirrors are brushing the trees) straight for the village of Nurburg. Swopping between Faster or Shorter routing has no affect.

However once you change vehicle type to 'Truck' and 'faster route' selected the route re-calculates to a normal road that goes south west before turning back north east towards Nurburg.

Any other combo and it's dirt-track time again.

Now having played around with a few routes at home i've discovered the Garmin is behaving a lot better. It's not foolproof (i've hit upon one route that brings me via some narrow housing estate roads no matter what options i select) it does appear to be a lot better and has been sticking to 'proper' roads for the remainder of our trip in Germany. It's at least stopped me changing it for a TomTom asap (the teleatlas maps are pretty poor in Ireland).

Hope this helps someone and fingers crossed they sort out the problem properly with the next software update. Otherwise i'm switching to TomTom...

NIKO-007 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 18, 2007 Posts: 23

Yeah me to Dubgps, if Garmin don't sort this out this is going to be my last Garmin, did u also try setting the "avoid U turns" to off, this improves the routing further for me, now my unit does not avoid some seemingly simple junction types.

Rep Of Ire gets postcodes from Jan 2008, that will make sat-navin easier over here, I once went to a job interview and was told the general area & that I needed the building with the big blue roof! RAFLMAO.

I thought erm yeah ok whatever.. I will leave the car at home and take the chopper, it will be easier to spot Smile

Altern8 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 28, 2006 Posts: 2

I have exctly the same problem on my garmin 310

MaFt · Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 11:59 pm Post subject:

EddyDC · Regular Visitor Joined: Oct 04, 2007 Posts: 150

I've the same on my C550 and since Garmin support still doesn't come up with a solution, I decided to kick it out and go for another brand.

BeatO · Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 5:49 pm Post subject:

Hi M8s

Another posting I've found here, written by adrian_anastas makes sense. Sad, but true. An option for avoid Unclassified and B-Roads as much as possible would be great!

BeatO

EddyDC · Regular Visitor Joined: Oct 04, 2007 Posts: 150

I read in a forum thread that unchecking the avoid U-turn option would help. I tried it yesterday and it doesn't make any difference.

worowsky · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 04, 2007 Posts: 1

If in your settings u have selected motorcycle-car.... it is choising longher route to avoid traffic light o traffic on main roads....i select option taxi , it looks better, i taking more often mains road.

	PocketGPS
	Web