In need of some problem solving with my etrex 20x please. When I follow a route in automotive mode and on road for time or on road for distance settings I see a white arrow directing me on the map but when I follow a gpx route plotted on plotaroute.com (with all the turns named etc) put the etex in pedestrian and off road setting I don’t see the white arrow but instead get a beep to say a turn is approaching and can see on the map ‘left’ or ‘right’ as per what I called the turn in plotaroute.com. Is there a way to get the arrow to appear in this mode or is the turn by turn notification just a bleep?
On my Oregon 600 (and also on the older 300) a track is just a magenta line on the map, I get no hints at all. I was surprised to read that your device does much more.
When the etrex is set to follow a track it is just a magenta line with no turn prompts but if it’s set to follow a route it looks exactly the same but will bleep to tell me there is a turn approaching. Having taken advice from to Talkytoaster, who’s a very knowledgeable and friendly fella, (https://talkytoaster.me.uk/) it was explained that a gps device will only give turn by turn if the route being followed is a routable route ie not going off piste which wouldn’t be routable. If the route follows routable roads/ paths/ trails etc I will get an arrow appear on the map pointing me in the correct direction and a bleep when approaching the turn.
If it’s any help you can make a route in plotaroute.com and on each turn you can provide a note on each turn that appears on the actual map. The map then needs to be downloaded as a gpx (for the etrex anyway) and loaded onto the device. This will work on a track and route. If anyone knows an easier way please enlighten me!!
A route and a track are rather different things although the XML looks quite similar. A route may contain only a few few points and the device
needs a routable map to calculate the magenta line between those points. Because of this calculation it is also aware of crossroads and the names of the roads etc.
A track typically contains a lot more points (one for each direction change) and the device doesn’t need a routable map to use it, it just displays the magenta line. On some devices you might get a beep when you leave the track.
The Garmin programs Basecamp and Mapsource allow to convert a track to a route and vice versa. I prefer tracks because they consume less power.