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Infotainment GPS woes

32K views 128 replies 53 participants last post by  Floridaglide 
#1 ·
I'll admit it, even with its quirks I liked using my old Garmin Nuvi GPS on my previous FLTRU.

My new sled has the infotainment navigation system, which I'd like to like, but it's given me issues the few times I've used it.

The most annoying problem is when it recalculates routes instead of using the route I imported.

I go to the H-D Ride Planner & create a route for my ride. Let's say there are 5 stops along the way, each represented by a destination created within the plan in H-D's Ride Planner.

I save the route as a gpx file, copy it to a thumb drive & import it into the Glide's nav system.

Then, when I select it to head out to destination one the system recalculates the route, thereby ignoring the route I created. Hell, if I wanted that functionality I would just enter an address & forego the use of the Ride Planner.

Anyone else have this problem? Is it operator error?
 
#2 ·
I know your frustration. I can't count how many times I had to do a U-turn when I used the route planner on a easy trip from Arkansas, through Oklahoma and down to Dallas using backroads, broke out the map a couple of times as well as. On the way home, I ended up using interstate until I actually knew where I was from memory.

So far I haven't been impressed by the GPS at all, but I haven't used it since the new update.
 
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#8 ·
That shouldn't come into play if I import a route.
Taking the time to use something like Harley's Ride Planner (or some software) indicates that I have a specific route I want to travel - for whatever reason.
I don't want, or need, the system to calculate a different route based on some arbitrary parameter (like scenic, twisty, most u-turns, etc.).

Now, if I enter the Nav system & simply enter a destination... that's when I want the system to calculate the route.

If I have imported a route, I just want it to take me along that route.

Seems like such a simple task for a GPS. How on earth did they f this up so bad? :surprise:
 
#5 ·
Also, I found if you put way points along the way, that will make it take you the way you want to go. The one draw back, when you get to the way point, if it happens to be one street over, if you don't go by it, it will continually try to take you back to it before letting you go on. I finally figured out, right before I get to the way point, I use the feature, skip waypoint and it solved this problem. Also, along the trip if you accidentally restart the map, it will try to take you all the way back to where you started your trip. You then have to skip your starting point, and all the way points all the way to where you presently are. It sucks that it doesn't recognize like a garmin that once you are past a way point or on the road to simply understand you want to continue your trip from where you presently are. Anyway, it does work the way I do it, just frustration.
 
#9 · (Edited)
No... this is my complaint. It DOESN'T take me along the route that was imported. It simply calculates a new route, ignoring the route I imported & selected.
Yes, in the Harley Ride Planner (where I created the route) I am saving the waypoints, exporting a GPX file, saving it on a thumb drive, taking the thumb drive to my sled, importing the route, entering the Nav system, selecting the imported route... and the system them calculates a different route, ignoring the route that was imported.

Such simple functionality - my $120 Garmin Nuvi was able to perform this task reliably.

The system should adhere to an imported route, without attempting to recalculate... even if you are one street away from it's route. Importing a route is done deliberately.
 
#12 · (Edited)
OK... answering my own question after looking at the manual.

Apparently, the Nav system is operating correctly... the problem is with Harley's Ride Planner.
The Ride Planner isn't actually including the route in the exported file. It is simply saving the waypoints (called Destinations in the Ride Planner).

According to the manual:

"The Boom! Box navigation system does not differentiate between locations and waypoints. When plotting a route, remember that each trip can only include a total of nine destinations (or waypoints)."

"Ride Planner exports locations and waypoints into the GPX file. It does not export the highlighted route. The exact routing between destinations may be calculated differently within the radio than shown in Ride Planner."

"To plot a particular path, you may need to add waypoints along the desired route."

Got all that?

So, in order to make the system work like a real GPS, you have to add additional waypoints in the route, when planning it. But, remember that you can't exceed nine such waypoints. Oh wait, make that seven because the starting & ending points are two points.

Disappointing, to say the least.

After all, a GPX file is simply XML data (Extensible Markup Language). A decent ride planner would, should, create a route with latitude & longitude points every time it was necessary to plot the route.

Here's an excerpt of what a route would look like (minus the header stuff):

<name>Directions from Bend, OR, United States to McMenamins Edgefield, Southwest Halsey Street, Troutdale, OR, United States</name>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="44.05818" lon="-121.3153"></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="44.05743" lon="-121.314"></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="44.05824" lon="-121.31313"></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="44.059" lon="-121.31224"></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="44.05994" lon="-121.31124"></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="44.06008" lon="-121.31112"></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="44.06014" lon="-121.3111"></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="44.06044" lon="-121.31111"></trkpt>
And so on, until destination is reached...

And then the GPS just progresses through the series of coordinates, guiding you along said route. It's not rocket science.
 
#19 ·
Paper maps or Mapquest printouts

I have never used the nav on my Glide, but according to most, I'm strange anyway, never listened to the radio either & don't plan on starting now:wink: All I want to hear is engine, tire whine, and wind. Also probably why I'm the only RG rider, (that I've seen) who has a tank bag w/ plastic cover pocket for printout directions for my long distance trips. But hey, what do I know? I'm a newbie:laugh:
 
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#20 ·
I have never used the nav on my Glide, but according to most, I'm strange anyway, never listened to the radio either & don't plan on starting now:wink: All I want to hear is engine, tire whine, and wind. Also probably why I'm the only RG rider, (that I've seen) who has a tank bag w/ plastic cover pocket for printout directions for my long distance trips. But hey, what do I know? I'm a newbie:laugh:
Old school. Primitive but effective! I like it.
 
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#25 ·
OK, so the weekend ride was fun. Visited 6 state parks; logged 525 miles.

I had created 2 separate routes in Harley Ride Planner - one for Saturday & one for Sunday. Each had about 9 waypoints (segments).

I exported a set using the manual mode (exporting a GPX file for each route) that I imported into the GPS on my sled (the Infotainment GPS).
I also connected my GF's Garmin Nuvi to the computer & imported each route directly from the Ride Planner.

So, you would think that each set contained the same data. Apparently not. Either that or the GPS units interpret the data differently.

Here's what happened on my ride:
I selected the first route and almost immediately the GPS was recalculating, telling me to make u-turns or 'take the next left turn' when the route clearly did not call for such deviation. It behaved that way for each segment. It was actually using the preference (which I had set to scenic) to calculate a different route between points than what I had planned in Ride Planner. Apparently it believes that a route across a high desert plateau is more 'scenic' than going thru a canyon. Sad.
Sometimes it did stick to my planned route... but only when there wasn't a different route available between points (as in no other roads exist).

Here's what happened on my GF's ride:
She pulled up the first segment & her $120 Garmin Nuvi proceeded to follow the exact route, as built in Ride Planner. It continued to behave this way for each segment.

My conclusion is that the Infotainment GPS is designed to be used from the radio's interface, i.e. enter an address or select a destination & it will calculate your ride according to the ambiguous "preference" settings.
It doesn't appear capable of just following an imported GPX route.

It still has some usefulness, but not for the way I would like to use it.
 
#27 ·
I was sorta hoping the Harley Ride Planner would work as expected.

Next, I'll create a route in Google Maps, but I think you have to use My Maps to be able to export a KML. Then, you can upload the KML to GPS Visualizer & convert it to a GPX file.

I did a test & the resultant file had what appeared to be a sufficient number of data points (lat - lon coordinates) to be able to adhere to my route.

We'll see...
 
#31 ·
When I rode out to Big Bend last fall from east of Dallas, Texas, I created a map in Ride Planner and made way points to keep me on back roads the whole way. I found if I created the way points it would keep me on the chosen roads I wanted. The only problem was it wanted to take you to the exact point you selected on the map for a way point and if you didn't go right over it, it would continue to try and take you back to it no matter how far you rode. I finally figured out that if I skipped the next way point right before I got to it(1/8 mile or less) then it would take me to the next way point with no problem. I had to do this at every way point to accomplish my chosen map which sucks. Also, the night we spent the night along the way I started the map completely over and instead of seeing where we were and starting from there, it tried to take me all the way back to my house and start the trip completely over unlike any gps system I"ve ever had. So, I had to skip every way point between my house and where we were to get the map back on track. There is something terribly wrong with a system such as this. I think some simple common sense fixes would correct the problems but who know if that will ever come.
 
#32 ·
Have had similar issues with the Garmin street pilot and Garmin Zumo. I break my trips up into multiple maps for a few reasons, one is the number of data points and waypoints can overwhelm the sytem. The other is as you mentioned, the system won't pick up where you left off when you pull up the route, it wants to start you over at the beginning. You would have to start riding, stop, and skip all the waypoints up to your present one. I have also had to skip waypoints just before getting there or it would want you to go around the block or something to hit that waypoint. I have gotten very good at zooming in on my waypoints when designing a route and making sure they are on the road and on the right side of the road.

As has been mentioned, GPS devices are not intelligent, they only know coordinates and depending on the algorithms programmed, different brand devices take you different routes. I will do a basic point A to point B on Google maps, then do it in my Garmin and depending on how far the distance is, they will always be different and I chose fastest route preference for both of them.
 
#33 ·
I had good success using zip codes entered directly into the infotainment system, used ride planner printed the directions which gave me the zip codes had to manually key in the zip. It did follow my intended route and once it hit the zip code no circling or U-turns.
More labor intensive than an upload of a GPX file but no frustration on the road.....
 
#34 ·
Last year I did a 3-week ride that took me from AZ to Reno, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Kamloops, Calgary, Glacier NP, Missoula, Lolo NF, McCall, Ogden, Steamboat Springs, Ft Collins, Sturgis, Cheyenne, Colorado Springs, Durango & back to AZ. A total of 7,000 miles.

I created a route for each day in Google Maps (well ahead of the ride) & converted the KML files to GPX files, imported them into the GPS that I used on my previous Glide - a cheap Garmin Nuvi (I think it was a 55LM?). It never deviated from the routes I had planned, which were never on major highways unless absolutely necessary.

If I open up any of those GPX files in a text editor they contain hundreds of sets of coordinates.

So, I'm starting to think it may not be the Infotainment GPS entirely at fault. It can't be expected to follow a route it doesn't have.

We'll see... I have more testing to do.
 
#35 ·
I guess the big question is, will the system handle the number of coordinates necessary to maintain/follow the desired route. I'm not sure how much data capacity the system has and then how much of that is allocated for the GPS.
 
#37 ·
Google maps has one of the best GPS there is. Constantly updated, good selection of routes. The only thing the HD GPS is good for is finding a dealer so you can spend more money.
You're probably right. We all might be over thinking this.
 
#39 ·
Maybe you're doing something different... I use basecamp, create a waypoint at every turn and export to a gpx file, import the filename only (not all of the stops) to the bike, and it's always worked well for me, even multi-day trips.

How do you import the gpx file? Only the single filename.gpx needs to be imported... The Boom will list all the waypoints when asking to select a route to import... but you should only select the single gpx file name; that file already contains all of the waypoints you entered when creating the route.

I tried using ride planner but got frustrated with it, and now only use basecamp. Works 100% of the time. It's difficult to learn at first, but once you get it, it makes damn good sense of how it does things. In basecamp, you can also set a waypoint as a "shaping point" so that it won't alert you of that stop or force you to stop, but will still help shape the route. Good luck.
 
#45 ·
Ok. Its 70 in Denver today so I went out to try the "just load the trip" theory. I picked a 60 mile loop which I had used to try to figure out this mess before. I laid out the route in HD Ride Planner using a few more waypoints than usual. I also took care to ensure these waypoints were on the road and in the lanes. I also set up a leg of the route that I planned to intentionally abandon to test the "skip" function.

The end result was pretty good. When I loaded the route, I only loaded the route and not the individual waypoints. There was no rerouting. The GPS followed the loaded route and recognized the waypoints as they were passed without circling or having to resort to the "skip" function. When I got to the point where I wanted to skip the leg, I used the "skip" function and the GPS stayed on the route.

I'm going to try longer route this weekend that would be more like my normal trip planning.
 
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#48 ·
For clarification, this is how I import a GPX to the scooter:


  • I start with my USB stick that contains a single file, the GPX that I want to import
  • Power up the Infotainment system
  • Insert the USB stick in the glove box
  • Click the NAV button.
  • Select Menu from the upper right corner
  • Select Import from the available choices
  • Display shows the Devices Available & I select the USB stick
  • Display shows the file (routename.gpx)
  • I select the file
  • Display shows Select All and each individual waypoint
  • I choose select all
  • Import is successful

The route is selectable in Trips. Individual waypoints are selectable in Where To, Saved.
 
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#51 · (Edited)
For clarification, this is how I import a GPX to the scooter:


  • I start with my USB stick that contains a single file, the GPX that I want to import
  • Power up the Infotainment system
  • Insert the USB stick in the glove box
  • Click the NAV button.
  • Select Menu from the upper right corner
  • Select Import from the available choices
  • Display shows the Devices Available & I select the USB stick
  • Display shows the file (routename.gpx)
  • I select the file
  • Display shows Select All and each individual waypoint
  • I choose select all
  • Import is successful

The route is selectable in Trips. Individual waypoints are selectable in Where To, Saved.
Instead of Select All, select only the gpx file name itself. That's what I mean when I say that one gpx file will contain all the waypoints. The nav system lists them separately only because it apparently looks into the gpx file and sees the waypoints in there, but you don't need to select all or each individually, because they are already in the single gpx file.

I found some basic instructions I had written for someone else in a different forum, but it looks like you have it down except for the "Select All" that you listed:

Export the route from Basecamp as a gpx file to a USB stick. On the bike, choose Import, select the gpx file on the USB, and then select the actual main route name only (NOT any of the individual stops listed - the main route name will already contain the stops/waypoints), select Import,. Then, from the "Where To" options select More, then Trips, then select the route.


Glad you got more comfortable with the process :smile:
 
#50 ·
OK... I think I may have this figured out.

First off, a big THANK YOU to everyone here. This forum is a great group of folks. Especially want to thank Smarty for all his help.

I decided to give BaseCamp another go. I created a trip, followed Smarty's advice & voila, I was able to export a gpx that contained many, many points. When I imported it to my scoot it sure looks like the route I created. We'll see when I use it.

Once my map was created in BaseCamp, I just inserted a USB stick, went to File menu & selected Export Selected User Data. Pointed to the USB & saved the file. If I open it in my editor it looks like what I expect.
 
#52 ·
Thanks man! By the way, today I ran into another snafu up in the Needles Highway/Iron Mountain rd. area. Come to find out, Garmin had a place where on there maps didn't meet if you zoomed all the way in. It kept you from continuing the trip that way. With Garmin's help, we made it work.
 
#53 ·
Another thing I learned today on Base Camp. When you go to transfer the file to the desktop, you choose only the file with the date with the maps, then while exporting it, next to the date, put Sturgis to Cody for instance. Then when it pops up on the screen, it will have the date and that info.
 
#57 ·
Hi guys. I've read most of posts on this thread but not all, so this may have been answered already. Here's my understanding of either the entire or at least some of the problem w/ Ride Planner not working on our bikes. Talked many times last summer w/ HD (actually HOG office handles Ride Planner), sent them my proposed trip (created on HD Ride Planner site) that the bike took me everywhere but where I wanted to go, and worked w/ Silvia, Heath, & Dave Mattson in attempting to have the bike take me on the route created in Ride Planner. After many hours and a bunch of pulling my hair out, it turned out that the problem was/is this: Ride Planner uses a different software program to create the ride (the name escapes me right now!) and the head unit on the bike is Google Maps (it's either this way or visa versa). They don't communicate well with each other, and in my case hardly at all! As of mid last summer they had no fix and didn't know when one would be available. Wonder if they have it figured out yet??
 
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