Garmin Mobile PC GPS using nRoute

My first GPS use was with nRoute. I was given the Mobile PC system and I really like the nRoute software better. Is there any way to use the Mobile Pc GPS receiver with the nRoute software?

Thanks,

BSisson66

The GPS 20x will work with nRoute. However, the maps you had previously will be locked to whatever Garmin GPS you were using with nRoute. So they won't unlock for the GPS 20x.

You can't use the maps that come with Mobile PC in nRoute as they are not available in the correct format.

You could use GPS Gate (http://franson.com/gpsgate/) to filter the output of the GPS 20x receiver. Using that approach would allow you to use your present maps in nRoute as it would not see the 20x as a Garmin product. But that costs money.

I am surprised you like nRoute better than Mobile PC. I have both and wouldn't even consider nRoute after using Mobile PC on a laptop or UMPC.

Terry

I understand and agree with him completely. The more I use them both, the more I prefer nroute in almost every way and the less I've been using Mobile PC.

Without a touch screen, Mobile PC is a real pain to use.

With the fat lines and 3D view you can't get as much detail on the screen.

... Let me explain. With the fat lines you need to zoom out because Mobile PC simply can't fit the stuff on the screen any other way. BUT... as soon as you get zoomed out to where the amount of stuff you want to see can fit on one screen, you lose the detail.

I also hate having to switch to Browse mode. I love that nroute lets you manually scroll the map around as much as you want, any time you want. In the mean time it keeps on navigating and when you want to see the vehicle you just click it in the toolbar at the top and it pops the screen back to the correct configuration for navigation.

I love that I can have the satellite information on the screen at the same time as I'm navigating. I can see it all at a glance. With Mobile PC I have to go through multiple steps in the gruesome keyboard interface to get to the sat info screen and multiple strokes to get back to the nav screen.

I love that in nroute if I want to create a route between any two arbitrary locations I can just click on the route tool, click on the start point, click on the end point and Voila! it calculates the route. In Mobile PC you need to change the Current Location to the starting point and then do a Find to find the location you want to route to ... all using that awful keyboard interface to do it.

And on and on. I still think Mobile PC is the prettiest of all the laptop nav programs and if I could use it with a touchscreen, like a Nuvi or StreetPilot, I know I would have a different attitude about using some of the basic nav features. But in nearly every other way I prefer nroute in real use.

...ken...

Ken,
I have to admit I have a touch screen. I actually had a chance to use Mobile PC on a 600 mile trip last weekend and it was wonderful. BUT I planned all the stops I might want before I left so none of those problems arose anyway. All I would use the GPS screen for is elevation and I check that in the profile in MapSource when I get home.

I have never used nRoute and a laptop for actual routing in a vehicle and now, with the touch screen and Mobile PC, never will. I tried it on the UMPC and it was awful. I prefer s&T 2004.
Terry

I agree with you, GMPC is designed for small screen like GMXT or Nuvis.
It must show more info for a laptop screen. More than 7" are waste for this software.

Is there really a route tool in nRoute? There is one in MapSource but in nRoute? I wish there was, but I can't find it. I seem to have to create two waypoints and then select them, then right click and ask nRoute to create a route and so on.

Ooops, you are so right! I assumed the route tool in MapSource also existed in nroute. Thanks for correcting me.

It's not all bad news, though. You can fire up MapSource, click the route tool, click the points of your desired route, click the Routes tab, right-click the route that was just created, click copy, switch to nroute, click the Saved Routes tab, right-click anywhere in the list area of the tab, click Paste.

Voila! There's the route. And it takes w-a-y less time than it took to type up the directions! It's especially useful if you want a multi-point route.

Now that I think of it, I can't think of any reason I would want to do this sort of routing in nroute anyway. That's most likely why I never bothered to check it out. Normally if I'm actually using my nav program I always ... always want to route from where I'm at. I really can't recall ever wanting to route between two or more other places while I'm travelling and using the nav functions.

I only ever do that sort of thing if I want some information .. usually travel times and distances of alternate routes farther down the road. In this case it makes no difference to me that I need to use MapSource instead of nroute to get that info. And if I want to keep one or more of those routes for use in the nav program (nroute) I can just cut/paste them over to nroute for nav use whenever I actually get to the starting point of one of them.

I would be genuinely interested to hear if there are situations you have encountered (or think you might) where it would be genuinely useful (eg. much more convenient) to be able to do it in nroute instead of having to use MapSource.

...ken... (dodging adroitly)

As I've only been using nRoute for a little over a week I don't have any examples and now I realise how easy it is to move a route planned in Mapsource into nRoute (thanks to your post above), I probably won't come up with any.

Thanks for your help, and patience.

Do you know that you can also move saved routes, tracks and waypoints from MapSource to nroute by saving them as a .GDB file and loading it into nroute?

The only trick is that current MapSource versions use and save GDB version 3 files by default. nroute is old enough that it only understands GDB version 2. So when you Save As in MapSource you need to select GDB version 2 as the file type and nroute will cheerfully digest everything in it.

Of course you can just cut/paste tracks and waypoints between them (it works both directions) exactly the same way as I described above for routes. That's typically easier and quicker than saving a file, forgetting that nroute wants GDB version 2 until it squawks about it, saving the file again, etc....

...ken...

Thanks for the tips Ken. I was planning to move some Garmin Database files around and would have wondered what was happeing.

I ordered Mobile PC this morning so I'll see what sort of trouble I can get into with that once it arrives.

I was really just looking for the Garmin 20x GPS receiver but to also get the Garmin Mobile PC software and a copy of the latest City Navigator North America NT for only $27.00 more seemed too good to pass up.

From another thread:

What's up with this? Why won't the newest MapSource work with Mobile PC? Any thoughts?