Garmin Basecamp Program

[Cary Polachek]

Butspeaking as someone with more than 20 years in Silicon Valley, the overall software experience around it, from needing four different conflicting confusing pieces of software to synch and update the device, to planning trips, to sharing the route afterwards with friends, is truly, absolutely, objectively, horrible.

Examples? I just downloaded the new version of basecamp because I wanted to show the off roading trip I just took with friends. I had tracked the route with my mini. I had to plot it again because between Garmin Express, inReach, the InReach web site, Earthlink, and Basecamp (which should not be five pieces of software) I could see the tracking I had recorded but there was no way to just select them and show them like I wanted on the shared map.

So I downloaded the new basecamp hoping to create a new trip showing the whole route. It asked me to enter the starting point and I entered my home address. It gave me a LISTING OF YELP locations nearby to enter. Huh? I could not select my home as my starting point, but I could select Taco Bell in a nearby town. For my destination instead of being able to search for the national park I went to, it only offered Yelp locations again (more taco bell).

This is the experience for 90% of your users. Yes, I know you have some loyal long term super users who tell you they love your stuff because they have always used it. IGNORE THEM. The things people want to do with your devices is not actually that hard. You need to throw out all of this legacy stuff and rethink the UX from the ground up. The people who love your old stuff will like it even better after about 30 seconds.

Not sure why you're struggling. It's easy enough for example to select your home as a starting point in BaseCamp. If that's really giving you issues you may benefit from reading the tutorial here www.newenglandriders.org/.../

`Easy enough? I am trying to install Base Camp on my Win10 computer and get the message to download Windows Media Player ver 11 or higher and install it. Windows 10 comes with the latest Windows Media Player as standard! I cannot find a download for a program that is part of Windows 10. So "easy" ?? I cannot even start to use your program!

I totally agree and Echo your comments and frustration. I'm on day 3 of trying to figure this out after reading the instruction manual and watching all their videos they have online, and I have yet to be able to download a newly created route from Basecamp to my GPS.

Thanks for your reply. The tutorial you sent only goes to prove my point. The instructions should not be this long and complicated. You should simply be able to create a route and save it to your GPS. This is my first Garmin and it will be my last sadly.

Hello, new member here. I created a simple one-way route on my basecamp ( 4.8.7). It is named and shows up on "my computer". When I used the "device" button (upper LH corner) it indicates it is being sent to the nuvi 755 and I get a message saying "TRANSFER COMPLETE" but I cannot find it anywhere on the device. Looked in "FAVORITES" & "CUSTOM ROUTES".

I see the steps of the route (Route to S-bury) on the left column in Basecamp. I have a8 Gb SD card in the device (titled Nik-1) which sometimes appears before the nuvi fully engages with the BaseCamp program. The steps of the route appear there as well. I take this to mean the route DID transfer to the SD card in the nuvi but how to I connect it up to show me the route when I want it?

I have the same issue transferring a trip, using trip planner from BaseCamp to Nuvi 56. Basecamp displays Nuvi. When I select transfer to device it shows transfer complete. When I disconnect Nuvi 56 and turn it on it displays "cannot transfer trip".

AS displayed in this screenshot, Nuvi 56 is detected by Basecamp. At bottom Nuvi 56 displays trip to Roxanne but when I eject Nuvi from computer and turn it on it says "cannot save trip from Roxanne".

I had similar problems with BaseCamp and my Garmin RV 760LMT - BaseCamp stated that a trip had been transferred and it also showed up in the device section of BaseCamp, however, when disconnecting the device and restarting it, it at first crashed (always) and then did not show the transferred trip.

After more than a year of frustration, trying this and that and even getting the device replaced by Garmin (which did not help), I finally found out that BaseCamp was incompatible with a setting that I had made on the device for my vehicle. Since I simply removed this setting I have no problems to transfer trips from BaseCamp to the device.

In my case the "disabling setting" was adding a propane tank to the specifics of my motorhome on the device. Having an RV with propane tank meant no trip transfers; having an RV without propane tank meant no problems with trip transfers. It's pretty normal for an RV to have a propane tank - why else would Garmin offer to add one to the RV specifics on the device? However, this made it impossible to send trips from BaseCamp to the device (and Garmin has not fixed this bug in BaseCamp although I told them about it many months ago).

This might not apply to your cases and your devices - but maybe you have put some "odd" thing into the vehicle specifics on your devices. Maybe you want to try to have a few as possible vehicle specifics on your devices, and maybe that helps. Please let me know.

My vehicle specifics are pretty basic. Just the default car from the Nuvi. I did however noticed some discrepancies between the map in BaseCamp and the map in the Nuvi, i.e. roads and highway exits built 10 years ago missing in the Nuvi, eventhough I have the latest update installed with Garmin Express.

I had an online chat w/ a Garmin guy and he sent me links. Basic idea was to use TRIP PLANNER whereby I'd enter a start and destination. Then modify the route on the map. Very difficult that way as soon the magenta route line is jumping all over & doubling back and sort of having a psychotic asphalt fit. I can do better if I use the create tool to "draw" a route BUT if I do get it to transfer it sees each part I drew as a separate trip rather than a continuous run although the "steps" are listed under a blanket name I gave to route. I have tried to plan a route this way in Google maps which is much easier to draw in but cannot figure how to import those routes into base camp and online to words I read say there is no way you can do this.

fed up as I just purchased a $50 map update as had the original map from about 8 or 9 years back. I really wanted to start using this gPS on my motorcycle but still forced to just put in a destination and listen to the voice commands have to keep updating as I try to make my own route.

I have no particular restrictions like propane tank, just the motorcycle symbol in basecamp. Can't believe we got a couple of dudes on the moon in '69 and 50 years on the technology is fighting us so hard. It is supposed to make things easier.

My nuvi is a 4.3" and other than the over priced zumos (?) all are 5" & up. Also I got this because it has a headphone jack to listen to voice instruction in earbuds. I cannot be looking at the screen while riding, so unsafe. I guess I'll keep struggling.

I've never had such an issue so something isn't right somewhere. How much free space is there on your device? Shouldn't be an issue but just in case. Also difficult to say for sure from your screenshot but do you have the CN map selected, looks awfully like the base map to me?

One thing I do notice is, there are discrepancies between the map from Basecamp and the one on Nuvi. For example in Canada,Quebec Hwy (AUT-40) eastbound approaching Montreal (apprx. 15 miles or 20 Km) there exists a off-ramp (32) leading to Aut-30 heading North. This ramp was built about 7-8 years ago and I've taken it many times.

However, on my Nuvi, it doesn't exists, Even when I was driving it,( 2 years ago) Nuvi failed to recognize the exit - only because I knew where it went (info from friends) and travelled it, did Nuvi somewhat re-calculate the trip.

I have had 3 Garmins over the years, and currently still have 2 of them, a Nuvi 2757 for car use, and my new Zumo XT for motorcycle riding, and offroading on my ADV bike. I have to say, this Basecamp garbage is absolutely the WORST software I've ever run across. The maps have almost zero detail (the street I live on has existed for 10 years and my new house has been on it for 3 years now), and it couldn't be more UNfriendly to the user if they tried it. I can make the route I want in Google maps in about a minute, whereas with Basecamp I could not even create the route at all. It was so unfriendly I gave up. The only thing that is a drag about Google Maps is that, for some stupid reason, you still can't export .gpx routes from Google, otherwise I wouldn't ever bother with Basecamp. As it is, I'm so fed up with it that unless they actually make it work, I'll never bother even opening the stupid thing. I guess what I'll do is simply find the GPS coordinates of certain waypoints on Google maps, and enter those waypoints manually into my Zumo, then simply string them together in a route. Unreal that you have to do this. As a long-time customer(over 15 years), I EXPECT better from Garmin. As an ADV rider or offroader, since they SELL models of their GPS's specifically FOR this use, I EXPECT to be able to EASILY (as in Google-easy) string together both paved and dirt routes and then download that into my GPS.

I'm hoping that Garmin finally gets with the program and actually makes a software that WORKS for it's customers. I mean, we BOUGHT our units on the premise that your Basecamp is actually useful instead of useLESS.

So, I used Google to get GPS coordinates for waypoints at intersections on dirt roads I wanted to take, punched them in on the Zumo, strung them together as a Trip in the Trip Planner, "Shaped" the trip for the particular (more "Adventurous") route I wanted, and all 4 trips are done. BOOM! Now, why can't Basecamp be even that easy (still more difficult than it SHOULD be)? I SHOULD be able to simply make a route like I do in Google, drag it to the particular roads (paved or dirt) I want, then export it to my Zumo. It SHOULD be THAT easy. I should have been able to do all 4 routes in minutes instead of an hour. But noooooo.... Oh well, I found a way that's a LOT less frustrating and maddening than using Basecamp.

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