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Garmin Edge 500, 310xt, and 910xt Navigation
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I'm having trouble deciding on a new GPS unit. Amongst other things, navigating a course is an important feature for me.

It's clear from the Edge 500 owners manual, that you can load a course and essentially get turn by turn directions.





The 310xt and 910xt seem to have a similar feature, but it mostly looks like an arrow and a distance. This doesn't seem as effective to me since it really doesn't let you know what to do after making it to the waypoint and could lead to some missed turns. (Cropped from DC Rainmakers review)






Does anyone have any information regarding turn by turn o the 310xt or 910xt? Is the compass / waypoint an effective way at navigating a course?

I currently have an old forerunner 301, but I'm looking for a new device to monitor cadence and +ANT devices. Is it better to get the Edge 500 for the bike and use the old forerunner for running? I don't do much OWS, so I could probably get by w/ something like the Garmin Swim for indoor swim training, as required

The main things I'm looking for is effective course navigation (for long century bike routes, training courses, etc.), +ANT compatibility, Cadence sensor (preferably foot pod compatible too).

The 500 obviously looks like the most effective bike computer, with turn by turn, larger screen, and more metrics to display. Lacks running, but I have an old 301 to support that, as required.

The 310xt seems like a good all around device. To me, it's basically a 500 that is waterproof, but lacks the larger screen, ability to display 6 to 8 metrics, and useful course navigation.

The 910xt seems like a 310xt w/ better swim features and is probably the best all around buy if I can sacrifice navigation.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!
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Re: Garmin Edge 500, 310xt, and 910xt Navigation [ehat] [ In reply to ]
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The turn by turn is a reaylly usefull feature on the Edge500. The only downside of this characteristic is that you have to create your courses with some specific websites. bikeroutetoaster.com and ridewithgps.com also can integrate turn-by-turn information in your courses, but garmin connect and mapmyride doesn't offer to add turn-by-turn info.

I'd try to load a course created with bikeroutetoaster in your 310XT and you might get some extra info...
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Re: Garmin Edge 500, 310xt, and 910xt Navigation [ehat] [ In reply to ]
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Get an Edge 800, it has a pretty map with it and looks like a GPS for your car.
Last edited by: Burnt Toast: Oct 24, 12 15:40
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Re: Garmin Edge 500, 310xt, and 910xt Navigation [ehat] [ In reply to ]
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500 is great if you only need it for the bike, if youre looking for a multisport one which it seems you are, go with the 310 if youre on a budget and not doing too much swimming but if money is not a factor for your purchase and you do swim quite a bit then of course go with the 910
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Re: Garmin Edge 500, 310xt, and 910xt Navigation [rsseric12] [ In reply to ]
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I use my 910 for nearly every work out and I love it. The swim features it offers both in OWS and lap swimming is really strong and the multi-sport feature when doing tri's is spot on. In fact, I think my 910 gps is better synced than some race director's distance wheels.
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Re: Garmin Edge 500, 310xt, and 910xt Navigation [siouxcityhawk] [ In reply to ]
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So I bought a 910xt and figured I would close this post out. Basically if you go to ridewithgps, it will help you map a route and it will put in turns for your course. Download this file as a .tcx. Next go to bikeroutetoaster, load you course, then you can add a VP (who will slow up hills, fly down hills, just like you), and the big thing, course warnings. I would set this to 200 to 300 ft. Make the prefix "2H " (put the space in there so you can read the next street). It will now add 200ft course warning points before you get to your turn. Download the new .tcx file, load it into GTC, then send to your device. It will look like this (you can have your other metrics) up. The pop up looks like this:







Now the course obviously has a bread crumb map, and a navigation pane which shows you the next turn, etc. Unlike the Edge 500, it will NOT load a cue sheet, as far as I know. Either way, this is MORE than sufficient to get you to a route and keep you there.



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Re: Garmin Edge 500, 310xt, and 910xt Navigation [ehat] [ In reply to ]
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You can make routes directly in google maps and load directly to your Garmin with turn-by-turn coursepoints by using this scriptlet here:

http://www.winthefight.org/cuegle/
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Re: Garmin Edge 500, 310xt, and 910xt Navigation [kny] [ In reply to ]
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In Garmin Connect go to Courses under the Plan tab. You can create your routes there (powered by Google Maps) and then upload them.
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Re: Garmin Edge 500, 310xt, and 910xt Navigation [J_R] [ In reply to ]
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That's a serious step in the right direction. Garmin was about 5 years late to the game of route creation. I'll still take Google Map's native maps.google.com interface over any of the mapmyride, ridewithgps, or Garmin's Plans interfaces layered on top of Google's API, but Garmin has seriously stepped it up.
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Re: Garmin Edge 500, 310xt, and 910xt Navigation [ehat] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks a million. Got lost on a 60 mile ride, wish I had this info prior.
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Re: Garmin Edge 500, 310xt, and 910xt Navigation [MrSlice] [ In reply to ]
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MrSlice wrote:
Thanks a million. Got lost on a 60 mile ride, wish I had this info prior.

These devices should not be relied on for navigation where there is a chance of getting lost. At best they indicate where you should go. If you want a better degree of certainty either get a device that shows maps or, better still, good old physical maps trump most anything.

Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)
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