Navigation and direction of the route

[A Former User]

@awinkel I know what you want, because I want/need the same, but I believe that needs a technological evolution.
I experience the same on the Etrex vs 530, the Etrex (circa 2015) doesn’t have that feature and the 530 has.
That is why, as people told you, you need to use waypoints for that, to understand where do you want to go.
You realize the ambit 3 was launched in 2015, even if it is/was sold now, there are limitations of hardware.

[sartoric]

Not to mention the good’ol tools, compass and map.

Strip out all the mumbo-jumbo !!!

[Fenr1r]

@sartoric said in Navigation and direction of the route:

Strip out all the mumbo-jumbo !!!

Absolutely! Mental workout - fine principle! Keep track of time in your head! Note your pulse with your fingers!

Write lap times on your arm! You’ll have extra space without a watch cluttering it up!

[awinkel]

I agree but on the mountainbike on a trail with many crossings that’s quite challenging.

[stevena]

yes, it would be better if the arrows didn’t automatically flip. You can still decide to do the route against the direction if you want to.

[sky-runner]

@sartoric I don’t know if this has been fixed in a more recent firmware, but I did have multiple instances of arrows pointing a wrong way on S9B when I still was at intersection. Another example of that was when I went off-route by mistake. I then continued on an alternative trail slowly making my way towards the original route, and as I was about to merge back into the route, the watch showed me the arrow in the opposite way (because that way was closer to the end of the route, I guess).

[sartoric]

@sky-runner
The “direction arrows” need a while to recognize the direction (and to be sure you’re still moving the same way) so sometimes it could be tricky

[isazi]

Remember this topic is about Ambit.

[sartoric]

@isazi said in Navigation and direction of the route:

Remember this topic is about Ambit.

You’re right … I didn’t noticed the question wasn’t from the OP

@sky-runner, if you’re referring to Ambit, we were talking about improvement made on newer watches
In fact this could be a “lounge” thread

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

To answer this, in the past the route direction was easily snapping to another direction with a little movement there. Now it takes a few minutes for the user to start moving to the other direction (or cover quite some part of the route) for the direction to change. So it will stick more to the direction you have been doing, rather try to be more clever regardless if you go off route etc.

The is for the S series.

[awinkel]

@isazi That’s because I own an Ambit.
But it’s more a question in general to find out if a newer Suunto has the capability to follow the GPX track even at crossings.
So far I find out for now the newer Suunto models doesn’t have this function yet.

[Fenr1r]

@awinkel As there’s a bit of confusion here: would you confirm what you mean by “crossing”, please? Do you mean:

1. Where your route crosses itself and you want to make sure you’re on the correct leg/lap … OR

2. Where your route goes though a track/trail/road/path junction and you need to pick the appropriate “exit” for your route direction?

[isazi]

@awinkel said in Navigation and direction of the route:

@isazi That’s because I own an Ambit.

I know
I just wanted to remember all users to be helpful to you and don’t create yet another flame war about what each model does.

[Egika]

@awinkel the recent models (Spartans, S9, S5 and with the last update S7) do exactly this: highlight the path at crossings and show you where to follow it.

[Fenr1r]

@awinkel If you mean my (1) above and your A2 is sufficiently like my A3, you will see an E3 route as this:

… and, as you approach the crossing/junction within the route as this (position indicator pointing off-course to the right):
No indication of where to go. Excuse glare and blur, please.

On a Spartan (and later) you will see these (at least) - note breadcrumb trail, bright route and arrows showing 50+ metres ahead (please excuse glare & cuff):
Zoomed out
Zoomed in

If you mean my (2) above, the S7 will show you your route on an actual cartographic map and you can apply that to the junction you see in front of you.

Otherwise, as said above, the main improvement of the S3, 5 & 9 is that the better screen resolution gives you a slightly better idea of the route exit angle from the real-world junction … assuming the planning map was sufficiently representative and the angle clearly shows the single correct exit.

You can put instructions as a WP name on the newer watches (poor Spartans excepted). But you can do that on your Ambit already.

[awinkel]

@fenr1r I mean the first one. Where the route crosses itself.
Thanks for the pictures. I was looking exactly for the option where the arrow indicated which way to go. Good to hear that this option is available on the newer models.

[Fenr1r]

@awinkel Cool. There is an occasional drawback to the greater smarts, however. Just to repeat DK above …

In case you check the nav screen after you pass a more complicated/tighter crossing than I showed, beware that the watch may show you on a different (but close) route leg until the separation becomes clear enough. Possibly for minutes.

[stevena]

You also have to be careful that if you pass a crossing without noticing it the watch will flip the arrows automatically if you end up on a different leg of the route in opposite direction.

[awinkel]

Thanks for pointing out the drawbacks.
Despite the fact that it is an improvement compared to the Ambit2, you have to pay attention to how the route goes.