It made riding up the Col de Joux Plane and Colombiere quite interesting! And yes, it was taken in the shade!
Archive for the ‘Gadgets’ Category
Alpine temperatures
Monday, July 19th, 2010Garmin Edge 605 and 705 – new 3.20 firmware available
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010This firmware has now been withdrawn from Garmin’s site. There were a raft of problems with it, some serious, such as deleting the entire history if the battery was left to run down. It happened to me, too.
Garmin Edge 605 and 705 – new 3.20 firmware available.
Garmin: Edge 605/705 Updates & Downloads.
Change History
Changes made from version 3.10 to 3.20:
- Improved calculation and reporting of total ascent, total descent, and grade.
- Improved handling of history files when saving.
- Correctly calibrates wheel size when using PowerTap hub.
- Backlight setting now saved to configuration and set automatically on power-on.
- Improved ‘Go Home’ functionality to search for any user-created waypoints named home.
- Added new timezone for Santiago, Chile.
- Allow house number 0 on find address page.
- Improved range on power calibration page.
- GSC10 sensor improvements to reduce speed spikes.
- Uses elevation calibration point when starting an activity during a course.
- Added message indicating elevation calibration point has been found.
- Expand elevation calibration radius to 50m.
- Translations updated in the user interface.
Google Latitude
Sunday, February 8th, 2009This is an interesting little application, if you have a compatible phone you can install Google Maps onto your phone and latitude will display your location to your friends on a map. Likewise, you’ll be able to see the whereabouts of your friends. Perhaps you could use it so your significant other 
can keep tabs on you so you get a nice cup of tea and a meal when you get back from a ride! It’s got to be better than continually calling to say how long you might be!
http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html
Privacy issues are largely overcome by the configuration options available to you, you can even tell latitude you’re somewhere you’re not if that makes you happy! You don’t actually need GPS in your handset, latitude will attempt to locate you using GSM triangulation, but GPS adds more accuracy.
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Sunday, February 8th, 2009New gadget alert!
I finally decided to upgrade my mobile phone, my last one – a Sony Ericsson w800i, was well suited to me at the time I bought it, but with increasing dependence on an online existence, it was time for a change!
You’re probably wondering why I’m writing about a cellphone on a cycling blog, but some of the gadgetry in these devices has useful applications if you’re a cyclist. On some of my longer solo rides, I like to listen to music, podcasts or the radio but prefer not to use headphones or earbuds, so a decent speaker is a must. The Nokia 5800 (just like my w800i) has speakers, but these are stereo with a fuller sound. I find that with the phone in my breast pocket (or napolean pocket as some call them 
), with the zip slightly open you can follow podcasts and talk shows on the radio easy enough, but I’m on the lookout for an unobtrusive and tiny external speaker to attach to my arm or something.
So what other functionality is useful to a cyclist? Well, this unit has full Satnav capability, you can download the maps via your PC or have the unit seek out the maps as you go over a WLAN or 3G connection. I doubt if this will replace the Edge for me, but it’s useful to be able to interrogate the Nokia maps when you’re at rest stops.
In addition, and possibly the biggest threat to the Garmin Edge, is Nokia’s Sports Tracker, there isn’t an officially released client for the 5800 on Nokia’s site, but a beta has escaped and can be found on some sites. I haven’t fully tested it yet, but something tells me that Garmin Edge has this area of the market well sewn up, but we shall see – and I would honestly prefer to carry only one gadget on a ride, and one that can do it all is going to win for me.
For a more simple bicycle computer like funtion, the built in Positioning feature which will give rudimentary (compared to the Garmin Edge) speed, trip distance, average speed information. Not bad, and adequate if you only want to know how far and fast you’ve been – there is no data-logging though, so you won’t be able to import it into something like SportTracks!
The camera is competent, with 3.2 Mega Pixels, video and geo-tagging (uses the in-built GPS to tag the location of each picture). There is no native geo-tagging application in the 5800, but you can get it from Nokia here, they call it ‘Location Tagger’. The icing on the cake is a built in FlickR client so you can upload pictures at the press of a button, it really is so simple and quick.
Despite the fact that this is one of the most feature rich phones on the market, with touch screen and a large display, battery life is excellent. I made full use of the radio, camera, GPS and 3G yesterday on a ride and a full day of meddlling didn’t even knock the battery down a bar on the display.
Finally, I’ve got Google’s Latitude on there, too. This application, built into the downloadable Google Maps application, allows you to see geographically where your friends are. I can see this becoming very popular once people get over their initial suspicions over privacy.
More later.
Using SD card map data on your PC
Sunday, January 4th, 2009The following guide has been tested and proven effective.
By popular demand (it seems), for those of you without the DVD version of City Navigator, here is a brief guide to using SD card map data on your PC.
1. Back up your SD card by copying the entire contents of the SD card to somewhere safe (you should do this anyway as if you lose the SD card, you’re stuffed).
2. Assuming you already have Mapsource installed, navigate to C:\Garmin\PCBSMP2 (you might have installed it elsewhere, but this is the default).
3. You will see a file called ‘pc_basemap2.img’ , rename it to something else (for example pc_basemap2.OLD).
4. I don’t have the SD card, but I assume there will be one big file somewhere on the card, copy it to C:\Garmin\PCBSMP2 and rename it to ‘pc_basemap2.img’ without the quotes obviously.
5. Now open Mapsource and select ‘PC Basemap’ in the dropdown near the top and you should now be able to see City Navigator.
What you’ve effectively done here is to trick Mapsource into opening City Navigator instead of the basemap that is supplied with Mapsource.
The only problem you may have is of performance, Mapsource will have to open the entire file even if you’re only viewing one part of the map, but if your PC has plenty of memory, you should get by.
Firmware 2.50 released for Garmin Edge 605 and 705
Friday, November 7th, 2008A worthwhile upgrade, fixes several issues and adds some features. More info in the link below.
Wii Fit
Sunday, April 27th, 2008I picked up one of these on Friday, primarily because I can’t resist a new toy, but I also thought if it adds another aspect to my training, then why not
First of all, I don’t believe for one minute that this device on its own will make you fit, but I also think that it will be a useful complement to an existing fitness program.
I think of the Wii Fit as a tool to track your goals with, you can set goals such as ‘lose x lbs in x weeks’ and the Wii Fit will track your progress. This may have a positive effect on your cycling, you might be tempted to do an extra 10 miles if you know it’s contributing to that goal you’ve set yourself on the Wii Fit! Also, the stretching/yoga part of Wii Fit is likely to be useful to cyclists, after all, how many of us stretch like we’re supposed to? It certainly makes stretching slightly more interesting!
I’ll probably add more to this later.
Garmin Edge 705 review
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008My new Garmin Edge 705 (Heart Rate and Cadence bundle) arrived today, and here are a few pictures that may help provide some answers. I’m going to add to this posting and eventually re-title it ‘review’ once it’s complete.
The Garmin Edge was ordered yesterday afternoon from Handtec and it arrived this morning for only an additional £5.95 for overnight shipping, not bad! I chose the model with Heart and Cadence monitoring.
What surprised me was the inclusion of a spare handlebar bracket, I’ve had 2 Garmin Edge 305(s) and neither of them included a second bracket, I’m glad I didn’t order a spare now! There are also more than enough zip-ties in the box.
The Garmin Edge 705 comes with a mains charger, but from experience with my 305, it’s unlikely I’ll ever use it unless I’m travelling. I tend to charge mine from the USB socket on the computer, which you have to do anyway to transfer your end of ride workout. Notice the inclusion of UK and US adapters.
The new Edge 705 is appreciably bigger than the old 305, approximately 30% all things considered.
After some limited playtime, I’ve established that you need the latest version of Garmin’s Training Centre, this application not only updates your Training Centre, it also carries the required USB drivers, too.
I downloaded the “Training Center For Windows Ver. 3.3.4 as of Feb 29, 2008″ on this page (I’m a Windows user but Mac versions are also available).
You can also download the Garmin Communicator plugin here, this will help you to more conveniently upload training efforts from your new 605 or 705 to the Garmin Connect site (updated version of Motionbased).
Maps
There seems to be a good deal of confusion over which maps to choose for this device, there’s almost no guidance anywhere that I’ve seen. Sure a shop will sell you a map, but which do you choose? It’s pretty straight forward I think.
Garmin Topo GB v2
This is Garmin’s topographical map, it does do autorouting on the pc, but the autorouting on the Edge is rudimentary. It will suggest a route such as “take the A540″ but won’t tell you how to get onto and off arterial roads that lead to and from the A540. Topo GB includes contour lines, but doesn’t include anywhere near the detail that a UK OS map does – don’t buy this map if you’re expecting OS levels of detail, you will be disappointed. There is a good amount of POIs (Points of Interest) so you can see if there is a nearby café, ATM, station etc.
Garmin City Navigator NT 2008
This is Garmin’s street level detail map, it has autorouting information on the PC and on the Edge. You can navigate to an address to house number level, it also has a good amount of POIs. It costs less than Topo GB v2, too.
So which do you choose? It’s up to you, but my advice would be Navigator every time, it’s cheaper (by at least half) and has all the detail you need. I’m not really sure who Topo is marketed at, anyone that is after topgraphical mapping is probably better off with a Satmap and if you’re a mountain biker, the screen on an Edge is totally inappropriate for trying to view whilst taking on dropoffs and other trail obstacles
Important note, there are 2 versions of City Navigator, one comes preloaded on a Micro SD card and the other is on installation media (DVD). The preloaded Micro SD card version doesn’t allow you to use it on your PC, but the other does. Make sure you know what you’re buying before you commit. I have the PC version which allows me to ‘send’ maps to my Garmin Edge 705, in my opinion, this is the version that offers the most flexibility and is the map to buy if you plan your routes ahead of time on the PC.
Update – read new information about using SD based mapping data on your PC here – http://www.velorider.co.uk/wp02/?p=68
Map / routes / waypoint management
This is best achieved using Garmin’s MapSource. I’ve created a few routes in MapSource and successfully loaded them into the Edge 705. It’s also useful to create waypoints in MapSource such as your favourite cafés, quet roads etc and transer them to the Edge. Waypoints show up in the Edge in the favourites section, so if you decide you’re tired on a ride, you can divert to your usual favourite detour/café.
Bugs
Not too many, fortunately, but I’ve spotted a few.
- If you have more than one map type (topo and navigator for example) loaded onto the Edge, then you can’t search on addresses – even if you deselect one of the map types. The workaround is to install City Navigator on the Micro SD card and install Topo onto the Garmin Edge’s memory. There’s plenty of room on the Edge’s internal memory, but I just selected only the areas of the country I regularly ride in. You also need to deselect the City Navigator map in map options if you want to see the contours from the Topo map.
- If you try to search a street before a district, the unit crashes – easily avoidable – don’t do it! It looks like if you follow the steps in point 1 above, then this is no longer an issue.
- Not really a bug, but this one happens when you use ‘find address’ and allow the Edge 705 to autoroute you there. If on the ride you spot a cycle path or something else cycle friendly that doesn’t appear on the map you’re using, something strange happens. You’ll notice that when you get home and upload your route, that the ‘breadcrumb’ trail you’ve left doesn’t faithfully follow your actual route. The Garmin will attempt to ‘snap’ your trail onto nearby roads. This is a strange one, the Garmin Edge’s primary function is to record your training and travels, not to try and interpret it. I’ve raised the issue with Garmin via their Motionbased forum. There is an answer to this, simply turn off ‘lock on roads’ in map settings, I’ve tested it and this setting sorts it!
If I spot anymore I’ll add them here!
Garmin Edge 705 – Availability
Thursday, March 27th, 2008Looks like stock levels are starting to improve, at least one UK online vendor now has them showing (hopefully an honest indication!) as in stock. Note, this is the non-bundled version (without the possibly not required copy of Garmin mapping), you just choose whether or not you want to pay extra for cadence functionality.
http://www.heartratemonitor.co.uk/garmin_edge_705.html
