routeCourse: Phone to Garmin Edge route downloads solved!
As we recently discussed in Downloading a Garmin GPS watch course/route from a phone, creating or importing the route (aka course) that you want run or ride with your Garmin GPS watch is overly complicated using a laptop, and almost impossible using a phone.
The same challenge also occurs for Garmin’s market-dominating Edge cycling computers. Although these units have built-in maps (and do not need the equivalent of our dwMap route map GPS watch app) it is not at all convenient to download a route to them.
As part of the dwMap watch app project we also created a simple, streamlined, mobile-friendly route Planner to create routes on your phone or computer with just a few taps. The dynamic.watch website also lets you link your Strava and MapMyRide accounts and automatically shows routes created on those websites, and lets you import routes from Garmin Connect and Ride with GPS, and from standard GPX files.
Although the Edge cycling computers (and also the Garmin Oregon and Rino 700-series hiking GPS models) have maps built-in, we realized that our route Planner and importer could be by far the easiest way of creating and sending routes to these GPSes.
Introducing routeCourse from dynamicWatch!
routeCourse is our new Connect IQ app for Garmin Edge 520, Edge 820/820 Explore and Edge 1000/1000 Explore cycling computers, Oregon 700/750/750t and Rino 750/755t GPSes. routeCourse lets you create and download routes to your Edge or GPS right from your phone or computer. Designed for cyclists and hikers, just install the routeCourse app on your GPS, and use the existing dynamic.watch website to create or import routes.
Our responsive web site lets you create routes with just a few screen taps, and manage your created and imported routes in the cloud, right from your phone. When you start the routeCourse app on your GPS it will automatically get your list of the routes from the web site, and you can tap right on the GPS screen to download a route and launch it in the built-in map and ride recorder, just like any other route/course.
How it Works
When you start the routeCourse app on your GPS it will show you a list of your local routes (the ones already downloaded to your GPS):
Tap (touchscreen) or use the Up/Down and Select buttons (Edge 520) to select a route to “launch” it in the GPS’s built-in activity/map feature. This is the usual map and activity recorder capability of the GPS that you are already familiar with.
Swipe-left (touchscreen) or select the “Cloud” link (Edge 520) to view your routes created (or imported) and stored in the cloud at dynamicWatch:
The GPS icon (rectangle) by the route shows it has already been downloaded, while the cloud icon shows it is available to be downloaded from your account on dynamic.watch.
Tap or select one of these, and you will be given the option of downloading it, or of both downloading and launching it immediately.
Download routes and races from your phone!
By joining together the dynamicWatch mobile website with the Edge’s built-in maps you can create and download routes ONLY using your phone’s web browser, no laptop required!
routeCourse is available now from the Garmin Connect IQ App Store.
