Some improvement request from a G@#?min runaway ...
Answered
Hi,
First I want to say I am a very pleased new user of the K2.
Up to now the K2 has performed well, battery life was good and it has been very stable.
Coming from a Garmin edge820 this has been a relief. I have to admit, the first edge820 I had was quite reliable but had to be replaced due to the well known blue halo of the screen.
The replacement I got is everything but stable, even after multiple updates, factory resets, complete formatting, etc ... The standard support answer of Garmin "please perform a factory reset" got me so fed up, that I started looking for alternatives. The active support interaction of Hammerhead on these forums looked very appealing.
As I learned, the Karoo is a never ending "work in progress" so here are some of my suggestions or questions:
- When navigating to a point on the map or creating a course on the device, it is not possible to choose the road type (cycle, gravel, mtb). This would be nice to get home from a given location using the roads suited to the bike traveling with.
- Creation of 3 random trip suggestions on the device: "surprise-me" functionality like Mio or Garmin has. This is particularly nice when being in an unknown region.
- when using a profile screen with 2 data fields on top and a map: there is a lot of "black" space around the datafields => lots of valuable map space gets lost
- profile can only contain one map view: it would be nice to have multiple map views possible; one combined with data fields, one combined with upcoming elevation, ... so quickly swiping between different map views in ride is possible. As I understood from other posts, this could lead to battery life issues.
- navigating instructions when on data screen should include pop-up map view to avoid false turn instructions or making the correct decision at complex situations
- automatic zoom when approaching a turn, especially when mountainbiking
- automatic day/night mode for maps to save battery while navigating in the evening, based on sunrise and sunset time. At night, a dark map background is sufficient, even less blinding.
- when mountainbiking, I like the device to be more secure and protected by the stem: a karoo2 mount that is not a front mount (something like k-edge stem mounts but avoiding the quarter turn adapter)
- it would be nice to have an in-ride pause / switch off / switch on / continue possibility on longer- or even overnight stops (battery keeps draining when just switching off the screen in my experience)
- turn by turn instructions: it would be nice to have the settings depending on the profile; when road cycling, I like the automatic turn cues displaying the road names but when mountainbiking they are of far less use and take up map space or even cover the current location arrow
Looking forward to every new software release ;-)
Jan
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Hi Jan, I am glad to see that you are enjoying your rides with the Karoo 2 These are rather very insightful suggestions & Feature requests. please find my responses corresponding to your suggestions:- The Karoo 2 does not display different road types on the maps such as gravel, road, or MTB. However, you can choose to do so on the route creator on the Dashboard. here is an article that would help you understand the Maps better - Map style: Road & Paths - Legend
- While having a “Surprise me” would be great, This feature is currently specific to Garmin devices. We would love to develop something around this but with our own spin on it! Alternatively, you can route to a Point Of Interest based on your location on the Karoo. You can refer to this article to understand this better: Navigating to points of interest
- With regards to the blank space around the data fields, We did get similar feedback previously as well from other users. We took this direction to ensure that the numbers and data displayed remain clearly visible even in peripheral vision. I would like to let you know that we are improving this soon in a UI/UX fix.
- You are right in your findings, We have not moved further from a single map page on the profiles for the sole reason that the battery drain is rather high, the reason being that there would be 2 or more parallel navigation screens running in the background that will drain a lot of battery. To work around this we went ahead of having a combined data field with a map layout so you can have the main data points readily available We would like to first optimize the existing profile layout to an efficient stage. Then again based on the number of requests this feature will be developed so I do apologize for not being able to give a concrete timeline here.
- Our turn-by-turn cues and banners do have a section of the turns that are displayed as you approach a turn. We do not have the complete flow of the route displayed on the banner but this is a very nice feature and I have made a note of it to discuss with my product team.
- While custom themes and Day.-Night mode would be a good feature to have, We have disabled the dark mode or night mode on the Karoo 2 but we are looking at optimizing the screen brightness band so you can keep it as low as required for night riding. You can extend your ride further by enabling battery saver mode, Turning the screen off.
- The Karoo 2 comes with a quarter turn adapter that you can utilize with any Garmin styled quarter-turn mounts, I would like to assure you that the Karoo 2 mount is made of polycarbonate material and is thoroughly tested until failure and We do have lots of users who ride MTB trails with the Karoo 2 mount. Here is an article that will guide you on the types of mounts that are compatible with the Karoo 2: Compatible Aero/Non-standard handlebar mounts
- The Karoo 2 screen can be turned off and the ride still records whereas if you were to power off the Karoo 2 completely the ride would stop recording and would not be saved. It would only recover the part of the ride that was recorded until power down. Then again, you can always save battery by keeping your screen off, enabling battery saver
- We do plans of having a more intuitive profile usage experience where all you need to choose the profile to ride on and everything else is taken care of by the Karoo. As of now, you can turn off the Turn-by-Turn cues on the Karoo to ensure you have no banners popping up during your MTB rides, Please do refer to this article on Turn-by Turn banners: Turn by Turn settings
I do hope I was able to provide the clarifications to the suggestions you provided, Rest assured these features you requests will be laid across to my product team :) -
@Akhil - I, and dozens others, have also requested the ability to have multiple map screens, but it seems that you Hammerhead folks are still completely misunderstanding the point.
"We have not moved further from a single map page on the profiles for the sole reason that the battery drain is rather high, the reason being that there would be 2 or more parallel navigation screens running in the background that will drain a lot of battery"
We are not asking to show multiple maps on the same page (this sounds ridiculous!). We are asking for the ability to include more than one type map display in the same profile. We want to be able to swap from a page with the full screen map to a second page with two data fields on top and the map on the bottom, and to a third page with four data fields on top and still the (single) map at the bottom. It is very inconvenient to have to change profile in the middle of the ride if you want the map with climb profile for a hilly part and the full screen map for the rest of the ride...
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My previous cycle computer was a Mio Cyclo 405. So I miss these two features suggested by @Jan DG
- navigating instructions when on data screen should include pop-up map view to avoid false turn instructions or making the correct decision at complex situations
- automatic zoom when approaching a turn (which can be really helpful if in city centre with lots of complex junctions)
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