West Balkans mapping and co-ords problems

[Bulletguy]

Am currently in Slovenia planning on going through Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia in my Campervan.

I have a TT GO750 which lists all the above countries in the menu plus I have co-ordinates for many Campsites in each country (except Macedonia!).

However when I put in some co-ords it comes up as "no useable location found near cursor".

As an example using A to B route planning;

JIHAC (in Bosnia) to N43° 11’22.8” E17° 43'45.4” simply gets me the above......"no useable location found near cursor".

Anyone any ideas as to why even with precise co-ordinates i'm getting the above message?

My TT does not have East European mapping installed.....only limited. But then TT don't offer full East Europe mapping anyway and it got me through Bulgaria and Romania last year pretty much ok.

 

[canderson]

If the location you provide with coordinates is TOO far from any road in the TomTom map, then the "no useable location.." message occurs. Having looked at N43° 11’22.8” E17° 43'45.4 from a satellite view, I can understand why you would normally receive this message.

HOWEVER -- that's not all of your problem in this case. In this case, the map data around the area of Mostar is SO little that it your unit won't even find the nearest road to your campground. The closest road you will find is the M-17/E73. Not very good map detail at all, and too far, so you get that message. Even Sarajevo has no detailed street information for the TomTom map. I'd complain!

 

[canderson]

To be fair, though, TomTom only claims to have 'connecting road' (not detailed road) information for these countries in that part of Europe:
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Moldavia, Montenegro, Serbia, Belarus

 

[Andy_P]

I've just re-discovered a technique I remember finding a long time ago. ... I just tried this on my Go940 and seem to have a good work-round.

I agree, the exact spot from those coordinates is well "off-road", so if I just go "Navigate to..." (or "Plan route...") and select the "Latitude/Longitude" option on the second screen, when I enter the coordinates I get the "No usable locations near cursor" message like Bulletguy.

But you CAN get the device to automatically select the nearest part of the M17/E73 and plan a route OK - you just have to do it a slightly different way.

If I go "Navigate to..." (or "Plan route...") and select "Point on map", I can then use the "Find" button and enter exactly the same coordinates.
That shows me the exact same spot (off-road) but it also shows the M17/E73 already highlighted and with an arrow at the nearest point to the blue cursor.

When I tap "Done" at the bottom, it will happily calculate a route to the closest point on the main road.

I can do some screen-grab pics if it would help to make the sequence of steps clearer.

 

[dhn]

You ARE more than a pretty face, Andy! :thumb:

 

[canderson]

The bad news is that the route to the OP's site (such as it is!) isn't identifiable using "point on map". The road that he needs is a fair distance from any road indicated on the map, so he's either going to be in seat-of-the-pants mode, or doing some real mapping (on Google, for example, which covers this area). He needs to come in through town from the north on roads that are completely unavailable on his map. The closest he'll ever get using TomTom's maps is the exit off M17/E73 at 43.205958,17.792952.

 

[Bulletguy]

I've just re-discovered a technique I remember finding a long time ago. ... I just tried this on my Go940 and seem to have a good work-round.

I agree, the exact spot from those coordinates is well "off-road", so if I just go "Navigate to..." (or "Plan route...") and select the "Latitude/Longitude" option on the second screen, when I enter the coordinates I get the "No usable locations near cursor" message like Bulletguy.

But you CAN get the device to automatically select the nearest part of the M17/E73 and plan a route OK - you just have to do it a slightly different way.

If I go "Navigate to..." (or "Plan route...") and select "Point on map", I can then use the "Find" button and enter exactly the same coordinates.
That shows me the exact same spot (off-road) but it also shows the M17/E73 already highlighted and with an arrow at the nearest point to the blue cursor.

When I tap "Done" at the bottom, it will happily calculate a route to the closest point on the main road.

I can do some screen-grab pics if it would help to make the sequence of steps clearer.

Yes I tried your method (screen grabs could prove useful just to make sure i'm getting it right).

The actual place name for those co-ords is Medjugorje and this is their website;

http://www.tel.net.ba/medjugorje-pansion.kamp/eng_onama.htm

As mentioned i've just used this as an example since finding many other GPS co-ords in the countries listed give me "no useable location found near cursor" which isn't much use if i'm going to keep encountering this problem! Strange that TT list all the countries in the SatNav......but don't recognise any co-ords.

The best I can get out of it is some place names......and even those are limited, eg, Medjugorje is not in.

The other annoying thing is that TT persists in directing me through southern Croatia via Split.....and i'm trying to go through Bosnia.

I realise these countries were once considered 'off the map' but it's almost 20 years since the Bosnian War ended! I would like to think by now TT and various other SatNavs have got around to recognising GPS locations.

 

[Bulletguy]

I realise these countries were once considered 'off the map' but it's almost 20 years since the Bosnian War ended!

I would like to think by now TT and various other SatNavs have got around to recognising GPS locations.

And i've just found out they have.

A group of German folks have just arrived on site here in a variety of 4x4 off-roaders. All heading for Albania and i've just been speaking with one of them who has been there a number of times, including Bosnia.

I asked what type SatNav they are using..........all have Garmin.

So come on TT.....time to get your finger out!!

 

[canderson]

To clarify .. it's not a matter of not recognizing 'GPS locations', it's the fact that they still haven't got maps with any decent detail in the area in which you plan to travel. Again, beware of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Moldavia, Montenegro, Serbia and Belarus. In those countries, TomTom's maps have only the major roads.

 

[Bulletguy]

To clarify .. it's not a matter of not recognizing 'GPS locations', it's the fact that they still haven't got maps with any decent detail in the area in which you plan to travel. Again, beware of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Moldavia, Montenegro, Serbia and Belarus. In those countries, TomTom's maps have only the major roads.

When I say "not recognising GPS locations" I could understand if it had limited mapping, as in Bulgaria for example, but that TT won't even get a co-ord in any of the above countries is poor to say the least.

To illustrate my point better, the GPS co-ord I gave which TT won't recognise is a place called Medjugorje. A bit of searching tells me it has a population of 4000 inhabitants. So a small(ish) village/town. But Biser a very tiny village in southern Bulgaria with just 850 inhabitants, less than a quarter of Medjugorje....yet TT will show both the village name and co-ords. Biser is also a very tiny narrow road off the main road into Harmanli (the nearest town). I know exactly what the road is like as I drove it last year.

I notice you also use Garmin so it would be interesting to know if it reads those Bosnian co-ords?

 

[canderson]

I'll try this again...

The road that passes through Medjugorje isn't on TomTom's mapping system. Neither is the road to your 'camping' location east of there.

TomTom's mapping is MUCH BETTER in Bulgaria (please notice that it is not in the list of 'connecting-road-only' countries I provided to you earlier), and the tiny town of Biser and the highways through and around it are included. Because of this, yes, you can find the little town of Biser.

In the countries in the list I supplied, mapping is at a BARE MINIMUM. In other countries (including Bulgaria), map detail is FAR superior. Until TomTom gets a decent mapping job done for those countries, your expectations of what you will 'find' in them needs to be limited to whatever can be found on the major highways, and those highways themselves.

Your TomTom will not find any road or town not on its map, and it will refuse to go to a latitude/longitude pair that is too far from a known road no matter where you're looking.

 

[Bulletguy]

I'll try this again...

The road that passes through Medjugorje isn't on TomTom's mapping system. Neither is the road to your 'camping' location east of there.

TomTom's mapping is MUCH BETTER in Bulgaria (please notice that it is not in the list of 'connecting-road-only' countries I provided to you earlier), and the tiny town of Biser and the highways through and around it are included. Because of this, yes, you can find the little town of Biser.

In the countries in the list I supplied, mapping is at a BARE MINIMUM. In other countries (including Bulgaria), map detail is FAR superior. Until TomTom gets a decent mapping job done for those countries, your expectations of what you will 'find' in them needs to be limited to whatever can be found on the major highways, and those highways themselves.

Your TomTom will not find any road or town not on its map, and it will refuse to go to a latitude/longitude pair that is too far from a known road no matter where you're looking.

Yes I realise this, but does your Garmin locate that co-ordinate.....or not?

Incidentally Biser is not even a small town. It's a very very tiny little village with one Bar/Restaurant and one shop. Apart from the homes there......that's all there is.

 

[canderson]

I don't have European maps for my Garmin handhelds, so I can't tell you the state of their mapping quality in Eastern Europe.