Custom personal route planning and/or Garmin Basecamp with MG4

[rjhfandclf]

I'm working on re-planning my first long EV journey through France, and what I want to do is be able to plan my route - which I know well - to incorporate my preferred stops and chargers, without being told where else I need (but don't, in fact!) to stop. I then want to submit this to the car for other guidance, etc.

I think I have looked at most suggested route planners - yet not one of those I have tried seems to allow me to customise my route to use the chargers I want. They all insist on dictating what they deem is best for me - sometimes wanting me to stop twice in just a few miles for just a few minutes and only a few more kWh, when they simply don't (and can't) know my personal reasons for wanting to stop for longer at a marginally earlier charger (like Eurotunnel!) which would actually get me the whole/most distance. I have tried Electroverse, Chargemap, Shell Recharge, ABRP, Tesla, (Zap-map - n/a yet), etc., plus one or two more EU-orientated offerings). So, two questions:

1. Does anyone know of a user-friendly and co-operative planner that will accept personal planning and customisation, either for Android (via AA) or preferably PC for transfer to Google or other for the car? (NB I don't like or trust mobile phones much, so using them this much is a bit of a daunting learning-curve!)

2. Does anyone have experience of using Garmin Basecamp to plan with MG in any way? (NB I have used this for years for Garmin walking GPS planning, and even found a small programme in the past to convert exported Tom-Tom-designed car routes into rather old (2011) Mercedes-readable format - but not entirely successfully as the old MB Command system was total rubbish!)

PS. I have seen elsewhere that others have given different brand-names for the basis of MG sat-navs, but when I asked my dealer, he promptly stated that it is in fact Garmin-based in the phase 2 MG4 Trophy ER; and actually I wouldn't necessarily argue with this as it does sound and work distinctly like 'Serena' - the favourite voice of our other car's old Garmin sat-nav! Any comments on this, perhaps?

 

[siteguru]

Google Maps? Plan your route and add waypoints for the stops you want to make? (Random result from a search is below):

How to add a stop on Google Maps before your final destination, on desktop or mobile

It's possible to add a stop on Google Maps before your final destination. Here's how to do it on a computer or mobile device.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[rjhfandclf]

Google Maps? Plan your route and add waypoints for the stops you want to make? (Random result from a search is below):

How to add a stop on Google Maps before your final destination, on desktop or mobile

It's possible to add a stop on Google Maps before your final destination. Here's how to do it on a computer or mobile device.

www.businessinsider.com

Yes, thanks - I should have included Google - both Maps and Earth too - which I have used quite a lot over the years; and Earth interacts well with Basecamp, so that is indeed a fall-back. I was just fishing for anything else I might have missed. NB I did try your link to see what it was, but it goes to a website that wants me to sign up to a sub before I can se anything.

 

[siteguru]

Really? I don't get any sign-up prompt - I just scroll down the screen to see the info. However I am using an ad blocker (uBlock Origin) so maybe that's blocking the prompt you're seeing?

 

[rjhfandclf]

Really? I don't get any sign-up prompt - I just scroll down the screen to see the info. However I am using an ad blocker (uBlock Origin) so maybe that's blocking the prompt you're seeing?

What I got was this, covering the whole screen, obliterating all top links:

... but now I don't - it opens happily ... maybe it was a brief marketing ploy? I also have Adblock Plus (5 blocked items on BI) and Malwarebytes Pro (58 blocked!) But still thanks regardless.

 

[Brettus]

I’ve dabbled with ABRP and you can tell it you’re GOING to stop and charge at whatever specific charger and charge to x percent and it then knows you don’t need charge around that stop. You can use preferences of chargers and networks too so it knows to prefer or avoid networks or specific chargers if you really like/dislike a particular location. But you can just add stops manually too. You don’t have to figure out the right combination of logic to make it “think” like you.

 

[Robf]

I’ve dabbled with ABRP and you can tell it you’re GOING to stop and charge at whatever specific charger and charge to x percent and it then knows you don’t need charge around that stop. You can use preferences of chargers and networks too so it knows to prefer or avoid networks or specific chargers if you really like/dislike a particular location. But you can just add stops manually too. You don’t have to figure out the right combination of logic to make it “think” like you.

I usually use Electroverse, but tested most of them recently ( from Horsham to Dingwall) and ABRP was the best by some way

 

[rjhfandclf]

I’ve dabbled with ABRP and you can tell it you’re GOING to stop and charge at whatever specific charger and charge to x percent and it then knows you don’t need charge around that stop. You can use preferences of chargers and networks too so it knows to prefer or avoid networks or specific chargers if you really like/dislike a particular location. But you can just add stops manually too. You don’t have to figure out the right combination of logic to make it “think” like you.

I usually use Electroverse, but tested most of them recently ( from Horsham to Dingwall) and ABRP was the best by some way

I’m grateful to you both for your input – thanks – and so felt I needed to look into ABRP once again. Unfortunately, though, after much experimenting today, I find I fail at the first hurdle – and that is trying to persuade it to accept the Tesla Supercharger at Eurotunnel – which would be my fall-back should the free Le Shuttle chargers not be working (as at present due to site upgrading) and which it obviously won’t currently accept either. ABRP states that the Tesla charger details are:

This is totally incorrect as the charger most certainly is fine and open to non-Teslas (I have an account) and should work perfectly (as it was a couple of months ago - unless something has changed that they are not divulging on their website). ABRP won’t therefore let me change the charge level in Folkstone via this or any other nearby brand, so consequently has to find me an alternative to stop later at as it reckons I will only have 65% when I arrive in France.

My second stop should then be another Tesla S/C just SW of Rouen (which it does actually recognise) but insists on intermediate charges before that because of the charge level it perceives I start out with in France. In fact, if it would accept that I have 85% (say) from Eurotunnel, then I would need no more stops for the 150 miles to Rouen. The only way I have 'fiddled' this is either to falsify a stop close to either side of the tunnel, or alternatively, to start my journey from Coquelles (which negates the whole point of recording the detailed actuality of my new EV driving route). But even then, although I have set it to minimum and longest stops, it still wants me to take one or two short top-ups in-between. If I try to remove one of these, it merely replaces it with another, or asks me to choose an alternative.

It seems to hate the idea that the car might go for more than about 100 or so miles - even though I have set it up for the right model etc and have also checked the anticipated miles/kWh registered. I’m sure I must still be doing something wrong here, but the point is that I am looking for something easy and user-friendly. Do please correct and guide me if I am still doing it all wrong.