Creating multi-waypoint routes

RouteToContacts is a very useful tool for those pre-planning and creating multi-waypoint routes and looking for a way to incorporate the results into their Mazda / Fiat 124 Spider navigation systems.  GPX routes can be easily converted into waypoints as Contacts and it also makes it easy to share a route with others (car club road trips) as well as saving routes (or at least the waypoints) for future use.

– ameridan

 

Article and illustrations courtesy of  Kees Thuis (used with permission)

I like to do tours with the ND. For long tours I plan my route with Garmin Basecamp and load the route onto my Garmin Nuvi 3597 navigation device, which I have installed on a Brodit dashboard mount. This works very well for me.

But… I have also come to like the integrated MZD Connect navigation system as it has a big, nice screen right in the viewing area, it does quick route calculations, it is nicely up-to-date and, yes indeed, because it is integrated.
This made me look into ways to use the integrated navigation system for short and medium long tours.
The main issue: How to transfer route points into the car system?
I think I have found a way to do this, using two existing features of the car system:

1. Automatic Bluetooth synchronisation of the Phone contact list
2. Phone contacts with full address can be used for navigation

I have developed a Windows 10 app called RouteToContacts, that can read GPX route files, and converts the via points in the route file into phone contacts (AA 001, AA 002, AA 003 etc.).
After Bluetooth synchronization between the phone and the car system the phone contacts can be used to easily re-create the route in the car navigation system.

The RouteToContacts app is available for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile in the Windows App Store: https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9nk03zq12lq3

For a step-by-step instruction on how to create a route from the contacts on the Mazda MZD connect system in the ND, please watch this short video https://1drv.ms/v/s!AkGIAyXLfEy9ik4Liqd5XrX3HwCF.

Windows 10 Mobile

RouteToContacts is available for Windows 10 Mobile, so it can be run directly on your phone to convert GPX route files stored on the phone (or on OneDrive) into phone contacts.

iPhone and Android

Owners of iPhones and Android phones could use the PC-version of RouteToContacts to convert GPX route files into phone contacts (visible in the People app), which could then be synchronized with the iPhone/Android contacts list using the Microsoft Phone Companion App. (this doesn’t seem to exist any longer – any other alternatives?)

Creating your route by adding Waypoints

• select “Home”
• select “Communications”
• select “Contacts”
• select “AA 001”
• select “Address”
• select “Navigate to…”
• repeat for “AA 002”, “AA 003”, etc., by selecting Final Destination, which adds to the end of list of waypoints