Another dumb Garmin question I'm afraid...

[Wild Rover]

Apologies, but I'm still on the steep part of the learning curve transition from Bryton 50 to Garmin eTrex 20.

If I'm just going out for a 50 or 60 km pootle, I can switch on the Bryton & let it find the satellites; then press the 'reset' button and it starts recording. I can then do the ride, and at the end press the 'reset' button again and it asks me if I want to stop or pause the recording. Obviously at the end of the ride I stop the recording. Later I can then upload the ride to the Bryton website and see the full route overlaid on a map of the area, with data on average speed, max/min speed, altitude, temp, etc. etc.

How do I do this with the Garmin? I presume there must be some command where I can just press a button at the start and it will log the details of any random ride that I do. Also, in terms of keeping a record, would I need to use the Garmin Connect site or does the Basecamp site have such a facility? Am I able to upload all such rides and store them in cyberspace, and then delete them from the device memory in order to save space?

Thank you as always. I'm keen to get to grips with the eTrex as I really need the battery longevity - I did a 10.5 hr audax ride over the weekend and the Bryton made it by the skin of it's teeth, despite the manufacturers claims of a 15 hour battery life; it was fully charged and had all energy-sapping features (e.g. backlight etc) turned right down or off. It certainly wouldn't last anywhere near a 300 or possibly even a hilly 200.

[stat]

This has puzzled me when using the Etrex  without having input a track or route! However, before you start ensure that you have done your housekeeping ie from system setup, in reset reset all tracks, etc - not what you have inputted from the computer. You may have to set it to stop navigating to last point if you did not do this when you finished last time. Then when you switch on, it finds where you are and lays down the trail of where you have been. At least this is what I have found!

[phil d]

IF the 20/30 are similar to the Legend/Vista, the starting and stopping of the tracklog are not quite as straightforward as you describe for the Bryton.  You go to the main menu/tracks and then at the top of the screen is a button to record.  I leave this recording all of the time.  The device will record one track (ie .gpx file) for each day onto the micro-SD (you have to set it up to record there on the Legend).  If you switch the device off, or lose signal, during the day it splits the tracklog into multiple segments, all within the one file (how your "analysis" software deals with this will vary - you might have to join the segments which is very easy to do in a text editor).

I'm not sure what happens if you carry on riding through midnight - I expect it starts a new file.  Again multiple files can easily be patched together in a text editor.

I find the best way to deal with files from the micro-SD card is to take the card out and plug it straight into the PC.  I can then copy them onto my PC, look at them directly, and/or delete them to release space as required.

Of course, if my initial assumption is incorrect, this post is as useful as a chocolate teapot!

[henshaw11]

With the Garmin (unless there's an option to turn it off, 'fraid mine's not to hand) it's more along the lines of that it logs regardless, in whatever manner you've set it to do so (ie more or less log points), and you save/reset the current log as required. So before as a ride (as mentioned) you can - via the track manager menu - clear the existing track, and it'll log afresh from there. When you've finished, you can save your track log. If you don't clear that log, then it'll carry on recording, so when you do finally save a log, it'll include the earlier section you'd already saved.
You can optionally get it to auto-archive too -ie the per day thing the phild mentioned - there may be some other archive options but I can't recall..

The auto/computer dashboard is resettable separately - you reset it via the lower lhs button.

It's just a bit different to what you'd expect having used a cyclocomputer - I've no idea if the cycling-orientated Garmins handle things differently. You'd half expect there to be a trip meter and trip segment (=lap I guess) that you could reset separately, but there's only a total mileage count otherwise (resettable by a full reset of the device).

[Toady]

One extra hint (from a 60CSX user - so this may not be 100% accurate in your case) is that if you get to the start point and reset your tracklog before it's got a fix, then the first step in the tracklog will be a giant leap from your last known position to the start of the ride.  Lots of my tracklogs start with a straight line from home to the railway station where we start.  So my procedure is: switch the GPSr on before arriving at the start point, so that it has a fix when you are ready to set off, and then reset the tracklog.

At the end of the ride you can then save the tracklog.  It will take the "active log" in the Garmin's memory (which has zillions of points) and reduce it to a 500 point log.  In so doing it may steal a bit of distance, so the length of the resulting saved log may be a tad shorter than the distance shown on the odometer.

As I said, this is from a Garmin 60CSX point of view.  Apols if this doesn't apply in your case.

[Wild Rover]

Thanks for your help all. I think I've just about got it cracked now.