Sending GPX files from my Android phone to my eTrex

[mattc]

I think I've read of people doing this.

What magical lead do I need?

Will the RWGps app on my phone (which I basically use as a backup, and for reviewing routes when I'm sat in a cafe or hotel room) do a download to the eTrex?

[Kim]

You need a "USB OTG adaptor" in either USB micro-B or USB-C flavour as appropriate to the socket on your phone (don't use one in combination with micro-B to C adaptors, that doesn't work).  This should give you a USB-A socket (like you'd have on a computer).  Plug your regular USB A to USB mini-B cable into that.  Wait an implausibly long time while the eTrex boots up and becomes a USB storage device.  Wait a little longer for the Android to recognise the device and mount it.  (You should get a notification, similar to the one you get for an SD card when you first boot up.)

Some old Android versions get confused by the eTrex appearing as two USB-storage drives (one for the internal storage, one for the SD card) and only mount one of them.  If it only sees the card, you can make it see the internal storage by removing the SD card from the eTrex before plugging in.)

Then you just need some sort of file manager app to copy your GPX file from the phone's local storage to the eTrex.  I don't use RwGPS, so can't comment on whether their app is able to write to a USB-storage drive directly (this is one of those things that's changed several times between Android versions, so older apps sometimes don't know that they need to ask permission to access it and fail with an unhelpful error).

[Ben T]

I'm sure I have done this in the past by putting the micro SD card from the Garmin into the phone, copying the file onto it, then putting it back into the Garmin

[Kim]

This is also a legitimate, if slightly fiddly option.  Assuming the phone has an SD card slot.  Or you have a USB reader and an OTG cable.

[Ben T]

For me the only time I needed to do it was if I’d forgot to put the gpx onto the Garmin before setting off for an audax.
If I’d forgot that I’d probably also have forgot the OTG cable, but would probably have my phone. 

[Lightning Phil]

If it’s the etrex 30 series then you can transfer the files wirelessly between phone and GPS over Ant+ . Ant+ isn’t the fastest protocol but it does work. Generallly any recent android phone will likely have built in ant+ support.

[Kim]

If it’s the etrex 30 series then you can transfer the files wirelessly between phone and GPS over Ant+ . Ant+ isn’t the fastest protocol but it does work. Generallly any recent android phone will likely have built in ant+ support.

Really?  Gosh.

I'm still in shock after transferring tracks wirelessly from another GPS unit.

Dispute that recent phones have ANT+ though.  Most just have BluetoothLE

[fuaran]

If it’s the etrex 30 series then you can transfer the files wirelessly between phone and GPS over Ant+ . Ant+ isn’t the fastest protocol but it does work. Generallly any recent android phone will likely have built in ant+ support.

How do you do that? What app do your use?

Dispute that recent phones have ANT+ though.  Most just have BluetoothLE

Seems to be quite a few phones that support Ant+, even if they don't actually advertise it. Worth trying the ANTTester app. It will give you a link to install any of the Ant+ drivers if they are required.

[Lightning Phil]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.carlopescio.uploader&hl=en_US

[Lightning Phil]

If it’s the etrex 30 series then you can transfer the files wirelessly between phone and GPS over Ant+ . Ant+ isn’t the fastest protocol but it does work. Generallly any recent android phone will likely have built in ant+ support.

Really?  Gosh.

I'm still in shock after transferring tracks wirelessly from another GPS unit.

Dispute that recent phones have ANT+ though.  Most just have BluetoothLE

All Samsung’s since 2014 (They started adding it with the Galaxy S4) have hardware to support Ant+. The Android drivers have been provided by Google since about the same time.  There’s a list of all the other makes / models with ant+, quite a few.

Key drivers are Ant radio service and the Ant plugin service

iPhones don’t do ant+ as far as I’m aware but haven’t looked into that as my phone is Android

[Kim]

No Ant+ on my Moto G7, which is fairly recent.

I tried with a USB dongle and OTG adaptor for SCIENCE to see what would happen, and it gets stuck with the still eTrex searching while STUploader waits for me to authorise the pairing.  So far, so normal.  This is why I use wires.

[Lightning Phil]

No Ant+ on my Moto G7, which is fairly recent.

I tried with a USB dongle and OTG adaptor for SCIENCE to see what would happen, and it gets stuck with the still eTrex searching while STUploader waits for me to authorise the pairing.  So far, so normal.  This is why I use wires.

Have you installed the ant+ services on the Moto as part of your experiment?

[Kim]

No Ant+ on my Moto G7, which is fairly recent.

I tried with a USB dongle and OTG adaptor for SCIENCE to see what would happen, and it gets stuck with the still eTrex searching while STUploader waits for me to authorise the pairing.  So far, so normal.  This is why I use wires.

Have you installed the ant+ services on the Moto as part of your experiment?

Yes.  It appears to be driving the dongle successfully, but gets stuck at pairing.

[Davef]

Slightly off topic. My backup gps is an etrex 35. My normal gps is on its way back from garmin after a repair but may or may not arrive in time for my long ride.

The etrex 35 is steadfastly refusing to show any tracks in trackmanager

I have tried copying gpx files to the gpx subfolder of both main and sd card. I have asked basecamp to do it too both from .gpx or .fit.  With the .fit basecamp converts and renames the, .gpx and puts them into gpx subfolder.

Despite all this i go I to track manager on the device and no tracks show.

Help

[Kim]

Possibly stupid question: Do the GPX files contain Tracks?  (If they contained Routes, they'd be in the routes manager.)

[Davef]

I have tried both routes and tracks. Currently set as tracks.

When I click on track manager it says

“Output format is set to activities. Saved activities can be viewed in activity history”

Early there were some tracks in trackmanager from when I last used it despite having deleted the gpxs from the gpx folder. Where does it get that list from ? Is there a separate database?

[Davef]

Are there restrictions on file name - mine are 10 chars long with .gpx in lower case as the file extension

[Kim]

Hmm, my eTrex 30 experience may differ here, but tracks/routes/waypoints live in GPX files in the /Garmin/GPX  directories on the internal storage and SD card (those created by the device are always in internal storage).

Not sure about Activities.  I think that's a newer thing.  And may be the cause of your problem.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Garmin/eTrex_Touch_35  Suggests that Activities live in FIT files in /Garmin/Activity

[Davef]

Thought I would update the software but apparently the website is down for maintenance

[Lightning Phil]

The etrex have an SQLite dB embedded where it keeps track of your tracklogs.  If you delete tracklogs via anything other than basecamp you’ll forever be haunted by messages in Basecamp complaining it can’t find files that are indexed in the etrex database.  The dB may also track other stuff but what I’ve described is the problem I had. I had to update the SQLite DB in the end to stop the stupid error messages.

If you are happy there’s nothing on your etrex 35 you’d be unhappy to lose. You could just force a factory reset to cause any formatting and / or directory / internal DB issues to be resolved. Then go in and change profile back to how you like it.

[Davef]

It is tracks in the gpx folder that aren’t showing. I did see a couple of SQLite databases and copied and had a snoop in them . One seemed to be just about geocaching and the other just one record with settings. My problem is also that even copying via basecamp did not work. I tried a factory reset too.

[mattc]

Rather than buy yet-another-cable, I used Ben's method of just swapping an SD card between the two gadgets (which is of course quite fiddly in itself, and I now have a safety-pin attached to my lanyard  )

Then:

Then you just need some sort of file manager app to copy your GPX file from the phone's local storage to the eTrex.  I don't use RwGPS, so can't comment on whether their app is able to write to a USB-storage drive directly (this is one of those things that's changed several times between Android versions, so older apps sometimes don't know that they need to ask permission to access it and fail with an unhelpful error).

- File manager worked, but is HIGHLY non-intuitive!

- RWGPS app was useless!

- Downloaded from RWGPS website in Chrome. Then moved file from Downloads folder to SD-card.
 ( you have to mirror the eTrex file structure onto the card as also posted i.e. /garmin/GPX/ <track files>)

Of course I never bothered whilst on tour, but it's probably useful knowledge. Until I drop/trash/lose one of the two gadgets ...