Author Topic: confused  (Read 1189 times)

confused
« on: 18 March, 2012, 11:51:58 am »
ok so the saga continues, the other night I went out for a ride and just switched the vista on and started peddling, the idea being that it would create a record of where I'd been plus record speed, distance etc.  On reaching a junction a proximity alert went off this continued until the routes diverged . Anyway when I got home and looked at what had been recorded, the unit had picked up a Track I had saved before, and merged that Track with what I had just ridden. On further investigation I noticed that the Track log was on, and I also had a real problem getting the ride info off of the vista, tried the garmin connect I use with the edge, both computer and vista kept telling me they were talking to each other but nothing, switched the vista on to interface and the sd card came up but again nothing.

So a) if I just want to record distance, speed, etc do I just switch off the Track log option
      b) surely I can have up to 20 Tracks saved on the unit and ride each one individually without them interfering with each other,
          even if they start at the same place and use the same roads etc for the first 3 or 4 miles.
      c) where am I going wrong with the downloads, with the edge you just plug it in and all the info comes up on the computer,       
          simples   

Re: confused
« Reply #1 on: 18 March, 2012, 11:56:02 am »
The older Garmin units are anything but intuitive.  My GPS60CSX is a great bit of kit but so bloody frustrating. 

Wowbagger

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Re: confused
« Reply #2 on: 18 March, 2012, 12:07:47 pm »
If you've saved a track to follow and then your machine records where you've been, the .gpx file will have the saved track at the top and the record of your ride underneath.

I find it's simplest just to delete the saved track on the Garmin before downloading the ride details, although you can open the file in a text editor and find the planned route and delete it.

Here's the relevant section from the first download I did after our ride last Thursday:

Quote
<trk>
<name>writtle</name>
<trkseg>
   <trkpt lat="51.62972993" lon="0.5603999645"><ele>25.131714</ele></trkpt>
   <trkpt lat="51.62994996" lon="0.56033995"><ele>25.612305</ele></trkpt>
... lots more similar lines ...
   <trkpt lat="51.62759992" lon="0.5609699339"><ele>18.883057</ele></trkpt>
   <trkpt lat="51.62723992" lon="0.5614699982"><ele>19.844360</ele></trkpt>
</trkseg>
</trk>

<trk>
<name>ACTIVE LOG</name>
<trkseg>
   <trkpt lat="52.19022604" lon="1.000063475"><ele>18.883057</ele><time>2012-03-14T22:58:50Z</time></trkpt>
</trkseg>
<trkseg>
   <trkpt lat="52.19022604" lon="1.000063475"><ele>18.402344</ele><time>2012-03-15T00:28:38Z</time></trkpt>
   <trkpt lat="52.19022604" lon="1.000063475"><ele>17.441162</ele><time>2012-03-15T00:28:39Z</time></trkpt>
   <trkpt lat="52.19022604" lon="1.000063475"><ele>16.960449</ele><time>2012-03-15T00:29:19Z</time></trkpt>

... etc ...
</trkseg>
</trk>
 


I've added the colour for clarity but the start and finish of the planned route is delineated by the first set of <trk> </trk> markers.

The words ACTIVE LOG show you the start of your actual ride, although in mine you'l see <trkseg> </trkseg> markers. The Garmin puts these in every time you switch it off and on again.
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Kim

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Re: confused
« Reply #3 on: 18 March, 2012, 03:47:44 pm »
Idiot-proof track logging in the Vista:
  • Go into 'setup' on the tracks screen.  Enable "wrap when full"[1].
  • Tweak recording method and interval to taste.  (1 second time interval logging gives the highest resolution, but is probably overkill for most purposes.  Auto is surprisingly good.)
  • Go into 'Data card setup' and enable "log tracks to data card".

You will now, regardless of what you do with the track memory, have a canonical log of absolutely everything created in a GPX file on the SD card.  If you go past midnight, it'll create a new file and carry on without skipping a beat.  The file will contain separate tracks for every time GPS lock is acquired/lost and for every time the unit is turned on and off.  It should be straightforward to delete the dross and splice fragments together as needed in your track-manipulation software of choice (I use Memory Map).


[1] This one's a bit subtle: when the internal active track memory becomes full, it can either stop logging and truncate the track, or it can start overwriting the start of the track.  Which of these is most desirable would depend on circumstances, except that if it stops logging because the memory is full, it will also stop recording to the SD card.  Therefore, for long tracks, the best solution is to enable 'wrap when full' and allow the internal memory to overflow, as the complete track will be recorded to the card.

frankly frankie

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Re: confused
« Reply #4 on: 18 March, 2012, 05:35:21 pm »
+1 absolutely the best way to do it.

Forget about 'saving' tracks on the Vista.  Completely.  Just pretend that facility doesn't exist.
Why?
Much useful information is ripped out in the process.  Eg, timestamp, for a start.  This makes the saved track invalid for DIY/GPS purposes, and also invalid for use by OSM wiki mapping.  Next to useless in fact.

Tracks auto-archived onto the SD card don't have these problems.
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