Garmin Oregon and saving your track

[Jord]

Coming from a Garmin Edge 705 when the stop and start buttons and reset would automatically keep the days ride and not start recording till you are ready what is the best working practice for recording your runs/rides/walks with the Oregon!

Also it seems to just start recording as soon as it is turned on - is the any way of changing this or alternatively a quick way of clearing all tracks?

Seems a great piece of kit.

[Auntie Helen]

Coming from an Edge 205 I had lots of problems with working out how to work the Oregon. Here's what I have ended up doing.

• Get the bike ready to roll.
• Turn on the Oregon, then go to Setup -> Reset -> Reset Trip Data and then Clear Current Track (this is because I will have downloaded the current track at the end of my last ride).
• If I haven't downloaded the current track, I will - rather than clearing it - save it (through Track Manager).
• Enjoy my ride, using the Trip Computer to see how I'm doing speed and time-wise this journey.
• Turn the Garmin off if I'm doing nothing for ages like sitting in a cafe or if I don't want it to record where I am. It records as soon as you turn it on - advantage is you don't have to remember to do the 'Start/Stop' button, disadvantage is you can't stop it recording if you're doing something really slow.
• Turn the Garmin off when I finish my ride, go inside and download the data onto Ascent (Track data).

For the next ride I start again, so I'm clearing the tracklog each time rather than saving it. However if I'm not going near a computer between rides I'll save the track instead.

I like to clear the trip computer each journey so I can evaluate my overall speed.

Hope this helps!

[Jord]

Have you tried the options of Save track log by time or distance? Mine is set to auto and i just wondered if i just saved to distance it wouldn't keep recording when sat in a cafe for example? I'll have to go and play.

It is amazing how steep GPS learning curves are - this is my third and still not sure what i am doing for the best!

[frankly frankie]

• Turn on the Oregon, then go to Setup -> Reset -> Reset Trip Data and then Clear Current Track (this is because I will have downloaded the current track at the end of my last ride).
• If I haven't downloaded the current track, I will - rather than clearing it - save it (through Track Manager).

Bit late then - you just cleared it in the previous step! ;- )

The main thing is, if you do nothing, then nothing will be lost - the default is to archive everything you do, somewhere or other.

Regarding Distance/Time/Auto - this isn't unique to Oregons most Garmins have it - IMO Auto works really well - you would only opt for Distance or Time if you had a specific reason to do so (eg you were doing a survey, in which case Distance would make sense).  If you have options for 'more' or 'most' then I think 'more' works well.

[Jord]

I've just tried riding for the last three days and the unit just saves them all as in one file called 'current track' you have to import this then delete the tracks you do not want. A faff to say the least.

So for example if you have 25 track on there you have to import the 25 and then delete the 24 to get the days workout!! Merry-go-round?

On the edge and previous forertrex there was a history folder and each ride was there by date order.

Or am I missing something in the set up?

[piedwagtail91]

go to track manager, find the current track and save it with that days date, it will date it by default. do that after every days ride.
when i plug the oregon into my pc i get it to open in windows explorer where, in the garmin folder, all the tracks are listed by date.

[frankly frankie]

So for example if you have 25 track on there you have to import the 25 and then delete the 24 to get the days workout!! Merry-go-round?
On the edge and previous forertrex there was a history folder and each ride was there by date order.
Or am I missing something in the set up?

No, that's the way it is.

Though if you leave the current track for long enough it will start to archive itself - you never lose anything.
But I agree its not so convenient as the daily log.

[Jord]

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go to track manager, find the current track and save it with that days date, it will date it by default. do that after every days ride.
when i plug the oregon into my pc i get it to open in windows explorer where, in the garmin folder, all the tracks are listed by date.

I have found that if you do nothing and then import a weeks worth of rides the unit has already dated them it just you cannot see on the unit the dates so I think the step of saving them isn't that essential. The problem is once you have saved on the pc (I use sportstracks) if you do not delete them you have to import them again and them delete them from the PC!

Funny system when other Garmin units are much more user friendly for recording history data.

 

[Jord]

It looks like Garmin have been listening!

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4743

[Auntie Helen]

But not for those of us who use macs!

[EDIT] Just found there is an update for me to 3.6 so I've done it. I'll see what changes I notice when I go out riding later today.

[frankly frankie]

It looks like Garmin have been listening!
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4743

That's only a beta but they seem to follow it up with a 'real' update (that Webupdater will find) usually within a few weeks - one thing to look forward to (and not before time) is
    * Added ability to change active track color.

[Jord]

I'll wait for the none beta version but should improve the device.