Etrex 30 track + waypoint workflow (on a mac)

[andyp]

hi,
forgive me if this is already out there somewhere - i haven't been able to find it - does anyone have a workflow that would get a track + user waypoints (preferably with instructions/notes) onto my new Garmin etrex 30, using an apple mac?
fingers crossed,
andrew.

[frankly frankie]

As a quick response I'd suggest good old BikeHike.  You can choose to 'download route' as 'GPX Track'.  The 'add Coursepoint' feature will generate additional User Waypoints in the downloaded file.  There are options for renaming etc if you select Coursepoint type 'generic'.  Keep the names short but descriptive for best results on the GPS.
You then use your file management to place the downloaded GPX file onto the GPS, in the folder /Garmin/GPX/

[fuaran]

Or you could use Garmin Basecamp. If you have maps on the etrex, then Basecamp should be able to read them and display them, when you have the etrex plugged in and switched on. Or get some free OpenStreetMap based maps, and install them in BaseCamp.

If you want to follow roads, probably best to first draw a route (with autorouting), then use the option to convert it to a track. Then add waypoints where you like.
Then just select the track and waypoints, and choose the option to send them to the etrex.

[andyp]

hi,
I'd had 2 problems with bikehike: firstly when reducing the number of trackpoints to under 500 the waypoints/directions disappeared, and then next time I switched to drag and drop mode to take out a shortcut the routing had put in without me noticing and again the waypoints/directions disappeared... it was at that point I asked for help!

Basecamp WITH THE GPS PLUGGED IN makes all the difference - i have got the garmin city navigator SD, and can now use it on my computer 

will have a go after work with both and report back.

thanks both for your rapid assistance - this forum and http://www.aukadia.net/gps/ are great resources.
andrew.

[tom_e]

Why do you need to reduce the number of trackpoints to 500?  I thought this was just a limitation of the old etrex (a completely different device). 
Garmin says the new ones do 10,000 trackpoints.

[andyp]

I'll be happy to be corrected, but I think the 10,000 track points is for a ride you are recording as you go... routes/tracks I have exported from bikehike to the etrex got truncated after about 50k ;-( ...so i thought all my problems were solved when I found the 'options' button on bikehike and a dialogue box for me to input the number I wanted, but then it wiped the waypoints and I decided to seek help 

[tom_e]

Hm, ok.  I don't have a new etrex, only an Oregon which I had thought was similar in most respects (Garmin quotes it as the same limit for trackpoints).  That certainly works with a few thousand.

[andyp]

Hi,
Still learning, but have made some progress, so thought i'd post where i'm at to the thread in case anyone else is looking.

With help from PpPete from this forum who sent me his PC/vista workflow, I can post this adapted one which seems to work for the Etrex30 on a mac providing you've got Garmin city navigator base map either on your bike or car satnav.

****
> Download and install Basecamp from here:
http://www.garmin.com/uk/maps/trip-planning-software/basecamp/
> Launch Basecamp and click on basecamp menu, go to the preferences, click on 'transfer', check 'simplify tracks by removing intermediate points' type 500 into the 'maximum number of waypoints to send to your GPS' box.

****
> Get a track of your route to import import into Basecamp
(if you can't get one from the organiser or another rider, plot it on bikehike , click on 'save route' and export gpx file to your desktop)

> Plug a bike (or garmin car sat nav) with a decent map such as the city navigator into your apple mac, and wait for it to load.
> file menu > import > select gpx and upload
> click on the 'waypoint' tool and put waypoints on each turn instruction.
> label each instruction as follows: label them sequentially, starting with a letter/number. The convention a1 to a9, then b1 to b9, c1 to c9 and so on uses the minimum number of characters (it is a good idea to put these back on the routesheet so you can know where you are on it quickly and easily). After the number, give the turn instruction if you use a . or : instead of an @ sign it would be easier to read on the screen (waypoint notes are always tiny, haven't found a way to make them bigger  )

> use the default flag on most of the waypoints, red flag on any infos, shop or food symbol on other controls as appropriate.
> if it isn't already plugged in, plug in the etrex
> highlight the waypoints in the list on the left hand side, right click, and click on 'send list to device'.  If it is an out and back, split it in two.

****

On the garmin:
> have the map set to have 2 data fields: 'distance to next' and 'waypoint at next'
> in setup > tones > turn on turn warnings
> in setup > guidance method > off road (although I can't remember why  )

...and then to follow the track, go to 'track manager' and click on 'show on map'

YMMV, but hopefully not too much.

[frankly frankie]

Looks pretty good but a couple of comments -

*as mentioned upthread, you don't need to 'simplify track to 500' for the Etrex 30.

*when putting turn instructions into waypoint names, you don't really need the @ or anything after that.  For example, the instruction L@T would be pointless on a GPS, all you actually need is L - which translates to "Left (here)".  So this may help with clarity because I agree with you 100% about the small font size. 
Maybe experiment with instructions such as  << L  and  R >>  which I find slightly helpful for readability.

*its unclear to me (not familiar with Basecamp) whether your procedure actually puts a Route (as well as a Track and Waypoints) into the Garmin.  In any case your workflow on the GPS doesn't include using 'Where To' to select and follow a Route - so I'll assume you don't have a Route. Which is fine - works Ok on the E30. In that case -
a) to get the two data fields to work, you should 'Where To' and select your Track.  (I assume you already do this, just forgot to list it in your steps above.)  The Track becomes a purple highlight and the 'next' Waypoint and distance is shown.
b) the 'off road' setting is irrelevant - it only applies where you are following a Route, not a Track.

[arallsopp]

I like the L:T notation, as it tells me I can ignore things until I run out of road. Even with distance to next on screen, I find I'm faster if I know I don't need to look. Pity the font is so small on the new etrexes.

[Somnolent]

I like the L:T notation, as it tells me I can ignore things until I run out of road. Even with distance to next on screen, I find I'm faster if I know I don't need to look. Pity the font is so small on the new etrexes.

Agreed.
L.T (or L:T)  is much more legible than L@T

Unfortunately the older etrexes don't seem to allow the >> and << characters.

[frankly frankie]

My mistake - probably they're only allowed in the Comment field.  The E30 has (or had) a bug whereby the Comment was displayed in place of the Name, in some modes.  But old Etrexes have the big font anyway, even my shot-to-pieces old eyes can read that!

[andyp]

*as mentioned upthread, you don't need to 'simplify track to 500' for the Etrex 30.

Hi,
i must be doing something wrong then - i got the track from the organiser of the hardboiled 300km, which when i put leg 1 on my etrex 30 the track came to a sudden stop about 35km from the end... on uploading to bikehike it had 771 trackpoints, on reducing to 499 and saving to the etrex it's all visible.

It's not just me - i had a similar thing recently where i supplied a gpx file from my garmin 800 of the dorset coast route to Jonah and copied onto his etrex30 it gave him around 90km of perfect track, and then came to a sudden stop.

would be good if i could put 'bigger' tracks on there, but at the moment it's not working for me. 

...any insights or tips would be gratefully received.

andrew

[frankly frankie]

No, maybe I was giving duff gen.  I thought all the 'new UI' GPSs could handle long Tracks - maybe I was wrong.

You can always split a Track GPX into 2, if you don't want to downsample.  Splitting can even be done quite easily with a plain text editor. Just insert the following 5 lines of text somewhere in the middle immediately following any
</trkpt> tag.

Code: [Select]

</trkseg>
</trk>
<trk>
<name>Part 2</name>
<trkseg>

[andyp]

No, maybe I was giving duff gen.  I thought all the 'new UI' GPSs could handle long Tracks - maybe I was wrong.

It's not an unreasonable assumption - the garmin site says it has a 10,000 limit, https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=173 but i think that's for the track you're riding... i also think that if you leave a track you've ridden in the archive, you can follow it again, it's just if you transfer from the computer (but i might be wrong on that, will test it out this season as i do, and then re-do some long rides).

You can always split a Track GPX into 2, if you don't want to downsample.  Splitting can even be done quite easily with a plain text editor. Just insert the following 5 lines of text somewhere in the middle immediately following any
</trkpt> tag....

Thanks, that's handy to know.

When trying to merge two tracks to show the whole ride (it had autosaved mid ride) after struggling a bit with the code (well, actually struggling to get textedit for the mac to save as a .gpx file), I downloaded Adze https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/adze/id460297114?mt=12 which seems to be a straight forward (and free) gpx editor, which worked well.

thanks again,
andrew.

[arallsopp]

Vague recollection of point limit on internal memory vs. SD card. Have you tried using basecamp to put the track explicitly on the SD card?

That might have been the legend hcx of course... But might be worth trying.

[andyp]

Vague recollection of point limit on internal memory vs. SD card. Have you tried using basecamp to put the track explicitly on the SD card?
...might be worth trying.

Exported it to the gpx folder on the SD card, but no joy i'm afraid. Not that the 500 trackpoint limit seems to be a problem on 50-100km audax stages... it's always very clear where you should be, and where you're going.
thanks for the help.
andrew.

[andyp]

No, maybe I was giving duff gen.  I thought all the 'new UI' GPSs could handle long Tracks - maybe I was wrong.

Hmm. Looks like, as you suspected,  it was me that was wrong - I definitely had had problems with tracks with 500+ track points running out of track, and had seen it happen on other etrexes so it can be a problem BUT when faced with an organiser's 200km track as a single file, and a navigationally complicated beginning and end, I remembered that you'd said it should be possible, so I used basecamp to transfer the tracks onto the Etrex, without downsampling, and it was fine.

Apologies. If i ever work out the circumstances in which it is a problem i'll post again. Meanwhile Basecamp seems to do the trick.

[alotronic]

Using a 705 with Mac basecamp.

There IS an option somewhere in basecamp to use an external map so that you don't have to wait all the time for your GPS to fill in. I have a UK open cyclemap on GPS and Basecamp and it loads much faster and works very well. From memory I used the same source file that I made on the opencylcemap site.


Import organisers GPX
Examine it closely on basecamp - sometimes they are vague.
If it is vague convert it to a ROUTE and then manually (and sometimes painfully) drag and drop the route back onto the basecamp map, constantly checking that route is making the right choices.
Once the route is following the right roads (double check) convert to a TRACK and upload to GPS as a track. I have loaded up to 400km tracks without a problem
Select and ride... Garmin will provide directions on the road - never accept it's offer to reroute and you will be ok!