Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => GPS => Topic started by: TQ on 01 September, 2014, 10:13:26 am
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I'm sure all these questions have been asked many times before but I'm managing to confuse myself looking for all the answers!
I've just bought myself a nice shiny new eTrex30. Got it Saturday, fitted it to the bike and went out Sunday to do a triathlon. I got the Garmin to display my speed and used it as a (rather expensive!) speedo for the event then pulled the track off today to stick it on Strava. By using the "Current Track" I found it had recorded everything I needed including some extra stuff from when I was messing around on Saturday. Being a bit of a geek I just cut out the unneeded stuff using a text editor, saved it and uploaded to Strava which seemed to work fine. So question number one; I assume the correct way to get a nice log is to clear the track log first then save the tracklog when I'm finished, is that correct?
Question number two is regarding maps. The default maps seem to be woefully lacking in detail (at home I don't appear to be anywhere near a road!), does anyone have any recommendations for the best maps to use for cycling/audax purposes?
Question number three is a simple one; how big an SD card should I be using? I've got a 1GB card doing nothing will that be big enough for maps etc...?
Question number four is probably the most complicated and has caused me the most confusion when reading up on the subject. Could someone please explain if there is a generally accepted "best practise" for getting the device to show me where to go? Currently I use ridewithgps to plan my routes and in an ideal world I'd export a file from there (track? route?!) and it would display a nice line on a map with alerts for junctions etc... which would follow my planned route exactly. Surely that's not too much to ask!
Any other hints, tips or advice would be more than appreciated as well!
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If you open the track in Basecamp or Mapsource it should show you the track segments and you can cut out the relevant bit and paste it into a new file (I've done this on MS but not BC so don't quote me)
The Basemap from memory had about 3 roads in the SE of England. I'd go for Garmin City Navigator (splash out for the Europe version not just UK/Eire) although someone will be along in a minute to recommend Open Streetmaps. Use an 8GB micro SD card (I think the 30 supports HC cards the old series etrex didn't) if you are buying the map on DVD otherwise whatever the Garmin map comes on
ONCE you've done the above you cen download Basecamp for free. If you create a route on BC; send it to your device's SC card (not the device it doesn't like it) do a little dance, slaughter a chicken and wait ages for it all to send it will direct you along the route with beepy things. Note; don't hit GO straight away as it calculates the route on BC and send it to the device; it will eventually display as a wiggly line with all the waypoints when you open it. Make sure it's there in Route Planner when you fire up the device as BC does not seem to confirm it's gone it just stops flashing (it should show you the status of the device with a red / green line)
you can also convert a gpx track to a route and specify 50 waypoints (it won't route otherwise) it need to be an automotive route and you may need to set the device's profile to automotive too
it will display a nice squiggly gpx track to it heart's content but will not guide you round it
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So question number one; I assume the correct way to get a nice log is to clear the track log first then save the tracklog when I'm finished, is that correct?
Yes, that would work. You don't have to save the track, just switch off the Etrex when you have finished.
You can set the Etrex to "auto-archive" the track, if you set this to daily, it should archive then clear the active track. So you start with a clear tracklog each day.
Or just edit the track afterwards. Either in a text editor, or in BaseCamp, or you can crop the track on Strava.
Question number two is regarding maps. The default maps seem to be woefully lacking in detail (at home I don't appear to be anywhere near a road!), does anyone have any recommendations for the best maps to use for cycling/audax purposes?
OpenStreetMap is fine, and free. I recommend this website: http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/
Try the generic routable new style, or routable bicycle if you want cycle routes highlighted.
Question number three is a simple one; how big an SD card should I be using? I've got a 1GB card doing nothing will that be big enough for maps etc...?
OSM for the whole of the UK is only about 500MB. Add another 100MB if you also want contour lines. So 1GB will be enough. But you will need more space if you want maps for more countries, or if you want to have several different types of maps loaded at once. eg you could have a road map and a cycle map, and switch between them as required.
The Etrex 30 has 1.6GB of internal memory, so you don't actually need a memory card. But I think its a good idea to put maps on a card instead of the internal memory, to avoid messing things up. Broken maps could prevent the Etrex from booting up.
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Brilliant think I'm getting somewhere now!
I've downloaded BaseCamp and had a bit of a play around, I'll try putting OSM onto the device now.
One of the features I would like (which I think is possible) is to have an upcoming elevation profile displayed above the map when I'm following a route/track (ie so I can see when there is a hill coming up and how long/steep it is); to do this would I need contour lines on the map or does the GPX file include the elevation data?
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Brilliant think I'm getting somewhere now!
I've downloaded BaseCamp and had a bit of a play around, I'll try putting OSM onto the device now.
One of the features I would like (which I think is possible) is to have an upcoming elevation profile displayed above the map when I'm following a route/track (ie so I can see when there is a hill coming up and how long/steep it is); to do this would I need contour lines on the map or does the GPX file include the elevation data?
if you load a (previously ridden; not necessarily by you) gpx track and have it showing on the screen (I think it can do this as well as whatever route you are following) and go to the elevation display it will show you the horrors yet to come with where you are at any time (the current point devides the profile by colour); the device will not concur exactly but gives you a pretty good idea. Note it won't show on the same screen as the map you'll have to hit the top R button a lot (the screen sequence is in the setup somewhere)
you can follow a gpx track (not with guidance though) and it will show you the high and low points with elevation on the "cue sheet" (what you can scroll to if you also plot a prompted route), I've used this for the Bryan Chapman; one way to make you want to slit your throat ::-)
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One of the features I would like (which I think is possible) is to have an upcoming elevation profile displayed above the map when I'm following a route/track
It can be done but it relies on the elevation data being in the GPX - not the map. Some GPX files will not contain elevation data.
(http://www.aukadia.net/gps/e30/map-ele-b.jpg) E30 screenshot, following a Track, Metroguide map, SMC contours overlaid.
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Is there a way to save a certain point in the device so I can quickly navigate to it at any time? IE. "Just get me home via the shortest distance possible". I'd like to be able to save "home" somewhere in the device for recall later.
I managed to get some maps on the device which I was happy with from here (https://sites.google.com/site/openstreetmapgarmincycleuk) but there doesn't seem to be an installer for BaseCamp so I can only use the same maps while the unit is connected to the computer, is there a way round this or do I need to use different maps?
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Is there a way to save a certain point in the device so I can quickly navigate to it at any time? IE. "Just get me home via the shortest distance possible". I'd like to be able to save "home" somewhere in the device for recall later.
I managed to get some maps on the device which I was happy with from here (https://sites.google.com/site/openstreetmapgarmincycleuk) but there doesn't seem to be an installer for BaseCamp so I can only use the same maps while the unit is connected to the computer, is there a way round this or do I need to use different maps?
use the "Where to?" button and enter postcode address POI (point of interest if OSM supports these) whatever. Next time you go in you can select recent finds and it will be among them (I presume you can clear them all after a while)
can't answer the second question as I have the same Garmin map installed on both my pc and the device
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Is there a way to save a certain point in the device so I can quickly navigate to it at any time? IE. "Just get me home via the shortest distance possible". I'd like to be able to save "home" somewhere in the device for recall later.
Just mark a waypoint for your home. Then just go to "Where to", then waypoints, and select it to navigate to it. You can start the waypoint with a space, then it should be at the top of an alphabetical list.
I managed to get some maps on the device which I was happy with from here (https://sites.google.com/site/openstreetmapgarmincycleuk) but there doesn't seem to be an installer for BaseCamp so I can only use the same maps while the unit is connected to the computer, is there a way round this or do I need to use different maps?
Looks like that website only has a gmapsupp.img version of the maps, so they can't easily be installed in BaseCamp.
Easiest just to use maps which supply a BaseCamp installer. That's why I think this is the best option for OSM maps: http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/
Just download the osm_generic_new_windows.exe file, then run it and follow the instructions to install the maps in BaseCamp or MapSource.
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If you have the Waypoint stored as a 'home.gpx' file on the SD card, then even if you delete all waypoints from the device (to clear it out before loading a new project) as long as you leave that file on the card it should restore itself on the next boot-up.
Not a Basecamp user here, but I've read that it can read map files from any USB drive (such as a card reader) which is also much faster than reading them from the GPS - and probably if you use an image-mounter you could even store them on HD and spoof it as a USB drive, which would effectively make the map 'always there' in Basecamp, though possibly it needs the GPS to be connected as well. Don't know which format the maps would have to be in though - but the .img format (as for the GPS) has got to be worth a try.
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it can read map files from any USB drive (such as a card reader) which is also much faster than reading them from the GPS
That is the way I use Basecamp.
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On my Win7 lappy the map files are stored in C:\Program Files (x86)\Garmin\BaseCamp\Maps\Global Application Basemap v2.gmap\Product1 and appear in Basecamp.
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How do I get the OSM files onto my Etrex 20?
I've clinked on the dutch linky provided, got the emails and the link to the files ...downloaded the files ..... how do I get them onto my Etrex 20?
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First download the file named something like osm_generic_gmapsupp.zip
Unzip that, and it will give you a file gmapsupp.img
Then plug the Etrex into your computer, and it will appear as a disk drive (or two drives if you have a MicroSD card in it).
You need to copy the gmapsupp.img file onto the drive, in a folder named "Garmin", so create that folder if its not there already.
Note you can rename the gmapsupp.img file to something else if you want, so long as has a .img extension.
And as above, you can put the maps in either the internal memory, or the MicroSD card, so long as you have enough space. But I think its best to put them on the MicroSD card.
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It's a lot faster if you take the card out of the garmin, stick it in a cardreader and copy it directly to it.
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Can someone answer another quick question because I'm tearing my hair out here!
Can the eTrex 30 display current gradient as a percentage? I can't find it anywhere! It'll be a real shame if it can't.
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Can the eTrex 30 display current gradient as a percentage? I can't find it anywhere! It'll be a real shame if it can't.
No, I don't think it can but very happy to be corrected. However, I have recently discovered it can display, 'glide ratio' which gives the relationship between distance travelled to distance up or down. This equates to the old system of displaying gradients in the UK whereby 1:10 (I think it displayed as 1 in 10 on the road signs) equates to 10%, 1:5 to 20% etc. So where Edge users know the gradient immediately in percentage terms at least us etrexers can get stuck into some mathematical conversions thereby diverting attention away from the physical horror of the hill.
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Shelling out the data file from an eTrex Legend, amongst the many columns of data, I got one column of distance and one column of elevation.
Firstly I had to do a difference equation to calculate delta distance between log points. Then a delta elevation between log points. Then I had the info to do a calculation for gradient using delta distance and delta elevation.
Speed was captured instantaneously at the log points, so it was a simple operator to chart speed ve gradient.
With the eTrex, there were always ‘outliers’ where the gradient was outrageous and obviously wrong. I removed values steeper than the roads I’d ridden.
A corrected chart could be plotted of speed vs gradient and a polynomial trendline inserted.
When the trendline was further up the speed axis than before, I knew I was improving.
I did this about fifty times for my 16 mile trip home from work. After fifty, it got tedious to see very little improvement.
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On my Win7 lappy the map files are stored in C:\Program Files (x86)\Garmin\BaseCamp\Maps\Global Application Basemap v2.gmap\Product1 and appear in Basecamp.
The maps can be installed in any directory: it's up to the map product installer to decide where it goes.
The installer then writes entries into the registry which point to the maps, and mapsource / basecamp find them.
On my win7 installs, the City Navigator products install to:
C:\ProgramData\garmin\maps
with the individual products appearing below that; eg CN Europe, CN N America, etc etc.
I also have a vague memory that win7 hi-jacks programs attempting to write to the 'program files' directory, and silently re-directs it to programdata or somesuch. An attempt to lock down the porogamfiles folder from malware, IIRC. This silent re-direction can lead to some confusion as to where stuff actually lives, and inconsistency between say XP and win7 from the same software.
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an interesting bonus with ride with gps; if you plan a route and save it as a gpx, then open it on BaseCamp and send it to an extrex 30 it converts all the points you added in RWG into waypoints and you have a ready to follow route with prompts (subject to the 50 waypoint limit) :thumbsup:
try it
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/5899284
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I just tried to download all the tracks from the Merselo-Verona 1200. My Etrex stored nearly all away neatly, part of them in the archive. But on track was archived incorreclty, as a temporary file. Mapsource can't open this. How can I open this?
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What do you mean by temporary file?
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What do you mean by temporary file?
When I check the archive I can see the file but it has the ending for a temporary file, .TMP.
Garmin/Gpx/archive
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Change the extension to .gpx ?
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A file extension of .tmp suggests to me an incomplete download at some point.
Where did you originally download the files from?
Some website, I presume.
Where did you store the original downloads to?
A folder on our PC, I presume.
Are all the .gpx files present and correct on your PC before we even consider transferring them to the device?
If the .tmp file exists on your PC, then the download from the original website failed and you need to re-down-load that file.
If the files are all present and correct on the PC as .gpx, then something went wrong with the transfer to the device.
Delete the .tmp and re-transfer the single .gpx.
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No, this was not a download.
THis is the track as recorded by the GPS when I rode the event. It's the Etrex which stored it incorrectly in it's own memory. But getting it readable again, that's the problem.
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See this thread about TMP files: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=71940.0
Its probably just a GPX file which doesn't finish properly. So you could open it in a text editor, and add the appropriate closing tags.
Or maybe you could processing it with GPSBabel, ie just set the input and output formats to GPX. That might give you a working file. Or try the converter on Gpsies.com or GPS Visualizer.
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I've asked Jedrik's husband for advise. He managed to save part of the track. It's indeed a track which hasn't been properly saved and ends abruptly. Luckily it ends when I was allready riding with the chap with whom I rode the furhter stretch to the sleepcontrol.
According to Jedrik's husband it happens when you shut down the Garmin when it's still saving the track into the archive section. I can dimly remember that I shut down the Garmin shortly after starting a day later, so that could indeed have caused it.