PerryB2

Barkoff, Your screen shot shows a setting of COM3. Isn’t the GPS connected via USB? Try changing the GPS Settings to USB. Perry

In general, you can only load Magellan maps on a Magellan GPS. Perry

rws, Thanks, at this point my primary purpose is to get data onto printed Topo maps to use along with my GPS. The NF data I’ve seen shows trails which don’t show up on any other maps, including NF published maps. Grasscatcher, NG Topo 4.2.7 will import tracks as either a series of waypoints or ‘freehand routes’. I’ve transferred a number of tracks made on my Garmin GSP 60CSx into MapSource, reviewed /fixed them there, saved them to GPX files and imported the GPX file into Topo. Another question: Any suggestions on where I could learn more about what’s in the various shapefiles (dbf, shx, sbn, sbx, shp, prj) and how to extract / use the info? Thanks, Perry

A few additional notes: I looked at the FWTools information. It appears it will read ESRI Shape files but I did not see mention of converting to GPX files or NG Topo files. In GPS Babel’s online documentation I did not see any mention of converting ESRI Shape files. SiliconFiend asked where I got the data. I have a friend who works for the Forest Service. However, It’s my understanding that the data is public information. If you can find out who does the mapping / cartography / GIS work for the National Forest you are interested in and talk with them; they will probably send it to you; if they are not too busy. rws, Thanks! How did you convert the shape file? I want to find a solution for when I get more shape files in the future. Perry

All the files associated with trail.shp were in the same folder when I tried GPS TrackMaker. ArcGIS Explorer will load and display trail.shp which suggests it’s not a corrupt file issue. Other than verifying that file will load, this is not very useful to me. I tried DNRGarmin 5.2.25. It will not load the trail.shp file. I get “Error5, Invalid procedure call or argument” I tried the Demo version of OziExplorer. The Import ESRI Shape file dialog prompts for track number to import. It appears it will only import one track at a time and the trails file has many, so it appears to be not very helpful. It does say it imported a Track, but nothing shows on the screen. I welcome more suggestions. Thanks, Perry

I downloaded GPS TrackMaker. It opened one .shp file fine. Another one I got the error message: "Datatype 23 not supported, please contact the author" and it locked up. The author's web site says the free version is not supported. Suggestions?

I've done it the other way -transferring waypoints and tracklogs from MapSource to NG Topo using .gpx files and it worked fine. So I think it should work.

I got some trail information for the forest service in the form of shape files, actually a set of files: trails.shx, trails.prj, trails.sbn, trails.sbx, trails.shp, trails.shp.xml, trails.dbf. I want to get this data onto my National Geographic Topo map files. NG Topo can import .gpx files. Any suggestions on how to convert this shape file data into a .gpx file? Thanks, Perry

I’ve done some testing to try to figure out why the trip odometer was reading more than the active track log on recent hikes. I think poor reception is a large part of the problem; not bad enough that the GPS will report that it lost reception; but bad enough that it will cause the odometer and track log to record movement that did not really happen. The specifications in the manual for the 60CSx say that accuracy is within 33 ft 95% of the time. The GPS is calculating a new ‘location’ once each second. Even with good reception and standing still there will be some distance from one calculated ‘location’ to the next. If I’m reading the GPSInformation web site’s report on the 76Cx correctly it shows 95% of errors are less than 14.5 ft, average error is 6.6 ft and drift is 10 ft / minute. This is for a “moderate tree cover” situation, which I interpret to mean not great but OK reception. If this ‘false movement’ was added to the odometer or the track log, it would really add up; so the GPS has to try to filter out the ‘false movement’ from the real movement. I found that standing in one spot with fairly good reception, both the active track log (Record Method set to Distance: 0.01 mi) and odometer would show no movement. It took only about 3 feet of real movement for the GPS to record the movement to the odometer. However, when reception is poor (generally 4 satellites showing bars ranging from ¼ to ½ strength), then the accuracy goes down and the ‘false movement’ will be large enough that the odometer and track log will both record it as real movement. For example, in one test I did with poor reception and the GPS in one spot; the odometer recorded 0.39 miles of travel and the active track log showed 0.2 miles of travel (Record Method set to Distance: 0.01 mi) in less than 6 minutes. When hiking, that could add up to a significant odometer error in several hours, if reception is poor. Trouble is: how do you know when reception is poor enough to mess up the odometer or track log, but not bad enough that the GPS will tell you it lost reception! Why the difference between the odometer and track log? The odometer has one method to filter out the ‘false movement’. The track log will use one of many different methods to filter out ‘false movement’ depending on how track Record Method is set…Auto, Time, Distance and all the choices under those. Perry

I’m curious what you found on the odometer vs. active track question. I got the 60CSx about a month ago to replace an older GPS. While using it on a couple of recent hikes I noticed that the trip odometer distance traveled does not match what the track log shows for distance when uploaded to MapSource on my PC. Here are the data from a couple of recent hikes: Trip odometer 8.0 mi.; track log 7.4 mi. Trip odometer 6.6 mi.; track log 6.1 mi. At the start of the hikes I cleared the track log and set Track Record Method to Distance, 0.01 miles. I also reset the Trip Computer data. Perry