Ken in Regina
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Posts posted by Ken in Regina
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Raster topos!!! That is one of the dumbest, backward things I have ever heard. All Canadian topo maps have been in vector format for at least 10 years, PLUS, the data is free. The raster data set (which is also free) must be in the terabyte size. Raster topos are horrid on a GPS.
So much for the suggestion regarding the elimination of the venemous rants:
How would you state the facts Red90 shared with us differently?
...ken...
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Yes, I have tiles from Ibycus, Topo Canada, Metroguide Canada and City Navigator NA in the mapset on my Legend HCx and I can easily switch between the map products.
(Because I can.)
...ken...
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Oh yeah, one more thing. You said she can't operate a GPS. You may be right about something like your 60Cx. The GPSMAPs (60 and 76) and the various eTrex models are about the least intuitive electronic devices you can buy. They are extremely rich in features and you can actually learn how to use all those features ... eventually ... if you really work at it. But they make VCRs seem downright helpful by comparison.
Many of the advanced smartphone functions that would be needed for the cell phone suggestions in this thread might be equally intimidating to access (they will be if your wife is anything like mine).
But the Nuvi is quite another thing altogether. If you've never seen one in action you owe it to your wife to take a look at one. It really doesn't get any simpler. Turn on the power switch and wait for it to say it's ready. Poke the great big "Where To?" button on the main screen. Poke the great big "Home" button on the next screen. Follow the spoken turn-by-turn directions home.
You can mount it in the car in a mount that's dead simple to insert and remove the device. If you or your wife would rather not tempt fate by having it mounted in the vehicle, get her one of the small ones and she can just toss it in her purse or the glove box for when she might need it. All she has to do is pull it out, put it on the dash or the passenger seat, turn it on and off she goes. I like the car mount because you don't need to remember to keep it charged. It will just run off the car's 12V power.
Another advantage to a solution like this is that Garmin has made the Nuvi very patient. If your wife misses a turn it will simply recalculate the route correction and guide her from there. No matter how often she strays from the route.
Will you be that patient?
...ken...
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All good suggestions so far. Here's another.
Check out GPSGate. If the GPSMAP60Cx sends the GPS data out the USB port it can be connected to a netbook and used as you asked. GPSGate will see the GPS data from the 60Cx and will send it to the GPSGate server once every minute or so.
This is a really messy solution, though. It requires a laptop or netbook in the car. It requires the GPS to be connected to the laptop (any decent GPS receiver will do, eg. Globalsat BU353 which can usually be found for $35-$50). It requires both the laptop and GPS receiver to be running and a live internet connection. It's not only messy but quite expensive for this use.
As someone else said, a nice cheap refurbished Nuvi installed in the car. Turn it on, wait for a lock, poke "Where To?", poke "Home" and it will talk her through it turn by turn. Of course it would take some setup ... you would have to enter "Home" in the Favorites for her.
The Nuvi also has a nifty "Where Am I?" function if she really needs your help. That screen will tell her the lat/long coordinates, the nearest address, the nearest intersection, the nearest hospital, the nearest police station and the nearest gas station.
...ken...
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Thanks Red90 and MtnHermit. It's nice to know that some of the newest models allow multiple GMAPSUP*.IMG files now. Mobile PC has had that on the laptop since it was released. It's nice to know that Garmin is slowly migrating the feature to some of its handheld models.
...ken...
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mmmmmm...Motorcycle Mama ... he already installed it when he was logged in as the administrator. So...
1. Did you miss that?
2. Or did you mean he should try to set the installer to "Run as Administrator"?
3. Or did you mean he should try to set the Communicator plug-in to "Run as Administrator"?
My two cents .. It has most likely, by default (or intent), installed itself to work only for the user account it was installed in. If he wants it to work when he's logged in to a different account he needs to somehow install it to work for All Users rather than just the user it was installed into (in this case, the Administrator login).
It would be helpful to know what version of Windows the original poster is running. (XP, Vista, 7)
...ken...
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Shouldn't there be a way to just add or delete selected maps from the device?
Yeah, there probably should be. At least it would be nice.
The sad fact is that there isn't.
I can see one immediate problem. Or two. Anyway, it gets really messy when you start thinking about what it would require to implement it.
1. You would need to reload the compiled mapset from the device in order to add to it. This could be a very large performance issue. It already takes quite awhile to compile a mapset if it's large. It also takes quite awhile to transfer to the device. Now you would have to, first, wait quite awhile for it to transfer back from the device before the rest of the work could even start on the addition.
2. Yeah, gotcha covered ... you could save a copy of the mapset on your PC when it's loaded to the device, just in case. For some folks that's not an issue. For many people it would be a headache. Takes up space for no good reason (until you need it, of course). And what are the chances you'll remember where you saved it when you need it? (I can tell you it would be pretty slim in my case.)
...ken...
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Hey Roddy check out this site U might find it interesting
http://garmin.na1400.info/routable.php
Everyone else check it out too!
It would have been helpful to mention that the page really really does not like Internet Explorer. It's a little late by the time you read the message to that effect on the page itself.
...ken...
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Just to clarify the map question, you can install any Garmin maps on any of the Garmin units you have mentioned so far.
...ken...
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Hi Robert,
The 76Cx doesn't have a compass. It has a "compass" screen to assist offroad navigation but as JDiablo said, it only works if you're moving. It has no other way to know direction of travel. If you're moving slowly it's a little slow to update. Also, if you are in a situation with less than optimal satellite reception it will be sluggish.
...ken...
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Hi folks,
Looking to buy a Garmin GPS for the car to replace my iCue 3600 that won't work on my Vista computer. Which Garmin, if any, can you download waypoints to?
Thanks!
-TP/corey
You can download waypoints to almost any Garmin GPS. But if you've been using an iQue 3600 I have to ask, do you only want to download waypoints (eg. a name and its location coordinates)? Or do you want to be able to have a complete address book like you have with the iQue (eg. Name, address, phone, location coordinates, etc)?
Most GPSs, including Garmin models, have a "Favorites" feature or "My Places" or similar. But these typically only allow a name, address and location coordinates.
You can use Birdwatch to export the name and coordinates from the addressbook on the iQue to a GPX file on the SD card. Then you can load the GPX file as waypoints into MapSource. You can transfer those waypoints into almost any Garmin GPS device ... most (all?) Nuvi models, eTrex models, GPSMAP models, Oregons, Colorados, Dakotas.
I have both my iQues (3600 and 3600a) working just fine on my Vista laptop. You have to make sure that the Palm Desktop and the Hotsync Manager are set to "Run As Administrator" and also to run in XP Compatibility mode. That should do the trick for you.
...ken...
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Respectfully, one can only determine the relative capacity of batteries on the discharge cycle. No two batteries no matter how perfectly matched will discharge at the exact same rate whether used in series or parallel!
Hi Norm,
Yes, I understand that.
Using multiple charge/discharge cycles to determine which batteries have similar characteristics, and pairing them up, will result in the work being more evenly distributed amongst all your batteries, thereby insuring longer happier lives for all.Thanks for the suggestion. I understand that, too. But I won't do it. Too much bother. I have never ever had to do that with my Sanyos and they have never exhibited this sort of behaviour.
Of course there has never been such a disimilarity in the charging on my Sanyos. Still isn't, even after years, not months, of use without paying the slightest attention to matching their charge levels ... not least because I had no way to do it until I bought the Powerex charger. I was just using the cheap charger that came with the first eight-pack of Sanyos at Costco.
So, the Powerex batteries are toast and I'll just stick with Sanyos in the future.
...ken...
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Transfer your waypoints to Mapsource on your PC. (This would be a good time to save the waypoints as a backup on the PC.)
Delete All waypoints on the handheld.
Click on the Waypoints tab in Mapsource.
Use CTRL-Click to select the waypoints you want to delete.
Hit the Delete key.
Transfer the remaining waypoints back to the handheld.
Y'er welcome.
...ken...
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Earlier in this thread I spoke well of the Powerex 2700mAh batteries I bought when I bought my Powerex charger.
I would now like to contradict myself. They are terrible batteries. For the first couple of months they were really good. But after they had been used and recharged a few times they have become completely unreliable. One time they'll charge to a reasonable level (say, 2300mAh or so) on the regular charge setting. The next time they won't take any worthwhile charge (say, 800mAh).
After a couple more months some of them have developed some consistency in that you can't ever charge them using the normal charge cycle. You need to do a Refresh/Analyze to get any decent charge in them. Some of them just continue the inconsistency, charging properly once or twice and then not.
Today I popped two fresh from the charger into my Legend HCx to use on the golf course. I checked the charge level before using them. One was 2400mAh and the other was 1900mAh (not great but close enough). When I got to the golf course and turned the Legend on the batteries lasted less than three holes (about 40 minutes) before they were flat.
I have some older Sanyo 2300 and 2500mAh batteries. They still take a decent charge. More importantly, they only require the normal charge cycle to recharge properly, each and every time. The 2300s are 3½ years old and the 2500s are 2½ years old. The Powerexs are less than a year old (Nov/08).
All eight of the Powerexs are going into the recycle can and I'm going out for some Eneloops. If they're as good as my old 2300 and 2500mAh Sanyos I'll be pleased.
...ken...
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Your Vista should be the same as my Legend HCx.
Go to the Main Menu screen.
Select Tracks.
Select Setup.
Select Data Card Setup.
Make sure you have "Log Track to Data Card" checked.
That will cause a daily track log to be created on the data card. The file name will be YYYYMMDD.GPX. It will contain the entire track log for that date regardless of what's in the internal track log.
These files will not be transferred to Mapsource when you do a "Receive From" your Vista. You will need to copy the file yourself, using Mass Storage mode through the USB connection or pop the card and use a card reader. If you already are logging track data to the data card those files should already be there for your viewing pleasure.
...ken...
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Glad you got it working. Chalk it up to the little green guys.
...ken...
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I don't need maps to chart the hunt club, I have a nuvi for the roads.
I am using my tracks to make maps, superimposed on some kind of satalite imagry. I'm going to try some of the ideas here. Thanks for replying.
Thanks for the clarification, gitarmac. For that purpose you will most likely find fegan's suggestion to work the best. I also find all those square boxes (trackpoints) a distraction when displaying tracks on Google Earth. Turning them off makes a much nicer display.
...ken...
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If everything looks right I wouldn't worry too much about the error message.
When sharing tracks I find it's always easier, and usually at least as useful, to just share the track file rather than going to all the work to try to create a route. That's especially true if any part of the track is "off road". As you discovered, that will completely mess with the routing software, with some really entertaining results as it tries to make sense of the "off road" bits.
...ken...
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What happens if, on your Legend, you just delete the route you transfered from Mapsource but keep the waypoints (which you said have the correct names), then select the waypoints and make your Legend calculate the route?
...ken...
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Correct me if I'm wrong...I think the OP wants to keep the path and simply remove all the intermediate points.
Just like a couple of others in this thread, I have no real idea what the original poster actually wants to do. I'm just offering a generic approach to messing with tracks in Mapsource so the original poster can see if they are useful.
Getting rid of trackpoints in MapSource will alter the route.Umm.. you lost me there. Tracks are tracks. If you remove some of the points in the tracks Mapsource will just draw a straight line to joint the points before and after the ones that were removed. Tracks are simply a list of data points that were captured as you travelled.
Routes are a different thing altogether and any discussion of messing with tracks and track points has no relation to Routes at all. Yes, if you have a route that follows roads and you remove some of the waypoints or POIs that you used in the route, the route might change, if that's what you mean. But that's Route behaviour and has no relation to how a track will behave when you remove points from the track. Because a Track is not a Route. Mapsource knows the difference.
...ken...
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And if you want to get rid of, or edit, the trackpoints in Mapsource there are a couple of ways.
To get rid of the trackpoint completely just click on the TRACKS tab, select the track(s) and hit the DEL key. Poof, they're gone.
To selectively get rid of points in the track you can right-click the track in the TRACKS tab and click Track Properties... That will allow you to selectively delete individual points from the track or select groups of them to delete.
Or you can right-click on the tool bar and add the Track Editing Tools. Then you can use the track editing tools to mess around as much as you want.
...ken...
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GPS on a golf course. If you guys really want to cheap, petition Garmin for an all-in-one golf GPS and laser finder/designator combo unit.
Did you mean "...want to [be] cheap" or "...want to cheat"?
I've already asked Garmin for add-on firmware for my Legend HCx to make it more suitable for golf yardage use while still allowing its excellent general purpose GPS functionality. I'm hoping lots of others will, too. Not that I hold out a lot of hope of Garmin listening.
...ken...
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Okay, here's a progress report.
1. Don's offset program works a treat for quickly adjusting an entire GPX file of Pin points to an acrual reading of one of them.
Wednesday night I used Don's web tool to create Pin points for the course I was playing Thursday. I did front/middle/back of the greens and the layup or carry points for a few hazards. I also did a couple of permanent structures on the course so I would have something that would still be in the same location today, no matter what vintage the satellite photos are.
It turns out that was a smart thing to do because the sat photos for that area are 2005. I did a Pin point for the SE corner of the cart compound. When I got to the course I did a reading with my GPS .. set it on top of the corner post of the cart compound and let it average for about thirty readings.
When I got home I used that reading to correct the GPX file. It pulled the variance between Google Maps satellite images and reality to between 8 to 12 feet. Before the offset adjustment the difference was generally 25 to 30 ft between Google Maps and reality.
There are a number of reasons you'll never get any better than that. First, depending upon the vintage of the sat photos, the mowing patterns on the greens and other parts of the course might have changed in teh intervening years. Second, you can't zoom in tight enough in the web tool to get any finer accuracy when you click to locate the Pin point. (This is a shortcoming of Google Maps, not Don's web tool. It's controlled by the resolution of the sat photos of the area, I think.) And finally, your GPS simply won't give you any better accuracy, even with averaging.
2. Usage Preference -- I have tried KMonster's original tip. That tip is to just create Pin points for anything you are interested in. Front/middle/back of greens, carry or layup points on hazards and so on. Then use the GPX file to create custom POIs .. one custom POI database for each golf course.
Then I tried Mr. Green's suggestion for loading the GPX file into Mapsource and creating a route with the waypoints.
I have used both approaches on the course. I've mentioned before that the only thing I care about on the course is the yardage from where I am to some other point on the course .. the green or a carry or layup point for a hazard. For me, anything else is just a waste of time. So I just want the quickest way to get the yardage to the next point I'm interested in.
Here's what I've found works best for me.
I set the Find function on my Legend HCx so that it finds "Near Current Location". That will normally make it so any list of points I get will require minimal scrolling to get the point of current interest.
In most situations it doesn't really matter if I search Waypoints (from Mr. Green's method) or search Custom POIs (from KMonster's method). In either case I get a list of the Pin points with the list ordered from nearest to farthest .. exactly the same list in most cases.
For me there is one unusual situation that causes me to prefer KMonster's approach of using Custom POIs. Two of the courses I play regularly are right across the road from each other. On a small number of holes I get a mixture of points from both courses in the Find list if I have the Pin points loaded as regular Waypoints.
If I load them as custom POIs, one custom POI database for each course, I can select a single POI database. That way the Find list only includes the points for the course I have selected. It never includes any nearby irrelevant points.
I have discovered with the playing around I've been doing that using the custom POI approach also allows me to manage things much easier. If I want to make changes to a single course, it's way easy to delete just the custom POI database for that course from the GPS and replace it with the new one. It also means I don't have to get creative with how I name the Pin points. I can just use "Hole #1" (or whatever) for the first hole of every course.
So that's where I'm at so far. I've got three of my local courses in custom POI databases and I've adjusted one of them using Don's offset adjustment program. I've also got the yardage markers on my favorite driving range in a POI database. Now that I've got a usage approach that suits me I'm going to add a couple more courses and and some more Pin points in the courses I've already done, take some actual readings and do the offset adjustment on them.
Thanks, Don, for a great web tool and especially for being so responsive to the comment on accuracy of the Google Maps satellite image calibration.
...ken...
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Get one with a monochrome screen. That helps in two ways. First, it's easier to read in daylight. Second, they generally have a lot better battery life (no backlight to suck the batteries down). My old IIIxe has great battery life on two AAA batteries.
...ken...
Real time vehicle tracking with Garmin 60cx?
in GPS technology and devices
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And I'll just bet the Magellan was a bunch more patient about it than you were.
...ken...