Garmin Gps 60 Data Storage On Long Journies

[CanopusArchives]

I'm shortly going to be making a six week journey through Turkey and Georgia doing a little Geocaching at the same time and would like to record my tracks on my Garmin GPS 60 so as to also synchronise then with time stamped photos taken along my journey. There is a problem with amount of data I can store on the unit though. From what I understand, if I set my GPS 60 to update at least frequent intervals it will start overwriting in around seven days and there will be times I want it to update more frequently. I thought I had found a solution by buying a memory key, installing a GPS data manager G7ToWin (which is portable) on it, then using Internet cafés on route to transfer data from GPS 60 to Flash Key. Unfortunately I overlooked one glaring problem which I only found out about when I tried the system on a friends PC last night; Garmin GPS 60 requires that you need its driver installed on a PC before you can download/upload data. So, although G7ToWin is portable and could be used in any Internet café the drivers are not and it would be extremely unlikely that any Internet café would allow you to install them.

 

So, I'm looking for a solution for handling all this data while on the move for six weeks. A lap top would do it well, but, too bulky and heavy for back-packing. PDAs sound good, but, seem to be limited in memory size. Also from what I've gleamed the USB socket on PDAs is just for synchronising them with PC so I could not connect my Garmin to it via USB and would require a PDA with serial port connections too. I've seen some people mention Pocket PCs, but, not sure what the difference between PPC and PDA is.

 

Well, there must be users that have solved this question one way or another. What are your solutions? I have about two and a half weeks to sort it out or else I am going to have to severely limit the number of tracks I make etc.

[+dbly1850]

I'm shortly going to be making a six week journey through Turkey and Georgia doing a little Geocaching at the same time and would like to record my tracks on my Garmin GPS 60 so as to also synchronise then with time stamped photos taken along my journey. There is a problem with amount of data I can store on the unit though. From what I understand, if I set my GPS 60 to update at least frequent intervals it will start overwriting in around seven days and there will be times I want it to update more frequently. I thought I had found a solution by buying a memory key, installing a GPS data manager G7ToWin (which is portable) on it, then using Internet cafés on route to transfer data from GPS 60 to Flash Key. Unfortunately I overlooked one glaring problem which I only found out about when I tried the system on a friends PC last night; Garmin GPS 60 requires that you need its driver installed on a PC before you can download/upload data. So, although G7ToWin is portable and could be used in any Internet café the drivers are not and it would be extremely unlikely that any Internet café would allow you to install them.

 

So, I'm looking for a solution for handling all this data while on the move for six weeks. A lap top would do it well, but, too bulky and heavy for back-packing. PDAs sound good, but, seem to be limited in memory size. Also from what I've gleamed the USB socket on PDAs is just for synchronising them with PC so I could not connect my Garmin to it via USB and would require a PDA with serial port connections too. I've seen some people mention Pocket PCs, but, not sure what the difference between PPC and PDA is.

 

Well, there must be users that have solved this question one way or another. What are your solutions? I have about two and a half weeks to sort it out or else I am going to have to severely limit the number of tracks I make etc.

 

not the best solution but might work. I have a yahoo account and I store the drivers in the briefcase on line storage. I go to internet cafes and download the drivers, do what I have to do, then delete them off that computer. You can also shut off the overwrite, then save the tracks as you go till the memory fills up.

which hopefully will be near a internet cafe...

[CanopusArchives]

not the best solution but might work. I have a yahoo account and I store the drivers in the briefcase on line storage. I go to internet cafés and download the drivers, do what I have to do, then delete them off that computer. You can also shut off the overwrite, then save the tracks as you go till the memory fills up.

which hopefully will be near a internet cafe...

 

Thanks dbly. I've managed to get hold of the drivers separately now instead of bundled with the MapSource software so as they are only 1.4 MB I've no problem storing them on my memory key. I'm keeping my fingers crossed now that I can find enough Internet cafés that will let me install the drivers I'm a bit puzzled how you go about deleting the driver after you've finished with it. I've been looking through my PC and can't find any reference to it in Add/Remove Programs or Device Manager (XP Pro). I can see where it is, it's in my system32 folder. I presume the reason why there is no reference to it in Add/Remove is due to it being installed along with MapSource. Am I right in presuming that if it is installed separately on a PC it becomes listed in Add/Remove or would I have to right click Delete grmnusb.sys from the PC?

 

I'm considering selecting 15 mins. or more for GPS updates while on transport to just give an idea of road route and normal update period for detailed treks with time stamp photos, I then may be able to stretch it to transferring data every two weeks.

[Neo_Geo]

You could take a timed approach to it.

10,000 total track points divided by 6 weeks = 1,666 track points per week

1,666 divided by 7 days = 238 track points per day

 

figure on moving about 10 hours a day - probably less...?

 

24 track points per hour

12 every 30 minutes

6 every 15 minutes

2 every 5 minutes

1 every 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

 

You could adjust the times based on your plans for a particular day. If only moving about for 8 hours on a particular day, then you could adjust it to one track point every 2 minutes and 00 seconds.

 

It won't be neat and tidy, but you'd have a general record of everywhere you went, and the general direction without worrying about Internet cafés and whatnot.

 

Personally, I'd opt for carrying the laptop rather than this method myself, but still it's a thought you mat not have considered.

[stevesisti]

Even with unlimited track usage you still have no way of linking a photo after the fact with a location unless you keep a log. Even with a log, depending on your camera (Digital I guess), the numbering sequence will only go so high on your memory media, then you have to start over again at zero...which will leave you with duplicate numbers..again, unless you have a way of re-naming or re-numbering the shots in camera or after the fact.

 

You do have 500 waypoints which seems to probably be enough for those "on-the -road" scenics we always seem to forget where they were taken. You can mark a waypoint whenever you take an image of note and add a descrip to the waypoint...or have the waypoint the same # as the image #.

[+geobc]

Even with unlimited track usage you still have no way of linking a photo after the fact with a location unless you keep a log. Even with a log, depending on your camera (Digital I guess), the numbering sequence will only go so high on your memory media, then you have to start over again at zero...which will leave you with duplicate numbers..again, unless you have a way of re-naming or re-numbering the shots in camera or after the fact.

If the GPS and camera clocks are set to the same date/time, he can link the track log entries to the image files' date/time. There are third party programs that automate this process, too. Some can interrogate the track log files vs. the image files and insert the location coords into the image files' EXIF data area.

 

GeoBC