Garmin 60cx

[+A.T.Hiker]

Folks-

Another question - I recorded the track log of an 1100 mile road trip. I had noticed that parts of the track log disappeared, and other parts of it seem to have "straightened out". For example, our drive up Mount Washington and subsequent hike was very windy - but for some reason, the unit seems to have straightened everything out. Look at the Mount Washington Auto Road versus the track on the screen shot. they no longer match. It did not appear that way the other day when I looked at it after our journey. Shucks, I cannot figure out how to post a screenshot up here. It is asking for a URL. Oh well.

 

I thought maybe it was full, and began wrapping, but I noticed on the track screen that it is only 86% full. Any thoughts?

[ImpalaBob]

Do you have the latest frimware loaded "that everyone here is raving about"? I have always had my best track results with "lock on Road" turned OFF. Tracks can get messed up with multipath signal errors and loss of sat lock (both of which the x series does extremely well with). ImpalaBob

[+Timpat]

One thing comes to mind. If you saved your tracklog to a "Saved Track" it compresses it and drops certain data that could straighten sections of track. I have a 60Cx and keep mine set to "Log Track To Data Card" under Tracks/Setup/Data Card Setup. Put a check in the box at the top. This way all your tracklog data will be saved to the microSD card as a daily .gpx file, as well as the normal "active tracklog" in the units internal memory of 10K track points. To access this data on your card, go to the Main Menu page/Setup/Interface/USB Mass Storage.

 

When you click on that, it turns your Cx into a USB device and opens a window (in my case it calls it the E:\drive). There will be a Garmin folder that contains a mapping image file and any custom POIs in an image file, and all the daily .gpx tracklog files. From here you can copy/paste your tracklogs and save them to your PC to open in MapSource or any other waypoint management program. Unless you went thru the setup steps before your road trip, the card probably doesn't contain the data. But you can start today saving track data this way.

[Tymbee]

One thing comes to mind. If you saved your tracklog to a "Saved Track" it compresses it and drops certain data that could straighten sections of track. I have a 60Cx and keep mine set to "Log Track To Data Card" under Tracks/Setup/Data Card Setup. Put a check in the box at the top. This way all your tracklog data will be saved to the microSD card as a daily .gpx file, as well as the normal "active tracklog" in the units internal memory of 10K track points.

 

Great to hear this (and saves me having to ask the question). The "shrinking" of track logs when save has always been an especially irritating "feature" for me. Glad to see that there's now a way around that.

[+A.T.Hiker]

I can't rembmer if I saved it before or after I noticed the track logs were straightened out. But, i do remember noticing that the entire portion in Canada and NY state had disappeared, and when I saved it to a track file on the unit, it magically re-appeared. That's also the time I noticed they weren't right. So, I don't know if it happened before or after I saved. Previously, they had followed the roads perfectly, and now they are a bunch of straight zig-zag lines that, while close to the roads and trails traveled, clearly do not follow them.

 

It seems to me this track log process on Garmin GPSes is buggy. I like to save tracks and waypoints of trips and hikes so I can easily return in the future. the track log for this trip is basically ruined as far as I'm concerned.

 

I'll try the memory card thing to see if it helps. I should also note that at no time did the unit report that the track log was 100% full. Highest I saw was 86, right when I returned home. when i noticed half the track log gone, it said 62% full. I can't figure it out.

[peter]

I can't rembmer if I saved it before or after I noticed the track logs were straightened out. But, i do remember noticing that the entire portion in Canada and NY state had disappeared, and when I saved it to a track file on the unit, it magically re-appeared. That's also the time I noticed they weren't right.

 

There are two separate things going on here. The first is that the 60Cx lets you specify how many of the Active Log points will be displayed on the screen. So depending on how that parameter is set, you may only be displaying 3000 of the total 10000 points in the log. This feature lets you keep the screen from getting too cluttered with the Active Log points, but it explains why parts of your trip seemed to have 'disappeared' and later showed up again when you "Saved" the tracklog.

 

The second thing is that the Saved Logs do compress the data into far fewer points and they also lose the timestamp information that's contained in the Active Log. The Saved Logs are useful when you're retracing a path (TrackBack) or for displaying things like local trails and paths that don't show up on the maps otherwise. But for recording an accurate history of your travels you want to leave everything in the Active Log until you download that to a PC.

 

So, I don't know if it happened before or after I saved. Previously, they had followed the roads perfectly, and now they are a bunch of straight zig-zag lines that, while close to the roads and trails traveled, clearly do not follow them.

That would have been after you did the Save operation on the unit and therefore compressed the data. Note that at this point the Active Log would still contain the more detailed data until you manually Clear that log.

It seems to me this track log process on Garmin GPSes is buggy. I like to save tracks and waypoints of trips and hikes so I can easily return in the future. the track log for this trip is basically ruined as far as I'm concerned.

Not 'buggy' since that would imply it's not operating the way it was intended. In this case it's just not operating the way you thought it would. Just downloading the Active Log directly to your PC would have preserved the tracklog of that trip. For even longer trips in the future it would be a good idea to send the Active Log directly to the microSD card and then transfer it to a PC later.

[+A.T.Hiker]

this has been VERY helpful. Thanks. So, I guess it's not that messed up after all. I just wish I knew about this before I blew away the 1100 mile tracklog. My hike up Mount Washington looks like a straight line up the hill which we all know can't be the case.

 

One other thing I think I leaarned which might be helpful: Track logs saved in the unit and NOT on the SD card seem to be compressed to 500 track points if they contain more than 500 track points. I see that here on the mapsource program. downloaded track logs all stop at 500 if previously saved before downloaded. the math adds up because they give you 20 slots for saved tracks on the unit, and 500 x 20 = 10000 maximum track points on the GPS.

 

I also see the option for changing the track points displayed and the 3000 default. Hence, the reason my tracklog did a disappearing act. A learning process. thanks.