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What settings for Tracks-


EraSeek

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I've been looking at setting for tracks, and this is how it looks; You have the options of TIME, DISTANCE, or AUTO. These tracks are driving into my cal-de-sac at about 20-25mph.

 

Auto will log points farther apart when going the same speed and direction, but make a change (in direction at least) and it logs tighter points. This is economical in using less points if they are not needed.

Auto/most

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Time will log points as often as you tell it to. I have examples of 1 second and five second logs. Do Time/1 second for the tightest track. If in an area where you will get multi-pathing such as on a forested trail make your time period longer, say, 15 or 20 seconds to eliminate multiple bogus track points.

1 second

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5 second

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Distance is like time (shown here as distance/.01 miles) and will log point at whatever distance you specify. Use this when you won't have multi-pathing and you don't want multiple points logged when you are stationary.

Distance/ .01mile

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Yeah, sorry about my lousy french spelling.

Sure, first of all I have "lock on roads" disabled, and secondly I have Metroguide 3?, (an old mapset) and they did not do well mapping the roads in our neighborhood! They did not even connect 165th Pl to 3rd ave (which it should be.) Hopefully the newer maps are better.

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I played around with the track settings on my Lowrance GlobalNav 200. Since it was pre-selected at 1 track point per second, this meant that I could register only 10,000 seconds (about 3 hours) of travel. Increasing the time to 2 seconds gave me 6 hours of tracks. On long road trips or excursions in the woods, I would increase the delay.

 

I was hoping to overlay my tracks on maps using OzieExplorer but I could never get my computer to recognize my GlobalNav 200. For working with a computer, my older Garmin 45 worked much better but I sold it before buying the GlobalNav 200. I sold the GlobalNav 200 the other day and I'm waiting for a used iFinder Pro that I bought "used".

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I have a Garmin 60cx, thus an sd card to log to if I wish. This reduces the need for economy of track points that may be an issue if you are just logging the track points to the unit. In that case "Auto" may be the better choice.

ps. I still have my Garmin 45xl but never use it anymore.

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Are you sure you can log tracks to your sd card? I was under the impression that tracks and waypoints could only be written to internal memory, not the sd card. I have an SP 2610 with a 2mb flash card, but as far as I know the card is only for maps. My gps only logs 2000 track points.

 

I've been told I can upload the tracks to Mapsouce, clear the track logs in the gps, create more and upload to Mapsource, then download all I have saved to the gps which then allows me to view many tracks beyond the 2000 trackpoint limit, but I have not tried this.

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I have no idea what an sb 2610 is, but yes I am certain that I can record tracks to my sd card, and do. It is a great way to save all the info as if it were an active track. I imagine the unit is limited to 2000 track points but the card will hold what the card will allow; as it will custom POIs which you can use in place of waypoints on the card (and these you CAN view on the GPS). Tracks on the card cannot be viewed on the GPS however. You must view those through Mapsource on your computer.

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Thanks for the info. I just used my 2610 (it's a discontinued Garmin Street Pilot) for the first time last week. Was logging atv trails in the forest as tracks. Out of curiosity, can you save a track logged on the sd card to mapsource, then download it back to the gpsr and view it there? Seems odd you can't view it on the gps initially.

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Yes, you can indeed log your tracks to the memory card, if your 2610 supports it. I do this all the time with my 60Cx. There is a menu setting to enable this.

 

Every time you turn on the unit, with track logging enabled, it begins to write the file to the card, and continues to write until you turn off the unit.

 

The file is saved as a .gpx file. You can go into mass storage mode and copy the file to the computer. No need to worry about active tracklog versus saved tracklog, etc., with their inherent limitations. Just copy the .gpx file, which always contains all data. The size of the .gpx file is limited only by the size of the card.

 

I don't know whether your 2610 supports this capability.

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Also with the 60cx as I have the track points in the GPS are 10,000, not 2000. I'm sure you could load the track back into the GPS since it is a GPX file, but the GPS will limit it to whatever track point limit you have on the unit. It will probably act like a saved track on the unit, which means that it will edit the points and details down to fit its limitations.

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Keep in mind that by writing your track log to the sd card you will lose time/date info.

 

 

No you won't. Writing to the card is just like keeping an active track on the unit. Neither is missing the time or date. Only when you save an active track to the unit does it edit data out.

 

Tracks saved to the card keeps all the info.

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Keep in mind that by writing your track log to the sd card you will lose time/date info.

 

 

No you won't. Writing to the card is just like keeping an active track on the unit. Neither is missing the time or date. Only when you save an active track to the unit does it edit data out.

 

Tracks saved to the card keeps all the info.

 

I was editing while you posted that. We are both wrong/right. Logging to the sd card will retain all the data. But Saving to the sd card will not. By "saving" I refer to the act of saving an Active Track to the card

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I was editing while you posted that. We are both wrong/right. Logging to the sd card will retain all the data. But Saving to the sd card will not. By "saving" I refer to the act of saving an Active Track to the card

 

Sorry, wrong again. When you select "Log track to data card" it continuously logs to the data card no matter what you do on the unit's "Track Page". There is no saving the unit's active track to the card. It is not an option. Plus the card records continuously all the data, regardless if you save a track to the unit.

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I was editing while you posted that. We are both wrong/right. Logging to the sd card will retain all the data. But Saving to the sd card will not. By "saving" I refer to the act of saving an Active Track to the card

 

Sorry, wrong again. When you select "Log track to data card" it continuously logs to the data card no matter what you do on the unit's "Track Page". There is no saving the unit's active track to the card. It is not an option. Plus the card records continuously all the data, regardless if you save a track to the unit.

 

Maybe i should read better

Edited by Hiker2008
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Here is the card track file displayed on my computer. I was recording to the card. At the Dairy Queen I saved the track on the GPS. When I got home I cleared the track and turned off the GPS. As you can see, the track was saved unaffected on the card and displayed all the track and all the data. The saved track on the GPS saved only the portion up to where I saved, and edited out data.

 

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Here is the card track file displayed on my computer. I was recording to the card. At the Dairy Queen I saved the track on the GPS. When I got home I cleared the track and turned off the GPS. As you can see, the track was saved unaffected on the card and displayed all the track and all the data. The saved track on the GPS saved only the portion up to where I saved, and edited out data.

 

Now that I know you better, I presume that when you say "I saved the track" you really don't mean "save" as in garmin-speak, but "downloaded," transferred," "keep" or "kept" in mapsource as in to transfer a gpx file (Your picture shows an "Active Log", not a "Saved Track")

Edited by Hiker2008
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My above post shows the track on the card. It will show as active on the card no matter what on the computer (mapsource). If you have multiple days and multiple tracks on the card they will all show the same even though they are seperate GPX files.

 

Below is the "SAVED" track that I saved to the gps (not the card). Notice it is edited by the GPS after you save it. It is shown as a date not "active". Compareing the two tracks you will see that the card kept right on recording and was not affected bt the "save":

 

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My above post shows the track on the card. It will show as active on the card no matter what on the computer (mapsource). If you have multiple days and multiple tracks on the card they will all show the same even though they are seperate GPX files.

 

Below is the "SAVED" track that I saved to the gps (not the card). Notice it is edited by the GPS after you save it. It is shown as a date not "active". Compareing the two tracks you will see that the card kept right on recording and was not affected bt the "save":

 

I realize all of that. I was just saying that when you were talking about saving a track many posts ago I took it to mean using the Save Track function on unit. What you were really talking about was RECORDING the track on the SD card. You were using "save" in street vernacular, as in saving for posterity, and I did not catch that.

 

But moving along....my personal opinion is that, except for under extreme conditions, there no reason to record tracks on sd card if you have access to mapsource.

 

About the multiple gpx thing above. I don't think they show as the same -- they are not showing at all. What you see in GPS is the same active log you would see if you were not recording to sd card. Is that correct?

Edited by Hiker2008
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The reason to log them onto the card would that the card is limited only by the size of the card. The GPS is limited to 10,000 pts active and I think 500 pts saved track.

 

You will only see the GPS track on the GPS. If the track is on the card it will not show on the GPS ( unless maybe you take them off the card and load the GPX file onto the GPS itself). The card track will only show on mapsource on the computer as displayed below. Notice three active tracks on the left. The first from earlier, the second from just now walking around the block, and the third when I fired up the gps at the comptuer in the house:

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The reason to log them onto the card would that the card is limited only by the size of the card. The GPS is limited to 10,000 pts active and I think 500 pts saved track.

 

You will only see the GPS track on the GPS. If the track is on the card it will not show on the GPS ( unless maybe you take them off the card and load the GPX file onto the GPS itself). The card track will only show on mapsource on the computer as displayed below. Notice three active tracks on the left. The first from earlier, the second from just now walking around the block, and the third when I fired up the gps at the comptuer in the house:

 

I get all that. I am just being a stickler about your wording. Strictly speaking the gpx files don't show up at all in the gpsr. You seemed to have said that if you logged your tracks for 5 days, for example, the 5 gpx files "they will all show the same even though they are seperate GPX files." The same as what? The same as the 1 big 5-day Active Log according to your writings. But this is not true, as I know you know, even though the two tracks have the same shape.

 

The gpx file created by card logging is a completely seperate animal from the active log (and the saved track). The don't see each other or bother each other.

 

So this gets to what you use the sd card for. Tell me if I am wrong.....Given sd card logging is enabled, and lets say track logging lasts two days. When you upload to mapsource you will receive only one track: The ACTIVE LOG. This active log has nothing to do with the log on the sd card and has the 10,000 point limitation. You will also have 2 gpx files on the sd card left behind.

 

Your concern is that the ACTIVE LOG will go over 10,000 points and start wrapping or stop logging. And if it does you have those 2 gpx files to use. I undertand this concern. But what about using the track resolution settings? What are you tracking that you need over 10,000 points? You can't eat that much ice cream!

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I get all that. I am just being a stickler about your wording.

Sorry if my wording is confusing.

 

Strictly speaking the gpx files don't show up at all in the gpsr. You seemed to have said that if you logged your tracks for 5 days, for example, the 5 gpx files "they will all show the same even though they are seperate GPX files." The same as what?

They will all show as an active track as I have shown above.

 

The same as the 1 big 5-day Active Log according to your writings. But this is not true, as I know you know, even though the two tracks have the same shape.

No, I didn't say that.

 

The gpx file created by card logging is a completely seperate animal from the active log (and the saved track). The don't see each other or bother each other.

No, not quite. Both the card and the GPS are the same track. They are just stored seperately. They don't affect each other simply because one is stored to the unit and one to the card. If "saved" to the unit, the unit edits it in terms of data and points, but the unit active track continues.

 

So this gets to what you use the sd card for. Tell me if I am wrong.....Given sd card logging is enabled, and lets say track logging lasts two days. When you upload to mapsource you will receive only one track: The ACTIVE LOG. This active log has nothing to do with the log on the sd card and has the 10,000 point limitation. You will also have 2 gpx files on the sd card left behind.

Hmm. I don't quite follow. If you have a track period of 2 days (without turning the unit off) and you upload the active "unit" track from the GPS to Mapsource you will have 10,000 track points (the latest if you have wrapping "on", or if not, the first 10,000 pts if you maxed out). If you switch over to the card and upload that to Mapsource, if the card is big enough you will have one active track of the entire 2 days.

 

Your concern is that the ACTIVE LOG will go over 10,000 points and start wrapping or stop logging. And if it does you have those 2 gpx files to use. I undertand this concern. But what about using the track resolution settings? What are you tracking that you need over 10,000 points? You can't eat that much ice cream!

That depends. I like ice cream alot. It all depends on how much resolution you want and how far you are going. If using Time/1sec, that give you a lot of resolution. My little trek down the road ate up 1500 in a short time. I can see going over 10k easy in some situations. Bike trips perhaps. At any rate I just like to get into the minutia of things because that is how I learn; by posts like this.

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Hmm. I don't quite follow. If you have a track period of 2 days (without turning the unit off) and you upload the active "unit" track from the GPS to Mapsource you will have 10,000 track points (the latest if you have wrapping "on", or if not, the first 10,000 pts if you maxed out). If you switch over to the card and upload that to Mapsource, if the card is big enough you will have one active track of the entire 2 days.

 

Let's concentrate on that. This is one part where I disagree -- only theoretically because I have not tried it in the field.

 

It has been my belief that you cannot upload the gpx files to mapsource. You need to copy them to your PC using mass storage option and open gpx file(s) in mapsource. Can you give me steps to switch over to card and upload -- this must be what I am missing -- or give me page number in manual?

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Sure. Plug your GPS into the usb cable. Turn your gps on. The computer makes a "ding" (technical term) recognizing your unit. To get to the card go to>Main menu>setup>interface>select USB Mass Storage. At this point the gps closes out its connection with the computer with a ding and immediately goes into another mode as another disk drive, "G" lets say acting like a card reader, you hear another "ding" as the computer recognizes the "G" disk drive. Then bring up Mapsource, hit File>Open> you should see the file in G disk drive. Select that and you are there.

To close out, you simply hit the power button on the GPS briefly and that closes the card drive and bring the GPS back to recognition on the computer.

 

I think Mapsource can recognize a GPX file from whatever source.

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Sure. Plug your GPS into the usb cable. Turn your gps on. The computer makes a "ding" (technical term) recognizing your unit. To get to the card go to>Main menu>setup>interface>select USB Mass Storage. At this point the gps closes out its connection with the computer with a ding and immediately goes into another mode as another disk drive, "G" lets say acting like a card reader, you hear another "ding" as the computer recognizes the "G" disk drive. Then bring up Mapsource, hit File>Open> you should see the file in G disk drive. Select that and you are there.

To close out, you simply hit the power button on the GPS briefly and that closes the card drive and bring the GPS back to recognition on the computer.

 

I think Mapsource can recognize a GPX file from whatever source.

 

OK. But that's not uploading. That's just opening a gpx file, same way as if it was on the c drive. Still no active track (meaning the track in unit memory). If you clear the track log prior to opening the file so that there is no active track (in unit memory) you will get the same result as not clearing the track log prior to opening the gpx file, no? The only "active track" is the name given to the track in mapsource.

 

On the other side, if you do an upload into mapsource you receive only the active track residing in unit memory; the gpx files are not seen, and you will get the same result in mapsouce if you never had recorded the track on card.

Edited by Hiker2008
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I must say your wording confuses me as well, but then I'm not a tech guy and judging from your profile I assume you are, so my terms probably differ from your terms and all I can do is discribe as I understand it.

 

There is one active track; that which resides in the unit. The card basically holds a mirror of that track and stores it. The card is affected by the same atributes you choose for the active track, that being, to record or not, and how to record (time/1 sec).

 

If you transfer tracks from the unit to Mapsource on the computer it will show the active track and any saved (edited) tracks on the unit's internal memory.

 

If you transfer (or whatever) the info off the card to Mapsource on the computer it will display all files from that as active tracks, because they are a mirror of the active track and have not been saved and edited, not because they are the units active track.

 

The two processes are seperate and cannot be done in the same operation, although perhaps they can both be displayed together on the computer if you save one to mapsource before doing the other.

 

So if you clear the active track before tansfer the only difference is on the comptuer that there will be no Active Track displayed from the units transfer. All else is the same.

 

The transfer to the computer from the unit will only show saved tracks

The transfer from the card will still show those files as active tracks because of their unedited nature I suppose.

There will be no active track in the unit, or it will begin from where you cleared it.

The card in the unit still has the same files and will continue to record if there is a track to record.

 

Hope I answered something there.

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I guess I should include one more thing here as I understand it. I you don't have "Wrap" on and your internal track memory fills(10,000 pts), I'm not sure how the computer will display that, active I suppose, but an active track continues and will be recorded to the card as before.

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I won't try to nest multiple quotes here haha

 

The technical terms I try to use are the ones you will find in the unit, software and manual. So when I say "save" I mean "save" in that sense. I am not sure what you mean by "active track." Sounds like you mean "the track that is currently being created/recorded" as I do.

 

By "uploading" I am referring to the process that occurs when you click on the icon in Mapsource that has a picture of gps unit with UP arrow. When you upload, all that is transferred to mapsource is the track log(s) that are residing in internal memory. (These will include any "saved" tracks). If you are recording the log to sd card, nothing on sd card gets transferred (I don't have unit or any recordings, but manual tells me this i think). You cannot "upload" the track log on sd card.

 

After uploading, you will see a list of tracks in Mapsource. The active track(s) will have the name ACTIVE LOG XXX. ("saved" tracks will have the name given by user during the save process). I haven't verified yet, but going by your examples the gpx file, once opened (not uploaded) in mapsource have same track names as the name of the track in "active track," namely ACTIVE LOG XXX.

 

I am not sure about the "mirroring" business. But I am certain that both logs are being created from the same data and one of the mirrors breaks at 10,000 points

 

I am trying to clear all this up because I am trying to understand why you would use the recorded log on sd card instead of the active log in internal memory. I know of only 2 reasons for this:

 

1) You do not have access to mapsource before hitting the 10,000 point limit

2) You don't have access to mapsource at all and you need a gpx file for the software you are using.

 

I know you are using Mapsource so #2 above can be eliminated. so, is #1 a problem with your usage? Or maybe there is a #3 I am unaware of?

Edited by Hiker2008
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I am trying to clear all this up because I am trying to understand why you would use the recorded log on sd card instead of the active log in internal memory. I know of only 2 reasons for this:

 

1) You do not have access to mapsource before hitting the 10,000 point limit

2) You don't have access to mapsource at all and you need a gpx file for the software you are using.

 

I know you are using Mapsource so #2 above can be eliminated. so, is #1 a problem with your usage? Or maybe there is a #3 I am unaware of?

I can't think of a good reason not to record to the SD card. It may be that using Mapsource and the Active log are sufficient for your purposes, but recording to the SD card won't interfere with that; it's more like a backup. Note that when you "Save" a track on your GPS you actually lose data. It "simplifies" the points to reduce the quantity (thus making the track coarser) and more importantly, it strips out the timestamps. I don't know why Garmin thinks a "Save" operation should lead to a net loss of data, but whatever.

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I am trying to clear all this up because I am trying to understand why you would use the recorded log on sd card instead of the active log in internal memory. I know of only 2 reasons for this:

 

1) You do not have access to mapsource before hitting the 10,000 point limit

2) You don't have access to mapsource at all and you need a gpx file for the software you are using.

 

I know you are using Mapsource so #2 above can be eliminated. so, is #1 a problem with your usage? Or maybe there is a #3 I am unaware of?

I can't think of a good reason not to record to the SD card. It may be that using Mapsource and the Active log are sufficient for your purposes, but recording to the SD card won't interfere with that; it's more like a backup. Note that when you "Save" a track on your GPS you actually lose data. It "simplifies" the points to reduce the quantity (thus making the track coarser) and more importantly, it strips out the timestamps. I don't know why Garmin thinks a "Save" operation should lead to a net loss of data, but whatever.

 

Yes, I know what Save Track means and does. I don't know what good it is now; maybe its a legacy feature from the days of no cards. It allows you to use the unit without a card for a longer time.

 

So you've added a couple more reasons to my first two:

 

3) It doesn't hurt

4) Backup

 

I also know recording track to sd card won't interfere with the log in internal memory. (I had mentioned that ealier and you disagreed somewhat)

 

Recording to the sd card keeps the unit busier than I like. Some stuff is slow enough without that extra activity. It also takes up space where maps and other data can be stored instead. I keep all my gpx and gdb files with all my other important files in My Documents -- and we are all backing up our My Documents folder, right (heheh). So sd card as backup in not necessary.

 

So I will still have to maintain that "using Mapsource and the Active log are sufficient for" anyone's purposes if items 1) and 2) are not an issue.

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Hiker, yes I think I would agree with all in your post#28, and SiliconFiend I agree with you as well.

 

So why edited saved tracks? My understanding is because of the trackBack feature. How this editing assists with trackback I am not sure, but I have heard this before. But trackback can't use time and date, and with edited points there is less processing I suppose.

 

Now is there any other reason for logging to card? SiliconFiend had the best reason, but I keep thinking of a scenario where I am driving along and I get stopped for speeding, but I don't think I was. With the card I don't have to worry about whether I have overwriten that peice of track, or if I save and lose data, plus I have 2 sources of proof of what was going on. Maybe unlikely but perhaps useful in some other scenario, such as accidentally saving the track when I really want the whole works.

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Hiker, yes I think I would agree with all in your post#28, and SiliconFiend I agree with you as well.

 

So why edited saved tracks? My understanding is because of the trackBack feature. How this editing assists with trackback I am not sure, but I have heard this before. But trackback can't use time and date, and with edited points there is less processing I suppose.

 

Now is there any other reason for logging to card? SiliconFiend had the best reason, but I keep thinking of a scenario where I am driving along and I get stopped for speeding, but I don't think I was. With the card I don't have to worry about whether I have overwriten that peice of track, or if I save and lose data, plus I have 2 sources of proof of what was going on. Maybe unlikely but perhaps useful in some other scenario, such as accidentally saving the track when I really want the whole works.

 

Yes, in the case where you always have it on in the car (even when not navigating) you would definitely be exceeding the 10000 point limit. But you're really not using track features in that scenario. I have read about cases where the gps data has trumped the cop's radar guns and speedometer data. Down here in Los Angeles the Calif Highway Patrol announced they will be using GPS to measure our speeds, so unless my etrex vista has a better receiver then the cop's I will be out of luck!

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So why edited saved tracks? My understanding is because of the trackBack feature. How this editing assists with trackback I am not sure, but I have heard this before. But trackback can't use time and date, and with edited points there is less processing I suppose.

When you say "edit saved tracks" I assume you mean the simplification that the GPS does when you select "Save"?

 

If Garmin's smart (and they seem to be), they'll have libraries of code that are common across several or all GPS platforms. The track log function is probably one of them. So, I would guess it's a legacy function to save memory. Back when memory was still expensive, it made sense to conserve that precious resource. The small amount of internal memory probably still helps them to keep the per-unit costs down. It may help with trackback, too, but it seems like that function could just ignore the timestamps and work with an "active copy" that's been simplified, while keeping the original data intact.

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I had accidently lost my tracks from a sailing trip while down in Delaware over Labor Day because I had me GPS set to record a trackpoint every second. Well, on the long ride home, ALL were overwritten in just about 1000 seconds, um <20 minutes. I had forgotten to store the track to SD card and to reset my settings.

 

AUTO is how I normally have my GPS set and that does not mean Automobile, it means Automatic. The GPS figures out when it needs to record a new point based on speed and direction which are actually velocity vector. The display on a Magellan GPS will have points show very often, even if the track setting is set to 1 minute, but the actual recording of a point will only happen once per minute and you can't tell on the screen which is which.

 

Edited to correct w whole lot of typing errors that somehow crept into my writing.

Edited by trainlove
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Has anyone figured out how much storage space tracks use on sd card? How many trackpoints in a megabyte of track?

This discussion has been about Garmins. I will comment on Magellans, such as the eXplorists. The Track point frequency can be by distance or Auto, not time. The distance can be down to .01 mile (or .01 KM) I usually use "Auto Detailed" which chooses the frequency of track points based on speed and direction. The saved files are text files (CSV type) and are about 3.2KB per mile. After converted to .gpx format, they are about 6.1KB per mile. No problem with big SD cards.

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I think you'll find this interesting. I've been experimenting over the past two days trying to fill up my memory on the unit side, and recording on the card as well.

 

First I went to the map setting to try and do things quicker by setting my track log to 1000 pts with "wrap" set to off. This gave me a short track on the screen of the latest 1000 pts with no other effect. When I switched the log back to 10000 pts, I instantly saw my whole track on the screen.

 

So after 2 days with "wrap" set to off, I have filled my units memory. It has no effect on the unit screen as it keeps showing laid track. However on Mapsource on the computer the track ends about a half mile from my house.

 

As for the card, my current total is 10372 pts, and with a total of 1202kb.

 

;)

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I think you'll find this interesting. I've been experimenting over the past two days trying to fill up my memory on the unit side, and recording on the card as well.

 

First I went to the map setting to try and do things quicker by setting my track log to 1000 pts with "wrap" set to off. This gave me a short track on the screen of the latest 1000 pts with no other effect. When I switched the log back to 10000 pts, I instantly saw my whole track on the screen.

 

So after 2 days with "wrap" set to off, I have filled my units memory. It has no effect on the unit screen as it keeps showing laid track. However on Mapsource on the computer the track ends about a half mile from my house.

 

As for the card, my current total is 10372 pts, and with a total of 1202kb.

 

<_<

 

I thought it would be the opposite. That wrapping would display (in gpsr) the last 1000 points and no wrap would display the first 1,000 points.

 

In any case it seems that wrapping applies only to the display and not what is logged in internal memory?

Edited by Hiker2008
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I certainly would have thought so too. Perhaps I'll play with it again to make sure, but as it looks now "No Warping" applies to the memory and not really the display. My memory ended up the road from my house and the track stopped there, but not on the display. If I had had "Wrapping" set to "ON" it would have continued to record all the way to my house and drop the track off the back end. I had "wrap" set to "off".

 

The display seems to wrap no matter what according to how many points you have set. And like wise, how many points you have set applies only to the display. The memory will still record 10,000 pts.

 

The "wrap" or "not" setting applies just to memory.

Edited by EraSeek
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Has anyone figured out how much storage space tracks use on sd card? How many trackpoints in a megabyte of track?

 

Maybe EraSeek has some nice fat gpx files on his card to check?

 

On a Magellan the track format is just a custom NMEA word somoething like $PMGNTK,N,42.45678,W,071.32123,12.3,20071121,131211,,,,,*DD

Just from memory, but less than about 100 characters each. Lat, Long, Elevation, date and time, perhaps a few other bits of info also.

 

THe Magellan is limited to 2000 points of Track memory. And with wraparound, the 2001'th point overwrites the oldest point on both the display and the stored information. That sotred information refers to both what would get stored to an SD card or what would get downloaded by cable (serial) to your computer (but that's a real waste of battery power using MapSend Topo, can't up the BAUD. Other 3'rd party software is much better for that like EasyGPS GPS2Win and so on...

 

That limit of 2000 points is really only for each list of points, I.E. You could save the tracks to SD card often and erase to start anew.

 

So with about 100 bytes per point, you can store nearly infinitely many points on a 2GIG SD card. That is over 248 days continuous at one per second. But of course if the SD card is formatted FAT12 or FAT16 or whatever else there is, the minimum file size is 2K or so even for only 1 point, but that matters not.

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On our week long snowmobile trips to northern Ontario (usually around 1000 miles), I preload the tracks that we'll need for navigating. At the end of each day I save the day's tracks, then delete any preloaded tracks that I won't be needing.

 

I think I usually set my interval for .05 or .1 mile. The saved tracks that I download afterwards are good enough for future navigation. I don't need the elevation info, so that's not an issue when I lose it during the saving process.

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