Unit or app for hike tracking?

[Elkins45]

Hi:

 

I joined this forum just to get some info on GPS options for a hike I'm planning in March. I plan to be in the woods for a full week and would like to be able to keep a track of my progress so I can later find my track on a map. It would also be nice to be able to determine speed, distance travelled and elevation change if possible. I have an iPhone app called EveryTrail that does continuous tracking, but I know how fast it will drain the battery on just a 3-4 hour hike and I know there's 0% chance of using it to continuously track a 7 day hike.

 

So here's my root question: what app or handheld unit would you recommend for a hiker who wants to record intermittent points along a trail that can then be 'stitched' together to create a track of my progress, and that allows the unit to be powered down between points to conserve battery life? As mentioned earlier, I would like for all the points to be considered one trip and not just a collection of discrete points on a map treated as a new event and recorded separately every time I power up the unit. My idea is to turn it on every hour or so and update my position. That would probably give me sufficient accuracy to get a good 'feel' for the track of the trip when viewed on a map later. If I need a handheld unit I would prefer to buy a Garmin since I just discovered on Friday that the Kentucky Geological Survey has lots of map data available for free online that is compatible with Garmin brand units.

 

I'm sorry to be such a total noob but I really want somebody who knows what they are doing to give me good advice. This hike may well be a once in a lifetime event and I would like to 'save' it somehow if I can. Specific answers to my questions would be GREAT, but even a couple of links to the best FAQ's, tutorials, or best threads for dummies would be greatly appreciated.

 

TIA

Edited February 20, 2011 by Elkins45

[+briansnat]

I'm going to move this to the GPS units forum where it will likely get more attention.

[+northernpenguin]

I use Latitudie with my iPhone 4 to track my long distance hikes. I set it to get a GPS fix and beacon to Google Latitude every 30 minutes. It will also save a track log

[MtnHermit]

Their are track only units, no display, with good battery life, you'll have to Google to learn more.

 

As for a handheld GPS, the Garmin color eTrex's offer the best battery life, ~28 hours of actual run time. Besides they will hold 24K Topo maps so you can see your position in map context in real time. All Garmin handhelds use AA batteries so field changing is a snap.

 

I did a 4-day BP in Colo with a eTrex Venture Cx, the same pair of AA's lasted the entire trip. It was on when I was moving, off when stopped. I have a track of the entire 4-days.

[+myotis]

Sheltowee Trace?

 

Get a Garmin. Keep it on all the time so you have a complete and detailed track of everywhere you went. Carry extra batteries.

 

Are you talking about their Georeferenced Map Imagery? If so, only some like the OR, CO, and 62 will support them and you have to do a conversion first. They have severe limitations. You are much better off getting free maps from www.gpsfiledepot.com My Trails has good coverage for KY's trails including the Sheltowee Trace.

[+EScout]

I would recommend keeping a GPSr on the whole time and record a continuous track. Set the intervals between track points large if you do not need much detail. Get a unit where you can change batteries easily, like the Garmin suggested above. Many GPSrs set a new segment in the track log every time you turn the unit on or off which is good, since you can do this each day; see how yours saves tracks before the trip.

When you finish, convert your track to a GPX file and use a program such as SportTracks to see the statistics on distance, elevation gains, time moving, and more.

[+AndyT1]

For recording tracks I use my Garmin 60csx. My reasoning is that you can record an entire days hike in one tracklog.

Other units may require you to reduce the recording interval in order to prevent the unit from writing over the data at the start of the day when the tracklog gets full.

Plus you can set it to write the data to the sd card. I can easily record a whole days hiking with a track resolution set at 1 second interval per point.

It unfortunately does not support georeferenced imagery.

 

Not too sure on battery life, I change mine for each day's hiking irrespective of how much charge the battery indicator shows, but I suspect that you may get 2 days worth of recording out of a set of new 2700mAh NiMh batteries.Perhaps others can comment on this.

I know that you said that you wanted to record intermitent points every so often, for me I recon I would soon get bored of hauling out my unit on a regular basis to record a trackpoint, particularly on a 7 day hike.

Rather just start the GPS up in the morning, put it in a side pocket and let it go about it's business.

What is handy is to use it to record a waypoint at cool features - waterfalls, swimming holes etc.

[+northernpenguin]

I would recommend keeping a GPSr on the whole time and record a continuous track. Set the intervals between track points large if you do not need much detail. Get a unit where you can change batteries easily, like the Garmin suggested above. Many GPSrs set a new segment in the track log every time you turn the unit on or off which is good, since you can do this each day; see how yours saves tracks before the trip.

When you finish, convert your track to a GPX file and use a program such as SportTracks to see the statistics on distance, elevation gains, time moving, and more.

 

The nice thing about the newer Garmins, like the Colorado and the Oregon is that you can log with full precision to the SD card. When a tracklog runs out of space, the unit automatically saves it out to the SD and starts a new one. Because of that (and my trail mapping project) I leave my tracklog set for "most detailed" all the time.

 

My iPhone suggestion above is what I use to share my location in real time with friends and family. A discreet GPS is the best solution for pure tracking of the activity for future reference, by far.

[+AndyT1]

northernpenguin - I do the same as you with my Oregon 450.

I would rather have the days tracklog as one loooong recording in a single GPX file, not four or more as the Oregon gives me, which is why I use the 60CSx for tracklog recording.

But I guess that is a personal preference of mine, both give you a tracklog with a decent resolution.

Also for some reason I get the occasional track recording from the 450 that neither Mapsource nor Basecamp will read.

I do prefer the Oregon for navigation - bigger screen, Birseye.

 

I have not been able to find out how to get the Oregon to save tracks to the SD card - any pointers would be much appreciated.

[+myotis]

AndyT1, you cannot save the track to the card. However, in set up select Auto Archive to Daily. The first time you turn it on each day, it will combine all the tracks into a single track and save it as a gpx file with the a file name of the date. (You can access the tracks on the GPS: track manager, archived tracks, then select the date) Also in mapsource you can split, edit, and combine tracks with the track tools. I've had corrupt gpx files too (fortunatley not very often). I opened the file in GPX_Editor.exe and resaved it. It has always opened the file and fixed it.

[+AndyT1]

Thanks - my unit has always been set to Auto Archive Daily, but what I am seeing is up to 4 separate tracklogs of exactly 3000 points each.

No combined track which as you say I would expect to see. Occasionally I see a slightly larger file of around 7000 trackpoints, but it is certainly not the whole hike.

I do not turn the unit off while I am out, usually for around 7-8 hours. I only get to download my stuff on a Monday or later, sometimes I hike Sat and Sun.

When set to When Full it saves a file of 2500 trackpoints.

I do use Mapsource to join tracks, but it means opening each GPX file and copying the tracks to another open instance of the program and then saving that.

 

Thanks for the tip on GPX_Editor - will give that a go for sure.

 

Apologies to the OP, I have taken this a bit off topic.

[+northernpenguin]

northernpenguin - I do the same as you with my Oregon 450.

I would rather have the days tracklog as one loooong recording in a single GPX file, not four or more as the Oregon gives me, which is why I use the 60CSx for tracklog recording.

But I guess that is a personal preference of mine, both give you a tracklog with a decent resolution.

Also for some reason I get the occasional track recording from the 450 that neither Mapsource nor Basecamp will read.

I do prefer the Oregon for navigation - bigger screen, Birseye.

 

I have not been able to find out how to get the Oregon to save tracks to the SD card - any pointers would be much appreciated.

 

The Oregon, if it behaves similar to my Colorado, should automatically create 1.gpx, 2.gpx, 3.gpx files in \Garmin\GPX\Archive once it runs out of space. You can pull the tracklogs together into one long file pretty quickly in MapSource with some copy/paste.

 

That's strange that you're getting corrupt tracklogs that MapSource won't read, I've never had that happen with my Colorado (but Birdseye is almost unusable on the Colorado)

 

Edit: Should have read that better. Will have to check the SD part, as I've not had a major reason to use that with 2GB free space on my Colorado's main memory

Edited February 25, 2011 by northernpenguin

[+myotis]

Andy, if you download the track into MapSource, you will get the multiple tracks. Look on your GPS in \Garmin\GPX\Archive There will be a GPX named for the day. Open that file in MapSource and it will have only one track. When the track is saved there, all the tracks are saved as one track. As I mention above, you can also view the tracks on your GPS once they have been archived via track manager.

[Elkins45]

Thanks - my unit has always been set to Auto Archive Daily, but what I am seeing is up to 4 separate tracklogs of exactly 3000 points each.

No combined track which as you say I would expect to see. Occasionally I see a slightly larger file of around 7000 trackpoints, but it is certainly not the whole hike.

I do not turn the unit off while I am out, usually for around 7-8 hours. I only get to download my stuff on a Monday or later, sometimes I hike Sat and Sun.

When set to When Full it saves a file of 2500 trackpoints.

I do use Mapsource to join tracks, but it means opening each GPX file and copying the tracks to another open instance of the program and then saving that.

 

Thanks for the tip on GPX_Editor - will give that a go for sure.

 

Apologies to the OP, I have taken this a bit off topic.

 

No need to apologize. I'm learning (I think). So what's the disadvantage if I use an app like Latidudie or some other app like Trail Guru to do an intermittent log? I'm going to have to carry the phone anyway so I would like to make it do double duty if I can. Is the accuracy of the phone GPS much worse than a discrete unit?

[+AndyT1]

The drawback for me with certain apps is that they use online maps if you want a map in the background.

For this you need a cell connection which is not always available.

Plus data is expensive over here, and if you zoom in it really chews your data.

Having said that I have not really looked for tracking at apps with offline mapping capability - I'm new to Android phones.

 

There is an Android app that I downloaded but have not used called "My Trails" which apparently does use offline maps. Hopefully someone else has more info.

 

http://www.appbrain.com/app/mytrails/com.frogsparks.mytrails

 

http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/sports/mytrails-beta_lxxs.html

[+northernpenguin]

Thanks - my unit has always been set to Auto Archive Daily, but what I am seeing is up to 4 separate tracklogs of exactly 3000 points each.

No combined track which as you say I would expect to see. Occasionally I see a slightly larger file of around 7000 trackpoints, but it is certainly not the whole hike.

I do not turn the unit off while I am out, usually for around 7-8 hours. I only get to download my stuff on a Monday or later, sometimes I hike Sat and Sun.

When set to When Full it saves a file of 2500 trackpoints.

I do use Mapsource to join tracks, but it means opening each GPX file and copying the tracks to another open instance of the program and then saving that.

 

Thanks for the tip on GPX_Editor - will give that a go for sure.

 

Apologies to the OP, I have taken this a bit off topic.

 

No need to apologize. I'm learning (I think). So what's the disadvantage if I use an app like Latidudie or some other app like Trail Guru to do an intermittent log? I'm going to have to carry the phone anyway so I would like to make it do double duty if I can. Is the accuracy of the phone GPS much worse than a discrete unit?

 

iPhone 4 accuracy is on par with a discreet GPS in most cases. Don't let anyone tell you different - it is way more accurate than the earlier models were and nay sayers often confuse that.

 

Disadvantage to using Latitudie or the other app is the battery thing. On 30 minute updates I got about 11 hours before having to recharge the device on my last hike. I carry a Mili Crystal battery but that is only going to give you one full charge while your discreet GPS probably uses much easier to obtain AA batteries. You can get solar charging battery packs to help stretch your usage out to get more. One week with the cellular data enabled and GPS on the iPhone is gonna be a challenge.

[+Keith Watson]

northernpenguin - I do the same as you with my Oregon 450.

I would rather have the days tracklog as one loooong recording in a single GPX file, not four or more as the Oregon gives me, which is why I use the 60CSx for tracklog recording.

But I guess that is a personal preference of mine, both give you a tracklog with a decent resolution.

Also for some reason I get the occasional track recording from the 450 that neither Mapsource nor Basecamp will read.

I do prefer the Oregon for navigation - bigger screen, Birseye.

 

I have not been able to find out how to get the Oregon to save tracks to the SD card - any pointers would be much appreciated.

 

The Oregon, if it behaves similar to my Colorado, should automatically create 1.gpx, 2.gpx, 3.gpx files in \Garmin\GPX\Archive once it runs out of space. You can pull the tracklogs together into one long file pretty quickly in MapSource with some copy/paste.

 

That's strange that you're getting corrupt tracklogs that MapSource won't read, I've never had that happen with my Colorado (but Birdseye is almost unusable on the Colorado)

 

Edit: Should have read that better. Will have to check the SD part, as I've not had a major reason to use that with 2GB free space on my Colorado's main memory

 

I wasn't aware that Garmin changed the Colorado to be able to use the SD card and go beyond the 20 file limit. Is this actually possible?

[+northernpenguin]

northernpenguin - I do the same as you with my Oregon 450.

I would rather have the days tracklog as one loooong recording in a single GPX file, not four or more as the Oregon gives me, which is why I use the 60CSx for tracklog recording.

But I guess that is a personal preference of mine, both give you a tracklog with a decent resolution.

Also for some reason I get the occasional track recording from the 450 that neither Mapsource nor Basecamp will read.

I do prefer the Oregon for navigation - bigger screen, Birseye.

 

I have not been able to find out how to get the Oregon to save tracks to the SD card - any pointers would be much appreciated.

 

The Oregon, if it behaves similar to my Colorado, should automatically create 1.gpx, 2.gpx, 3.gpx files in \Garmin\GPX\Archive once it runs out of space. You can pull the tracklogs together into one long file pretty quickly in MapSource with some copy/paste.

 

That's strange that you're getting corrupt tracklogs that MapSource won't read, I've never had that happen with my Colorado (but Birdseye is almost unusable on the Colorado)

 

Edit: Should have read that better. Will have to check the SD part, as I've not had a major reason to use that with 2GB free space on my Colorado's main memory

 

I wasn't aware that Garmin changed the Colorado to be able to use the SD card and go beyond the 20 file limit. Is this actually possible?

 

No it isn't possible. That's why I edited my response earlier. The Colorado will read tracks from the SD card but only save them to internal memory.

[jssspencer]

Here are a few thought re the original question. I do a fair bit of hiking ....some long trips (7-8 days) and am almost always tracking with GPS and saving tracks for use later.

 

I have used Garmin GPSMap 76 and now 78s...which is a great unit. I tried Oregon but did not like the touch screen stuff....probably bacause I was used to the 76.

 

I would suggest that the iPhone is not the thing to use (I do have one) bacause of very poor battery life and lack of "ruggness", weather etc and because of less capable GPS antenna and processor than on Garmin units.

 

With my 78 which allows for about 20 hours battery life.....as long as you leave your use of backlighting to a minimum.....you could track continuously each day then at the end of the day "save" the track ....the default track name works just fine so when you get home you can easily recognize each days track.

 

That method would give you much more interesting tracks than just getting a point every hour and would be a lot more worry free for you.

 

You don't have to worry about extra memory since 7 days of tracks don't take up very much space. The caveat though would be depending on how much map data you take with you.....although the base memory...approx 1.7Gb will hold an awful lot of topo data plus road data to get to the area plus Birdseye images or raster images. I buy data on a DVD and then use mapsource to download the data I will need for a particular trip. I always err on the more data than I think I will need and memory has never been an issue for me.

 

I carry the unit in an outside pocket on my backpack.....near the top....and I find that is an excellent place for great reception....even in dense forest, creek, valleys etc....there are limitations but the reception is so much better than my 76 (and my iPhone) I think it is magic.

 

For the 7 days trip carry a recharger if you will have elec otherwise 2 sets of spare batteries will do you fine.....again remember that "backlighting" is the real battery consumer.

 

The 78 may be overkill for you but I use mine for kayaking, motorcycle, in my car, and SAR stuff so I get good use out of it....The 62 looks very good if you don't need it to float.

 

I not arguing with any other opinions just sharing a few vof my own experiences.

 

Happy Trails!

[+Keith Watson]

Here is a Google Earth file from my trip last year out west. I kept the GPS on and recording tracks logs for the whole two weeks. The auto archive in the Colorado created separate files when the current file became full. I was worried it would hold it all, but it did. It even held the flight out from Toronto and back which is not on the file in the link.

 

Trip Track Log

[+fizzymagic]

DO NOT USE GARMIN GPS units for this. There is a little-known problem with Garmin's software that basically makes their GPS units useless for tracking.

 

When a track is saved to the SD card, Garmin units remove the elevation information. So all you get is the lat and long. When you are doing a hike, elevation information is quite useful.

 

I recommend the Delorme PN-60, which stores the tracks on the SD card as they are recorded. It keeps the elevation information intact.

 

When you get home, upload the tracks to Everytrail.com and use their very nice display to show the tracks along with pictures that you have taken.

Edited April 8, 2011 by fizzymagic

[+Keith Watson]

My Colorado maintains the elevation in the archives. In the mountains everything worked fine. Where it did mess up was while flying. I didn't realize the barometric sensor was being used and the pressurized cabin messed up the data in the air.

[+EScout]

I am mostly using my PN-30 to record my tracks and is does a good job. For several years I used a eXplorist 500, which I like the best of any I have tried. It keeps a very accurate track. Today, I forgot to bring a GPSr on a short hike, so I used my Droid phone with the "My Tracks" App. It does an OK job. The best part is you can save it to a GPX file and email it to your home computer for use later.

 

On an earlier post, it was reported that some units do not save the elevation data on your track points. You can remedy this or clean up any track log's elevation data by running it through: GPS Visualizer

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

To avoid having to carry extra batteries, get a GPS data logger instead of using a handheld.

[+embra]

When a track is saved to the SD card, Garmin units remove the elevation information. So all you get is the lat and long. When you are doing a hike, elevation information is quite useful.

 

I recommend the Delorme PN-60, which stores the tracks on the SD card as they are recorded. It keeps the elevation information intact.

Since fizzy brought up this point, I'll add a couple of comments that may be relevant for your use:

 

You had mentioned thinking about turning the device on every 30 minutes to record a position. The PN-60 has a power-saving mode, wherein it will put itself into a low-power consumption state but "wake up" every minute to record a trackpoint, then return to its sleep mode. A set of batteries can give up to 40 hours of runtime in this mode.

 

You lose the compatibility with the free Garmin-format maps you cited, but the PN-60 comes with topo maps for North America bundled in the package.

[+northernpenguin]

DO NOT USE GARMIN GPS units for this. There is a little-known problem with Garmin's software that basically makes their GPS units useless for tracking.

 

When a track is saved to the SD card, Garmin units remove the elevation information. So all you get is the lat and long. When you are doing a hike, elevation information is quite useful.

 

 

This advice applies to older Garmin units, not the current models. Starting with the Colorado (Oregon, 62, etc) track logs are saved with full data, including elevation.

 

Garmin Colorado Wiki - See Point T15

 

If using a newer Garmin Handheld, it is perfectly safe and accurate to use them for tracking.

Edited April 8, 2011 by northernpenguin

[Grasscatcher]

DO NOT USE GARMIN GPS units for this. There is a little-known problem with Garmin's software that basically makes their GPS units useless for tracking.

 

When a track is saved to the SD card, Garmin units remove the elevation information. So all you get is the lat and long. When you are doing a hike, elevation information is quite useful.

 

........

 

First of all, this entire thread (not just the above post) has so much MISINFORMATION in it that it should be closed......for reasons of confusion. Information is being furnished as "Facts" when,in fact, it is TOTAL BS.

 

Fizzymagic, your above information is grossly misleading and entirely incorrect. Very BOGUS information!

 

I have logged /mapped literally thousands of miles of hiking, ATV,Snowmobile,4WD roads, etc trails and ALWAYS retain elevation data throughout the process. I presently have a 76CSx, an Oregon 550, and a Map 78S....all Garmins.

 

There are too many errors and misstatements for me to to try to correct in a post.

 

Please learn how to use a GPS before making statements like yours above.

[+northernpenguin]

DO NOT USE GARMIN GPS units for this. There is a little-known problem with Garmin's software that basically makes their GPS units useless for tracking.

 

When a track is saved to the SD card, Garmin units remove the elevation information. So all you get is the lat and long. When you are doing a hike, elevation information is quite useful.

 

........

 

Please learn how to use a GPS before making statements like yours above.

 

Just to be clear here, some of the older Garmin units DO drop details like Elevation, Timestamps when archiving to SD Card so he's not *totally* off base. The problem he made was that the statement was too broad and failed to take into account the newer models which corrected it. SD Cards and flash memory chips used to be a lot more expensive.

 

I'd really appreciate if you could be specific with what you are representing here is "misinformation", otherwise you're not providing any basis for disagreement here, nor are you helping anyone by casting a pall of doubt over the entire conversation. There are good points in this thread.

[+AndyT1]

Some of the older units used to drop the timestamp when you do a "Save Active Log" on the unit. I think the 276c and 60CSx were two of the gulity parties for doing this.

It also compresses the file (throws away) some data points depending on how full the tracklog is at the time of saving.

However if you let the unit save to SD card all of the data is preserved.

[Grasscatcher]

Northern P,

Go back and re-read all the posts and you can make your own list of statements that are absolutely false.

 

Here's just a few......

 

Myotis corrected one that was made earlier but it keeps being brought up. The user DOES NOT "Save" tracks to the card. The user has a choice to set the unit to "Log tracks to card". That causes the unit (all hand held "x" models, and Oregons,and 62 and 78 models)to log trackpoints to the SD card along with ALL data including elev.

 

The user can only "save" a track to internal memory. And yes,in that action, some older models dropped elevation and some other data as well as reducing the number of trackpoints to whatever Qty that specific model "allowed" per track.(500 tp on my 76CSx) But Note....if the user's unit was set to "log to card", the data logged there (on the card) is "complete".

 

Even on the older "before "x" models",or "pre SD card" models, all the data was available to the user. They just would have to use the "active log" version of a track instead of a "saved" version.

 

In light of the statements above, re read your own last post and you will see that your own statement "when archiving to card" is incorrect and misleading. Also note that "archiving" only became available on the newer models.....

 

AndtT1's 7:36 post is correct except for the statement about "depending on how full the tracklog is at the time...." ...............the criteria for whether or not the number of points is reduced is whether or not the allowable number of "points per track" (for that model of GPS) has been exceeded.

 

Note that on the newer models,(Oregons,62,78) the user cannot even log tracks to the SD card. Tracks are only logged to internal memory and ALL THE DATA is retained. The user can transfer tracks to the card and the unit can access them from the card but you can't transfer them back to the card from within the unit.

 

Also note that the 3000 points limit in a track that AndyT1 mentioned,... that is a user defined setting in his unit......if he wants more....then he should set it for more.

Edited April 8, 2011 by Grasscatcher

[Elkins45]

Thanks to all for their input. So I'm pretty confident the iPhone isn't a GPS solution for longer hikes just based on battery life alone. And I know I need to buy a newer Garmin that logs to the SD card, or possibly a a Delorme PN-60 because it comes with topos. Does Delorme actually have these units made to their spec or are they just a rebadged unit that's also sold under another name?

[savant9]

Here is a Google Earth file from my trip last year out west. I kept the GPS on and recording tracks logs for the whole two weeks. The auto archive in the Colorado created separate files when the current file became full. I was worried it would hold it all, but it did. It even held the flight out from Toronto and back which is not on the file in the link.

 

Trip Track Log

 

Sorry for being a bit OT, but I love your trip log. Your photo of Othello Tunnels is very similar to one I took in '08, mine is without post processing. Nice job!

[+Team CowboyPapa]

When a track is saved to the SD card, Garmin units remove the elevation information. So all you get is the lat and long. When you are doing a hike, elevation information is quite useful.

 

I recommend the Delorme PN-60, which stores the tracks on the SD card as they are recorded. It keeps the elevation information intact.

Since fizzy brought up this point, I'll add a couple of comments that may be relevant for your use:

 

You had mentioned thinking about turning the device on every 30 minutes to record a position. The PN-60 has a power-saving mode, wherein it will put itself into a low-power consumption state but "wake up" every minute to record a trackpoint, then return to its sleep mode. A set of batteries can give up to 40 hours of runtime in this mode.

 

You lose the compatibility with the free Garmin-format maps you cited, but the PN-60 comes with topo maps for North America bundled in the package.

Now that embra mentions the DeLorme PN-60, one can also step up to the PN-60w which with the bundled SPOT Satellite Communicator tracking progress points can be sent every 10 minutes and recorded on a Google Earth visual for the folks back home to watch while you are hiking. This is addition to the thousands of track points that it will store in its hosted SD card, which may be up to 32GB.

Edited April 9, 2011 by Team CowboyPapa

[+AndyT1]

Grasscatcher - where do I set / increase the 3000 track point limit on my Oregon 450?

If I could set this it would be simply great and make me even happier with my unit.

[+gelfling6]

I use quite a few GPS models for both hiking, Geocaching, and road travel. The ones that save a track, I can usually export out to the computer, and convert to the standard GPX format using EasyGPS, which then can convert it to formats used by various mapping programs. (my preferred is DeLorme Street Atlas USA, though Garmin MapSource Topo and various freeware add-able maps to mapsource.)

 

One thing I started tinkering with, was a non-display GPS (like someone mentioned above) from Pharos, which was part of their Trips & Pics product. the GPS is a small 1.5" puck, that plugs into a battery pack. The only thing, is it's strictly a waypoint recorder. not an actual track recorder.

It has a small USB dongle, to connect the puck to the computer to download the trip data, and I usually use the software to direct convert it to GPX format. (but, as I said, it saves the data as waypoints.. not track. Still can't find a program to mass convert the data. It's mainly for geo-tagging photographs.)

[+myotis]

Grasscatcher - where do I set / increase the 3000 track point limit on my Oregon 450?

If I could set this it would be simply great and make me even happier with my unit.

 

There is no limit. Either when the track is full or if you set it to daily or weekly, the track is archived.

[Grasscatcher]

AndyT1,

As Myotis says, on your 450 it should not limit you. On some slightly older units, (76CSx is one) that limit could be set under setup/map.

 

For track logging, I keep my 550 set this way...

Track Log-Record,show on map, Record method-Auto, Interval-Most often (or More often),Auto Archive- Daily

 

Archive files will be complete data and kept by a date name.

 

If you run out of battery juice and keep traveling and then stop and put new ones in , the unit will show a "gap " in the track......so just watch your meter and when it gets down to one bar for a while, stop, change batteries, turn unit back on to re-aquire, then start traveling again. No need to "save" or make other settings changes. All the data will be in the same archive file for that date.

 

"Play" with your unit on short practice hikes/trips before you go out to log important data on a trip that might be hard to replicate. Turn it off and restart, change batteries mid track, change logging methods,change logging intervals (makes a difference depending on method/speed of traveling), etc.....do all this while "practicing" so you'll know what the results will be before it becomes important.

[+AndyT1]

Ok, just re read my own post from a while ago.

 

What I really wanted was one tracklog FILE for the entire day.

I set my tracklog to record at 1 sec intervals and to Auto Archive Daily - the tracklog fills up fairly quickly at that rate.

This is how I need / want to record my hiking data.

 

For example - on 03 April I hiked a total of around 23 Km. I ended up with 4 Archive files of 289kb which contained exactly 3000 track points and the last one was 867 kb with 9044 track points.

With those settings the Archives that are created for the day are a max of 3000 track points - except the last current log which can be greater.

This is the 3000 track point "limit" that I was talking about.

 

The 60Csx when set to save to the sd card is practically limitless for one file.

The same hike mentioned previously and recorded on the 60Csx yielded one file of approx 25000 trackpoints at 1 sec interval

 

I was in no way saying that the Oregon could not record enough track points, just that I preferred them in one GPX file instead of having to copy and paste tracks in Mapsource in order to get the single file.

[Grasscatcher]

AndyT1,

I understand what you're saying and what you want.....but I also don't fully understand what's happening, kinda baffling.

Look in the Oregon Wiki under Tracks and T15, might help.

 

Are you close to the overall 10,000 pt limit(internal memory)? That's the only reason I can think of that the unit would create multiple archive files for the same date if you have it set for daily archiving. (Wiki explains very well). It starts creating archive files of "approx" 1 mb each. Your "current" file being 9000+ qualifies for "being close" to the internal memory, so that's probably what's happening.

 

Logging 1 per second is very unforgiving and unefficient...if you can possibly change to "auto" and either "more often" or "most often", that would help. On very intricate curvy paths the unit will automatically log up to, and including 1/sec, but when traveling straight, it will reduce the number of points logged (doesn't take as many points to describe a straight line)....just more efficient, without losing path accuracy.

 

All that being said, I'm afraid that you will be stuck with stitching multiple files (when you get more than (close to)10,000 points in a single track.

[+coggins]

Anyone use one of these yet?

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=67686

[+gelfling6]

Anyone use one of these yet?

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=67686

LOL! Garmin enters the Satellite tracked Lo-Jack market!

The problem is, unless you conceal it, if someone swipes the item, it could still be removed. (seeing scene from an old police drama show, where the gps tracker was removed, and stuck to the bumper of an elderly lady's car.. )

[+northernpenguin]

Northern P,

Go back and re-read all the posts and you can make your own list of statements that are absolutely false.

 

Here's just a few......

 

Myotis corrected one that was made earlier but it keeps being brought up. The user DOES NOT "Save" tracks to the card. The user has a choice to set the unit to "Log tracks to card". That causes the unit (all hand held "x" models, and Oregons,and 62 and 78 models)to log trackpoints to the SD card along with ALL data including elev.

 

The user can only "save" a track to internal memory. And yes,in that action, some older models dropped elevation and some other data as well as reducing the number of trackpoints to whatever Qty that specific model "allowed" per track.(500 tp on my 76CSx) But Note....if the user's unit was set to "log to card", the data logged there (on the card) is "complete".

 

Even on the older "before "x" models",or "pre SD card" models, all the data was available to the user. They just would have to use the "active log" version of a track instead of a "saved" version.

 

In light of the statements above, re read your own last post and you will see that your own statement "when archiving to card" is incorrect and misleading. Also note that "archiving" only became available on the newer models.....

 

AndtT1's 7:36 post is correct except for the statement about "depending on how full the tracklog is at the time...." ...............the criteria for whether or not the number of points is reduced is whether or not the allowable number of "points per track" (for that model of GPS) has been exceeded.

 

Note that on the newer models,(Oregons,62,78) the user cannot even log tracks to the SD card. Tracks are only logged to internal memory and ALL THE DATA is retained. The user can transfer tracks to the card and the unit can access them from the card but you can't transfer them back to the card from within the unit.

 

Also note that the 3000 points limit in a track that AndyT1 mentioned,... that is a user defined setting in his unit......if he wants more....then he should set it for more.

 

Thanks, that's a lot more constructive, and useful.

[lucky200]

I am mostly using my PN-30 to record my tracks and is does a good job. For several years I used a eXplorist 500, which I like the best of any I have tried. It keeps a very accurate track. Today, I forgot to bring a GPSr on a short hike, so I used my Droid phone with the "My Tracks" App. It does an OK job. The best part is you can save it to a GPX file and email it to your home computer for use later.

 

On an earlier post, it was reported that some units do not save the elevation data on your track points. You can remedy this or clean up any track log's elevation data by running it through: GPS Visualizer

[+Keith Watson]

Apparently if you have an iPhone, it automatically tracks where you have been, even though you may not know about it. It will even transfer the data to your computer for you automatically, again, even though you may not know about it.

 

Apple iPhone stores data on users' whereabouts

Apple pressured to respond to iPhone tracking (Canada's privacy commission say it is looking into issue "with interest.")

Edited April 21, 2011 by Keith Watson

[+northernpenguin]

Apparently if you have an iPhone, it automatically tracks where you have been, even though you may not know about it. It will even transfer the data to your computer for you automatically, again, even though you may not know about it.

 

Apple iPhone stores data on users' whereabouts

Apple pressured to respond to iPhone tracking (Canada's privacy commission say it is looking into issue "with interest.")

 

Easy to mitigate. If you backup your iPhone with iTunes (which is how the file gets on your PC), check the box to encrypt the backup.

As for the privacy issue, the file isn't being transmitted to Apple or anyone, it merely exists on your device. A potential privacy breach occurs only if the attacker has physical access to the device, and can either jailbreak it or sync it. Enable the password feature and encrypted (or disabled) iTunes backups and worry about far worse things in life.

[+northernpenguin]

Apparently if you have an iPhone, it automatically tracks where you have been, even though you may not know about it. It will even transfer the data to your computer for you automatically, again, even though you may not know about it.

 

Apple iPhone stores data on users' whereabouts

Apple pressured to respond to iPhone tracking (Canada's privacy commission say it is looking into issue "with interest.")

 

Easy to mitigate. If you backup your iPhone with iTunes (which is how the file gets on your PC), check the box to encrypt the backup.

As for the privacy issue, the file isn't being transmitted to Apple or anyone, it merely exists on your device. A potential privacy breach occurs only if the attacker has physical access to the device, and can either jailbreak it or sync it. Enable the password feature and encrypted (or disabled) iTunes backups and worry about far worse things in life.

 

The iPhone tracking discussion should be moved to the other thread about it. Kinda off topic here.

[+Keith Watson]

Actually the article is very relevant to this discussion. One of the comments posted to the first article talks about an open source application, that usually means free, for using the data recorded by the iPhone. Might be of interest to anyone that owns an iPhone and wants the data.

[+khumbu_calypso]

I have been going through every set up and configuration option on my 62s and I don't see anywhere that I am able to tell the unit where I want it to store the tracklog data (sd card or internal memory). Can someone give me a hint?

 

Also, I am very surprised that the trip computer information is not all available in MapSource and Basecamp. This is one of the main uses I had in mind when I purchased the 62s (my first GPS unit). I was expecting that it would provide me with, what I thought, was a very basic functionality of data collection and storage. I can't believe that Garmin doesn't provide an application that does this as I would think that many back packers and hikers would want exactly that. To have to purchase a copy of TopoFusion, a very complex and powerful mapping application, just to get a log book function doesn't seem right at all. All I want is a record of each trip I take complete with all of the key metrics.