Oregon 450 and corrupt GPX files

[+Aggrajag]

Hi there,

 

I uploaded a GPX file to my Garmin Oregon 450 on Thursday and used it over the weekend whilst caching up in Coniston. The GPX file was not altered in any way, merely compied directly from the ZIP to the Garmin (probably via my desktop). This is a standard PQ with 500 geocaches local to the area I was in.

 

Today when I come to download my track (which I can do) and also my geocache-visits log (which I can do) I find I cannot use the actual GPX file. MapSource says the GPX is 'Not a valid MapSource file and could not be opened' and BaseCamp says 'An error occurred whilst reading the following file(s)'.

 

Upon opening the file in a text editor I can see it's been truncated. I've no idea how much is missing but there are ~49,000 lines before it stops dead half way through a cache.

 

Is this a known bug or am I doing something wrong?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Mark

[+ecanderson]

Once a Garmin 450 tracklog becomes large enough (10,000 points), it should save some portion of that data to a file (internal memory only, not SD) and begin another one (cleanly). Again, the tracklog should hold up to 10,000 points before forcing the save to file. Any sense of how many were in your file? It may have done a poor job of dealing with the cut.

 

You should be able to just add a few lines to the end of the file to terminate it cleanly (use another short tracklog to see how it looks) and the file should become "loadable".

 

FWIW, I've never seen that happen. What firmware version are you running?

Edited March 20, 2011 by ecanderson

[MtnHermit]

Today when I come to download my track (which I can do) and also my geocache-visits log (which I can do) I find I cannot use the actual GPX file. MapSource says the GPX is 'Not a valid MapSource file and could not be opened' and BaseCamp says 'An error occurred whilst reading the following file(s)'.

That happens to me all the time. Download G7toWin and open the file then it has a direct send to Mapsource. If that doesn't work, a save and open in Mapsource does work.

 

I suspect I need to do a hard reset and reload all my files, just have been motivated yet.

[+Aggrajag]

@ecanderson - My track files are fine, no problem with those, it's the first uploaded GPX file that's corrupt.

 

@MtnHermit - thanks for the tip, I'll look into those options.

 

It's not a genuinely important problem but I did love on my eTrex Vista that I could connect (via MapSource) and see not only my track, but my found Geocaches as the icons changed from closed chests to open chests. I have always saved all my tracks and GPXs so I can look back to where I've been and what I've found.

 

BaseCamp pretty much killed that plan off by not altering icons so I copy and paste the founds from BaseCamp to Mapsource.

[+fegan]

It's not a genuinely important problem but I did love on my eTrex Vista that I could connect (via MapSource) and see not only my track, but my found Geocaches as the icons changed from closed chests to open chests. I have always saved all my tracks and GPXs so I can look back to where I've been and what I've found.

Connecting to the geocache GPX file on your Oregon 450 via MapSource isn't going to show your Found caches...that file is only read by the Oregon to load caches into its internal database where the status is maintained as field notes are created, the Oregon does not update the GPX file to show your Found caches. The only access you have to Finds logged on the Oregon (Colorado or Dakota, probably the 62 and 78 as well) is via the geocache_visits.txt file. Your best option is to log your finds on-line, then generate a MyFinds PQ to load into MapSource to see where your finds are...or simply look at the maps on Geocaching.com to see the status of caches you have/haven't found.