Saving your "bread crumb" trails

[CrossRidgers]

Is it possible to save the "bread crumb" trails from a GPS unit to the PC? The GPS unit I am planning to get has a maximum of 10 track logs (Garmin V).I would like to save those memorable trails!

[+PDOP's]

There are a lot of programs that will do this for you. I use GPSTrackmaker which is a freeware program from http://www.gpstm.com

 

Somehthing to note is that your saved tracks in the V are reduced from a maximum of 3000 points to 250 so you may want to save them to your PC first.

[+ClayJar]

Most of the Garmins seem to be able to save up to 10 reduced-detail tracks in-unit.

 

On the other hand, most Magellans cannot save additional tracks in-unit at all.

 

On the third hand, the Meridian series GPS receivers from Magellan (GPS [green], Gold, Platinum, Marine [blue and white], and Europe [yellow]) use industry-standard SD cards for removable storage, and since firmware version 3.12 came out, you can now save any number of full-detail tracks to the SD card. (You can also save any number of waypoint/route sets.)

[DARC]

For a while now, whenever I go geocaching, I create a subdirectory for that cache site where I store everything about that visit. Usually about 30 or so pictures, the cache report, and a downloaded MapSource file containing track, route, and waypoints taken along thw way.

 

I've been saving my data in native Mapsource format which is a very poor way to manage a Track Logs and Waypoint collections. I haven't found a portable way to save GPS data in anyway other then a limited propritary format.

[+ClayJar]

quote:

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Originally posted by DARC:

I haven't found a portable way to save GPS data in anyway other then a limited propritary format.

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IIRC, the TopoGrafix people and others are, were, and have been working together to create standard and open formats. I think Jeremy's talking to them, too. (They're the EasyGPS, et al, people.)

[vagabond]

If you have the A Magellan mapping program you you can load your routes and waypoints to it from the Meridian series. At least you can from the gold

 

All who look are not lost

[+Alan2]

I don't know about the V, but on my Vista I can download Active loads in the Vista to Mapsource or NG Topo (prior to saving the trafcks in the Vista) that contain way more points of data and associate info than once it's saved within the GPS. Anders has all the facts on this so if he reads this I'm sure he'll post the exact numbers.

 

Alan

[+apersson850]

...you tossed on the floor, Alan. When saving the track in an eTrex unit, you loose the time information. The time info gives you the time of day, the elapsed time for the part of the track and the speed for that part. The later two can be calculated knowing the first, of course.

 

What remains is leg length, position, course and altitude.

 

The other thing is the data reduction that is done while saving the active track (max 3000 points in a Vista) into a named track (max 250 points). The unit removes points that adds as little as possible (i.e. are as close to the straight line as possible) to the information about your whereabouts.

 

Anders