Can I save GPS activelogs on a card reader?

[Raymond]

Or something similar?

I'm heading out for a week of hiking and don't have a laptop to transfer the information into each night, but still want to save the active logs without having to avoid not resetting etc.

I want to keep the active logs, then still be able to transfer them into the computer later.

 

[DougPaul]

Which GPS do you have?

Some of the Garmin "x" models (models that take a removable memory card) have a mode which saves a copy of the track on the memory card. Each day is put in a file with a date name. This can continue until the card is full.

Explicit saving of a track will make a condensed copy. My 60CSx can save 20 tracks condensed down to 500 points each.

Doug

 

[sardog1]

How much data do you anticipate saving? "Most" receivers will store at least 20 tracks these days. If you're concerned about exceeding the storage limit in the receiver, how about reducing the sampling rate? You'll be trading some refinement of the tracks for ease of storage. You could experiment before you go to see what settings to use.

 

[Raymond]

Now that I’m no longer posting from EMS, I can better explain

I have the Garmin 60CSx.

I guess I tend to use my GPS as a way to record where I’ve been, more than as a way to figure out where to go, so I like to have as accurate a record as possible.

I save each hike’s track so that I can later transfer them onto my National Geographic Society Topo! map, but I prefer to have the Active Logs to transfer onto my Garmin National Parks East map, because there’s so much more information on the active logs than there is on the simple track (the precise time and elevation of each individual point, for example), aside from the sheer number of points (thousands instead of 500, as you said).

Every time I turn the unit on, it begins a new active log. The problem is that I can’t reset the Track page (I think it’s called) between hikes, or I’ll lose the active logs, and all those extra points and other information that seem so important to me.

(For all of you thinking, “hey, it ain’t that important,” well, humor me. It is to me.)

After the first hike, it becomes more and more bothersome to preserve all those Active Logs, because when I save the track (for Topo!, remember), I can’t save the entire track, or it will link all the hikes together, sometimes with long connecting lines, so I have to look carefully for the beginning and ending points of each day’s hike, and if more than one hike starts at the same place, it can be difficult to sort them out. Ordinarily, when I turn on the GPS to acquire satellites, once I’m ready to begin hiking, I reset the track page to clean it up from all that wandering around the map would otherwise show. If I have to go a week without resetting the track page, the maps will be even more cluttered than usual.

When my son and I hiked in the Adirondacks in July and August, Cam brought his laptop along, so each night I transferred the tracks and active logs into it. When we returned home (he lives with his mom), he just e-mailed the file to me.

He’s not coming with me now, he has school, so I’m trying to figure out a way to preserve the active logs and tracks without having to bring along the desktop computer.

We were in a computer store today, and I saw a card reader for $20. I wondered if it might be possible to copy the information from the GPS onto a card reader, or flash drive, or anything else cheaper than a whole computer, and preserve it that way so that when I got back home I would have all the data I want. It would be great to be able to just transfer the tracks and logs into something small like that and not lose all those extra thousands of points.

 

[sardog1]

As much as I hate to enable this kind of behavior , I think that Mapsource will do this for you. Take a look at Contribute tracks.

There are other ways to do this as well, involving the (sort-of) manual editing of tables. I've done it on a limited basis. Maybe Doug has some ideas as well.

 

[DougPaul]

I think my first post gives an answer which meets the need. In more detail:

Set "Log Track to Data Card" mode on. This will record a copy of the active track to the data card in a gpx format. You can then put the card in a data card reader and read the track files (1 per day) (pg 27 in the manual). You can also put the GPS in "USB Mass Storage" mode to read the track files (pg 68 of the manual). The tracks loaded to the data card are completely separate from the "normal" track recording and saving system.

Note also that if you set "Wrap When Full" mode, the active track will store the 10K most recent track points (pg 27 in the manual). No need to reset or restart anything. When you download the track, you get all 10K and can edit out whatever segments you want. (All saved tracks are saved from the active track.)

The manual: http://www.garmin.com/manuals/GPSMAP60CSx_OwnersManual.pdf

BTW, gpx format is an open text-based XML format. It is human readable and can be manipulated with a text editor.

Doug

 

[Raymond]

Looks like I’m in for some heavy reading.

Thanks for the help, guys.

 

[Raymond]

I had to blow out a bunch of maps (99% full!) to open up some memory (now 87% free).

I hope it will be as simple as just saving the info to the card, but I’ll certainly save the regular tracks the regular way, anyway.

Thanks again, very much.

The fellow at Best Buy said it couldn’t be done, and the young woman at EMS Nashua didn’t know, but she let me use their computer so I could ask here.

 

[DougPaul]

I had to blow out a bunch of maps (99% full!) to open up some memory (now 87% free).

As of software v3.90, the 60CSx can take datacards larger than 2GB. The limit of 2025 map segments is still in effect.

I hope it will be as simple as just saving the info to the card, but I’ll certainly save the regular tracks the regular way, anyway.

This feature was added in v2.90. While I have never used it myself, I believe that is all it takes.

The latest software rev is v4.00. (Available from the Garmin website. FWIW, I download the file and upgrade locally--more reliable than Garmin's Webupdater.)

The fellow at Best Buy said it couldn’t be done, and the young woman at EMS Nashua didn’t know, but she let me use their computer so I could ask here.

Salesmen often don't know the detailed features of such devices. Lots of little details times the number of GPSes that they sell...

Doug

 

[Raymond]

What do you mean by upgrade locally?

Their software is supposed to work with Macs now, too, isn’t it? But I bet it won’t work with Jaguar.

 

[DougPaul]

What do you mean by upgrade locally?

Download the exe file and run it on your local machine. (It is a self-expanding zip file. You then go to the expansion directory and run updater.exe.)

Their software is supposed to work with Macs now, too, isn’t it? But I bet it won’t work with Jaguar.

The have some Mac software, but I don't know the details.

I'm primarily a Linux/Unix user, don't have a Mac, generally run MapSource under a PC emulator (Wine), and only boot a MS OS as a last resort.

Doug

 

[Raymond]

Thanks, Doug.

I tried saving the info to the data chip, and it sort of works.

It saved the active logs—every single active log—but they were shorter than the saved tracks. I think one track was 379 points, but the active log of the same journey was only 64 points. But all the time and elevation info was there.

So I’m my way to the Adirondacks later today. Thanks for all the help.