Downloading GPS Track to 60CSx Problem

[Kevin Rooney]

I have a problem when downloading a previously recorded GPS track to my Garmin 60CSx, and wonder if others have the same problem. And if so, have they developed a fix/workaround.

Here's the situation - when I want to reload a reload a track for an upcoming hike, I'll fire up MapSource, select the track, and then turn on my 60CSx. I then quickly cycle thru a couple of menus, find the "Reset" option, choose "Select All", and delete them, and then hit the "Send to Device" icon in Mapsource to download the track to the 60CSx. I then turn the GPS off and stow it in my pack.

Now - here's the problem (and it doesn't occur every time) - when I get to the trailhead and turn the GPS on, I sometimes find that the few points which it registered in the seconds between the delete and refresh cycles are now linked to my old track. It's immediately apparent as the space between the "bread crumbs" is very large. Depending upon the direction of my home in relation to the trailhead I can sometime ignore it, but sometimes it's confusing.

Does this happen to anyone else? Any solutions you'd care to share? Again, it doesn't happen every time, but I can't discern any pattern as to when/how it occurs.

Thanks.

 

[Remix]

I am not familiar with the 60csx series, only the Colorado. But I'm sure it can accept a memory card, like the Colorado.

At the end of a hike, can't you save the track to memory or memory card with a name? When you need to use the track again, can't you 1) clear whatever old track the unit has, 2) load whatever track you want from memory.

The only pitfall I see is that you have to remember to backup the microSD card with a card reader since thats the only place the track data are stored.

 

[Peakbagr]

Kevin,

Not sure this answers your question or not. At the end of a hike, be sure you both 'stop navigation' and 'turn off track'. Then save the track you just did. I usually name it but you don't have to as it will automatically name it with the date.
Once its been saved, you then do a 'delete track'. That will clear the track from active memory and you'll have the saved track to upload to your computer.
Take a little walk around your home to try it to see if this works. Not sure if I understood your question and this input helps.

Alan

 

[MichaelJ]

Also, in the track menu on the unit, use colors to help distinguish your uploaded track from the new ACTIVE track. It may help, as well as deleting just the active but not the uploaded one.

 

[Paradox]

This happens quite a bit when I download tracks to my 60CSx. I just ignore it.

 

[Maddy]

I have a problem when downloading a previously recorded GPS track to my Garmin 60CSx, and wonder if others have the same problem. And if so, have they developed a fix/workaround.

Here's the situation - when I want to reload a reload a track for an upcoming hike, I'll fire up MapSource, select the track, and then turn on my 60CSx. I then quickly cycle thru a couple of menus, find the "Reset" option, choose "Select All", and delete them, and then hit the "Send to Device" icon in Mapsource to download the track to the 60CSx. I then turn the GPS off and stow it in my pack.

Now - here's the problem (and it doesn't occur every time) - when I get to the trailhead and turn the GPS on, I sometimes find that the few points which it registered in the seconds between the delete and refresh cycles are now linked to my old track. It's immediately apparent as the space between the "bread crumbs" is very large. Depending upon the direction of my home in relation to the trailhead I can sometime ignore it, but sometimes it's confusing.

Does this happen to anyone else? Any solutions you'd care to share? Again, it doesn't happen every time, but I can't discern any pattern as to when/how it occurs.

Thanks.

Kevin...I have the answer to your problem.
You know how well my brain works when it comes to my GPS. I have no more cause for concern. I highly recommend one of these!
http://www.rei.com/product/791972

 

[JoeCedar]

When you power up your GPS, just after it starts searching for satellites, hit "menu" and "enter" which will turn off "searching for satellites" and "GPS is off" message will appear on the satellite page. At this point and before satellites are locked-in, you will not get the annoying joining of tracks and can do whatever you want with your PC, Mapsource, or the tracks page (like clear tracks or load new ones, or turn off the track log).

When you are ready to use the receiver just go back to the satellite page and hit "menu" and "enter" again and it will start finding satellites. Before you start hiking you may want to clear the tracklog again to get rid of extraneous points which may have been recorded as the device was warming up and trying different combinations of satellites.

 

[NeoAkela]

Kevin,

I have the same unit that you do. I'll echo what Peakbagr said - if I understand what you are asking correctly, fully clearing the Trip Computer screen, as well as turning the Track Log off and clearing it before uploading your old track should do the trick. I haven't had the problem you describe, so hopefully that is the reason.

I usually turn the log off and save it immediately upon reaching the car at the end of a hike, then I clear everything except the "saved" track so as not to have any mis-combined tracks in the future. As soon as I upload it to my computer, I clear the whole device. No need at all to mess with the Satellite settings - they should not save any breadcrumbs if the track feature is turned off.

One other tip - when uploading the track back to your GPS, rename it "ACTIVE LOG" to prevent truncation. Otherwise, the GPS will only save the first 500 or so track points and cut out the rest.

Hope this helps!

 

[Kevin Rooney]

These are all great suggestions/tips - thank you.

In the past, I've just turned the GPS off when reaching the TH on the return, and not tried things like "stop navigation" or "turn off track". At home, I upload the track if it's a new trail/variation, and time permitting, will edit it, removing redundant tracks (those sections hiked both ascending/descending) and occasionally joining tracks. I don't rename it, figuring the file name is what matters for my purposes. One problem with joining tracks is truncation, but I think NeoAkela's tip about renaming the combined track as "ACTIVE LOG" solves that problem. If you turn off the option of "shutoff GPS when done" on the box which pops up when you upload/down tracks, you can tell when the track has been truncated as they'll be an error msg to that effect on the GPS screen.

JoeCedar - I'm going to take your advice of suspending the satellite function when downloading.

I sometimes use MichaelJ's suggestion of setting the color of my downloaded "reference" track to another color.

Speaking of colors - once in awhile the GPS will "spontaneously decide" to set the color track to transparent. That will get your attention when you're actually trying to use it to backtrack and the hour is getting late. The first time that happened to me it caused a few hours of concern, and lots of false starts in changing a variety of settings until I stumbled upon the color menu.

And Maddy - am thinking of getting something similar, probably the Spot II, when the REI dividend comes out and you get a 20% off a single item deal. I occasionally do a solo hike where I'd just as soon give SAR a hand if I got injured/incapacitated. Don't plan to use it in NH, however...

 

[NeoAkela]

In the past, I've just turned the GPS off when reaching the TH on the return, and not tried things like "stop navigation" or "turn off track".I don't rename it, figuring the file name is what matters for my purposes. One problem with joining tracks is truncation, but I think NeoAkela's tip about renaming the combined track as "ACTIVE LOG" solves that problem.

JoeCedar - I'm going to take your advice of suspending the satellite function when downloading.

Yes, if you never turn off the Track Log, it will log tracks continuously anytime the unit is on and receiving a signal. It is really easy to turn this off when you save the track at the end of the hike, and on again at the start of a new one. Suspending the satellite function on the 60csx is redundant if your track log is off - no tracks are being logged at that time.

I rename my tracks on the computer to match the trail or trip (Lincoln Woods trail, osceola loop, etc) after I download them from my GPS. Then I delete the track or tracks from the GPS and clear it. The only time I use the ACTIVE LOG description is when I rename a track on my computer to load back onto the GPS - this tricks the GPS into thinking it is the current Active Log so that it keeps all of the detailed information.

Hope some of this is helpful. I've never played with color settings so my tracks have always shown up as pink!

 

[J.Dub]

In the past, I've just turned the GPS off when reaching the TH on the return, and not tried things like "stop navigation" or "turn off track".

Been there, done that. The first time I took my 60CSx on the trail I ended up with a 200+ mile track for a hike to Cascade and Porter!

(When I saved the track to the microSD card I was able to edit off the drive back to CT and just keep the actual TH-summit-TH portion...)

The problem I'm having now is that when I try to import a track from the 60CSx to TOPO! 4.0, the application hangs and I have to quit/re-launch it. I have no problem importing/exporting waypoints, but for some reason importing tracks is causing freeze-ups.

Any ideas...?

 

[Kevin Rooney]

The problem I'm having now is that when I try to import a track from the 60CSx to TOPO! 4.0, the application hangs and I have to quit/re-launch it. I have no problem importing/exporting waypoints, but for some reason importing tracks is causing freeze-ups.

Any ideas...?

I do this frequently, but I do it in two steps. I first use MapSource to copy the tracks to my PC, and do as "Save As" to a .gpx file. I then fire up my version of NG's Topo (my version is 4.5, and I have the CA mapset), then select Handhelds, Import, and go from there. After navigating to the appropriate .gpx file, when importing a track, I choose "as freehand route" rather than waypoints, as you can always manipulate the route later. I also export a route from NG's Topo to a .gpx file, then use MapSource to move it to the GPS. A bit of a kludge, but it works consistently.

A bit of a tangent - I recently noticed that if I don't zoom too far, my CA state map version actually has maps for the entire US there, so if you wanted to used it at the "atlas" level, rather than "trail" level, it seems to work quite well.

I also forget to turn my GPS off occasionally, and it continues to log all the way home. Fortunately, the little scissors function lets me snip off the excess and then delete it.

I also have a version of Topo (v.5 maybe?) put out by Delorme, but haven't used it in a couple of years. It was handy when I building the house, drilling a well, etc as I could use it in the planning and permit process. But, haven't figured out that it has much utility for hiking-related activities.

 

[MichaelJ]

One caution seems relevant to mention: the "save track" feature on the GPS is very handy. It takes the active log and saves it, or a subset, to whatever selected name you choose. Reset the active log and the saved track remains saved. The track will also transfer to the computer by name. BUT ... when it does so, it strips all the timestamps out of the data. This means that only the active log is usable for geotagging photos, determining speeds, etc.

If you regularly want that sort of information, get a microSD card for the unit and turn on the "always save a .GPX file to the card" option. Every calendar day gets a file, and you copy them off by connecting the usb cable and setting storage mode, which makes the card show up as a drive on your computer. Copy off the .GPX files and either delete them there or delete them from the interface on the GPS.

You cannot use this method in the reverse direction as Kevin is trying to do - once the tracks are on the card they are not retrievable by the GPS.

 

[Papa Bear]

I don't worry about what's in the GPS. When I get it uploaded to Map source. I just select the route, and delete the few points at the start of a track and then it's good. I also copy out sets of points for specific parts of a trip, e.g a particular mountain.

You can also stick them into other applications and with very little work bring them into Google Maps or whatever you like.

Here's a track on a Google map that in the GPS was one big track log, but I cut out a piece to get this of Peaked Mountain ME (Aroostook) . It was originally a big track of my drive all the way in from Ashland:

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vz...East.js&index=RF0740&title&showtrack=1&peak=1

 

[DougPaul]

One caution seems relevant to mention: the "save track" feature on the GPS is very handy. It takes the active log and saves it, or a subset, to whatever selected name you choose. Reset the active log and the saved track remains saved. The track will also transfer to the computer by name. BUT ... when it does so, it strips all the timestamps out of the data. This means that only the active log is usable for geotagging photos, determining speeds, etc.

I believe saved tracks are also limited to 500 points, so the track will be condensed.

If you regularly want that sort of information, get a microSD card for the unit and turn on the "always save a .GPX file to the card" option. Every calendar day gets a file, and you copy them off by connecting the usb cable and setting storage mode, which makes the card show up as a drive on your computer. Copy off the .GPX files and either delete them there or delete them from the interface on the GPS.

You cannot use this method in the reverse direction as Kevin is trying to do - once the tracks are on the card they are not retrievable by the GPS.

I haven't tried it myself, but I suspect that one can edit such a track into a form in which it can be reloaded back into the GPS.

BTW, the timestamps are removed from any track loaded back into the GPS to prevent people from forging evidence. (GPS tracks are used as evidence in certain contests.)

Doug

 

[TomD]

You might try asking this on www.gpsfiledepot.com
I am a new GPS user and got a lot of help on their forum. I have a 76CXs, which I understand is similar to the 60CXs in most respects.

The site has some free maps for Garmins. I got a topo map of California. They have some for back East as well. Not sure what all they cover, but there is a map index on the front page.

Also, has anyone used Basecamp for the Garmin? If so, how is it different from MapSource?

 

[Kevin Rooney]

You might try asking this on www.gpsfiledepot.com
I am a new GPS user and got a lot of help on their forum. I have a 76CXs, which I understand is similar to the 60CXs in most respects.

The site has some free maps for Garmins. I got a topo map of California. They have some for back East as well. Not sure what all they cover, but there is a map index on the front page.

Also, has anyone used Basecamp for the Garmin? If so, how is it different from MapSource?

Thanks, TomD. Am familiar with that site, and have downloaded the large CA topo as well. The problem I have with it is 1) it doesn't have trails listed, and 2) it lacks labels. What seems to be new on that site since I lasted visited is a grid showing what features are available within each mapset. That's handy, especially when some of the mapsets are enormous.

I've also downloaded the NH mapset, and it seemed similiar to the Topo 2008 version in terms of quality and level of detail.

Am not familiar with Basecamp - will have to look into it.

 

[MichaelJ]

haven't tried it myself, but I suspect that one can edit such a track into a form in which it can be reloaded back into the GPS.

Oh sure, just load it into your Garmin mapping program on the computer and you can send it back to the GPS. My point is merely that you can't get it back on the GPS by copying it to the card in the same manner in which you copy it off.