Weird gps phenom.

[Neil]

Here's a new one. (for me anyway )

I switched off my gps on the summit of Mt. Colden. The track recording feature was active (ie. "on") at the time of switch off. (I don't know if this is pertinant or not)

Since then, whenever I turn my gps on at home (no satellite fix) there is a blinking ? on Colden's summit.

Today I uploaded a tracklog into my gps.

The final trackpoint in my log is on the summit of Dix.

Now, when I look at my gps screen: in addition to a track of the Dix Range I now have a track that makes a perfect B-Line from Dix to, you guessed it, Colden.

How do I get rid of this B-Line?

How could I have prevented it from happening in the first place?

 

[DougPaul]

I switched off my gps on the summit of Mt. Colden. The track recording feature was active (ie. "on") at the time of switch off. (I don't know if this is pertinant or not)

Since then, whenever I turn my gps on at home (no satellite fix) there is a blinking ? on Colden's summit.

Normal. The GPS assumes that you have not moved until it can get a fix.

Today I uploaded a tracklog into my gps.

The final trackpoint in my log is on the summit of Dix.

Now, when I look at my gps screen: in addition to a track of the Dix Range I now have a track that makes a perfect B-Line from Dix to, you guessed it, Colden.

(Pure guessing--I have never uploaded a track into my GPS.)
Presumably the new tracklog overwrites (or appends to) the one in the GPS. Then the GPS thinks you have jumped from Dix to the current location (Colden).

How do I get rid of this B-Line?

Beats me. Some software connects the track segments, some does not.

How could I have prevented it from happening in the first place?

* See if you can reset the current location to Dix?
* Get used to it?
* Keep on buying GPSes until you find one that does not connect track segments?
* Decide "Its a feature, not a bug"?

Doug

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Sounds like the ghost of George Marshall is up to something. Did you hear a whispered "Use a compass, use a compass ..." in your ear?

 

[iceNsnow]

If it said --------

Haystack, Haystack, Haystack, Haaaaaaaaaaaystack, I could probably help you out with an answer, but Dix???

 

[Rick]

* Decide "Its a feature, not a bug"?

Doug

Now THAT'S funny....

 

[SAR-EMT40]

How do I get rid of this B-Line?

Sorry buddy. Your SOL. I cannot say I tried everything but I tried a bunch of stuff and cannot get rid of it. If anyone finds a way let me know.

How could I have prevented it from happening in the first place?

Make sure you turn the track off before you make a significant move. And then turn the track back on only after it relocks on the new location.


Hey, one more thing. What is this B-Line stuff. I thought it was a bee line, as in a buzz buzz bee??


Keith

 

[Neil]

One thing I forgot to mention:

I don't know if this is important but:
I had erased the active tracklog from Colden prior to uploading the Dix Range TL.

DougPaul, what's with the frivolity? Win the lottery or what?
Hey, you know what an engineer says? "If it aint broken it dosn't have enough features"

FYI I own 17 gps's and they all did the exact same thing. Yes, I carry no fewer than 17 GPSr units with me on all my hikes. It's a disease.

You others: Har dee har har.

 

[DougPaul]

DougPaul, what's with the frivolity? Win the lottery or what?

Who? Me? Nah!

BTW, I thought of another solution: whiteout.

Hey, you know what an engineer says? "If it aint broken it dosn't have enough features"

This engineer usually says, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

FYI I own 17 gps's and they all did the exact same thing. Yes, I carry no fewer than 17 GPSr units with me on all my hikes. It's a disease.

Got me beat--I only have two.

Took a bike ride today: took a GPS and a map. No compass! Went by an XC ski area, but there was no snow. Never used the GPS, just the map, the sun and dead reckoning. Even wore some cotton and survived! Turned the GPS on after I got home--no funny tracks or bee-lines...

Doug

 

[skidoc22]

This solution would probably work on my GPS

How do I get rid of this B-Line?

I wonder if it will go away if you reinstall or upgrade the firmware. My Magellan overwrites everything when you change the firmware or if you totally clear the memory. You could download all your tracks and waypoints first, which you may already do routinely, and then reload them or at least the ones you still want.

 

[DougPaul]

I wonder if it will go away if you reinstall or upgrade the firmware. My Magellan overwrites everything when you change the firmware or if you totally clear the memory. You could download all your tracks and waypoints first, which you may already do routinely, and then reload them or at least the ones you still want.

Garmins (at least the ones that I am familiar with) don't overwrite the data when upgrading the firmware. And the choice to connect track segments is presumably made in that firmware.

One could ask Garmin to make the "bee-lines" a selectable feature in some future release.

Doug

 

[skidoc22]

Garmins (at least the ones that I am familiar with) don't overwrite the data when upgrading the firmware. And the choice to connect track segments is presumably made in that firmware.

One could ask Garmin to make the "bee-lines" a selectable feature in some future release.

Doug

Could this not be a corrupted firmware or software issue?

 

[DougPaul]

Could this not be a corrupted firmware or software issue?

I presume it is a design choice.

Doug

 

[Neil]

Nothing like a night's sleep in order to find the answers to life's important questions!
I deleted all the data from my gps then turned the tracklog to "off" and uploaded the tracks again. No Bee-Line!

In case anyone is interested:
I tried uploading the track directly from NG Topo! but my gps screen was cluttered with so many WP's that it was impractical to use. I don't know if you can upload a track from Topo! in tracklog format, maybe it depends on how it was downloaded in the first place.

I had the same data in .gpx format and I opened it in Topofusion. When uploading to the gps from Topofusion I could choose between 3 options. Active track, saved tracklog and route. (You can upload in all 3 ways, one upload at a time). Prior to upload you can "spline" your tracklog down to as few trackpoints as you want. I was combining 2 seperate logs into one and I splined one down from 500 or so TP's to 25. (you see on screen what this does to your route's shape and you can play with slider bar to increase or decrease the TP's). I left the other with a very large number of TP's and after the tranfer this tracklog looked just like a normal breadcrumb tracklog when viewed on the gps screen.

Topofusion is a free download that comes fully featured with no time limit. The terraserver maps that it is based upon have some of the tiles with Demo written over them. Registering costs 40 bucks. I have no financial interest in this very nifty program.

 

[kmorgan]

Here's a new one. (for me anyway )

Now, when I look at my gps screen: in addition to a track of the Dix Range I now have a track that makes a perfect B-Line from Dix to, you guessed it, Colden.

How do I get rid of this B-Line?

How could I have prevented it from happening in the first place?

I have had 3 Garmin Units, currently I have a 60CS for hiking and a V for the car. If you save the track on your unit, then upload it to the mapping software (I have Garmin's Mapsource) you can then double-click the track in the list. This brings up a track properties window which has every point on the track listed. Just select the point you want to get rid of and hit delete. That point will be gone and the previous and following points will connect in a direct line.

You can then save the file and either download the track and overwrite the one on the unit, or rename it and download it.

Hope this helps.

Kevin