Help! routes won't transfer from Basecamp to eTrex Vista HCx

Hi -

OK I have tried everything I can think of but no luck with this.


Problem:
I can successfully create routes in Basecamp, I drag them (or use the other options for requesting a transfer of data) to 'devices', the little green progress bar moves, the tick appears.... but when I look on my etrex for routes, there are none.

I have tried:
Making a route really short (in case it's a file size issue / max number of points)
saving it as a track instead
installing the garmin software that makes sure you can communicate with SD cards
the sd card has loads of free space
I do set the device to the 'connect' interface so it can be seen in the basecamp sidebar
disconnecting the etrex and re-starting it before checking whether the new route is present
also looking under 'tracks' for the new route
.. and every other permutation I can think of

Note:
transferring a French base map across from basecamp to the device worked perfectly
in the side bar, the device shows as devices / memory Card (F / user data, per the screen grab below - I might have expected 'etrex' to be within this little menu structure somewhere..but this is exactly how the menu presented when I successfully transferred the basemap.

Pleeeeease - I have now spent about 5 hours on this and am no closer - any ideas???

Paul

Have you managed to do it before, using the same device?

I am not familiar with your device. However, the most common cause of routes not appearing, is that they have been transferred but that then the routes have to be imported from within the device itself.

Does your device have a something labeled 'My data' or something similar. If so, what lurks inside it?

The other possible cause is that, whilst you are exporting the route to the device, it's not in a form that the device itself can read. For instance, some Garmin devices can only recognise .gbd or .gpx files. What sort of files is your computer exporting and are they of a type the device can read / display.


I typed a shortened version of your question into Google and found this:

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=59128.0

Is there anything in that thread that helps?



Via the same Google search I also found:

http://www.cycletourer.co.uk/cycletouring/etrexvista.shtml

Which may hold some clues.

Hi -thanks for that detailed response. I suspect that the thread you found in Google has the answer - it includes this quote:

<<Checking the obvious, is the Etrex plugged in and switched on? And is it in normal USB mode, not USB mass storage mode?>>

Mine indeed defaults to USB Mass Storage mode - it's not obvious how to switch away from that, but I'm sure this is the lead I need to follow.

Many thanks for the help, VERY much appreciated. I'll report back.

Paul G

Dammit - a blind alley.

Advice on the web suggests switching the device to 'normal' mode rather than mass storage mode before transferring the data, but in that mode basemap doesn't see the device at all so a transfer isn't possible.

Looking at the device's storage, I can see that the files are there, and in the correct GPX format so I wonder whether your first suggestion is the correct one, ie the files have transferred but the device cannot see them??

I've searched the web for more on this but nothing's forthcoming - I'll continue the search.

The image I meant to attach was this:

Looks like the eTrex Vista HCx is an older model, doubt if it has a 'MyData' menu item. Have you tried using the 'send to device' command in the 'Device' menu in Basecamp, having selected the route? Not sure if this will work but worth a try.

Hi Bumpkin, yes I have tried that option too.

Thanks for the idea though!

I have a vague memory of their being a problem if you allow basecamp to create too many via points or way points on the route. It is possible to limit these. I'll see if I can find the info when I get to a computer.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

Sorry, it looks like that has been covered in the links above.

Are you using the same map on the Vista and in Basecamp? If you are looking for road navigation should you have basecamp in some other profile than Hiking? Clutching at straws I know.

Back to my original point I think the Vista is limited to 500 waypoints maximum. And I think that's total for the unit not 500 per route. Are you sure you are not exceeding that with what you have in memory?

Ring up Garmin in the morning. Usually quite helpful.

Wapping said:

Ring up Garmin in the morning. Usually quite helpful.

Click to expand...

Spoilsport!

walrus said:

Spoilsport!

Click to expand...

I know, I'm a meanie.

However...

From a bit of digging around, in several threads it always refers to the device receiving and displaying tracks. This might be some sort of coincidence in that off-road cyclists probably ride down tracks as opposed to roads, so they always use the word, or maybe not. If we accept that the label is right and the device can only receive and display tracks, we might be able to guess what might be happening....

The OP says that he is creating routes and sending them. In BaseCamp (as opposed to Mapsource, which I think the fellow is using) there is an option to save a route as a track. Maybe it's to deal with exactly the circumstance the OP is encountering.... That some devices can ONLY display tracks?

Maybe (and this is a guess) there is some additional difference between a track and a route, beyond just the file extension? If so and it really is the case that the device can ONLY display tracks, then sending it routes is never going to work.

One question the OP didn't answer is whether he had ever got his device to display routes he had created? If the answer to that is YES, then my guess as to a possible cause is bollox and can be ignored. If it's NO then maybe my guess is possibly right. Either way, it is possible to check...

1. Try saving the created route as a track, then sending it to the device. Does that work?

2. If yes, problem solved.

3. If, no:

(A) Are all the other circumstances correct? For instance, it appears that the device can only hold 20 tracks at a time and / or is limited to the number of waypoints / via points a track can feature. Have those pre-conditions been met?

(B) The device / memory card may be fecked anyway or there is maybe operator error or there is something else causing the problem.

4. Call Garmin to possibly resolve (3)

Thanks both, for some good thinking.

Wapping, here are the responses:

Yes, the device has previously displayed routes perfectly. OK so how did those routes get there? A mate downloaded them to a micro SD which I shoved in and it worked - that's made me think a bit...

Firstly your other questions:

I have saved my routes as both routes and tracks, neither display.

Thinking about what Wapping said about the data type, I used Basecamp to show me the files actually on my etrex, and from there converted one route to a track, and another to a track then back to a route - still neither shows itself.

Track limit? There are currently no tracks on the device at all.

Track size - Yes, when I save tracks I limit them to 249 waypoints (the etrex limit is 250) - I even limited one to 20 waypoints as a test - still nada.

Memory card - I have tried a second card. No change, and inspecting the card through basecamp shows the basemap I sent to it, plus the data for the tacks that don't appear so it appears to be OK.

Operator error - more likely than you'd believe!!

OK so here's the current thinking. Wapping you initially highlighted either a data transfer issue, or that the data was received but in the wrong place.

The data does show on the etrex, and it's in the appropriate GPX format, but is it in the right place? I don't know. Remember I mentioned that one of the other threads you found discussed the importance of the unit NOT being in mass storage mode, but the only way I can see the device in any way on my PC is when it's in that mode.

I think these 2 things may be interrelated.

Because the unit won't go into the right mode, it accepts the data but perhaps doesn't put it in the right place, or tag it or associate it or whatever it's supposed to do. So it looks like a successful transfer, but it has missed a trick of some sort. Increasingly, I think it's looking like a problem in this area.

I have 2 routes I'm going to explore.

1) Remember I did successfully load a track previously? I am going to get hold of a micro SD converter, and write directly to it from my PC's SD port - just export the GPX files directly onto it then load it into the Etrex and see what happens.

2) I'm going to phone garmin... ;-)

PG

Good luck!

Workaround - very nearly there!

Garmin's support pointed towards the drivers being bad on my PC and they gave me instructions to delete existing ones and re-install.

So far so good, except loads of the grmn files were in fact protected and needed administrator / system rights to delete so I could not achieve that....

So, I used a different PC, I loaded basecamp from scratch and it all looked and behaved properly. On the old pc, I exported my routes to a memory stick, and imported them onto the new PC, straight into basecamp.

From the new PC's basecamp, I was able to successfully connect to my etrex and download the routes, which presented correctly in the routes menu. Ta-daaaa!!!

One last problem which I hope is a small one - on my etrex screen it's hard to actually see a route because it's almost completely obscured by the label for each 'dot' that makes it up (I don't think the dots are officially waypoints here are they???) anyway, each one has a banner showing its details and these are obscuriung the map below. I cannot see any of the map options which allow me to hide those banners. Anyone dealt with that issue??

Great, it's done.

It is though funny that you can't now see the route.

'Funny' isn't perhaps the word I'd use...

Like so many IT problems this was so frustrating and ultimately, because the problem was a corrupt driver, it was very hard to resolve and extra-frustrating in that every guide said 'the software should do this...' and when it didn't, it was hard to know where to look next.

Many many thanks to everyone who took the time and effort to apply their minds and help me resolve this, I really do appreciate the help.



See you out there...

Paul G

It does seem like Garmin themselves were quite a lot of help. I have always found them patient on the phone and keen to assist when things go awry.

Enjoy your bicycling adventures and don't fall off!