2720 Track Log Size

[st13phil]

Downloaded the Track Log from my 2720 over the weekend after a two-week trip to France and was pleasantly surprised to find that it had captured a substantial portion of the trip - to be precise more than 1,700 miles of it in just over 10,000 Track Log points. The significance of this is that the Garmin Tech Spec on the web for the 2720 says that it only has a 2,000 point Track Log. Could be of interest if this is a critical buying decision point wrt other Garmin GPSR's...

 

[PanEuropean]

Have you recently updated the software in your GPSR with the Garmin WebUpdater program? It could be that the newest software release supports a larger tracklog. (Just a guess)

Garmin has historically always retroactivly provided new features for older models of GPSRs, if the hardware in the older model can support the new feature. So, it might be that they have noticed requests from moto users for bigger track log capacity, and since the 27xx series has 2 gigs of memory in it (same as the 28xx series), just decided to provide the bigger log.

Michael

 

[st13phil]

Have you recently updated the software in your GPSR with the Garmin WebUpdater program? It could be that the newest software release supports a larger tracklog. (Just a guess)

You may well be right. When I bought the unit at the end of January I immediately updated the software to the then latest release (v4.50 I think) and I remember downloading the Track Log data and thinking that with the limited number of points available it wasn't going to be a great deal of use.

I was running v5.00 for the trip in question. v6.00 had been released a couple of days before I left and I work on the "don't make last minute unnecessary changes" rule FWIW, I used WebUpdater to install v6.00 over the weekend and the Track Log has been preserved at > 10,000 points.

 

[PanEuropean]

That kind of suggests that Garmin has given all the 27xx users a summertime gift by way of a software update. Garmin is usually pretty soft-spoken about announcing these kind of things - the software engineers want to keep everyone up to date, but at the same time, they don't want to take the wind out of the sails of the marketing guys.

Michael

 

[ebbo]

There seems to be a steady progression track log capacity, the SpIII was only 2000 log points and couldn’t cover a decent days ride. Now the top limit seems to be 10,000 so perhaps its not greedy to ask Garmin for 25,000, then I wouldn’t need to take a note book with me on a trip.

 

[PanEuropean]

I think you will find that the current capacity is more than enough. I just flew from the Falkland Islands to Oxford, via South America, Caribbean, Canada, Greenland, and Iceland, and only filled up 71% of the track log on my GPSR.

Michael

 

[ebbo]

I think you will find that the current capacity is more than enough. I just flew from the Falkland Islands to Oxford, via South America, Caribbean, Canada, Greenland, and Iceland, and only filled up 71% of the track log on my GPSR.

Michael

Michael, flying is hugely more economical on a track log points because your basically going in a straight line, leg lengths can be up to 17 miles long!

Fly - Palma to Leeds/Bradford 1106 miles – 381 pts
Ride - Pontefract to Plymouth 320 miles – 1815 pts

 

[HMR]

There seems to be a steady progression track log capacity, the SpIII was only 2000 log points and couldn’t cover a decent days ride. Now the top limit seems to be 10,000 so perhaps its not greedy to ask Garmin for 25,000, then I wouldn’t need to take a note book with me on a trip.

Some of Garmins models can store much more than 10000 points.

The 276C can save 15 tracks. When saving the 10000 point track is reduced to 700 points but you will in most cases still get a quite useful log.

The 60Cx can save an "unlimited" number of 10000 point tracks onto the SD memory card.

 

[PanEuropean]

Here's my uploaded track log. FYI, the memory was only 70 something percent full.

 

[ebbo]

Some of Garmins models can store much more than 10000 points.

The 276C can save 15 tracks. When saving the 10000 point track is reduced to 700 points but you will in most cases still get a quite useful log.

The 60Cx can save an "unlimited" number of 10000 point tracks onto the SD memory card.

I believe it also disposes of time, date, elevation and temperature when you save the logs, so yes, it will save more than 10,000 trackpoints, but they’d be of no use me stripped out like that.

Its a pity gamin don't put an additional microSD card slot in to the 276c and call it the 276Cx

 

[HMR]

I believe it also disposes of time, date, elevation and temperature when you save the logs

Yes it does. Very stupid since the extra memory required is not very much. What I miss most is the time & date info.

Its a pity gamin don't put an additional microSD card slot in to the 276c and call it the 276Cx

Exactly! Add a high contrast screen and the SIRF3 chipset and the perfect GPS is here!

 

[HMR]

Here's my uploaded track log. FYI, the memory was only 70 something percent full.

You have 15000 points stored and still room for 5000 more. Great! It means that one of the most significant negative sides with the SP2820 now is gone. Good news indeed.

Next question is - can you upload 15 named tracks from MapSource?

This one can do to the 276C/60Cx and these tracks are very useful as "routes" in areas where the map is poor.

 

[PanEuropean]

Next question is - can you upload 15 named tracks from MapSource?

As far as I know, yes, you can, although I'm not sure if the results will be the same as on a 2x6 or 3x6.

All you have to do is rename the (previously downloaded from the GPSR) tracks in MapSource, then upload them back to the GPSR. I think (not sure here because I have never tried it) that you will then have any number of routes present in the GPSR, although you won't be able to call them up individually, because the pure automotive GPSR's don't support Trackback.

You might, though, be able to assign the routes different colours from within the MapSource application. It's an interesting thought - maybe someone who has a 27xx or 28xx could experiment a bit and let us know how it turns out.

Michael

 

[HMR]

As far as I know, yes, you can, although I'm not sure if the results will be the same as on a 2x6 or 3x6.

All you have to do is rename the (previously downloaded from the GPSR) tracks in MapSource, then upload them back to the GPSR. I think (not sure here because I have never tried it) that you will then have any number of routes present in the GPSR, although you won't be able to call them up individually, because the pure automotive GPSR's don't support Trackback.

You might, though, be able to assign the routes different colours from within the MapSource application. It's an interesting thought - maybe someone who has a 27xx or 28xx could experiment a bit and let us know how it turns out.

Trackback is not required to use tracks as routes. It's sufficient if you can make the track visible on the screen in a bright color. Guiding instructions won't work anyway with tracks so it is good enough with bright color.

It would indeed be interesting if someone who has a 27xx or 28xx could experiment a bit and let us know how it turns out. Set "auto zoom" = OFF and just follow the track on the screen.

 

[araspitfire]

I just tried to download 3 tracks that I used to have loaded in my 60C.. walks and bikerides around the house... (new toy play)

Anyways, in Garmin mode, mapsource reported success, 2820 reported "track transfer complete"...

No tracks on the GPS but the ones that I recorded over the past 3 days... Can't find a sign of them in "My Data"... when uploading tracks from the GPS to the computer right after... I just get the recorded ones...

So that is that I guess... something to ask Garmin for... Either give us a "make a route along this track facility" in Mapsource... or at least give us the ability of dumping a track on the GPS and being able to see/turn it on/off... Trackback would also be nice...

This is useful functionality on a Motorcycle GPS.. not everyone will want to correct thier routes to match up with recorded tracks before sharing them... and not everyeone will want to make a manual route (though it's not all that hard..) to cover the uploaded track...

Al...

 

[PanEuropean]

Hi Al:

Interesting results. Personally, I think the best answer would be some kind of facility in MapSource to 'post-process' a track log and make it an (off-road) route. I doubt that we will ever see Trackback capability in an automotive GPSR. I remember doing the pre-production testing of the 296, and getting a very early software load that allowed Trackback when the GPSR was in automotive mode. It was funny as heck to see the guidance to head down the expressway in the wrong direction (against the flow of traffic on a dual carriageway), but not something you would want a novice user to stumble up against after they have had a drink or two... That little software bug got cleaned up 'real fast'!

Michael

 

[HMR]

Interesting results. Personally, I think the best answer would be some kind of facility in MapSource to 'post-process' a track log and make it an (off-road) route.

I've done this.

1 - I used the Track Filter feature i MapSource to make the number of track points fewer.

2 - I exported the track from MapSource in .gpx format.

3 - I used a Phyton script to convert the track points to waypoints.

4 - I imported the waypoints in .gpx format to MapSource.

5 - I used the "Create Route Using Selected Viewpoints" feature in MapSource to create a route.

It works but since some GPS models are limited to only 50 waypoints in a route it doesn't work very well. This is, by the way, the same principle I use for moving routes to/from/between TomTom and Garmin.

 

[pikeydave]

Here's my uploaded track log. FYI, the memory was only 70 something percent full.

Just aviation curious Pan.
Ferrying something interesting?