Garmin "Tracks"

[Invicta Moto]

How do I view the tracks that the Quest makes as you use it when out and about?

Never downloaed from unit to PC? Can you see them in Mapsource?

 

[araspitfire]

Mapsource gives you both a landscape and a profile view of your tracks.

I find it is best not to "save" your tracks on the GPS as this strips time information from the track... if you can download to PC before you run out of track space.

Al...

 

[Invicta Moto]

Mapsource gives you both a landscape and a profile view of your tracks.

I find it is best not to "save" your tracks on the GPS as this strips time information from the track... if you can download to PC before you run out of track space.

Al...

I'll have alook tonight. I want to get a particular part of the route I took on Sunday and find it on the OS Map.... "Doris" chose the route between two waypoints for me and I just let her tell me, dom b*tch that she is.....

 

[Mouse]

When you click the "download from GPS" button in MapSource, the window that pops up has four tick boxes, these are: "Waypoints", "Routes", "Tracks" and "Maps". Tick the "tracks" box and away you go.

 

[Taff]

Mouse. From my reading of the first post, he doesn't want to use Mapsource, but just wants to see them on the unit screen, but I could have read it wrong mind.

Don't know about the Quest, but certainly with the SPIII and the 2610 there is a menu which allows you to see the tracks (like a breadcrumb trail) at different scales. If your menu setting is currently too low, the track wont appear if you zoom out above the chosen scale, and you would have to change the menu setting.

 

[Invicta Moto]

Would like to see it on mapsource or the unit, mapsource would be better so I an match it to map and see where she took me over the hills and woods....

 

[nick]

The Quest can only backtrack over the last saved track - called Active Track.

If you upload them to a PC you can see each seperate track, then re-plot routes over the top.

The Quest starts a new Track each time it is switched on.

There is some software around to convert tracks to routes automatically, but it is not a simple process.

 

[Taff]

Then Mouse was right. In Mapsource, there should be 2 icons - both showing a GPS unit, 1 with an arrow pointing into the unit, and 1 with an arrow pointing out of the unit. If you hover your pointer over the 2, you will see the descriptions of each. Click on the one you want and when you've downlaoded them, choose the Tracks tab on the left column.

 

[araspitfire]

FWIW (being the geek that I am)... I would never own a GPS that didn't keep a decent length tracklog. (a full weekend of riding at least).

I always collect my tracklogs for each trip in a file so that I can perhaps print them out on map view to shove in the memories album... or look over the actual route and use it to plan the next trip... and there's also the possibility of using the tracklog to add georeference data to your digital images (free sofware available on the net), so that smugmug will automagicaly make a map with clickable images on it...

This is one reason why I've never been pulled in the direction of automotive only GPS's... though now some of them are starting to keep a reasonable length tracklog.

Al...

 

[HMR]

This is one reason why I've never been pulled in the direction of automotive only GPS's... though now some of them are starting to keep a reasonable length tracklog.

I agree. Next step is to modify the tracks (in MapSource) and reuse them as routes. To do this you need a 276C or 60Cx that can store a number of named and color tagged tracks. Goodbye to all automotive only GPS's including Quest & BMW Nav 3.....

 

[Invicta Moto]

I agree. Next step is to modify the tracks (in MapSource) and reuse them as routes. To do this you need a 276C or 60Cx that can store a number of named and color tagged tracks. Goodbye to all automotive only GPS's including Quest & BMW Nav 3.....

I used my Quest on the pedal bike and I am sure it has a Rambler option but have no idea how to find it.... so it seems looking at the box..?

 

[PanEuropean]

I agree. Next step is to modify the tracks (in MapSource) and reuse them as routes. To do this you need a 276C or 60Cx that can store a number of named and color tagged tracks. Goodbye to all automotive only GPS's including Quest & BMW Nav 3.....

HMR:

You can store quite a large number of tracks in the most recent versions of the pure automotive GPSRs. I'm not sure exactly what the capacity of the tracklog is, however, I recently made a trip from Toronto, Canada to Winnipeg, then to Kansas, then back to Toronto - at least 3,000 miles - and all the tracklogs for the whole trip were present on my GPSR when I arrived back home.

It's quite simple to download them to MapSource (same process as any other GPSR) and then work with them there. Each time you power the GPSR on and off - in practice, this means each trip - a new consecutively numbered track log is created. They all keep getting added to memory.

Michael

 

[HMR]

HMR:
You can store quite a large number of tracks in the most recent versions of the pure automotive GPSRs. I'm not sure exactly what the capacity of the tracklog is, however, I recently made a trip from Toronto, Canada to Winnipeg, then to Kansas, then back to Toronto - at least 3,000 miles - and all the tracklogs for the whole trip were present on my GPSR when I arrived back home.

Right. But there are some differences.

On the StreetPilots you can't set the sampling rate. The trackpoints are sampled on the SP so the trace is logged with a reasonable precision. If I assume the same precision in the various SP models this means that the SP3 with a log size of 2000 points can log 4 hours driving and the SP2720 with 10000 points can log around 20 hours of driving. On small curvy roads that is. On highways one can probably log a 2-3 times longer period. 60 hours at 60 mph ==> 3600 miles so it fits with your observation.

The 276C and the 60C can do two tricks more.

First, the sampling rate can be set by the user. This means that by sacrificing some precision you can make the device to log 3 times the distance or time. Boils down to 60-180 hours of driving.

Second, in addition to 10000 points of active track you can store another 10000 points organized as 20 named tracks of 500 points each. Now the total track length is 120-360 hours of driving. Enough for a serious vacation!

Still more: the 20 (15 on 276C) named tracks can be uploaded from the PC and used as routes. These tracks sits in a separate memory while the logging to the 10000 point active track memory works as usual.

To a Quest or a SP2720 you can only upload one long track. This one long track can of course be used as one long route but only if you protect it from being overwritten by switching of further logging.

 

[PanEuropean]

...trackpoints are sampled on the SP so the trace is logged with a reasonable precision.

That's really all I think most people want or need.

...If I assume the same precision in the various SP models this means that ... the SP2720 with 10000 points can log around 20 hours of driving. On small curvy roads that is.

That's at least a long weekend's worth of riding on small curvy roads.

The 276C and the 60C can do two tricks more ... by sacrificing some precision you can make the device to log 3 times the distance or time. Boils down to 60-180 hours of driving.

Not really much benefit in that - if you are riding in your home area, you can easily dump the tracks to your computer once every 20 hours of travel, as you pointed out above, and if you are going cross-country, you'll need to have a laptop with you anyway if you are using a 2x6, because the data chip won't hold enough map data for a cross-continent trip. So, when you stop to load new maps on your data chip, you can download your tracks.

...Now the total track length is 120-360 hours of driving. Enough for a serious vacation!

God, I know commercial truckers who don't do that much travel in a month of work. I don't know what kind of vacation 360 hours of riding would be, however, I am not anxious to find out.

Still more: the 20 (15 on 276C) named tracks can be uploaded from the PC and used as routes. These tracks sits in a separate memory while the logging to the 10000 point active track memory works as usual.

Right, but what value is it to the average motorcycle rider to have the ability to navigate 20 different tracks? One I can understand (perhaps to lead a group of friends along an interesting path), but 20? I think the capability of re-navigating 20 different tracks was put there for fisherman and mariners, who don't have the advantage of either autorouting or directional signs on the surface of the water.

If a rider really needs the ability to navigate (again) over multiple past tracks, there are 3rd party software applications out there that will convert a track to a route. Because all the automotive GPSRs made in the past 4 years support automatic route creation, and because you can 'fine tune' a route with MapSource to overlay an existing track - and then save it as a route - there has been very little demand from drivers or riders to be able to navigate saved tracks. It is, however, important to the marine community, which is why the 2x6 and 3x6 support it.

Michael

 

[Kritou]

Wouldn't it be nice if Garmin could come up with a flash key running a sort of cut down Mapsource (bit like their Trip and Waypoint Manager) so that one could up/download routes, tracks and waypoints between GPSRs/PCs

 

[HMR]

Right, but what value is it to the average motorcycle rider to have the ability to navigate 20 different tracks? One I can understand (perhaps to lead a group of friends along an interesting path), but 20? I think the capability of re-navigating 20 different tracks was put there for fisherman and mariners, who don't have the advantage of either autorouting or directional signs on the surface of the water.

If a rider really needs the ability to navigate (again) over multiple past tracks, there are 3rd party software applications out there that will convert a track to a route. Because all the automotive GPSRs made in the past 4 years support automatic route creation, and because you can 'fine tune' a route with MapSource to overlay an existing track - and then save it as a route - there has been very little demand from drivers or riders to be able to navigate saved tracks. It is, however, important to the marine community, which is why the 2x6 and 3x6 support it.

Michael

It's surpricingly often that we (BMW Club Sweden) hits the limitiation in the number of routes that can be stored in the unit. When we go down to the Alps for a week of riding we typically want to bring 20-30 alternative half day routes with us (but no computer). This will not fit into most StreetPilot models.

Therefore I wrote a program script that can translate routes to tracks just to make it possible to bring them with us!

Also, some of the most spectacular Alp roads are not on the Garmin map. With the help of the new Track Editor in Mapsource and Google Earth we can create navigatable tracks for theese roads. For example Assietta Kammstrasse, Ligurische Grenzkammstrasse, Monte Crostis, and many more.

It's quite interesting to observe that when we go to the mountains of Norway we seldom have any problems with storing routes. All StreetPilot models can easilly store 30-40 half day routes in Norway. It's in France & Italy where we only can fit 15 half-day routes into the StreetPilots as the limitations creates problems.

If Garmin added route & track memory for about 2$ to the SP models the whole problem would disappear.

 

[DodgyGeeSer]

Hi Invicta,

I reckon your questions in relation to tracks have already been suitably answered, however, just one further piece of useful information for you (and other Quest owners), Elsinga's Quest FAQ (http://www.elsinga.org/questfaq.html) describes how you might go about converting a track into a route, and then uploading it to the Quest, and using it in the same vein as a track. The full article is here: http://www.elsinga.org/206.html

The Quest can store 20 tracks, 10k track log points, and you can set/adjust the record internal / resolution, however, as mentioned, re-using these tracks requires a number of steps and some data manipulation. S'allright for people who live in small countries, like myself, but not you seasoned world travellers!