Yellow Etrex Question

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the
wonderful person Gordon H <[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

My sometimes walking companion Jean is just learning how to use the
Etrex in communication with her PC, with my help.

She thinks that the maximum track-points allowed to be uploaded into
the Etrex as a track is 125.

Tracks with more than 125 trackpoints seem to be truncated.

Is this limit correct?
TIA

I think you mean 'waypoints', and IIRC, yes the limit is quite low (per
route .. you can always split a route into several parts, I think you
can probably have 500 waypoints in total on that model, across a total
of 10 routes).

Even the super-expensive 60C/CSX will only allow 250 in a route and 1000
total.

You can upload the route as a TRACK instead, which permits more points
(but then you don't get to put labels and comments on each waypoint).
Depends what software you are using to upload from the PC to the
handset.

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
8,307 Km walked. 1,561Km PROWs surveyed. 28.4% complete.

Gordon H said:

My sometimes walking companion Jean is just learning how to use the
Etrex in communication with her PC, with my help.

She thinks that the maximum track-points allowed to be uploaded into
the Etrex as a track is 125.

Tracks with more than 125 trackpoints seem to be truncated.

This is correct for a "route", which is the way you are meant to "pre-plan"
things according to Garmin. You can store up to 20 routes in the current
form of the basic yellow model. So one option is to have several routes and
when you've finished the first one, you start the next.
Another approach is developing a technique to not over-mark every minor
change in direction. You might need three/four points to get around a
complicated junction in lowlands, but whilst a path may wander in open
country, an approximate straight line would be good enough to navigate
along. If the terrain has dangerous bits, you might need extra points in
those places.

My GPS has more trackpoints per route, but most of my planned routes are
perhaps a dozen or two.

(Its possible that the older examples have less memory storage, I think
there was a small hardware change a couple of years ago, and, if I remember
correctly, if the system software is 3.0 or higher its a new model).

The alternative is to create a path as a tracklog and load that.

A tracklog will have considerably more points (total memory limit is
10,000), and you can navigate along them using the "trackback" function. To
use this effectively you load a track which is "backwards" to your planned
route and then trackback along it. Some PC tools support this directly (and
Tracklogs was originally built around this function).

- Nigel

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

My sometimes walking companion Jean is just learning how to use the
Etrex in communication with her PC, with my help.

She thinks that the maximum track-points allowed to be uploaded into the
Etrex as a track is 125.

Tracks with more than 125 trackpoints seem to be truncated.

Is this limit correct?
TIA

I don't have my yellow Etrex to hand, but 125 sounds right. The active
log can hold more points (500?) but saved tracks or tracks created or
uploaded by users are restricted.

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:10:24 +0100, "Nigel Cliffe" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

This is correct for a "route", which is the way you are meant to "pre-plan"
things according to Garmin. You can store up to 20 routes in the current
form of the basic yellow model. So one option is to have several routes and
when you've finished the first one, you start the next.

Quoted message said:

(Its possible that the older examples have less memory storage, I think
there was a small hardware change a couple of years ago, and, if I remember
correctly, if the system software is 3.0 or higher its a new model).

If I recall correctly, my (original model) yellow Etrex can have only
1 route. This is occasionally a PITA if I am planning several walks
over consecutive days away from home I and can't use my PC to upload
each day's route one at a time, but generally I use my GPSr for
telling me where I am and for looking at where I went afterwards.

I'm not sure how many waypoints I can have but I don't seem to have
run out of room yet. I do find that my tracklog is not big enough for
multi-day walks. It was disappointing that I could not see my entire
TGO Challenge on MemoryMap last year, although it didn't really matter
as I only turned on the GPSr every so often as I didn't want to carry
loads of spare batteries! The waypoints which I manually added en
route were retained, so I could at least look at a series of blue dots
to see where I had been.

If I plan ahead, I enter waypoints for "difficult" sections before I
leave home (usually via MemoryMap as it's so much easier than entering
them using the Etrex buttons) then I can quite easily add them to a
route when I'm out walking. For this year's Challenge I will be
entering some WPs in advance, and also taking a printed list so that I
can remember what the abbreviated WP names mean!

I think I am on software version 2.14, but that's from memory.

The newer yellow Etrex models do seem to have more features/memory but
mine suits me for what I use a GPSr for.

Judith

Nigel Cliffe <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Gordon H said:

My sometimes walking companion Jean is just learning how to use the
Etrex in communication with her PC, with my help.

She thinks that the maximum track-points allowed to be uploaded into
the Etrex as a track is 125.

Tracks with more than 125 trackpoints seem to be truncated.

This is correct for a "route", which is the way you are meant to "pre-plan"
things according to Garmin. You can store up to 20 routes in the current
form of the basic yellow model. So one option is to have several routes and
when you've finished the first one, you start the next.
Another approach is developing a technique to not over-mark every minor
change in direction. You might need three/four points to get around a
complicated junction in lowlands, but whilst a path may wander in open
country, an approximate straight line would be good enough to navigate
along. If the terrain has dangerous bits, you might need extra points in
those places.

My GPS has more trackpoints per route, but most of my planned routes are
perhaps a dozen or two.

(Its possible that the older examples have less memory storage, I think
there was a small hardware change a couple of years ago, and, if I remember
correctly, if the system software is 3.0 or higher its a new model).

I'll check that next time I see her or call her. She is having ISP
problems at present, but I told her to get the latest software when she
can.

Quoted message said:

The alternative is to create a path as a tracklog and load that.

A tracklog will have considerably more points (total memory limit is
10,000), and you can navigate along them using the "trackback" function. To
use this effectively you load a track which is "backwards" to your planned
route and then trackback along it. Some PC tools support this directly (and
Tracklogs was originally built around this function).

Yes, she did that yesterday and followed a trackback.

Thanks.
--
Gordon H
(Remove invalid to email)

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

Even the super-expensive 60C/CSX will only allow 250 in a route and
1000 total.

250 waypoints in a route is overkill. Half a dozen are often enough, rarely
more than a couple of dozen are needed, although I guess it depends how long
your route is. A long complex driving route could require quite a few, if
you don't have auto-routing.

Actually, the waypoint limit in the 60 series isn't quite that simple. The
250 limit suggests that you could only put four routes into it (if you
filled them up) but IIRC, if you create them with MapSource, the waypoints
aren't added to the waypoint list, they only exist within the route itself,
so you can have massive numbers of them. I think the limit for "standard"
waypoints in a route is actually lower, perhaps 125 or 100.

I'm a bit vague about this because I rarely use routes and I don't have the
manual to hand, but I know there's more to this than meets the eye because I
experimented with it when I first bought it. I created some routes for
driving but the waypoints didn't show up in the waypoint list. After
exporting to Ozi and reloading, these waypoints turned into normal
waypoints.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk

Gordon H said:

I'll check that next time I see her or call her. She is having ISP
problems at present, but I told her to get the latest software when she
can.

She may not be able to upgrade beyond a certain point. I seem to
remember someone having trouble upgrading a very old model to the new
firmware and them being told it wasn't possible. It's still worth a try
though 🙂

dino said:

Gordon H said:

I'll check that next time I see her or call her. She is having
ISP problems at present, but I told her to get the latest software
when she can.

She may not be able to upgrade beyond a certain point. I seem to
remember someone having trouble upgrading a very old model to the new
firmware and them being told it wasn't possible. It's still worth a
try though 🙂

There is a slight hardware change to the Yellow model. It happened 3yrs
ago.

You can't upgrade the older hardware beyond v.2.5, whereas the new hardware
is 3.0 and above.

- Nigel

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

In message <[email hidden]>, Gordon H
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

My sometimes walking companion Jean is just learning how to use the
Etrex in communication with her PC, with my help.

She thinks that the maximum track-points allowed to be uploaded into
the Etrex as a track is 125.

Tracks with more than 125 trackpoints seem to be truncated.

Is this limit correct?
TIA

Not specifically replying to your question, but there's some good
general info here:

A GPS User Manual:
Working with Garmin Receivers

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/wgarmin.htm

Regards,
--
Neil Pugh

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the wonderful
person Paul Saunders <[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

Even the super-expensive 60C/CSX will only allow 250 in a route and
1000 total.

250 waypoints in a route is overkill. Half a dozen are often enough, rarely
more than a couple of dozen are needed, although I guess it depends how long
your route is. A long complex driving route could require quite a few, if
you don't have auto-routing.

A complex walking route (in lowland farming areas) can too - typically I
waypoint every field boundary crossing (where there should be a stile)
or river crossing, so a hard day's walking could run to ~180 or 200. In
open country, you need a lot fewer. I've done some stats and while
surveying farmland my waypoints average 200-300m apart. Road walking it
turns into 500m to 1km or even more.

Quoted message said:

Actually, the waypoint limit in the 60 series isn't quite that simple. The
250 limit suggests that you could only put four routes into it (if you
filled them up) but IIRC, if you create them with MapSource, the waypoints
aren't added to the waypoint list, they only exist within the route itself,
so you can have massive numbers of them. I think the limit for "standard"
waypoints in a route is actually lower, perhaps 125 or 100.

Nope, it's actually 250. I've loaded some routes with over 200 - afaik
I've never hit the limit (although I did on various eTrex models).

Note however that you can use a single waypoint in several routes at
once, and you can actually include POIs (i.e. my house can be used as
waypoint, even though it isn't one of the 1000) as part of a route - but
afaik the 250 limit still stands.

I only ever upload from Ozi or Tracklogs, and I'm never using auto
routing.

Quoted message said:

I'm a bit vague about this because I rarely use routes and I don't have the
manual to hand, but I know there's more to this than meets the eye because I
experimented with it when I first bought it. I created some routes for
driving but the waypoints didn't show up in the waypoint list. After
exporting to Ozi and reloading, these waypoints turned into normal
waypoints.

Yep, routes for driving are definitely different, assuming you
downloaded the routing data to the handset as part of the mapset.

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
8,307 Km walked. 1,561Km PROWs surveyed. 28.4% complete.

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the wonderful person Neil
Pugh <[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Gordon H
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

My sometimes walking companion Jean is just learning how to use the
Etrex in communication with her PC, with my help.

She thinks that the maximum track-points allowed to be uploaded into
the Etrex as a track is 125.

Tracks with more than 125 trackpoints seem to be truncated.

Is this limit correct?
TIA

Not specifically replying to your question, but there's some good
general info here:

A GPS User Manual:
Working with Garmin Receivers

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/wgarmin.htm

Yep, that does say that 125 points is all you get in a saved tracklog in
the basic eTrex (but 1500+ in the active log file), and the 'waypoints
in a route' number is even lower than I remember at 50!

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
8,307 Km walked. 1,561Km PROWs surveyed. 28.4% complete.

Mike Smith <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

My sometimes walking companion Jean is just learning how to use the
Etrex in communication with her PC, with my help.

She thinks that the maximum track-points allowed to be uploaded into the
Etrex as a track is 125.

Tracks with more than 125 trackpoints seem to be truncated.

Is this limit correct?
TIA

I don't have my yellow Etrex to hand, but 125 sounds right. The active
log can hold more points (500?) but saved tracks or tracks created or
uploaded by users are restricted.

I see. In practice of course a plotted route will not need too many
points, unless it is complicated and twisty!
--
Gordon H
(Remove invalid to email)

Neil Pugh <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Gordon H
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

My sometimes walking companion Jean is just learning how to use the
Etrex in communication with her PC, with my help.
She thinks that the maximum track-points allowed to be uploaded into
the Etrex as a track is 125.
Tracks with more than 125 trackpoints seem to be truncated.
Is this limit correct?
TIA

Not specifically replying to your question, but there's some good
general info here:

A GPS User Manual:
Working with Garmin Receivers

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/wgarmin.htm

Regards,

Thanks, I'll check that out when I get time...
--
Gordon H
(Remove invalid to email)