Garmin GPS - Timestamp recorded with trackpoints and exported to logfile?

Author

Timestamp recorded with trackpoints and exported to logfile?

acrux14@hotmail.com

2008-01-24, 12:33 pm

Hi all,

I'm new to playing around with my GPS, but loving it. I own a Garmin
eTrex Legend Cx, and I have downloaded a few tracks to my PC via
Garmin's Mapsource application, then did a "Save As..." and selected
the text file option.

I was hoping to get a text file with lat/long and a timestamp for each
trackpoint, to be able to geotag some digital pictures. But I was a
bit surprised to find that the time was not saved in my exported text
file. See an excerpt below:

Header Position Time
Altitude Depth Leg Length Leg Time Leg Speed Leg
Course

Trackpoint S34 24.778 W58 35.104 19 ft
Trackpoint S34 24.811 W58 35.047 4 ft 350 ft 125=B0 true
Trackpoint S34 24.828 W58 35.008 4 ft 223 ft 117=B0 true
Trackpoint S34 24.836 W58 34.993 5 ft 89 ft 124=B0 true
Trackpoint S34 24.868 W58 34.908 -3 ft 471 ft 115=B0 true
Trackpoint S34 24.882 W58 34.864 -6 ft 235 ft 111=B0 true
Trackpoint S34 24.890 W58 34.844 -4 ft 113 ft 117=B0 true
Trackpoint S34 24.894 W58 34.823 -3 ft 105 ft 103=B0 true
Trackpoint S34 24.892 W58 34.806 0 ft 86 ft 82=B0 true

There is a time column, but it's empty!

I have researched the group archive and looked at the manual with no
luck. Is there anything I have to set in the GPS to record timestamps?
Is it just a matter of how I exported/saved it? Am I missing
something?

Any pointers will be highly appreciated!

Thanks,
James

acrux14@hotmail.com

2008-01-24, 12:33 pm

On Jan 24, 3:27=A0pm, acru...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm new to playing around with my GPS, but loving it. I own a Garmin
> eTrex Legend Cx, and I have downloaded a few tracks to my PC via
> Garmin's Mapsource application, then did a "Save As..." and selected
> the text file option.
>
> I was hoping to get a text file with lat/long and a timestamp for each
> trackpoint, to be able to geotag some digital pictures. But I was a
> bit surprised to find that the time was not saved in my exported text
> file. See an excerpt below:
>

Ok, by reading the previous thread on this group I found an answer to
my question... I was working with a track that I had previously
_saved_ on the GPS unit. I just tried to export the ACTIVE LOG, and
all the information (timestamps and all derived data, like speed,
etc.) is there.

I'll have to be careful from now on... it seems saving tracks on the
GPS unit is not that great an idea.

Regards,
James

Bert Hyman

2008-01-24, 12:33 pm

acrux14@hotmail.com () wrote in
news:fbba8357-0b25-47d7-aeaf- fd6730266814@v4g2000
hsf.googlegroups.com:

> I have researched the group archive and looked at the manual with no
> luck. Is there anything I have to set in the GPS to record
> timestamps? Is it just a matter of how I exported/saved it? Am I
> missing something?
>
> Any pointers will be highly appreciated!

If you save the track on the GPS receiver itself, the time info is
lost. If you don't save the track on the receiver, but download the
"active track logs", you'll retain the time info. Of course, this
limits the amount of track info you can retain. Here's an excerpt
of a downloaded "active track log":

Track ACTIVE LOG 018 10/6/2006 9:45:33 AM 0:29:42 12.9 mi 26 mph

Header Position Time
Altitude Depth Temp
erature Leg Length Leg Time Leg Speed Leg Course

Trackpoint N36 19.528 W75 49.096 10/6/2006 9:45:33 AM -6 ft
Trackpoint N36 19.520 W75 49.087 10/6/2006 9:46:03 AM -11 ft 62 ft 0:00:30 1.4 mph 137° true
Trackpoint N36 19.521 W75 49.085 10/6/2006 9:46:10 AM -7 ft 14 ft 0:00:07 1.4 mph 67° true
Trackpoint N36 19.517 W75 49.074 10/6/2006 9:46:20 AM -7 ft 57 ft 0:00:10 4 mph 116° true
Trackpoint N36 19.521 W75 49.045 10/6/2006 9:46:46 AM -9 ft 145 ft 0:00:26 4 mph 80° true
Trackpoint N36 19.522 W75 49.042 10/6/2006 9:46:38 AM -7 ft 16 ft 74° true
Trackpoint N36 19.512 W75 49.031 10/6/2006 9:46:43 AM -4 ft 80 ft 0:00:05 11 mph 138° true
Trackpoint N36 19.459 W75 49.012 10/6/2006 9:46:52 AM -1 ft 336 ft 0:00:09 25 mph 164° true
Trackpoint N36 19.330 W75 48.963 10/6/2006 9:47:05 AM 5 ft 0.2 mi 0:00:13 43 mph 163° true
Trackpoint N36 19.087 W75 48.870 10/6/2006 9:47:29 AM 2 ft 0.3 mi 0:00:24 44 mph 163° true
Trackpoint N36 18.943 W75 48.799 10/6/2006 9:47:44 AM 2 ft 0.2 mi 0:00:15 43 mph 158° true
Trackpoint N36 18.746 W75 48.656 10/6/2006 9:48:05 AM 5 ft 0.3 mi 0:00:21 45 mph 150° true
Trackpoint N36 18.571 W75 48.523 10/6/2006 9:48:23 AM 2 ft 0.2 mi 0:00:18 47 mph 149° true
Trackpoint N36 18.492 W75 48.466 10/6/2006 9:48:31 AM 4 ft 0.1 mi 0:00:08 47 mph 150° true

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | bert@iphouse.com

dold@06.usenet.us.com

2008-01-24, 12:33 pm

acrux14@hotmail.com wrote:
> I'm new to playing around with my GPS, but loving it. I own a Garmin
> eTrex Legend Cx, and I have downloaded a few tracks to my PC via
> Garmin's Mapsource application, then did a "Save As..." and selected
> the text file option.

I would "save as gpx", which is a fully featured GPS information
interchange format. Google Earth, Mapsource, ExpertGPS, G7toWin, and
others, including some photography-oriented programs, will make use of the
GPX files.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

Otavio Exel

2008-01-24, 12:33 pm

acrux14@hotmail.com <acrux14@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'll have to be careful from now on... it seems saving tracks on the
> GPS unit is not that great an idea.

James,

note: I'm not 100% sure of what I'm going to say;
I'd love if someone coud confirm (or deny) this!

I've heard that if your receiver has SD/MicroSD card support you can
config it to save the tracklogs to the card instead of the built-in
memory; in this case, both timestamps and elevations are preserved;

my Legend has no card support :-((
your Legend Cx has :-))

[]s,

--
Otavio Exel /<\oo/>\ oexel@economatica.com.br

Bert Hyman

2008-01-24, 12:33 pm

oexel@economatica.com.br (Otavio Exel) wrote in
news:slrnfphm3p.aht.oexel@queluz.economatica.com.br:

> acrux14@hotmail.com <acrux14@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> James,
>
> note: I'm not 100% sure of what I'm going to say;
> I'd love if someone coud confirm (or deny) this!
>
> I've heard that if your receiver has SD/MicroSD card support you can
> config it to save the tracklogs to the card instead of the built-in
> memory; in this case, both timestamps and elevations are preserved;

When you do this, the "active" logs are recorded to the memory card;
if you "save" the active log, the time info will still be lost.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | bert@iphouse.com

Jack Erbes

2008-01-24, 3:33 pm

acrux14@hotmail.com wrote:
<snip>
> Ok, by reading the previous thread on this group I found an answer to
> my question... I was working with a track that I had previously
> _saved_ on the GPS unit. I just tried to export the ACTIVE LOG, and
> all the information (timestamps and all derived data, like speed,
> etc.) is there.
>
> I'll have to be careful from now on... it seems saving tracks on the
> GPS unit is not that great an idea.

Did you see the info about the option to log the track to a *.gpx file
on the data card? That will save every track point ever collected as
long as there is some free space on the microSD card.

You can't see or use the trackpoints in the *.gpx files from the GPS but
you can open them with MapSource or any of a number of third party
applications.

If you put the GPS in the Mass Storage Mode you'll see the microSD card
as a removable drive, or you can put the card in a reader an open or
copy the files from there.

Jack

Ricky Raccoon

2008-01-24, 3:33 pm

Otavio Exel <oexel@economatica.com.br> wrote:
> note: I'm not 100% sure of what I'm going to say;
> I'd love if someone coud confirm (or deny) this!
>
> I've heard that if your receiver has SD/MicroSD card support you can
> config it to save the tracklogs to the card instead of the built-in
> memory; in this case, both timestamps and elevations are preserved;
>
> my Legend has no card support :-((
> your Legend Cx has :-))

Further clarification. If all x models are like my 60 CSx and Vista HCx:

Main memory contains
Base map
Active track log
Saved tracks
Routes
Waypoints

microSD card contains
Maps loaded via MapSource (or other)
Daily track logs (track log points only, .gpx file)

Track data is logged in two places: active track log (main memory) and
daily track logs (microSD card) and is started and stopped by one switch
on the Tracks page. Note: you do have to turn on data card logging in
the Data Card Setup page first. Nothing else is recorded on the microSD
card; no waypoints, no routes, no saved tracks. Just daily track log
points (and the maps, of course).

The daily track logs are in gpx format and named yyyymmdd.gpx
The only way I know how to download the gpx files to my iMac is to put
the receiver in USB Mass Storage mode and connect it to my iMac with a
USB cable. After power on, the receiver appears on the desktop and I
drag copy the gpx files to my iMac. I usually use the receiver to erase
the gpx files at a later time. I have accumulated around 10 gpx files
at a time before erasing. I'm using 2GB microSD cards and the map I'm
using only takes up about 306MB, so there's lots of room.

acrux14@hotmail.com

2008-01-24, 10:34 pm

I got a lot of useful information from your replies. I have a much
better understanding of how the track log works now.

Thanks to all of you!

James

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