Uploading tracks-Garmin Etrex

[grubbie]

I have a Garmin Etrex Venture HC. I have tried uploading tracks to it that some of you have posted on here. They save and open up on Mapsource just fine, act like they are loading onto my GPS just fine. Open them up on the GPS and it just shows the first part of the track. Been fighting this for a few nights,.....grrrrrrr. Even called Garmin, they had nothing to offer other than the files might be to big, which they are not. I tried filtering down to fewer "points", but shouldnt have to. I am not much of a "computer gadget guy", but I have done everything I could try that I found on the internet. Anyone have any suggestions before this yellow P.O.S. is used as an AR15 target??

[Hank]

I have an Etrex Vista HCX and it has the same problem.   It has a pretty low limitation for how many points each track can have.

The only work around I found was to split the track into small enough chunks and label them track1,2,3 etc and upload them that way, then load each as needed along the route.

I had to do this with the big route we took last June at the rally.   I think I had to split it into 5 pieces.

Its sort of a pain.   By next rally I'm going to have a smart phone solution figured out.

[grubbie]

Thought about doing that, haven't figured out how to split it. But a 175K track should fit on a 24MB gps. Aggravating.

[Hank]

I used Basecamp software to do it.   Select a track and there is a little scissor icon (called divide) that you can use to break a track in two.

[tannerc]

does your unit have a memory card?

[Hank]

My Vista has a memory card but it doesn't help.  I think the limitation for an uploaded track is like 500 points.  You can load a shit ton of little tracks, but that's not exactly convenient.     I'm sure the newer ones are much better, but my now 5 year old Vista is sort of a POS.

AR-15 target sounds about right.

[tannerc]

Try putting the track directly on the memory card, using a card reader. That worked for my 60csx. I had a day route that was 264 miles, things started to be a pain in the ass when I could only have sections of about 20 miles each, any longer and it gets truncated. Put it directly on the card and the thing was there.

[Hank]

No kidding.. good to know.   I'll have to try that too!

[Hank]

Last summer my Vista stopped leaving the "bread crumb trail".   It was still making a track, but it wasn't visible.   I absolutely could not figure out how to make it visible.   The menu system is ridiculously convoluted on that thing.

[grubbie]

Mine doesn't have a memory card.

[tannerc]

Mine doesn't have a memory card.

Does it have a spot for one?
Dont use it as a target just yet.

Last summer my Vista stopped leaving the "bread crumb trail".   It was still making a track, but it wasn't visible.   I absolutely could not figure out how to make it visible.   The menu system is ridiculously convoluted on that thing.

The menus take a bit of getting used to, but once you get it down they become an invaluable tool. I have to relearn my every spring.

[grubbie]

No mine doesnt have the option for a card.

[Bogus Jim]

I have an older 60csx with the track point limitation. I use a free program called GPX2IMG; basically it will convert any GPX file into something called a "transparent map". There's no limit on the number of tracks, points, or waypoints in the GPX file. Then you can download the map to the GPS and overlay it on top of your Garmin maps. It is a pain, but it's another way to overcome the track point limitation on older GPS units.

[grubbie]

Thanks Jim, I tried knocking the points down to below 500 and ended up getting the track I was working on which was very small. You would think Garmin would have told me that little fact on one of the two phone conversations I had with them. Going to try a bigger track and see what happens.