JoeWildlife wrote:
Or to give to Cwolfe so he doesn't keep crashing wedding parties on the keys to the southwest of Key Largo, thinking they are the finish!
Best. EC. Story. Ever.
Garmin 78 vs. 78sc
(56 posts) (23 voices)-
BustedRudder
MemberAgreed that routes in geogarage are somewhat useless. If you create waypoints in GG, save as GPX locally, and open in Easy GPS it is easy to create routes using those waypoints. The zoom and panning isn't great and there is no basemap (that i have figured out in easy GPS) but once you save the routes the waypoints / routes can be uploaded to your GPS.
The other thing I figured out recently is to download tracks from GPS with easy gps then save them to a folder structure on the PC. Then merge waypoints / routes and selected tracks custom GPX files specific to camping trips / NCC / EC.
Delete all tracks / routes / waypoints on GPS, then use Easygps to download custom GPX to GPS. Now all you have is relevant info for the event.
Word of caution. tracks consume memory. I only download tracks that are critical. Like rabbit key pass in the dark at low tide. The gps will start overwriting oldest track data while recording new track.
Question to group... if I add a micro SD to the Garmin will that add storage for track data or is it only used for additional map data?
Posted 8 years ago # -
Bob,
I'm not sure about tracks, but I don't know why not. The manual has this information:
In addition to map and data storage, the memory cards can be used to store files such as images, cartridges, geocaches, routes, waypoints, and custom POIs. ... Your device and micro SD card (optional) appear as removable drives in My Computer on Windows computers and as mounted volumes on Mac computers.
Posted 8 years ago # -
feralcat
BlockedDeadCat with some help from DolphinGal came up with a route and waypoints using Google Earth.
Step 1: Create routes and waypoints in Google Earth.
Step 2: Save as a KML file, on your desktop.
Step 3: Open up HomePort and imported the file from your desktop.
Step 4: Plug in your GPs (in our case a Garmin 78sc) to your pc via a USB cable
Step 5 Export the file from Homeport to your GPS
Step 6: Unplug your GPS and verify all the data has transferred.
I can take NO credit for this; the wizardry and hard work is credited to DeadCat.
Cheers FeralCat, it’s time to paddle/row and sail!
Posted 8 years ago # -
DeadCat
BlockedSome help?!! DG has been a GREAT mentor as well as psychic. She must have sensed I was clueless and reached out to see if I needed any help. Not only did she help me understand / learn much more about Google Earth and my GPS but she also shared a lot of her wisdom. She has been extremely helpful!!!!
Posted 8 years ago # -
BustedRudder wrote:
Agreed that routes in geogarage are somewhat useless.
For weeks I've been using GeoGarage to plan my routes and just uploaded everything to my 78SC thinking everything worked fine. A few routes were there and I assumed all had uploaded. And then I noticed this message. Sure enough, most of my route data was trash. At least now I have some time to redo everything but if I didn't see this message, my EC run would have been short lived.
Thanks for pointing this out ... you saved me from a disaster.
So the million dollar question - Is there any way to salvage the routes I made in geogarage or do I have to start over. To redo it may kill me.
Posted 8 years ago # -
BeastOarman
MemberIf you export from GG to a gpx file, you may be able to pull that in to some other software that works better with the garmin. If you want to try, you can email me the gpx and I can load it in HomePort tomorrow to see what the routes look like. Or maybe someone has already done this? peter at 3cpharma dot com
Posted 8 years ago # -
CleanSlate
MemberI also created my routes with GeoGarage. They look fine when I imported them to GoogleEarth. I just now moved the GPS file over to my Garmin 78sc and started to go through the routes. I'll have to report back later becasue my battaries need re-charging but in what little spot-checking I did, some of the data looked like it was positioned just fine but other parts were off a bit from what I marked in GG.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Thanks BeastOarman. I will really go through my data tonight to see if it actually is a problem. The data may not be bad after all. It's a new gps so I might not be interpreting it correctly.
Posted 8 years ago # -
JoeWildlife
MemberI may have spoken too soon about Geogarage and its ability to do routes. I have sucessfully created all the routes and waypoints I feel I need and downloaded them onto three GPS units, a 78, a 76csx as backup, and an old 76s as backup backup.
I found that you can overwhelm the memory of an older unit, the 76s, so keep that in mind. The 76s routes may contain no more than 150 points per route. You can exceed that if you are not careful when planning a route through the twists and turns of the wilderness waterway.
Also, there seems to be a totally different way of storing routes and waypoints in the 76s vs. the 78 and 76csx. I have about 18 routes total, and about 100 additional waypoints. The routes are saved as routes and the waypoints saved as waypoints, on the 78 and 76csx. BUT on the 76s, each and every point on the route are saved as waypoints, as well as the specific waypoints you create. I filled the 76s memory to the max...
The Geogarage actually works pretty good once you get the hang of it, for making routes. make sure you use the full screen. What really pisses me off is when you accidentally scroll with the mouse to the edge of the screen and then an "ads by Google" screen pops up and you lose the entire route you were in the middle of creating.
Once all done, I was able to save as a gpx file to the computer. But I just installed the Garmin communicator plug in, and downloaded the info directly to the three GPS units successfully. The 78 has the Bluewater chip in it, so I was able to check the accuracy of my routes and waypoints with the data from the BW chip. All is good.
With the reduntant GPS units, charts, watch, and compass...if I look lost, DON'T FOLLOW ME, because if I'm lost, I'm really, really, lost.
Joe
Posted 8 years ago # -
Same here Joe. I updated computer drivers last night and re uploaded and checked all my routes very closely and other than a few errors I made, it looks like GeoGarage did it's job. The problem for me was most likely pre race jitters which are building.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Ridgerunner
MemberSt Pete forecast shows NW winds continue for a couple of days!
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Clear. High of 63F. Breezy. Winds from the NW at 10 to 20 mph.</td>
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Friday Night
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Clear with a chance of a thunderstorm. Low of 54F. Winds from the NW at 5 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 20%.</td>
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Saturday
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Partly cloudy. High of 63F. Winds from the NW at 5 to 10 mph.</td>
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Saturday Night
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Partly cloudy with a chance of a thunderstorm. Low of 52F. Winds from the NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.</td>
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Sunday
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Partly cloudy. High of 61F. Winds from the NW at 10 to 15 mph.</td>
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Sunday Night
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Partly cloudy. Low of 50F. Winds from the NNW at 10 to 15 mph.</td>
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Monday
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Clear. High of 59F. Winds from the NNW at 10 to 15 mph.</td>
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Monday Night
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Clear. Low of 50F. Winds from the NNW at 5 to 15 mph.</td>
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Posted 8 years ago # -
DolphinGal
MemberOne of these days I'm going to checkout GeoGarage and EasyGPS just to see what they're all about.
I do all my routes and waypoints in Google Earth in separate folder under My Places, save the folder as a kml file, use GPSBabel to whamo convert a kml to a gpx file, then hook up my Garmin to the computer and simply move the file over. No fuss, no muss, and fast.
DG
Posted 8 years ago # -
KonkererOfTheUseless
MemberI've got the Garmin 78sc and the Homeport software.
I'm able to create a start to finish route on Hport, load it into the gps and navigate with it. No problem so far.
What I WANT to do is: be able to have additional "inside/outside" routes for certain sections of the challenge. So before I get off on the wrong foot, can anyone explain the best way to accomplish this.
Thanks
Jim
Posted 7 years ago # -
CleanSlate
MemberOne tip is to divide the trip up into several smaller segments - some inside, some outside. You can then choose which segment to bring up dependent on weather conditions. Just choose a good naming convention for the routes in your GPS so you can recognize them since you would need to change routes a few times during the challenge.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Jim,
I use routes for their simplicity, and they are easy to follow even when you are too tired to "thimk". I have my main routes go from checkpoint to checkpoint versus having one "mega-route" for the whole course. I agree with CleanSlate that a good naming convention will go far to help avoid confusion. Keep in mind that (if my technical specs are correct) the GPSMAP 76 can store 50 routes with 50 legs (route waypoints) and the GPSMAP 78sc can store 50 routes with 250 legs, each. It would be easy to use up all 250 legs for just one "mega route".
I also have alternate routes (inside/outside) along the way. Some of these are just segments (not a complete route to the next checkpoint) to handle certain areas/conditions.
Along with multiple routes I recommend having a number of waypoints at strategic locations. They help you determine how far it is to them, etc, which is difficult if they are "buried" in a route. This can help you plan for the tides (e.g. how long it will take you to reach a location).
There is a key difference between navigating to waypoints versus routes in the 78s. If you are navigating a route and turn off the GPS (e.g. to save batteries), once you turn the GPS back on you are NO LONGER NAVIGATING an active route and have to select the route again. This is a real PIA during a race if you have many routes. It's a big enough issue that I often just leave the GPS on, ensure that the screen highlight is off or as low as possible, and carry a spare GPS (that has fresh batteries; It's easier to swap out the GPS than to change batteries at sea).
Keep in mind that with the 78s that you can sort your routes alphabetically or by proximity. If you use proximity, realize that if your route is long, it uses the proximity of the starting point, so you might have to scroll far down in your list to find it if you are well into the route. In this year's EC I had sleep issues and had trouble finding a particular route when sleep-deprived after turning off/on my GPS.
Waypoints differ in that if you are navigating a waypoint, and turn off/on your GPS, you are still navigating to the waypoint. Because of this, if you are doing a long crossing, say from Sanibel to Naples, I'd rather use a waypoint, follow a compass bearing (make sure that your GPS is set to give you a magnetic bearing and not a true bearing), and turn on/off the GPS to check it hourly. It's torture to me to have the GPS on during a long crossing and see the distance change so VEEERRRY slowly.
Posted 7 years ago # -
BustedRudder
MemberI found some freeware, thought I'd share.
http://www.gpstrackeditor.com/
When you use your GPS you wind up with tracks. Reviewing your track in google earth is a trip down memory lane. Good moves and dumb moves are all there in very fine detail and a great time to revise waypoints. My GPS is always on, usually tucked away unless I need it. After an event I usually have tracks scattered across multiple units. I save these to PC folders by event. GPSTrackeditor lets me consolidate and then save as one track or selected passages. A 30 mile track down the coast is not as valuable as a 3 mile section of Rabbitt key pass.
Before an event I wipe the units, download waypoints/routes and tracks. It can be very helpful when exausted in the dark to see last years track as a line to confirm you did not miss a turn or you are approaching a waypoint that remarks to NOT make the same mistake again:)
Posted 7 years ago # -
KonkererOfTheUseless
MemberGreg,
Thanks very much for clarifying my route question...which of couse brings another: do you recommend having one master route of the entire course in addition to the alternate shorter routes, or just link together the shorter routes as selected along the way.
I guess ideally it would be nice to switch into the master route occasionally to know miles til finish. That should be possible, right?
Jim
Posted 7 years ago # -
Jim,
Half the battle is to discover what works for you. I personally don't care for a master route for the entire course because something always happens to change your original plans, and you need plenty of options. Long routes can get unwieldy and you can run out of the maximum number of points. The longest routes that I have are from one checkpoint to the next as I am focussed on the next checkpoint and my ETA there.
You could always have a very crude master route if you only want to know how many miles to the end of the race, but I am never concerned with that number during the event (except for the very finish). That's not to say that you shouldn't have a strategy planned out for the entire race as to when you want to finish, sleep, tides, etc, but watching the total mileage count down is like "water torture" for me, because it ticks down so slowly. I know the mileage from checkpoint to checkpoint and that's enough for me. That said if it makes you faster and more motivated seeing the total miles grind down, then by all means do it!
Posted 7 years ago # -
KonkererOfTheUseless
MemberGreg,
In the OFC, I experienced the same problem you spoke of - the unit wanting to navigate back to the beginning of the route when I was jumping from a "detour" route back onto one of my main four routes.
I spoke to a tech at Garmin who tried very hard to figure it out...but couldn't. It seemed to me like it would be able to be done by going to the main menu, system, routing, and then route transitions and then using either the AUTO, MANUAL or DISTANCE settings. It's got to be one of these 3 route transition settings.
I haven't tried it yet, maybe this weekend..
Also, here's a link where others have struggled with the same issue: http://garmingpsmap.wikispaces.com/share/view/61338690
We'll figure this out.
Jim
Posted 7 years ago # -
Jim,
I haven't had any trouble with my route transitions. The issue that bugs me is that if I am navigating a route and then turn off the GPS (to save batteries), when I power back on I am no longer navigating. I have to select my route again (Find->Routes->select a specific route). If you have a lot of routes this can take a bit of time, especially when sleep deprived on a bumpy sea. In contrast, when you are navigating to a waypoint you can turn off the unit, turn it back on, and you are still navigating to the same waypoint.
If you are well into your route when you turn the GPS back on the GPS will usually lead you to the next route leg. Otherwise if you start to navigate a route when you are a *considerable* distance from a route it will sometimes take you to the start of the route; I haven't had this happen during an EC.
Your issue sounds more related to route transitions or the route itself might have very close legs (route waypoints) or double back on itself. You can also have issues if the start point is also a later route leg. For long, straight routes (like from one EC checkpoint to the next) I have my route settings set to; Activity: Direct Routing, Route Transitions: Auto, Lock on Road: No. This is working fine for me.
If you have very close route legs you might need to play with Transitions: Distance, so that so that when you are within the entered distance, you are led to the next point.
Greg
Posted 7 years ago # -
Feks,
The 78 inherited a lot from of features from the Oregon (but is not touchscreen), so the interface will at least be mostly familiar to you, although you will probably miss the touchscreen for some features. The 78 interface is very different from the older 76. This has created somewhat of a "windows 8" issue with some people and they cling to the 76. I have both and prefer the newer 78.
Per the review at http://gpstracklog.com/2012/08/garmin-gpsmap-78-review.html
they did an excellent job taking the best aspects of the Oregon interface and making it work
My understanding, as Joe says, is that you should be able to use your card on the 78. Keep in mind though that the GPSMap 78sc comes preloaded with bluechart for North America. I'm not sure about what's offered on your side of the world.
Greg
Posted 7 years ago #
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