Direction Course Points

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 16 Jun 2012 13:52

I have never used these before but have been messing about adding them to some old courses/routes so that I can load them onto my Edge 500.

I was using bikehike and all was going well until I tried to load it to the GPS, and for what ever I couldn't get it to send? To be fair i wasnt getting any error message it just hung and consequently refused to do anything?

My question, do you send it as a .gpx file or a .tcx file, and does it make a difference?

And are there any sites better than bikehike for doing this?

Si_Walker · Post by **Si_Walker** » 16 Jun 2012 19:01

I have found bikeroutetoaster.com site to be quite reliable for downloads to both file and my edge 900 gps. It recommends a .tcx file download for the Garmin edge units and it is capable of uploads and downloads in both .tcx and .gpx, so maybe you could try your file on this site to see if you get it in the format you want.

Si_Walker · Post by **Si_Walker** » 16 Jun 2012 19:03

sorry should have been 800!

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 18 Jun 2012 08:58

Thanks, is there a limit to the number of points that you can add?

Andy Terry · Post by **Andy Terry** » 18 Jun 2012 10:45

don't know for Edge 500 but Vista HCx can hold 1,000 waypoints

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 18 Jun 2012 11:13

Andy Terry wrote:don't know for Edge 500 but Vista HCx can hold 1,000 waypoints

Bear with me, but aren't waypoints and course points slightly different things, ie a course point contains more detail? And as such files containing course points should ideally be in a .tcx format?

Andy Terry · Post by **Andy Terry** » 18 Jun 2012 14:09

You can only have course points in tcx files bcause they are a Garmin thing.

Would be interested to hear how this gpx looks when loaded into athe Edge 500 given the mapping capability (or lack of) equates to my old eTrex and the Forerunner 305.

http://andyterry.com/misc/test.gpx

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 18 Jun 2012 16:45

Andy Terry wrote: Would be interested to hear how this gpx looks when loaded into athe Edge 500 given the mapping capability (or lack of) equates to my old eTrex and the Forerunner 305.

http://andyterry.com/misc/test.gpx

It wouldn't load for what ever reason, but you could open it in EasyGPS?

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 18 Jun 2012 17:14

Si_Walker wrote:I have found bikeroutetoaster.com site to be quite reliable for downloads to both file and my edge 900 gps. It recommends a .tcx file download for the Garmin edge units and it is capable of uploads and downloads in both .tcx and .gpx, so maybe you could try your file on this site to see if you get it in the format you want.

So have I got this right then, load a gpx file into bikeroutetoaster, then in the Map tab, tick "add course points at each junction" and also "detailed directions".

In the Summary tab tick "add course point warning" and add a warning distance, (say 10') then download as a .tcx file to your gps?

Am I right in thinking then that it will then pop up a direction to go at every junction? Or have I got it wrong........(again

)

martin mc · Post by **martin mc** » 18 Jun 2012 17:45

i've no experience of trying to follow turn by turn directions on garmin edge 500 (i've got edge 605 which can follow either routes as gpx files or courses as tcx files) but there are some good instructions at http://ridewithgps.com/edge_500
they recommend exporting mapped rides as tcx course files. i don't think you can use gpx routes as they seem to rely on map data on the unit to work.

Andy Terry · Post by **Andy Terry** » 18 Jun 2012 18:04

Sorry. I don't use turn by turn routing. I'm happy just following the yellow brick road

...

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 18 Jun 2012 18:13

Andy Terry wrote:Sorry. I don't use turn by turn routing. I'm happy just following the yellow brick road ...

Neither do I as I tend to follow my purple line.

However, I am curious to see if adding direction course points will improve my ride, but the novelty factor is rapidly fading as I appear to be spending more time figuring it out than actually riding my bike!!

What we need to a GPS workshop?

Andy Terry · Post by **Andy Terry** » 18 Jun 2012 18:27

AlanW wrote:
Andy Terry wrote: Would be interested to hear how this gpx looks when loaded into athe Edge 500 given the mapping capability (or lack of) equates to my old eTrex and the Forerunner 305.

http://andyterry.com/misc/test.gpx
It wouldn't load for what ever reason, but you could open it in EasyGPS?

I'm surprised it didn't work - maybe if you took the waypoints out using Notepad.

The thing about following simple GPX tracks (be they yellow, purple or whatever colour) is they work on (almost) any GPS and you don't actually need a map to navigate.

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 19 Jun 2012 08:43

So.....after playing around, I can create a new course in bikeroutetoaster and with the appropriate boxes ticked it will automatically add direction course points. Tried it this morning and it worked really well.

I can also import a pre made track as a .gpx file and then export it as a .tcx file, although I can understand the benefit why? But I cannot add direction course points to a track/course that has been imported.

To do this you need to use BikeHike, which works very well. However, what happens when you have to retrace back over a same section of road it won't let you to add course points?

So for a course that is circular and does not go onto the same roads then its not a problem. But lets say your course utilises the same last 5 miles as you did at the start then not?