Garmin GPS 60CSx and MapSource Software

[Doug_S]

Like the title says, I have a 60CSx and am planning a trip to the northeast side of Washington from Olympia. If I plan the route in MapSource which includes all the turns and roads that I want, the route won't be duplicated on my GPS unit when I upload it. Instead, the 60CSx forces me to "navigate" the route which, while sending me through all of my waypoints, changes the route significantly. I've tried just uploading the route in the hope that it will use the route on the computer but that didn't work.

Is there a way to duplicate the route on the 60CSx that I've mapped out in MapSource? I believe that there must be a way, otherwise there wouldn't be a upload for routes when transferring data from the computer to the 60 CSx. I'm becoming very frustrated since I've tried everything that I can think of.

 

[spatialminds]

Doug,
Rather than using the routing feature, just create a GPX track and upload that to the GPS. Then just follow the line you've created. The 60CSx has a limit on the number of vertices that can be in a single track, so you should break it into pieces of 500 vertices or so.

I think it works better to color code the roads based on whether or not it is pavement, FS road, or 4x4 trail. The routes will be almost impossible to see if you pick white, so you'll probably want to select something with higher contrast.

 

[Doug_S]

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the suggestion. Do I do all the tracks on MapSource? Is there a way to set up the tracks without making a track mark every 20 feet or so? I guess I wonder how to go about setting up the track on my computer prior to downloading.

Thanks for the help!

 

[spatialminds]

I only use my 60CSx for hiking so I don't have the streets option, *but* what I have done in the past is to:

- Use Google Earth to calculate a route. (You may be able to calculate a route with Mapsource, and save it as a GPX track (not a route), but I don't know since I don't have the streets option.
- Export it as a KML file.
- Use the free GPS Babel program to convert the KML to a GPX track (track, not route).
- Load the GPX track into Mapsource.
- Use Mapsource to color the track, and split it into small enough chunks that the 60CSx won't puke on it when downloading.
- Use Mapsource to download the track to the GPS.

Shameless plug for my own software. Overland Navigator doesn't have a limit on the length of track segments.

 

[Doug_S]

Thank you so much Craig. I appreciate the help from a fellow Ham.

 

[Doug_S]

I'm hung up on the second step. "Export as a KML file". I can get it saved as a .GPX file bit I don't know how to export it.

 

[spatialminds]

If you can export it from Google Earth as a GPX file, then you can skip steps 2 and 3. I haven't exported anything from Google Earth in a while. I give it a try right now.

 

[spatialminds]

Part I: In Google Earth:

1. Go to the Directions Tab and and enter your start/end locations. Calculate the Route.
2. The route will be displayed on screen, and listed on the left hand side in the Directions box.
3. Select the entire route, **OR** if you only want the track w/o the waypoints at each turn, only check the box next to the "route" portion of the route. This will eliminate the waypoints with turn instructions.
4. Press Ctrl-S or go to File->Save->Save Place As. In the Save dialog, select a file format of KML (KMZ is the default).
5. Press Save.

Part II - In GPS Babel
1. Start GPS Babel
2. Specify the Input Format as "Google Earth (Keyhole) Markup Language"
3. Browse for the KML file we saved in Part I.
4. Specify the Output Format as GPX XML
5. Specify an Output File name such as "HomeToBeerOnBeach.gpx"
6. Check the boxes next to Waypoints and the box next to Tracks.
7. Press the "Let's Go" button

Part III - In Garmin Mapsource
1. Open the new GPX file
2. Split any tracks into smaller chunks so your 60CSx won't puke on them when you download them.
3. Try and download them to the GPS, if there is an error message about them being truncated, find the tracks with a lot of waypoints and split them into smaller chunks. Rinse and repeat until successful.

 

[Doug_S]

Thanks Caig. I've give it a try and report back.