COFSTA

Jeff, Greg, Brick and I had a fun ride over to Marshall to position for some roads south that we rarely use like Sandy Mush, Beaverdam and others. Lunch was also in Marshall at the Good Stuff restaurant, a bistro sort of place. The food is tasty so check them out if you're over that way.

Here we are at our final gas stop on 74A.

Sounds interesting--can you post a track or route?

Bob wrote:Sounds interesting--can you post a track or route?

Bob, I uploaded the GPX route.

Thanks!

This is obviously from the app Rever.


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Brick, would you mind sharing your GPX file of the route? The one Lee uploaded looked like the tracking interval was too long and when I loaded it, there were a lot of straight lines that didn't really follow the road.

007 wrote:Brick, would you mind sharing your GPX file of the route? The one Lee uploaded looked like the tracking interval was too long and when I loaded it, there were a lot of straight lines that didn't really follow the road.

It sounds like you're expecting a track type route but the GPX is a waypoint type where roads are calculated between points. If you're using OSMand you have to tell it to calculate the GPX.

LeeDavis wrote:

007 wrote:Brick, would you mind sharing your GPX file of the route? The one Lee uploaded looked like the tracking interval was too long and when I loaded it, there were a lot of straight lines that didn't really follow the road.

It sounds like you're expecting a track type route but the GPX is a waypoint type where roads are calculated between points. If you're using OSMand you have to tell it to calculate the GPX.

You are correct, Lee. I haven't loaded it to OSMand yet, but the somewhat awful program I use on my desktop to view and manage routes seems to have a very primitive route calculating function from waypoints. I have also noticed that when I load waypoint routes in OSMand, they are somewhat difficult to follow as each Waypoint is displayed such that the route is obscured. I gave up on Waypoint routes because of this a while ago, but this was several versions ago of both OSMand / Android. It sounds like this function has been improved, too, if you are using it so I will give it a shot.

What I have is from the app Rever and so far I've not found a way to get gdb or fox files from it. I think there may be a pay/membership version. I'll see if and what that might entail.



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Tyre-Basic is good freeware desktop program to display and create GPX waypoint routes without the steeper learning curve of Garmin's Basecamp. http://www.tyretotravel.com/download-tyre/

Brick wrote:What I have is from the app Rever and so far I've not found a way to get gdb or fox files from it. I think there may be a pay/membership version. I'll see if and what that might entail.



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Brick, if you log into Rever on your desktop you can view your "tracked" routes and export as GPX. No membership needed--I think.

Tyre looks to have used the waypoints to make a track, but is there any way to save the track to a GPX file or will OSMand do a reasonable job interpreting as is? I'm running Marshmallow on my Galaxy S5 with the latest OSMand+ (paid) version available on Amazon FWIW.

Steve, download Mapsource from Garmin and load the track., then convert it to GPX. You don't have to have a custom map database to do this, just use the built-in low-rez database.

I ran the GPX I uploaded here on both OSMand+ and Locus Map Pro and Jeff and Greg both ran it on their Garmins.

If for some reason you want to make a GPX that includes tracks in Tyre you have to enable "Use route tracks" under "Tools/Preferences/Files"

Bob wrote:Steve, download Mapsource from Garmin and load the track., then convert it to GPX. You don't have to have a custom map database to do this, just use the built-in low-rez database.

Based on previous experience with Garmin, I wonder how they justify high prices for archaic user interface using proprietary technology. Somebody is getting paid very well to do nothing but maintain status quo over there. I'm still waiting on the one program to rule them all, and it will be a program that integrates open source, cloud sync, and ubiquitous hardware while also being inexpensive. Garmin goes the wrong direction in all of those categories.
I learned this morning of a way to add OSMand to Windows using Google Chrome emulator plugins. This might be the magic ticket, actually, to integrate PC usability with phone / tablet mobility. You create a track on the computer, upload it to the cloud, then download it on your hardware of choice. You don't even have to plug it in. The newest software automates the uploading (usually) but not necessarily downloading steps. Plus the benefit of sharing with a group via online link to the cloud file (although haven't explored this, either) and online backup in case the whole system crashes with easy transfer to the next-gen device. All for a few bucks, one time only.

Sadly, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Don't you just memorize the roads? How does someone without any GPS software interpret these files? Can one convert them? I can usually review a map and memorize the turns, but on these pics, there's no detail zoom.

tireatr wrote:Sadly, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Don't you just memorize the roads? How does someone without any GPS software interpret these files? Can one convert them? I can usually review a map and memorize the turns, but on these pics, there's no detail zoom.

I use my GPS when I walk out to the mailbox.

Bob wrote:

tireatr wrote:Sadly, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Don't you just memorize the roads? How does someone without any GPS software interpret these files? Can one convert them? I can usually review a map and memorize the turns, but on these pics, there's no detail zoom.

I use my GPS when I walk out to the mailbox.

I fell out of my chair laughing and will need my dumbphone to figure out how to get back up. Back in the good ol' days, I used to remember phone numbers, addresses, streets, etc. How else was I going to find women? Since the invention of GPS, I have a heck of a time remembering anything. I just follow the blue line like everyone else. On another note, I think I figured out how to use Tyre. This has more than 100 waypoints, so TomTom users may be upset.

Anybody want to run some or all of this tomorrow? We can stay in Marion, VA and then run the reverse route home!

Well in this issue of BMW ON (no I am not allowed to have this but Chris gave me this magazine) there is this article.
Which I thought might be the answer but as I read it my eyes started to glaze over... more other apps or software or costs. But the author says this is the most complete least expensive way to do what we are talking about.

Now Steve, Bob, Lee and the rest of you who are a lot smarter than I tell me/the rest of us what y'all think. [FLUSHED FACE]



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By around the 3rd paragraph I read that the program only allows a maximum of 25 waypoints and didn't need to go further. That's a serious handicap because it's too few for many of our dayrides.

People telling you they have the perfect GPS app/program/device is BS. Google is best for POI's, OpenStreetMap is best for map detail, Garmin has the largest user base and so on. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.

LeeDavis wrote:By around the 3rd paragraph I read that the program only allows a maximum of 25 waypoints and didn't need to go further. That's a serious handicap because it's too few for many of our dayrides.

People telling you they have the perfect GPS app/program/device is BS. Google is best for POI's, OpenStreetMap is best for map detail, Garmin has the largest user base and so on. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.

Lee, you need to read on further as there is some kind of app or something that allows 100 waypoints.

Tyre is actually a useful app for planning on the computer now that I have been playing with it for a while. It is simple to use and allows the use of Google satellite images to find the most twisty roads and avoid the ones that are obviously gravel. Then again, I might be using some of those, too! It basically has the same planning ability as the old Google maps before they stopped letting you load planned routes with downloaded map data (or at least made it incredibly difficult, I haven't gone back to check). The waypoints are easy to modify and I can max out at 250. The beauty of Tyre is that I can plan a route quickly and it is already saved in GPX format (no need to export KML from Google maps and then convert to GPX for the phone). I quickly upload it to my Amazon Drive backup and download it to the phone.

Lee is spot on with his assessment of the various apps.

Now if I can just keep my phone charging while plugged in on the bike... Always something!

MS Streets and Trips was one of the best routing applications ever developed. It's a shame that user interface was never paired to OpenSource maps. The proprietary map files and no online options is what killed the app. Along with some draconian Microsoft marketing logic.

It's the investment in hard wiring mounts and the weather resistance of Garmin products that keeps them in business. But that can only last a while longer.

HaulinAshe wrote:It's the investment in hard wiring mounts and the weather resistance of Garmin products that keeps them in business. But that can only last a while longer.

Actually this is what keeps Garmin in business. We are but a small thorn in their side--at least thats how we are treated.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/cInTheA ... Ds-p1.html