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GARtrip
FAQ
Program
installation and environment; basic problems
General topics on
GARtrip; how to use the program
Scanned
maps
Precision
Data exchange with
other programs
Program
installation and environment; basic problems
I have a Garmin Nüvi / Colorado
receiver. How can
I read and write waypoints with Gartrip?
From version 210 on,
Gartrip accesses these Garmin recievers the same way as others: by the
menu Garmin, Read/Write.
Although using Version 210c, I do not
get access to my Colorado/Oregon
receiver.
On top of the the panel
"GPX receiver file" you see a selection field with the drive letter of
your Colorado/Oregon. The Colorado/Oregon takes two drive letters and
you must select
the proper one before accessing it.
And, please take care that the receiver system interface is *not* set
to Spammer. Set it to USB mass storage.
All text fields of the program, even
the menu items, are shown as "missing text".
Either the file
gartrip.res in the program folder is missing. Or you've installed a
Windows language option requiring Unicode support, for example Chinese
or Greek. On the Windows Control Panel /
Regional and Language Options page, go to the bin "extended". There is
a language selection for programs which do not support Unicode. Gartrip
does not support Unicode, so this option will affect Gartrip. Select
"English" or another language supported by Gartrip.
On the website, I've read that Gartrip
cannot communicate with the Garmin iQue. Is here no chance at all?
The iQue is not a GPS
handheld. It is a Palm computer, and it does not support the Garmin
transfer protocol. You can use the program Mapsource for data exchange,
then you can exchange data between Mapsource and Gartrip using the GPX
file format.
Can't Gartrip read and write files for
Mapsource and Google Earth?
It can't read and write the special file formats of those programs, but
with the general purpose file format GPX this is possible - for Googel
Earth with KML as well..
Why not use the GPX file
format in general, to save user data, instead of the special file
formats of Gartrip? Then I would not need to convert my data each time
I want to access it with another program.
This is not recommended
because Gartrip, like all other programs, saves additional data in its
own format. Those additional data cannot be saved in GPX. For
waypoint files they are, for example, the suitable time zone for the
region of the waypoints, and the suitable coordinates format and
geodetic datum, and for tracks they are the optional comment texts, and
the line colors.
Sometimes,
some keyboard keys are interchanged when I try to enter a waypoint name.
This happens when your keyboard is not the English(USA) layout, and you
use Windows XP. In this case, the key combination "Alt-Shift" changes
the keyboard layout between your national version, and the English version.
On the other hand,
Gartrip itself uses this key combination to zoom the chart (combined
with a right mouse click). When you use to zoom with these keys, you'll
switch the keyboard layout inadvertently. Workaround: delete the
English keyboard option within the Windows System control, Language
options, or disable this key combination there, at least.
My
PC has no serial port. May I connect the receiver via USB instead?
You may use a USB
to serial converter. Please ask your computer dealer. Read the help on
this topic (search for index "USB").
I
use an USB Converter (Belkin) to connect the receiver. This works with
all other programs but not with Gartrip.
Take care that the
original Belkin driver has been installed. The Windows Plug&Play
driver does not work correctly in all cases. Download the actual driver
for your adapter from the website of the manufacturer, and watch the
notes within the readme file about "USB-RS232 Adapter". If this doesn't
help, you should ask the hotline of your PC manufacturer for a
recommendation. A Gartrip user was told by Toshiba to use a Targus
adaptor rather than Belkin, and with Targus all problems disappeared.
Another user reported that he had to install the relevant application
program again (in this case
Gartrip), after installation of the adapter.
Another user reported: "The problem was with the
driver for the USB to serial convertor. Mine was made by a company
called NewLink. Having noted that the USB to serial chip was
manufactured by “Prolific Technology inc”, and that was used in the
Belkin version of the device, I simply used Belkins’ driver software
instead of NewLinks’, and this solved the problem.
I
don't get the serial comm port of my PC working with Gartrip.
In most cases the
port will be used by another program, or your transfer cable will have
broken contacts, or the transfer protocol has not been set correctly.
Please follow the instructions in he Help first (search for "link").
But some PCs deny working anyway. One user had a Dell laptop of this
kind, and he got the final way out of the problem by Garmin, see here.
I
cannot establish communication through my PC serial port to my GPS but
my PDA connects fine, what can be the problem?
The most common
issue is interference from one of the various synchronization programs
used with PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants, i.e. Palm Pilot). Please
ensure that the "sync" program (ex. HotSync, TrueSync, ActiveSync) is
disabled. Synchronization programs will block all communication through
the serial port that is not a PDA device. You can disable the program
by going to the task bar (bottom right corner of the Windows Start bar)
and right clicking on the sync program icon (typically two arrows that
form a circle) and selecting exit. You can restart the program after
the GPS download is complete by clicking on the Start button of the
Windows Start bar and then Programs and the appropriate folder.
Is
the 16 bit version for Windows 3.1 (version 116) fully equivalent to
the actual 32 bit version?
No. Version 116
was launched in 1999, and it is not updated any further. The main
restrictions are:
It does not use scanned maps, and it does not work with the new Etrex
and Emap receiver family. For more information please see the program history page.
Does
GARtrip work on a handheld PC?
No, sorry. But see
the note on Data exchange with
other programs
Using
Win95 (Win98) the bottom part of the map is hidden by the task bar.
Just reduce the
size of the map a little. For this purpose, drag the RIGHT border of
the map to the left hand side. The bottom border will be adjusted
automatically, keeping the aspect ratio of the map constant. Your
setting will be kept between sessions.
The
program worked well all the time, but now the texts don't fit to the
buttons any longer.
This may happen if
something in the Windows graphics system went wrong, maybe caused by
the installation of another program. It can be repaired by changing the
screen resolution and font size of Windows forth and back again.
It
happens that the program terminates with a run time error message, or
the PC freezes completely when Gartrip draws the chart or transfers
data.
Use "Windows
Standard" mouse pointers. This is a rare problem that is dependent on
PC configuration. It was reported by a user who also had a similar
problem when opening Outlook Express. He had an ATI expert@work
graphics card and IntelliPoint Software, and was using the
"Animated Hourglass" mouse pointer scheme. The solution was to disable
animated pointers as follows. Open the Mouse Control Panel and select
the Pointers tab. In the panel headed "Scheme", select "Windows
Standard" from the drop down list. An alternative solution is to turn
down graphics acceleration using the System Control Panel. Select the
Performance tab and then click on Graphics. Adjust the slider to its
second lowest position (Basic accelerator functions). However, you
might find the graphics system is then too slow for normal with this
setting.
On
the printed chart the waypoints do not line up with the map, although
it was correct on screen.
Some HP printers
have this problem with certain settings. Try another printer setting
for graphics resolution, or disable the preview. One user could not
disable the preview, but he solved the problem by connecting the
printer to another PC in his network. Network printing is always
without preview, and all works well.
General
topics on GARtrip; how to use the program
I want to take UTM
coordinates from a
map, but the format does not fit to the format described in the Gartrip
Help.
UTM coordinates consist of a zone (number and letter), easting value,
and northing value. It happens that the zone is omitted, or the zone is
given within the map description and not at the grid lines. If only the
zone letter is missing, you may just set it to "R" for the northern
hemisphere, or to "E" for the southern hemisphere. The program will
find the correct letter from the complete coordinates. If the zone
number is missing, you should check whether the zone number precedes
the easting value: if the easting value has more digits than the
northing value, the first two digits will be the zone number. If the
zone is missing completely, you may find it when the rough coordinates
are known in latitude/longitude format. Create a waypoint within
Gartrip, using these known lat/lon coordinates, then change Gartrip to
UTM, and read the zone of this waypoint.
Please read the Gartrip Help on this topic (search for Index
"Coordinates").
Why does Gartrip
always show a leading
zero for UTM easting values?
This was not invented by me. This is the UTM standard. Garmin receivers
use exactly the same format but some other programs don't. The option
"System, Unit for metric coordinates, UTM: add missing zero" will add
this leading zero if you forget it. This option is enabled by default.
You should disable it when working with fixed UTM zones at locations
exceeding the selected zone. In this case it may happen that the
leading digit is nonzero.
Gartrip
shows UTM coordinates with a decimal point. This does not fit the
standard.
The decimal point
is only a reading aid. It is easier to read 5325.875 than 5325875 -
when entering coordinates, you don't need to enter the point at all.
And if you don't like to see it you may disable it using the menu
"System / Unit for metric coordinates / km". This also affects the
export text file format.
When calibrating a
map, or when
creating a new waypoint, I want to use a metric coordinate format (UTM
for example). But I am not sure whether I know how to enter the
numbers. How can I take care to do it right?
Are there already
waypoints near to the new one? If there are, just check the spelling of
its coordinates as a template. If there aren't, you may first create a
dummy waypoint using the coordinates format with latitude/longitude
(hddd.ddddd°), then switch over to your
desired coordinates format.
Does
Gartrip show
the accumulated altitude of a track?
Yes - provided that your
receiver records the altitude at all. Hit "Edit Tracks" and "Analyze
Track Range". See the line
"Altitude" showing the minimum and maximum altitude of your
track,
followed by the accumulated ascending and descending altitude (enclosed
in parentheses).
When
defining a route, I sometimes get a yellow warning box saying "Closed
route". What does this mean?
You have selected
the same waypoint as the beginning and the end of your route. Your
intention will be to make a circle trip. But your GPS receiver might
have some problem with this kind of route. When switching the receiver
on while being near the start and end point, the receiver will be
confused deciding what the active route leg would be. In many cases it
will start with the last leg. So I recommend omitting the end point
from your route, and while travelling along it, moving the start point
to the end of the route.
The same kind of problem might come up if two route legs approach each
other, or even worse, if one route leg crosses another one. In this
case you get the warning "crossing route".
How
may I get an area calculated?
You can define the
area by two different ways:
1) By waypoints at each corner: Create a route defining the outline of
the area, with the first and last route point being the same, you get
the yellow warning box "closed route" with the calculated area appended.
2) By a track: Record or draw a track of the outline of the area, with
the end point near the start point. Then hit "Edit Tracks" and "Analyze
Range". The track analysis will include the enclosed area if the track
was nearly closed.
The
printed track is shown as an extremely thin line, and any change
of "Properties of chart" has no effect.
Please set the
line width for track to its maximum and try again. If this doesn't help
you may follow a hint given by another user. He bought a new parallel
printer cable that is definitely suitable for bi-directional data
transfer, and the problem was gone.
May
I transfer a scanned map to the Garmin Emap or to another mapping
receiver?
No, these
receivers need vector maps, but scanned maps are pixel maps. Sorry.
When
printing the chart, all texts are replaced by black fields on the
screen. What's wrong?
Nothing is wrong
here. The black fields represent the printed size of the text fields.
They are too small to be readable on screen. The black rectangles give
you the indication how the text will be placed on the printout.
I
cannot get the speed diagram for my tracks, nor is the time and speed
shown when "Edit Tracks" is enabled. What is wrong?
To calculate the
speed of track GARtrip needs the date/time information of each track
point. Some Garmin receivers do not keep this information when you
"save" a track within the receiver. The date/time information is only
kept for the so-called "active log".
Does
GARtrip save the altitude(elevation) of tracks?
Yes, from version
203 on! But this feature is only available for some new Garmin
receivers like the eTrex. Others like the GPS12 family don't transmit
the altitude at all.
Why
do I have to set my time zone twice in the program?
There are two time
zone settings in the program affecting different operations:
1) In menu "Edit list" you find "Time zone of this list". This setting
controls the display of time stamps of waypoints and track points.
2) In menu "System" you find "Time zone at home". This setting controls
the PC clock correction. In addition, whenever you create a new
waypoint list from scratch, the home zone setting will be copied to the
list zone setting.
And why are there two different settings? You will find this useful if
coming back from a trip to a different time zone. Whenever you open the
waypoint file from this trip, all waypoints and track points will be
shown with the time zone valid there, while the PC clock correction
still refers to your home time zone.
How
may I get my track log analyzed by GARtrip: speed, distance, duration?
Load your tack,
hit "Edit track", then "Range: whole track" or any other option. You
will get distance, direct distance, average speed, duration with and
without included pauses, and altitude range with total ascend/descand.
You can get this information on any selected part of the track.
How
may I have GARtrip supporting all waypoint symbols of my GPS?
Garmin uses to
increase the number of waypoint symbols when creating a new firmware,
and these new symbols were not known when GARtrip was created. To
support them anyway, GARtrip has a learning mode for unknown symbols.
For you this means: If you know about a new symbol within your Garmin,
all you have to do is to assign this symbol to a waypoint within your
Garmin. Then you should read the waypoints to GARtrip. Now GARtrip will
see an unknown symbol identifier, and it will append this identifier to
its symbol list, with a default symbol name. To define the suitable
symbol name, please search for "Symbol" within the help system and
follow these instructions.
For
your convenience, you may download the complete file SYMBOL_3.INI for
the GPS12map or GPSmap
60C/60CS/76C/76CS or 172C.
On
some web sites, coordinates are given using British Grid in an
all-numeric format. Is this understood by GARtrip?
The whole British
Grid is only one Transverse Mercator zone. Therefore it is possible to
define a user grid for this purpose. Just add this line to your file
DATUM.INI:
#(GB) British Grid num,Ord Srvy GB,-2,49,0.9996,400000,-100000
Why
does GARtrip support so few Geodetic Datums?
Garmin receivers,
and some PC programs, offer more than 100 Geodetic Datums, but most
users will use very few only. It is inconvenient to scroll through a
huge list each time. Therefore GARtrip was restricted to the most
popular datums. If you need another one, knowing its shift parameters,
you may enter them yourself. Follow the instructions in the Help file
under "Datum". If you don't know the shift parameters, you may ask the author. Look here for some more
datums.
You
never speak about "upload" and "download" for transfers from/to the
Garmin. Why?
When looking
through other programs, I found that some authors say "upload" when
transferring towards the Garmin, others say "download" to the same
transfer, and vice versa. Is this because some people put their Garmin
on top of the PC (upload) and some put it below the PC (download)? No
matter what is up and what is down, I refer to the PC program being the
active part: writing data to the Garmin, and reading data from it.
Precision
Now,
with the SA being gone, is it still useful to improve the precision of
a waypoint by the averaging functions of GARtrip?
In most cases you
won't need it any more, see next item. If you want to improve anyway
you should use the averaging a bit different than before. When
averaging some waypoints, you should care that the single waypoints are
taken with at least one hour time difference, and that they are not
taken at the same time of day. This is recommended because the
remaining GPS error changes much slower that the old SA error, and they
show some 24 hours periodicity. When averaging a track range, please
ensure that the track points were recorded at a fixed time interval,
and that the track was recorded for more than one hour. You will get
best precision with a 24 hours track, see "On GPS
precision". If set to
automatic mode, you GPS receiver would record nearly nothing because it
suppresses recording whenever it does not detect any movement.
How
do I get the best precision when marking a waypoint using my GPS
receiver, with the SA being gone?
This question is
not related to the program GARtrip.
1) Ensure the receiver has been on for a few minutes and has obtained a
stable lock.
2) Check the EPE. If this is larger than you normally experience, don't
trust the reading to be accurate. For a 12XL this probably means not
trustng readings when the EPE is in double figures (metres).
3) Before marking the position, watch the numerical position for a few
seconds. If the position is wandering, wait until it is steady before
pressing the mark button. Then save the position without averaging.
4) Following the above instructions should result in most readings
having an accuracy of 5 meteres, and should avoid inaccuracies of any
more than 10 metres. [This is a slightly pessimistic view, but it is a
simple statement using nice round figures.]
The reason for without averaging is because the position
displayed whilst averaging is the averaged position and any instability
in the signal during the averaging can not be seen. This type of
averaging therefore precludes the opportunity of rejecting averages
that may include the higher errors. As the improvement to be gained by
a short term average is small, it is not worth this risk. The averaging
function of the receiver is useful only if you don't want to watch what
is said before, but the procedure above will be more effective.
Contributed by Allen Oliver.
Scanned
maps
Does
GARtrip use scanned maps?
Yes, from version
200 on.
How may I use a
map from a CD, like a TOP50?
There are
different TOP products. Therefore there is no general rule. If the
viewer of the TOP map has an export function (like the Swisstopo) you
should use it to create a BMP file, if possible with coordinate grid
lines. This map file must be calibrated with Gartrip then.
For viewers without
export function, you can use the print function like explained below
under "How
may I export the chart into another graphics program for further
manipulation?".
For viewers without printing function, the only way is to use a
screenshot. This method is available in each case but you'll get poor
map resolution.
All
waypoints and tracks are displaced by some hundred meters on my scanned
maps, although I was very careful when calibrating the map.
It appears that
you had selected the wrong Geodetic Datum before calibrating the map.
It does not help to set the datum after calibration. So you must select
the proper Datum for your map, and open the calibration menu again,
then correct the coordinates.
Whenever
I try to calibrate a map, the OK button is disabled, or the result is
completely off. What's wrong?
You probably
entered the coordinates of the calibration points in the wrong format.
They must be given in the format and Geodetic Datum you have selected
on the main panel (degrees, UTM, etc.), and one wrong character may
confuse it totally. The same applies to coordinates of waypoints, but
maybe you don't use numeric coordinates so often. For an explanation of
all formats, highlight the format selector on the main panel, then
press F1 for Help.
It is good practice not to enter coordinates from scratch but to select
a waypoint first, even if you won't use an existing waypoint for
calibration. Once shown, the coordinates can be edited then. This
method gives you a template. It shows how the coordinates shall look
like.
When working with UTM coordinates, you should not forget to enter the
zone with its letter. If the zone is entered as 32 instead of 32U, then
the program does not know if you are on the southern or northern
hemisphere.
Does
GARtrip work with the German Topo CDs of the Landesvermessungsämter?
No. These CDs use
a proprietary data format. But there is a
dedicated freeware program called GarminCommander by
Rolf Herrmann - sorry, this link appears to be dead now. Does anybody
know where it went?.
What
file format shall I use when scanning maps?
Gartrip accepts
BMP, GIF, and JPG files.
BMP is the pure pixel format without any compression. It creates the
biggest file size but it loads fastest.
GIF is a loss less compressed format. It will create the smallest files
without any loss of quality. The degree of compression depends on the
type of the image. The more constant coloured areas, the smaller the
file will be. If your scanning program supports Gif then this will be
the best choice for maps.
JPG is a compressed format, designed mainly for photographs. You have
to select the degree of compression, and this results in some loss of
quality.
Whatever you use for the file format, I recommend to set the canning
resolution to 150 dpi for most maps, and 200 dpi for very fine printed
maps.
What
is the maximum map size?
The program itself
does not limit the size of a map but on some computers the graphics
functions of Windows will not work properly if the map is greater than
4 MB. You will not get beyond this limit when scanning an A4 sheet with
200 dpi.
Data
exchange with other programs
How
can I transfer GARtrip data to my handheld computer?
For a Windows CE
computer you might try Teletype GPS, see http://www.teletype.com/gps/order/
For
the Psion Series 5, 5mx, and Series 7 there is a program called PsiGar,
and the recent version 5.06 of this program saves waypoints and track
in PCX5 format which can be read and written by GARtrip as well. You
find PsiGar at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.duff/
.
For
Palm computers there is another program called GpilotS and it is found
at http://www.cru.fr/perso/cc/GPilotS/
- this program
transfers its memory to GARtrip by a serial link, simulating a GPS
receiver.
To
convert Mapblast routes to Gartrip tracks, you might try the program
MB2T at http://www.home.zonnet.nl/prof.Barabas/
I
personally did not check any of those programs. I don't accept any
responsibility.
How
may I find the file import and export functions?
Just select "File:
Save as...". On the following panel, select the proper file format.
How
may I export the chart into another graphics program for further
manipulation, and how
can I send a Gartrip chart to friends??
You may use the function "Print" for this purpose,
with a program like PDF Creator. You get this open source program at
http://www.pdfforge.org/. It creates files in many different formats
like PDF, JPG, BMP and others.
How
may I copy the chart to another graphics program as a bitmap?
With the chart
window active, press Alt-Print on the keyboard. Then open your graphics
program and insert. The result is limited to screen resolution, though.
How
can I save my data in a readable format, in order to process them with
Excel?
Select the file
format "Gartrip Export Text" when saving the data. You find a full
specification of this format in the Help of Gartrip, searching for
"Export".
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