Garmin Software Troubles

Posted on February 04, 2008

I decided to rescue a bunch of old data off my old Garmin Forerunner 201 tonight. The only problem is that this is now impossible. Even though 1.5 years worth of GPS data is on the watch, it’s quite inaccessible now. Google Earth can only read the last 11 routes from the watch. I tried deleting those routes from the 201 and then syncing the watch with Google Earth on my Macbook Pro via a USB to DB9 converter. Unfortunately, on both operating systems the software errors out with “Loaded %1 Waypoints”.

Next, I gave the newest Garmin Training Center a try. Garmin’s software managed to load all the data off the watch using a serial connection on my Windows XP desktop (the 201 doesn’t work with the Mac OS X-version of Training Center) Unfortunately, the map overlays didn’t load for the 201 routes like they do with the Garmin Forerunner 305 ones. Now, all of my historic Forerunner 201 data is half-usable and silo’d up in the training center software with no hope of exporting it out.

Adding insult to injury, Garmin has deprecated the “Export to XML” feature that existed in their old Training Center software. This effectively locks-out third-party developers because the export data is now only available in proprietary TCX format. It’s unbelievable that Garmin wouldn’t continue to support XML or, at the very least, Google Earth’s KML format. This is even more troubling because Garmin used to enable hackers to do cool stuff with their hardware. By allowing access to the unencrypted GPS data, Garmin enabled quite a bit of tinkering. Programs like USAPhotomaps and several community GPS running sites sprouted up as a result. Back in 2005, I even wrote my own GPS overlay program to map data onto a USGS orthoimage of Austin using the exported XML data from the 201.

Strangely enough, I met three of the developers from Garmin’s Motion Based community web site at SFBeta last week. We talked for a while, and I went all GPS-nerd on them. So, the next day, I tried out Motion Based and uploaded the data off my Forerunner 305. The result is that I was completely nonplussed with their site. The only thing extraordinary about the site is how extraordinary it is. What’s particularly troubling is that since you can only access the GPS route data from Garmin’s watches using proprietary software, this is the only community web site that is gong to work with their devices.

Garmin Forerunner 201 Track Overlays Using Google Earth Plus and Photoshop CS2.

Posted on July 02, 2006


The GPS track overlay images coming out of Google Earth Pro aren’t doing it for me. One can barely see the immutable one pixel wide track on the map. What’s a hardcore geek to do? Well, break out some mad h4×0r Photoshop skills, that’s what. I invented a new process whereby I make a non-antialiased (aliased?) 4-pixel wide trace over the wonky-ass default one, and then apply a stroke and bevel layer style. So, if you have a Garmin Forerunner 201 GPS Watch, a copy of Photoshop CS2, a Google Earth Plus subscription, and run about on somedays, you should do this and put it on your Flickr Pro account.

Emma Long Moto Course Run

Posted on September 28, 2005

I managed to run the entire Emma Long Motor/Mountain Bike Trail yesterday morning at 7 o’clock in the A.M with the famous Eric Holbrook. It’s a new experience for me getting up that early. I rather enjoyed it though as absolutely no one was up at that obscene hour. The total distance was exactly 5.00 miles according to Garmin Forerunner, but as you all know it’s rather difficult to determine a precise distance measurement when the route is sufficiently windy.

PerlMagick+Garmin GPS Data+USGS Orthoimages

Posted on May 27, 2005

I finally got a day off from work, and managed to write a little perl script to take my garmin forerunner xml watch data and overlay it on a high-resolution USGS Orthoimage. USAPhotoMaps will not do this nor will GPS Visualizer. So, I basically had to roll my own script to do this chore. The CPAN Perl Module PerlMagick made short work of this. I had quite a bit of trouble producing an image this big on my computers. The actual TIFF data for the satellite image from USGS was nearly 500MB. The full resolution satellite image was 16000×10000 for the entire town lake trail (which I stupidly ran on Wednesday). ImageMagick crashes on handling an image this big even though my Linux machine has 1536MB (1.5 Gigabytes) of RAM. Adobe Photoshop fortunantely handled the full-res 16000×10000 image, and allowed me to resize it to a 9000×5648 TIFF. Then, my PerlMagick read the TIFF file in, and produced the GPS Track annotation and saved it. I then used command-line ImageMagick to mogrify the TIFF to a JPEG, which is what I added to my gallery. Enjoy.

USGS Topographical Maps Overlayed with GPS Tracks Color-Coded by Speed

Posted on May 22, 2005

GPS Visualizer is a cool little web application that picks up where USAPhotomaps leaves off. GPS Visualizer shows you your GPS tracks overlayed on Satellite Maps, Topographical Maps, and Street Maps, and then color codes the tracks by Speed. Everyone with a Garmin watch should Paypal the creator, Adam Schneider $2.56.

First Sattelite GPS Overlay Running Map: Green Belt to Zilker

Posted on May 07, 2005

I finally managed to obtain a Garmin Forerunner 201 GPS watch to use when I go out running. This watch allows me to download my track points from the watch to my computer and then overlay the route onto a sattelite map. This image was taken on the southern portion of the Austin, Texas Town Lake Trail in what’s known as “The Green Belt”. I parked on Spyglass, and walked most of the way to Barton Springs because it’s a fairly rocky bit of trail to get there. I then ran to the end of the Mopac bridge and back. The whole journey was probably around 6 miles (I didn’t start the watch until about 3/4 of a mile after I started).