GPS Users?

In article said:

Would appreciate comments from GPS (with altimeter) users - after a ride, is it possible to
download the trip data into a PC and overlay displays of altitude vs distance (odometer) and
velocity vs distance with software that is available?

Garmin records all that detail, but doesn't correlate it with Mapsource. You'd have to do the
correlation yourself. Also, the altimeters in handheld GPS units probably isn't accurate enough to
make this worth it. I believe the top of the line eTrex model has a barometric altimeter built in,
which might be accurate enough (although it would still take a manual effort for the correlation).

The Vetta V100A has a number of altitude features, which you might find useful.
vetta.comproduct computerv100A.htmOpen ↗

-Carl

"BarryG" <barryg at access4less.net> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Would appreciate comments from GPS (with altimeter) users - after a ride, is it possible to
download the trip data into a PC and overlay displays of altitude vs distance (odometer) and
velocity vs distance with software that is available?

Thanks for any help, Barry

The Garmin Mapsource software for my GPS-V can show your track in an elevation profile mode, and you
can zoom in on particular parts of that track. I'm not aware of a velocity by distance graph but it
might be able to do that. The GPS-V does not have an "altimiter" per se. Instead, it has true 3-D
satellite nav capabilities, irrespective of air pressure. That means on an airliner it will read
true altitude. A pressure-driven altimiter inside an airliner would always read about 10,000 feet,
since that's about how much air pressure they generally pump in to the cabin. It's really cool to
see your GPS reading "33.4 Kft" and "600 MPH" as you hold it against the window. Of course, with GPS
you get ground speed, not air speed.

BarryG said:

Would appreciate comments from GPS (with altimeter) users - after a ride, is it possible to
download the trip data into a PC and overlay displays of altitude vs distance (odometer) and
velocity vs distance with software that is available?

Thanks for any help, Barry

I've got a Garmin Vista (with barometric altimeter) which I will occasionally take on bike rides,
especially if it's a new, hilly route. The MapSource software does not do what you ask, but it is
possible to export the log data to a text file, where you can do whatever you want with the data, if
you have software that can use it and/or some programming ability. There may well be some commercial
software that will do just what you want, but I haven't researched it.

I use an Excel spreadsheet, and import the raw data into it. I've got a template spreadsheet that
takes the raw latitude, longitude, altitude, and time data, and from there I can plot pretty much
anything vs anything, such as altitude vs distance for a route profile, or speed vs distance, or
speed and grade vs distance, or a 3-D aerial view of the route. The main thing it lacks is a way to
show the track against a map, but MapSource does that quite well.

If the GPS loses satellite reception during a ride, it will make more than one track. These can be
edited back to a single track using a text editor on the raw data.

Even with a template spreadsheet, this method is fairly tedious. I haven't tried to make the
spreadsheet usable by other people. If you can find a commercial product, that is a much better
option, but if you can't, and want to fool around with this, email me and I can send you a template
and some instructions. I can't promise enough support to guarantee it will work for you. I've only
tried it with my Vista, MapSource, and Excel.

Dave Lehnen