Lost or confused, before you ask another dumb question, click here
 

Are you lost in the Gee Pee Ess forum or too lazy to click on the search button, or just totally confused?

Here is a list of the most common questions that come up that have been answered many times. There is already a wealth of information on the forum, all you have to do is use the search button to find it. Even better is to use Google to search the site so you can search on smaller and more common words. Easy way to search ADVrider

Also, if anyone is aware of a really good thread that should be listed here as a link, let me know and I will include it.

Which GPS should I get? :arg

There is a separate subforum to post all your "Which GPS for me?" questions. Go here to post and read - GPS 101 - Which GPS For Me






Before asking anyone, you need to determine how you are going to ride and then do a couple searches. Whatever you do, don't just ask without at least including the following key factors that must be considered:

1. Are you going to ride on road, off road or both?
2. How long will your trips be? Do you do long distance/Ironbutt riding, just commuting to work or off road/trail riding in a particular region.
3. What kind of motorcycle do I ride and how much room is there to mount a GPS?
4. Will I only use the GPS on the bike, or will I also use it in my cage or on foot?
5. Is it OK for my GPS to only run off vehicle power, or will I need one that runs off batteries?
6. I am real cheap or do I ride a KLR? Sorry, I know it’s a cheap shot, but I just couldn’t help myself :lol2 Hi Pilot :wave

Where is a good place to buy GPS:

There are many vendors, some more closely oriented on motorcycling, however, the following thread is probably the best place to start your research with this thread: Your Favorite Source for GPS Stuff?

What is Mapsource:

Mapsource is a program provided free by Garmin with all their mapping products which allows you to both communicate and move data back and forth between your GPS and PC. With Mapsource, you can work with your map products, such as City Nav or Topo USA, creating routes, waypoints, displaying and manipulating track logs from your GPS and search points of interest (POI's) in the map database. Once routes or waypoints are created, either on the PC or GPS, they can be transferred back and forth as well as modified or saved.

Links:

Garmin Montana GPS Reliability Modification - Hardening How-To - A great look at the inside of a Montana, how to open it up, and how to prevent the internal antenna from coming loose

How Do I Tell Paved Roads from Dirt Roads in Mapsource or on My GPS?

Installing Mapsource on a Thumb Drive on an ASUS

Installing Mapsource without a Garmin GPS or this one How to install MapSource without a disk, or previous installation

Mapsource Updates

One Long Route or Split It?

Copying and Pasting Waypoints

Google Earth to Mapsource

Replacing the Internal Battery in a Garmin 276/376/378/478 etc. when your unit turns on and cannot quickly aquire a satellite

Zumo touch screen replacement Quick and easy.

Convert Garmin Routes to Tracks/Tracks to Routes

Converting Routes to Tracks using Delorme Topo

Converting Routes to Tracks with WinGDB

Create your own maps

Hope this helps, and feel free to suggest other threads to be included in the "hall of fame".

Hey Phil,

Ever feel like we're running a low budget tech support operation? Maybe we should raise the rates..

You don't want to see the PM's. :lol2

Dear Dr Phil:

My geep takes me weird places.

My wife wonders where I am all the time.

I need help.

Signed,

Lost in Space.

Gee - what are the specs for.....
 

Many of the questions that people have on specific features, wiring diagrams, software updates, firmware updates, etc. can easily be answered in a few clicks at the manufacturer's sites.

The most popular are:
Garmin, including the latest Firmware and Mapsource Update

Magellan, and

Lowrance


Dave

Just thought I'd add this link:

http://gpsinformation.net

Good catch, I go there a lot and completely forgot aobut it. Thanks! :thumb

But what oil do I use?:D

Well, Phil would know where you were. He might not like it but he would know.

:hide

yes, I searched, but to no avail:

What is the preferred GPS Data format you guys use for on-bike navigation and coord sharing?

Say I want to give another rider coords to a campsite. Let's say I'm having my usual brainfart and can't recall the name, but I have a GPS
waypoint set and know which one it is. What's the preferred format for the data?

Thanks in advance, happy to accept any abuse for noobishness if I am lead to the answer. :clap

Which GPS do you use?

GPX works. Mapsource, which is what most use has a native format, .gdb, but will read and write .gpx as well. This is also either directly readable or importable into most every other package, that's why we use .gpx here.

Worst case you can always sent the coordinates (lat/long) and they can cut and paste it into their software.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, but I'm not talking about third-party software. I'm referring to the actual GPS *data*....

example- my Magellan will do Lat/Lon, UTM, OSGB, USNG, MGRS, User Grid, or any of a number of nationalized formats- Irish, German, et al.

I assume the nationalized formats are out. so that narrows it a bit, but there's still 6 others- and that's only assuming I have them all in this unit.

Complicating the matter is that each of these types has several further subtypes. Example- dotted notation for Long/Lat, versus hours/min/sec, versus several other subtypes- just for Long/Lat!

What brought this to mind is the thread where the bikes had to be helo-extracted-- they had some trouble converting their coords for the helo guys, who use hour/min/sec. This is what I normally use in my jeep, but it seems you guys use another format entirely, so I thought I'd ask :D

Garmin Mapsource will also do the same formats, but most only use lat/long using the WGS 84 datum using degrees with decimal minutes. My lowrance was the same way. In over ten years with a GPS, the only other format I have used, and it has been very rare is UTM. For me the killer has been the datum used, some of the stuff I have been given was in NADS 27 from Topo maps, can cause some headaches when putting in a satellite terminal.

I'm a GPS noob here, and don't know anything about Garmin data formats, but my Magellan Sportrak Map will export a track to Microsoft EXCEL, so that's how I edit and save my tracks. Does a Garmin GPS accept an import from EXCEL? If so it should be a simple matter to edit/format a file and import it from Magellan to Garmin via EXCEL, right?

<little richard voice> "Somebody Help Me! </little richard voice>:evil

If you want to use Excel, you can save your file in Mapsource as a .txt file, it's tab delimited and read it in, or even better, you can save it as .gpx, which is XML, then you can use any XML editor, to include Excel to play with it and still bring it back in at par with no gyrations.