Garmin 2610 -- Anyone familiar wih this unit?

[doc47]

A menu on the unit indicates that it has tracking but the manual has nothing about it.

Can anyone tell me how to use the tracking option? How do I recall a recorded track? How can I download it to the computer, or is that part obvious once I connect the machine to the computer?

[AZgman]

You can download a manual at http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/StreetPilot2650GPS_OwnersManual.pdf

 

[OoPEZoO]

I think it tracks automaticaly. As far as loading them......When you go into mapsource and connect the unit to the computer, one of the options is "upload tracks". You can then upload the tracks from the unit to the computer.

 

The downside (and my only complaint with the 2610) is that the tracking is extremely limited. I think it can only record maybe 400-500 miles worth of tracks before it begins to overwrite what is in memory. It works great to load and look at a nice afternoon ride, but is worthless if you want to look at a long ride.

[doc47]

As my post indicates, the manual does not have instructions for tracking.

Keith, thanks for the input. I'm mainly going to be interested in establishing some tracks for remote villages, starting at a main road that is mapped.

There's a GPS site that is doing a mapping project (Smellybiker). I want to get involved starting with The Gambia then expanding to other countries in West Africa. From what I know (very little!) it uses waypoints and tracks as well as info from Google Maps.

[OoPEZoO]

As long as you are not planning on doing 400+ miles at a shot without dumping the tracks to the computer, then the 2610 would work well I believe. I've been using mine for a few years and love how useful (and CHEAP) it is.

 

You should be able to run the 2610 while traveling between villages, mark the villages with waypoints, and then dump the tracks between them onto the computer and save them to the hard drive. If you are not familiar with Mapsource, then it will take a little while to get the hang of it, but its really pretty easy once you figure it out.

 

 

[RedHot]

I know you can turn the track feature on and off. So if you get close to the end and don't want to lose anything, turn it off. It's under the route options. I can't remember how it goes, but I could do it if I had the unit in front of me.

 

Do you know how to turn it on and off? I can at least get you that far.

[OoPEZoO]

Yeah.....I figured out how to turn off the tracks when I was trying to see if I could change the rate at which it left the track markers. I was hoping I could space them further apart, as to allow less markers over a longer distance. I also contacted Garmin to see if the unit could be configured to save the tracks to the unused space on the memory card instead of the internal memory. No dice with either situation, stuck with what we got .

 

Still couldn't beat the "bang for the buck" when I bought it though

 

[doc47]

Keith, that was the question I was going to ask you next: whether the data was saved to the flash card or only to the internal memory. Oh well...

 

Turn it on and off? Yep. Figured that out. It's the switch on the side....

 

I'm going to have to fiddle with Mapsource. Hope I can lean on some of you for guidance. Old dog trying to learn new trick, etc.

 

Woof!

[smiller]

As was mentioned you can at least turn track recording on and off, so if you wait to the part of the day where you really want tracking (skipping Interstate stuff, etc.) then the internal track memory usually serves OK for a day, and it's very easy to download the data to Mapsource at day's end. Not ideal, but as Keith said other than that you can't beat the overall functionality of the 2610 for the price...