Nuvi 500 trail tracing

[Dozer]

I just bought a nuvi 500 and cant figure out how to map my trail. I do alot of 4 wheeling and like to map the trails out on gps. I used to do this on my H20 but cant figure it out on the Nuvi.

Is there a way to get the trails I already have saved on my H20 card onto my Nuvi? I dont have the H20 anymore but I saved all the info to the sd card before I sold it, but the Nuvi takes a MicroSD card.

[MN Mike]

Dozer,

On the NUVI 500 and others, Garmin calls it Trip Data or Trip Log, something like that, I don't have my Nuvi in front of me but if you can find that ( probably somewhere near the My Data settings ) you will see a setting for it, Garmin by default sets that setting to HIDE, just tap the screen there and set it to SHOW and you will see your track.

If you wanted, I could take a crack at getting your old Lowrance tracks possibly changed over to Garmin, otherwise a program like GPSTrackmaker should be able to do it, maybe some other too.

To transfer the data to your Garmin, all you should need to do is have the Nuvi hooked up via a USB cable and you can 'push' your converted data from your computer to the Nuvi, no card required.

Mike

[MN Mike]

Just got a chance to look at my Nuvi 250, the setting was in: TOOLS, SETTINGS and MAP, you should see Trip Log, just set it to SHOW.

Mike

[Dozer]

I got the track log figured out, thanks MN Mike. However I cant get the info off the card from my H20. I downloaded GSPTrackmaker but cant figure out how to get the info from the card to the program. Any help would be appriciated.

Thanks again.

[MN Mike]

When you open GPSTrackmaker, go to FILE, then to OPEN FILE, you need to make sure that the field in the lower right corner is set to see ALL FILES ( you should see this area right above the OPEN button in the lower right corner ), now navigate to your .usr ( if that is how it was exported ) file and you should be able to open it

Once you open it, you might see only waypoints, to see your tracks, do this. On the top of the screen click on VIEW and make sure there is a checkmark on TRACKLOGS, now you should see tracks.

Just for good measure, when you see what you want, go ahead and save the file as a .gpx, click FILE and then SAVE FILE AS, name the file and make sure you SAVE AS TYPE is set to .gpx or whatever you want for that matter.

NOW, to ' push ' that data to your NUVI, zoom out, select the pointer on the left hand toolbar, click and drag to select your tracks/waypoints. Plug in the 500, click INTERFACE at the top and the select GARMIN, it should automatically detect the NUVI, Click ALL or TRACKS or whatever, to the right and then SEND.

You should be ready to go.

I hope I got that all right, if not, let me know.

Mike

[Dozer]

I know this is an old post but Im finally getting to use my Nuvi. I can get the track to display but how can I save that as a specific set of trail? For instance I would like to ride in the Foothills st forest and save those trails and the Nemadji st forest trails and save them seperatly. Is this possible?

Also I never did get any of my info from my H2o chip onto my Nuvi, I couldn't get the computer to recognize anything on the chip.

[MN Mike]

Dozer,

Here is a snapshot from the manual, I think it is page 13, looks like it shouldn't be a problem.

2 things to watch when you try to read the file off of the chip, when you go to FILE and then OPEN, make sure that you are looking at that chip itself and not some other folder, then make sure that ALL FILES is selected in the lower right corner ( that will show all files on the chip no matter what format ). If you still don't see anything, then I would verify that the data is on the chip itself, just navigate to the chip via My Computer.

Mike

[Ed Carlson]

Dozer you can also download the N-Rout software from the Garmin site to manage the routs and tracks. It is a free download, and works with all Nuvi's and Garmin hand held units. You might find it helpful.