Wireless download tracks from Oregon 700 to Basecamp?

Former Member over 7 years ago

Newbie question, so sorry in advance if this question has already been answered.

Is there a way to wirelessly get my tracks to show up on Basecamp running on a Win10 PC?

I can see them on my connect.garmin.com page and I can log into my Garmin account from Basecamp, but I can't see how to get the tracks or activities to show on Basecamp.

Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

0 schinder over 7 years ago

It's not something you can do automatically, and since Basecamp is no longer being developed, it's not likely to improve. You can export tracks from GC and import them into Basecamp manually (I'm not entirely sure that Basecamp handles FIT files, so you might have to export to GPX or TCX if the Oregon uses FIT.) Presumably the Oregon mounts like any recent Garmin device as a regular disk, so you can grab the files directly from the Oregon to Basecamp. There's a "Find Activities on Garmin Connect" in the Find menu of the OS X version which finds (all, not just yours) activities on Garmin Connect starting at or near the current center of the map, but after finding the "Download" option doesn't work, at least on the OS X version. Basecamp wasn't intended to be an interface to Garmin Connect.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Thank you for your response. Seems like the recreational/hiker user is no longer a priority for Garmin. Philosophically I guess they want your data in the cloud and don't want you to store your data on a single PC, hence the Gamin Connect platform (a la Strava), but no wireless path to BaseCamp, where the data would be stored locally.

On your other comment I thought I read somewhere that ver. 5 was coming. Is that just an evil rumor?

0 schinder over 7 years ago

I saw the same rumor, too. It'd be nice, but I'm not holding my breath. I saw official Garmin statements that Basecamp was done, but no official statement that they're bringing it back, just that some Garmin support person said that to someone. Unfortunately, Garmin support people often don't know what they're talking about.

0 alandb over 7 years ago

Here is the Basecamp 5.0 rumor you are referring to: https://forums.garmin.com/forum/mac-windows-software/windows-software/basecamp-aa/1241936-basecamp-5-0-ish-coming. Read through it and draw your own conclusions ... mine is that schinder is smart to not hold his breath as he would be dead long before BaseCamp gets resurrected.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

So if Basecamp is on life support, what are the preferred alternatives for managing GPX tracks with a map interface, Google Earth? Any other contenders? Any non-cloud programs?

0 SUSSAMB over 7 years ago

MapSource development was discontinued many years ago but MapSource still works. No reason to suspect BaseCamp won't for many years yet.

0 schinder over 7 years ago

What SUSSAMB said. I don't know why people think software stops working when development stops. And I think they intend the Garmin Connect web site to be the place where you deal with both uploading completed tracks for archiving and doing route planning. They just updated the GCM iOS app to do round trip routing. Didn't they also do that on Garmin Connect, with the added bonus that you can actually edit the results? But Basecamp is intended to be a routing tool, not a daily track archive.

There is also a wide variety of other software you can use. Golden Cheetah is free and open source and can serve well as a daily log of tracks with maps and includes lots of analytics. It's cross platform. I use RubiTrack on macOS, which has gotten pricey but is worth it. Garmin Training Center still works if you can find a copy, as does Ascent on macOS (but I wouldn't pay for it since it's been abandoned). Any number of web sites will work (I use Garmin Connect, Strava, SportsTracks, and Runkeeper, some of which have paid for premium levels).