FIT files, GPX files, Simulator and Playback File

I'd like to use the Playback File feature of the simulator to test my code.
To support that effort, I'd like to create short FIT files with various types of motion data in them.
I have both FIT files and GPX files that contain representative data, but I want to use short segments of the data in those files.
I had hoped that I could use some GPX tools that I have to select a track segment, save it as a separate GPX file, then convert that into a FIT file that the simulator would accept.
I can create small GPX files from selected track segments, and convert to a FIT file using the GPSies web site, but when select that file for Simulator Playback, the simulator does not play the file back. I get no error messages, but the simulator acts as if no data was read in.
So... one solution is some way to convert from a GPX to a FIT that the Simulator will accept.

Another option I've looked for is some way to select a part of a FIT file, save it as another FIT file, and then play that back in the Simulator.
I haven't found any tools that allow me to look at the track contained in a FIT file, select a segment, and save it as a smaller FIT file that the simulator will accept.

If any of you can point me toward a solution, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks

Former Member over 7 years ago

Hey,

We don't currently have any first party tools to do this. Some other tools you might try that were suggested to me are: https://www.fitfiletools.com/ and http://fitfilerepairtool.info/

Thanks,
-Coleman

Jeff over 7 years ago

Thanks Coleman.
Maybe you can help me understand the idea behind the Simulator's playback feature.... how it is intended to be used for testing?
It seems like the intent was to provide a test tool to run data through for code testing, but having little or no support for creating test data files, and no ability to run tests faster than real time severely limit it's usefulness.
Am I missing something here... a way to use it that solves these problems ?

I've also looked at using Garmin's HomePort program to take segments from recorded tracks and save them for use with the Simulator.
HomePort does not seem to save track data in the FIT format required by the simulator, and the simulator doesn't seem to accept any file format other than FIT for playback.... not even Garmin's TCX format, which HomePort will export.

It's hard for me to imagine that this isn't a problem for other developers, and that making testing in the simulator more straight forward wouldn't be a valuable improvement to the tools.
Is there any plan to provide a solution that either supports reading in GPX files or TCX files in the Simulator for playback, or for HomePort to save tracks as FIT files, or some other approach that handles this ?
Thanks
Jeff

jim_m_58 over 7 years ago

I playback fit files quite often. Some are my own, some I've gotten from others.

It kind of depends on what you are testing. For example, when I test something that uses lat/lon for things like sunrise/sunset or weather, it's nice to see if the work right in places around the world. For my own, I've got some from 5ks, etc, where I know just when certain things happen (or should happen). When I run something that does mapping/charting, I know just what it should look like, etc. I got some with tempe data and know what the temp range is, some with GPS drops, etc. Some for activities I don't do (an ultra for example :) )

Jeff over 7 years ago

Coleman...
Does Garmin Connect provide any way to select a part of a track that's been uploaded as a FIT file, and save it as a separate FIT file for use in the simulator ?
I've been looking for a way and don't see it.
Thanks

jim_m_58 over 7 years ago

Not GC, but I think you can do it with the Fit File repair tool I'm not used it myself, but I've seen where people had files fixed where they forgot to stop the recording, to strip out parts.

Jeff over 7 years ago

Thanks Jim..... and Coleman
I tried the Fit File Tools that your link points to.
It seems to provide functionality that might solve my problem, but when I used it, the resulting FIT files, when loaded for playback in the Simulator, don't work as expected.
Of the 2 files I've created this way, the first played back for 63 seconds and stopped playing back.
The file contains roughly 40 minutes of data.
The simulator menus had Playback File grayed out, and Stop Playback was available, so it apparently still thought it was playing the file, but no data was coming in for processing.
The second file didn't run at all.
In both cases, the file I started with was a file that I had loaded into Garmin Connect from my watch, then exported in it's original form, as a FIT file.
So... either the Simulator has problems... or the Fit File Tools don't reliably create files that the Simulator will accept.

Is there really not a solution to this that is known to work ?

Former Member over 7 years ago

Would you post the FIT files you generated that are not behaving well? Others might be able to verify the issues you are seeing with the sim.

jim_m_58 over 7 years ago

I suspect that it's the tool you used, or maybe not doing something correctly with it, as I have a couple dozen .fit files I play back in the sim all the time and have done so for years. (especially back in the very early days of CIQ when 'Simulate Data" was a 2 minute repeating loop! :) )

Jeff over 7 years ago

Jim...
There's really nothing that one can do wrong using the FitFileTools.
I chose the "Section Remover" tool.
Browsed for my file and said "go" to upload it.
Selected an area before the area of interest, and an area after the area of interest to remove,
and pressed "go".
When it was finished, I selected the option to download the result, and chose a location and file name.
No other options to get wrong.

I understand that you have used FIT files for testing.
Have you created them from larger files... cutting out part for use in testing ?
If so, how ?

Jeff over 7 years ago

asandweech...
I've attached 3 files.
Hopefully their names are self-explanitory.

Partial1 is accepted by the simulator to the extent that it delivers around 63-66 samples from the file.... and then stops delivering samples to the app.
Samples are on 1S intervals and there should be around 40 minutes of data in the file.

Partial 2 delivers no samples to the app when selected for playback in the simulator.

The full track file contains a bit over 3.5 hrs of data, 1S intervals, and every sample is delivered to the app through the simulator.

While your question may be somewhat interesting, even if we understand what is wrong in the Partial files, that does not provide me a way to produce partial files that work, and debugging someone else's conversion tools isn't something that I want to spend my time on.

Jeff