Saving inReach tracks?

Re: 700i

How can I save the inReach tracking that is sent to MapShare?

I know I get a track saved under recorded activities. And I can convert that to a track.  But that's not what I'm asking here.  That track interval is different than inReach interval.

When I use Mapshare, and send tracking via inReach, that track is visible as a lot of connected blue points, on MapShare page. And I can tap a dot and get specific location information.  I'd like to be able to save that, for specific trips. Currently all I have been able to do is review EVERY TRIP all jumbled together.  And I can't save that specific track data.  All I can do is revisit a link and select recent or view all.

For instance if I go on 3 trips and send inReach tracking to myself and a friend, I'd like to be able to recall those reported inReach tracking as seperate tracks.

How can I save the reported InReach tracks as seperate tracks, AS transmitted via inReach?  And view those tracks, as seperate trips? 

  • The only way to view this selectively is to use the filters at the top of the left sidebar on the Map tab at explore.garmin.com. (I believe this is also true of the MapShare page itself, although I did not check that when viewing it as a visitor rather than as the owner.) This can be used to view only tracks in a certain time range (use Custom Date Range). Note that the filters also control what gets exported when you export from the Map tab. This provides a way of exporting to separate .gpx files for external sharing.

    If you look at tracks in the Library or in one of the collections containing tracks (again, left sidebar on the Map tab), you can select a track. This shows details in the sidebar and highlights the track on the map. You can "edit" the track to change the name and the color on the map. But that's about it.

  • So, if you give someone permission to track your trip, they can see everywhere you have ever gone, and every place you will ever go?  The link is always the same.  That's too bad.  On another GPS app I have, it allows giving permission on a trip by trip basis. 

    Nevertheless, I like the Garmin because of inReach.  It's the only reason I went for this model.  Last year on a trip, we were traveling with our young grandkids through Montana.  We got out of cell coverage for most of a day, and my daughter panicked and though we might have been in an accident.  No way to contact us, or us her.  She even went so far as to call the State Police and ask them to look out for us. Slight smile

    Hopefully, with inReach, this won't happen again.

  • You can also restrict the contents of the MapShare page. On the Social tab of your account at explore.garmin.com, click the FilterMapShare Data button in the MapShare section. You can select the collections to be included on MapShare. More importantly, you can set the earliest date for which data will be shown. This is separate from, and has priority over, the viewer-accessible filters on the MapShare page itself. Don't forget to click Save Changes after setting the filters.

    With regard to being out of touch - safety is a reason to run the inReach tracking even when you don't need a record of the trip and/or have no one monitoring MapShare. If something happens which is severe enough to prevent you from using SOS, at least SAR will have a starting point when somebody does report you as overdue.

  • Wow! That's kind of not obvious. :)  Going to explorer to set options on share.  I notice I can set passwords to control who sees what. That's what I was after.  I can set MapShare to show all trips and use passwords to decide who sees what.  Or something like that.  Looks like passwords will void all previous access, when you change it.  So I can't have a password for one trip and another password for another trip. The latest one over-rides the old ones.  Too bad.  But not a big deal. it's not like I really care who tracks me.

    Oh, and I can change the actual address too. Adds a bit more flexibility.

    I think I might go out for a ride this week and publish my track info, and see what happens.  Waypoints are saved. I can put images from cell phone onto the Garmin, and make them waypoints. Too bad the images don't show up on the share page.

    Thanks for the tip.

    I agree the inReach safety feature is why I bought this.  I was actually considering a sat phone but this works as well or better.

    Mike

  • Right. At most, there is one password which controls access to MapShare "right now". The idea is to selectively allow only those who know the current password to see your page. 

    Also note that you can control whether or not MapShare users can do things that might be charged against your plan (such as send you a message or send a locate request).

    The feature to show waypoints created in the field does not work on all iR devices. I thought it was being phased out, along with showing navigation events. But I could be wrong about that.

  • You mentioned saving GPX in the first comment.  I assumed you meant from the share site.  But I don't see any export feature there. How would that work?

  • I doubt that it is available from MapShare. It IS available from the Map tab on our account at explore.garmin.com. Look in the upper right corner of the map itself for the export/import "button" icons.

  • I'll check that but what I'd really like is to export the track as sent over inReach.  That really isn't a track but just a series of points. It has fewer points than a regular internally recorded track.  

    I'd like this set of points, in addition to the track I have stored on my 700i.  Is that possible? In map share these points are what we see as the small circles in mapshare.

  • That's exactly what you would be exporting. Filter down to the one track you want, then export. This really IS a track. If you look at the .gpx, it's not a series of points. They are connected into a real track. Just a very sparse one.

    In iR-land, we distinguish between "sent (track) points" and "logged (track) points". Sent point travel by satellite and are delivered to the server in more or less real time. These are the ones you see on the map as small circles connected by straight lines. Logged points do not travel by satellite. They reside only on the device unless/until you sync. When you sync, they are transmitted to the server where they are (ideally) merged with the existing "sent" track. IIRC, the two types of points are different sized circles on the map once merged.

    Then there is the "activity", which is not really an iR thing. The points that make up the activity "track" are the logged points. I do not believe the sent points appear, although it would make very little difference. The activity appears on the unit map and is normally saved as a .fit file (because who wouldn't want a Garmin specific format which nobody outside the Garmin ecosystem can read). You can optionally cause it to be saved as .gpx AND .fit (so you can communicate with the rest of the world). You cannot save it as .gpx alone. These are most useful in the Garmin Connect universe.