# garmin edge 800 maps and memory



## adumb (Nov 29, 2009)

looking to get the edge 800 but it is hard to find out if it will do what i am looking for. 

1. does it have 1 second recording. if it does will it use both that and the speed cadence sensor for accurate data or is it one or the other.

2.how long of a ride can i record. i understand the battery only last 15hrs. my problem is with 1 second recording my forerunner 305 only records for 3 hrs 45mins. how long of a ride can i record with 1 second recording.

3. custom maps is my last question. it seems people say the road maps aren't worth it and people usually map the custom ones. does anyone have an example of a nice trail map they made for the edge 800. something that had to do with overlaying an existing trail map they found online. kind of like they way you would do if it was somewhere new that you haven't been to and preparing to do some exploring.

4. i don't completely understand the file types i never had a problem loading rides onto garmin training center or onto strava. will i have a problem with the edge 800? what are the good and bads about the new file types.

thanks
adam


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

1. yes. the only device I know of that currently does not offer this is the Edge 200.

2. there should be an auto-archive. I'm pretty sure 10,000 track points is the active log limit (you can find that on Garmin's website). Once you surpass the limit, it should auto-archive pieces for you. my Oregon 450 saves the auto-archive segments in 2,000 track point segments. If you want to upload that online or analyze an entire ride, you will have to splice the pieces together. I use Topofusion.

3. people aren't necessarily opposed to road maps. it just depends what kind of riding you do. for the mtb, road maps are useless. for the mtb, you want topo maps. Either way, spending money for maps is pointless. use the free maps at GPSFileDepot - Free Custom Garmin Maps, Ximage hosting, tutorials, articles and more for your GPSr. you won't necessarily have to make anything unless you want something specific that's not already offered.

4. File types: .gpx, .tcx, .fit, for trails. .kmz and .img (beware there are multiple .img file types. the ones that work are Garmin Mapsource/Basecamp compatible vector drawings), and .jnx (reserved for Birdseye imagery you purchase). As far as making it work on your GPS, the only one that might give you problems are the trail data file formats. You will oftentimes find .gpx files (especially, but not limited to this type) that exceed the limitations of the GPS (10,000 track point limit comprising a single linear file) because the file was created in a computer program and not recorded by a GPS. You cannot load these onto the GPS. the GPS just won't work. Use GPX2IMG to process/convert them as described here: Making Transparent Maps for your Garmin GPS with GPX2IMG | The GPS Geek and load them as a map layered on top of a topo instead.


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## adumb (Nov 29, 2009)

natehawk,
thanks for the reply lots of great info. you are using alot of jargon that i am sure is super easy for you but i am just a mer mortal when i comes to gps units. how long in hours can i record with this unit in other words what does 100000 track points translate into time. if i where to do a 12 hr race would i be able to record the whole thing?

secondly,that file depot site was awesome. i saw some maps on there i would use for sure. how many of those can i fit on my garmin before it fills up the memory. and does the garmin record rides on the same memory that i would load maps on. i.e. the more maps i load the less recording time i would have? or are they two seperate memory partitions.

thanks,
adam


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## 4Crawler (Oct 30, 2011)

You can select which memory to use for what, default I think is GPS data to internal memory and maps on the card. I think if you set up the auto-lap feature, it splits up long rides into bite-size segments. I use 5 mile segments on mine at the suggestion of Garmin tech support. Longest ride I have logged is about 5 hrs. so far and no issues. And when you upload that segmented ride file to Garmin Connect, it is all put into one ride with multiple "laps".

I have a 4GB micro-SD card with a couple of maps loaded including one of about 3GB that covers the whole US with all the bike paths and back country bike trails/fire roads that I have ridden so far all mapped and all route-able.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

1. Read the sticky in this board. It covers much jargon.

If the recording frequency is 1 point per second and the active log holds 10,000 points then the active log holds 10,000 seconds of data. You can do the rest of the math. The device can record as long as it has battery life if it has auto archive. But any archived data will be split apart and you will have to manually put the data back together.

As for map capacity that is a stickier issue. Memory is less of a concern. The limits are based on a number of map tiles. Other people have more experience on that front. But suffice to say you can hold several states' worth of maps.


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## Wherewolf (Jan 17, 2004)

*800*

1. Yes.

2. I use 1 second recording on all my rides, and I have done 12 hours several times.

3. Does custom maps.

4. It's a Garmin GPS so of course it will load on to Garmin Connect! Once there it can be exported in other formats. There is nothing bad about the new file type.


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## adumb (Nov 29, 2009)

so i went ahead and bought it. so far it is pretty awesome. a couple more questions of course.

1. am i crazy or does this thing change the screen light at night and during the day?

2. this is more of statement- the literature given with it might be some of the worst i have ever seen. well i would be bad if they gave me anything to actually help me with learning how to use it.

3. i messed around with some maps last night and was able to load other peoples maps but tried to make my own and it said my gps doesn't support progressive jpeg. i used a pdf then coverted it using gimp to a jpeg. i then opened up google earth dropped my trail map over the google earth stuff and exported it and it wouldn't work for some reason. did i miss a step?

4. is there a secret to getting trail maps to line up with the real maps? the trail map i tried to lay over didn't exactly line up i would have had to break it up into a couple pieces to really get it to work.

5. what is the best source for good street maps. i bought a micro sd card and want to load up maybe us if i could on it.

thanks,
adam


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

1. yes.
2. yes.
3. To use the Garmin Custom Maps functionality, you'll need your output to be TILED .kmz images. I believe the map tiles must be 1,000 pixels x 1,000 pixels. I use Topofusion for this. It automagically prepares images in the correct format and saves them onto the GPS. There are other programs that do it similarly, too. The "Garmin Oregon wiki" has a good list of them.
4. I'm trying to figure out exactly what you mean. Are you talking about the same .jpgs you mentioned in the above question? Were these already-prepared maps from some other program? If it's what I think is going on and you're trying to georeference the images in Google Earth, there's not a good way in that program to make it work perfectly. Google Earth only employs a very basic transformation for georeferencing. You CAN georeference a map image nearly perfectly, but not in Google Earth.

It's a complicated process that requires a fairly high end mapping program. The programs I know that can do this cost on the order of hundreds to thousands of dollars. Basically, with them, you will identify ground control points in your map image and on your digital map with known coordinates. There are many possible transformation algorithms that can be used, and each one has a minimum number of control points that's required. When you have a ton of good quality control points, you can do a very good job and line nearly everything up correctly. In Google Earth, the final accuracy of your product depends in large part on the projection your map image uses. If it's similar to what GE uses, then you'll get pretty good results. If it uses something very different, then it won't be very good.

Also be aware that many published trail maps are NOT drawn to that level of accuracy. Some of them are not based on a GPS at all. They are hand sketched from the map author's impression of where the trail is located. The trail I rode today is a good example. The state park map was a useful basic reference, but you cannot translate what you see on your GPS directly to that map very easily unless you're standing at an intersection or creek crossing or other major feature.

5. depends what you want out of your street maps. If you want the best for typing in an address, Garmin's maps are better. However, if you only want basic street maps that will route using waypoints (and occasionally an address), these will do for free. Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap


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## ghettocruiser (Jun 21, 2008)

Wherewolf said:


> I use 1 second recording on all my rides, and I have done 12 hours several times.


I never did figure out the max number of track-points, but no one seems to have exceeded it yet, that I know of.


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## adumb (Nov 29, 2009)

the edge 800 is pretty awesome. totally comfortable with it now after a couple rides and find all of the menus and buttons to work greats when trying to navigate to something quickly.

one last question. what kind of settings should i put my gps unit on to get the longest battery life. the only settings i see is for the screen and how long it takes to shut off.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

adumb said:


> the edge 800 is pretty awesome. totally comfortable with it now after a couple rides and find all of the menus and buttons to work greats when trying to navigate to something quickly.
> 
> one last question. what kind of settings should i put my gps unit on to get the longest battery life. the only settings i see is for the screen and how long it takes to shut off.


backlight settings would be good to adjust, too. you just do a short click on the power button to access backlight brightness.

set it as low as you're willing to tolerate.

ANT+ wireless transmission uses up battery life, too. not much you can do about that if you're using the HRM or the speed/cad sensor. but if you don't need those or aren't using them for some rides, you can disable ANT+ and save a little battery life.


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## rensho (Mar 8, 2004)

4Crawler said:


> one of about 2.5GB that covers the whole US with all the bike paths and back country bike trails/fire roads that I have ridden so far all mapped and all route-able.


Hi, what map is this? Would you point me to it?

Thx for the tips.


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## 4Crawler (Oct 30, 2011)

rensho said:


> Hi, what map is this? Would you point me to it?
> 
> Thx for the tips.


I use the latest OSM map for the US:
- OSM Map On Garmin/Download - OpenStreetMap Wiki

You can pick the size map to match our SD card size. Only issue I am having is I would like to be able to load that map into MapSource or BaseCamp but I need to generate a TDB file for the IMG file and so far have been unsuccessful at doing that.

Also, one minor nit with the maps is that things like dedicated bike paths/trails are separate entities from automobile roads. As such, they do not "intersect", so as you ride up bike path X and cross road Y, the GPS will not tell you "road Y coming up". That is partly why I would like to load the map file into one of the mapping programs to be able to generate routes that include those sorts of turns, if that is possible.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

The OSM maps are my last-effort map source for any given location specifically because there are a lot of limitations/issues with the data. The OSM maps may "cover" the whole US, but the inclusion of bike-specific data is very spotty across that coverage. In some places, it might have good trail data. In others, trail data is completely absent.

they were helpful for me in Costa Rica because no other GPS map data was available to me.

But for the Big Island of Hawaii (digital street mapping data there sucks), I went with topos from gpsfiledepot.


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## 4Crawler (Oct 30, 2011)

Yes, I imagine they vary in quality by location. That is one reason I would like to load them into the PC mapping program to be able to see what sort of coverage they have in say an area I plan to visit. I tried some of the gpsfilesdepot maps and found mixed results with them in my area. Like I found good coverage for one area but nothing for the area right next to it.

So I guess the rule is pick out what gives you the best coverage in your area and use that.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

4Crawler said:


> Yes, I imagine they vary in quality by location. That is one reason I would like to load them into the PC mapping program to be able to see what sort of coverage they have in say an area I plan to visit. I tried some of the gpsfilesdepot maps and found mixed results with them in my area. Like I found good coverage for one area but nothing for the area right next to it.
> 
> So I guess the rule is pick out what gives you the best coverage in your area and use that.


if you want trail data, everything is spotty. I just don't count on any map having good trail data on it because trails change so easily and often.

What I want is reliability with respect to more permanent features like roads and terrain. Roads sometimes change, but rarely do they undergo MAJOR changes. I can get reliable trail data from other sources most of the time. Sometimes, reliable trail data just doesn't exist. So I use my GPS to create it.

The MyTrails database on gpsfiledepot is as good of a trails database as I've seen anywhere. But it does not have nationwide coverage.


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## 4Crawler (Oct 30, 2011)

I've loaded the MyTrails maps and those are the ones I found had good coverage in one area and right next door they had nothing. I guess over time, they'll improve and I have not loaded an update for those in over a year, so maybe they are better now. But there is no one perfect option, you have to find the best option for your area and then update it periodically. At least that is one advantage of these sorts of public maps as opposed to getting something from Garmin that only gets updated every year or two.


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## rensho (Mar 8, 2004)

Thx 4crawler for the pointer.

I like how these maps are so up to date. I have various older garmin maps, and newer unlocked maps, and it is a bother keeping straight which are which.


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## Kinsman330 (Sep 22, 2012)

I am considering a Garmin 800. There are some negative reviews around on bikeradar etc has anyone on here had any major problems with the unit or software?


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## 4Crawler (Oct 30, 2011)

When I first got mine, about a year and a half ago, I had some software related issues. I think they were all tied to a bug I found in the software related to using navigation to a coordinate entered from the screen. I was out geocaching on the bike and had forgot to download a GPS coordinate for the cache so hand entered it then tried to make a route to that coordinate. 

I contacted Garmin tech support a couple of times and had to do a couple of different resets to get the corrupted data (caused by the bug) cleared out of the system. Shortly after that, the bug was fixed in an update and since then have had no issues.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

Kinsman330 said:


> I am considering a Garmin 800. There are some negative reviews around on bikeradar etc has anyone on here had any major problems with the unit or software?


Shiggy has had some issues. They should be easy to find in here.


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