garmin gps and google earth

How to get a Garmin GPS track into Google Earth James Head

This is a quick guide on how to get a GPS track log from a Garmin GPS unit into Google Earth. As a number of people have all asked me how I do this, and they have different types of units and want to do this for different purposes, this guide tries to cover all these.

GPS Units

Garmin “wrist worn” Forerunner units The Garmin Forerunner 201, 301, 205 and 305, are all wrist-worn units that come with a “true” USB connection, and a supplied software program called “Garmin Training Centre”. These units have a start/stop button to record the track log with current position against current time and date. They are all powered by internal Li-ion batteries with an 11 to 13 hour life on a full charge which can be restricting for some long-term events such as mountain marathons, long-distance walks etc.

The Forerunner 101 does not have either a USB or serial port so cannot connect to a computer at all, though it is powered by two AAA batteries.

Garmin “wrist worn” Foretrex units The Garmin Foretrex is similar to the Forerunner but shares the better navigational functions of handheld units. Only the Foretrex 201 has a PC link, and it’s a serial RS-232 one, not USB. The Foretrex hasn’t got a start/stop button so shares the same disadvantage as the handheld units next.

Garmin “hand held” eTrex and Geko units The handheld units have the best range navigational features. The older eTrex units and most of the Geko units have serial RS-232 ports to connect to a computer, whilst the newer eTrex units have USB. On the cheaper units the USB or RS-232 cable isn’t always supplied but can be obtained separately for around £30 for a Garmin cable, or £10 for another manufacturer.

The thing you need to know about the handheld units is that they store the current track log – called the “active log” with current position and current date and time but if you save the track log to a specific named track log in the internal memory of the handheld then it strips out the current date and time and resets this back to 1900. The active log remains okay though unless you choose to delete the active log when saving to a specific named track log. This is important to know as it makes some of the methods below unusable without going through an intermediate conversion step.

Here are some threads on this subject:

http://forums.motionbased.com/smf/index.php?topic=10.0



The handheld units are usually powered by two AA batteries which can be easily replaced in the field so are more appropriate for long distance walking.

GPS Software

Garmin Training Centre The Garmin Training Centre program is bundled with the Forerunner series of units and only works with proper USB enabled Garmin GPS units.

James Head, 14 April 2008 page 1 of 10




The original version of Garmin Training Centre didn’t have any support for Google Earth and scant UK mapping. The new version, (3.3.2) available to download from the Garmin website, still has scant UK mapping but does have an export to Google Earth function, however after you’ve used it once you might not want to do so again as the results look very messy on screen compared to other methods.

The latest version of Garmin Training Centre can be downloaded from this weblink:

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=835

I’m assuming that if you already have a Forerunner unit then you already know how to import your runs to the program. To export to Google Earth simply select the activity you want with the right mouse button and select “View in Google Earth” as shown below. Figure 1 Google Earth output in Training Centre

The result can be seen below – not pretty is it it? You can make it a little better by turning off the points leaving only the track visible but the other methods don’t have this hassle. Figure 2 Output from Training Centre viewed in Google Earth

You should use the menu item “File”, “Backup {user name}” to make a backup of your training history if you ever need to reinstall things from scratch ever.


http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=835

SportTracks SportTracks is a great little program given-away, or sold, as donation-ware, i.e. you can download and use it unrestricted and free of charge but if you find it really useful you are asked to make an optional donation of your choice. You can download it from:

http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTracks/

Sporttracks is very similar to the Garmin Training Centre but has many more features and can connected to a whole host of different GPS units, import data from the GPX standard file format for GPS information, and let you draw your own route in.

To use SportTracks you connect your GPS unit to the computer and click Import from under the “Other Tasks” menu on the left which will bring up the import window. The first time you see this it’ll be empty so press the + button in the top right corner which will then show all the possible types of units you can connect. When you select which one you’re using then next time you open the Import window this unit alone will be shown unless you press the + button again. My screen shot shows my Forerunner 301 and my eTrex both listed as I use these two with SportTracks a lot. Figure 3 SportTracks import dialogue

Pressing the cog-wheel button in the top right of the Import dialog will bring up the device settings which you might have to use if you have a serial RS-232 GPS unit and need to select between different COM ports. Figure 4 My Devices/All Devices/Device Settings/Close buttons


http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTracks/

SportTracks will then let you import the data which should be relatively straight forward so I wont cover it here. One thing to be aware of though is SportTracks only accepts data with the position and proper data and time so if you’re using an eTrex unit then it’ll only accept the “active log” and will reject any track logs saved internally in the GPS device as these have had the time/date stripped out and reset to 1900 (see my earlier comment on this). This can be annoying if you’ve had to keep saving different tracks for a big trip where you haven’t had access to a computer, or you’ve taken you unit home, switched it back on, and it’s immediately found itself, which results in a big jump from where your walk finished to your home – but there is an alternative method to use later for eTrex units.

Once you’ve loaded an activity in to SportTracks then to export it to Google Earth simply select the Export item below Daily Activity and then select Google Earth. Figure 5 SportTracks Activity View


Figure 6 SportTracks Export menu

The Export to Google Earth dialogue will appear which lets you set the line colour, width, and transparency for Google Earth, as will as letting you select what set of data you want to be “mapped” to height of the line. Figure 7 SportTracks Google Earth Dialogue

This lets you see the elevation, heart-rate or pace etc. as a line graph along the route in Google Earth, although you don’t have to use this if you don’t want to.


Figure 8 Sporttracks output to Google Earth using Elevation for height

Figure 9 Sporttracks output in Google Earth

As you can see, SportTracks gives a much tidier output than the Garmin Training Centre.


Sporttracks keeps its log file in a “Sporttracks” folder under you’re “My Documents” folder, with a number of back up files. You can change the settings for the log file and number of backup files by selecting “Settings” and “Data Files”.

GPS Utility GPS Utility is available from http://www.gpsu.co.uk/ and is a free limited shareware program for which you pay to get upgraded. The free version is able to import track log data from the GPS unit, or load in files from other programs, and export them into various formats including Google Earth. This program is good for getting active logs from an eTrex type of unit into Google Earth. To use it you probably need to set up COM ports first (menu: GPS then SETUP), then use GPS and DOWNLOAD ALL which will show a dialogue where you select whether to include waypoints, tracks, routes or current position and time. If you select Tracks it will download the Active log as well as all the saved logs. Press CTRL Y to select the Track Summery view (or press the button with the blue track and cyan Greek letter sigma ∑, shown depressed in the picture below) which shows saved tracks and active log in a better view. Figure 10 GPS Utility Track Summary View

Select the track you want to export and select “File” and “Save/Export Options”, then in the dialogue that opens select Google Earth next to Format and press “Export As”. This will then prompt for the location and filename for a .kmz format Google Earth file which you can open in Google Earth, or double-click, later.


http://www.gpsu.co.uk/

Figure 11 GPS Utility Save/Export Dialogue

MotionBased.com MotionBased com is the website that’s advertised on the postcard sized flyer included with the Forerunner series of GPS units. The address is here: http://www.motionbased.com/ and once you’ve created a free account you’re able to connect a USB enabled GPS unit and upload your activities to the site. If you download and install their software, found on their site, then you’re able to upload from a serial RS-232 enabled GPS unit such as the eTrex series as well, although again you can only upload the active log and not any saved logs. You’re able to upload any number of activities but until you start paying then you’ll only be able to view the last ten activities. I don’t think it’s worth paying for this site unless you’re a serious runner!

There’s a step-by-step wizard for uploading your GPS log that’s simple enough that I wont go into here. Once you’ve uploaded your activities and are viewing them in the screen shown below then you only need to press the link marked Google Earth that’s just below the map image.


http://www.motionbased.com/

Figure 12 MotionBased website activity view

This will download a Google Earth .kmz file to your computer which should open automatically in Google Earth.

Keeping the output in Google Earth All of the methods above will leave the activity in Google Earth in your “Temporary Places” folder, which is normally emptied when you exit Google Earth, although Google Earth will prompt you first to say you’ve still got items there. To keep them in Google Earth permanently simply select and drag them up to be under My Places instead.

Every so often you should right click My Places and select “Save As” or use menu items “File”, “Save”, “Save Places As” to save a backup copy to a file somewhere which you can use to load back into Google Earth if you ever have to reinstall from scratch.


Figure 13 Places menu in Google Earth

OziExplorer I’m only mentioning this program because I found it useful sometimes with my handheld eTrex, before I started using MemoryMap instead. This program is downloadable from http://www.oziexplorer.com/ and lets you scan in maps and reference (calibrate) them with waypoints and then trace routes and plot waypoints which can be uploaded to the GPS later, and also lets you download routes and waypoints from the GPS. I won’t go into this much, but I will say that you can use it to download saved tracks from an eTrex which you can then save in the OziExplorer .plt format, and which you can then load into GPS utility afterward to export to other formats including Google Earth.

That’s all folks for now, any questions, or things I’ve missed, please e-mail me.

James Head


http://www.oziexplorer.com/