Dakota Track Recording Options - What Do They Mean?

[BobM]

In the Setup menu of my Garmin Dakota 20 I can customise how Tracks are recorded:

1. Under "Record Method" the default is "Auto" (the other options are "Time" or "Distance"). These are fairly explanatory - except for "Auto". Presumably the Dakota software makes a choice if "Auto" is selected, but I can't find a quantative explanation of how often it does that as a track is being recorded. The User Manual is not much help with the detail.

2. Under "Record Interval" the default is "Normal" (the options are "Most Often","More Often","Normal", "Less Often", "Least Often"). These descriptions are pretty unhelpful. Eg is "Most Often" ten, a hundred or some other multiple of "Normal"? It would be a big help if someone could comment - or point me to a website for help.

I did a short walk with the Dakota Tracks recording options set to the defaults "Auto" and "Normal". After geotagging some pics I took on the walk, the geotagging app was able to find track times within 5 sec of the pic time stamp.

That's accurate enough for pics to illustrate a walk. Five sec is about +/- 10m accuracy at normal walking speed, about the same as the accuracy of the GPS device itself.

I don't want to record Tracks with more accuracy than is needed to geotag photos later - unless file sizes are small. On my VF walk I will be recording about 35 daily tracks, but no opportunity to copy them to a computer.

Rgds

Bob M

 

[newfydog]

Auto seems to work well for daily activities. It is a combination of time and distance so you don't get too rough a record when going fast, or extra points when you stop for a snack.

In the past the units did not have enough memory and would fill up. You should be able to record 35 daily tracks and store them to archives at the end of each day no problem

My Garmin Dakota 20 currently has 57 tracks, several different maps, and 70% of the memory is still empty.

 

[BobM]

Auto seems to work well for daily activities. It is a combination of time and distance so you don't get too rough a record when going fast, or extra points when you stop for a snack.......My Garmin Dakota 20 currently has 57 tracks, several different maps, and 70% of the memory is still empty.

Thx. That's a big help. For the Interval option, do you use "Normal" or "Most Often"? If memory is not a problem if Tracks are archived, one might as well go for "Most Often."

The Tracks are buried away in GPX files, so I can't experiment with different settings see exactly how much memory they use up by .

I still get nowhere near the 20hrs battery life Garmin claims, even after several charging cycles. I use Duracell rechargeable AA cells rated for 2450 mAh. About 12 hrs is about max for me with the display powersave set to 15 sec. That's even with the unit just left alone recording a track with very minimal use of the display. It seems odd.

Bob M

 

[newfydog]

I have always used "most often"

Two battery savers:

1- setup--display--battery saver--on

This blanks it out after 15 seconds, and the screen comes back when touched

2- setup--heading--compass--off

We have a Dakota 10 with no compass which gets much better battery life, 20 hours no problem. I have not tried this because I just found it, but it might be the difference.

ps try eneloop rechargable batteries--really nice!

 

[newfydog]

The Tracks are buried away in GPX files, so I can't experiment with different settings see exactly how much memory they use up by .
Bob M

Plug the unit in with the USB cable.
The computer with show Garmin Dakota as a memory drive
Click on the Garmin file
Click on the GPX file--it will list the files
Right click on a file and click "properties" to see the size

Most of my daily files are in the 500 kb range. The entire GPX folder (74 files) is 18 MB, out of the 900 MB capacity of the unit.

 

[BobM]

I found a good review of the Dakota 20 at: http://www.gpsinformation.org/penrod/dakota/dakota.html with links to other useful Garmin sites.

newfydog has answered most of my questions, but the site also has useful info on Tracks & has a brief comment on battery life (18+hrs). Maybe it is the compass that is eating up my batteries, so I will try turning off & see what happens. Anyway, 12 hrs still gives a day's active use & recharging can be done overnight - it takes 6 hrs.

There are lots of screen shots showing pretty much all the Setup options as well as the Dakota 20 in use.

The site might be useful for others like me who are just getting to grips with GPS navigation tools.

Rgds

Bob M