hi everyone,

I know this has been posted heaps but i am having troubls getting the info from my Navi GT-11 to the computer. The card and that all cleared and was good. It read my max and average speeds and all that when i went for a quick run to give it a try. However when i got home 1. i couldnt find the data on the SD card, all that it has was a folder on it called GPS_DATA and 2. i also couldnt seem to connect my GPS directly to the computer through navi link to get the data.

Its on the gps with average speeds and max speeds and everything, but just cant seem to find it, or connect the GPS through navi link.

Have i dont something wrong.

Cheers
Bubs

edit: P.S: how do i clear all information of the GPS???

bubs said...

hi everyone,

I know this has been posted heaps but i am having troubls getting the info from my Navi GT-11 to the computer. The card and that all cleared and was good. It read my max and average speeds and all that when i went for a quick run to give it a try. However when i got home 1. i couldnt find the data on the SD card, all that it has was a folder on it called GPS_DATA and 2. i also couldnt seem to connect my GPS directly to the computer through navi link to get the data.

Its on the gps with average speeds and max speeds and everything, but just cant seem to find it, or connect the GPS through navi link.

Have i dont something wrong.

Cheers
Bubs

edit: P.S: how do i clear all information of the GPS???

Bubs, you have the settings incorrect if you cant read the card and no longer can download via NAVi-link.
Go to this site and follow steps in :1 for correct file to be loaded same way as you did for locos site when you loaded NAVi the first time.
http://mtbest.net/setting-up-navi-GT-11.htm
And then in step :C (manual set up) follow this exactly.
When you have finished, go for a walk, ride, drive around block, put card in card reader and you should have a legit file.
When you about to set off it will beep once to say its found the card then beep twice to say its writing a new file.
When it says "travel long' always say NO. (you will get this when you visit different places)
If you get stuck email me on the address I sent you.

Hi Bubs. My standard answer for these problems is to find a card reader and remove the card from the GPS to read directly into the computer. At least you have your data then and it really is the simplest way.

As to your problems with Navilink it could be so many things (many of them really simple) that it is difficult to know where to start. The best bet is to make sure you have the latest Firmware in the GPS and the latest version of Navilink (Navilink II). If that doesn't solve the issues, you are right, find someone who is familiar with it to give you a hands on tutorial.

Hey Bubs,

Check that:
Memory Card->Log Switch = ON
Memory Card->Min Speed = 2 kts (or 0 knots)
Memory Card->NMEA Items = SBN
Memory Card->File Size = Card Size

When you turn the unit on, does it say "Card Found" in a little box?

Also there should be a little square icon on the RHS of the screen, it should be flashing half and full once a second when it's recording to the card.

All good guys. Big thanks decrepit for giving me a hand. However still having trouble loading the tracks i now have onto real speed. Not massively important but ould like to work that out soon??? Any ideas?

Cheers
Bubs

decrepit i might need your hand again sorry? I'm getting the SBN files onto the computer. Then when i open them in real speed, nothing much comes up at all. So i might just need your hand again.

Cheers
Bubs

P.S: btw i went to the beach today for a sail to give it ago, and it would have been pushing barely 2-4 knots. So that was a bit of a dead loss lol.

um dont know what you mean sorry. If i right click on it and go to properties out of real speed, the size is 393kb. Don't know what you mean by the name having 0 in it though???

Cheers
Bubs

OK once again i went for a bike ride this time and recorded a file that was 205bytes in size. Collecting as much info as i can. Just need a bit of help using the real speed and loading it and what not.

Cheers really appriciate it
Bubs

Hi Bubs

I hope you dont mind me hijacking your thread but I thought I would ask my questions in here as well ;-)

Im just learning with my GT 11 but 205 bytes for the file seems very small. Are the Memory card NMEA items settings as per the mtbest web site ?

I'm just about to go and try my unit out, I have used it without a card but not since putting in a memory card.

With NAVILINK II i see menu items for User name, speed Genie, but when I try to read them I get an error message

Error 1 - ERROR_PORT

in the log windows (under the progress bar) I see

Navi GT11 found
NVL.EXE ......etc...
Operation failed

I had thought this was something to do with the old firmware and navilink II but now I wonder if I have something else wrong.

I can use the Navi Data tab and read the Tracks and Waypoint files so the communications "should" work.

Hi Again,

I thought I would let you know what happened with my GT11.

I followed the instructions at http://mtbest.net/setting-up-navi-GT-11.htm

ie: updated firmware to 1.62

Set Memory Card to Log on-fix,
Set NMEA items to SBN 1 sec
Min Speed set
Formatted the card just in case
Set file size to Card Size

Made sure all the settings were as specified - sounds like function=navigation is important

Set Data Logger to 1s, Data Item option I couldn't find !

This logs to the internal memory of the unit - not to the card.

Then I went for a walk, with the unit on.

When I put the card in my laptop I just go a crazy scrambled directory listing but then I tried another laptop and got a sensible listing with the folder GPS_DATA. So sounds like my laptops card reader is stuffed.

This folder contained two files

HARDPOLE_1003321_20080209_231333.SBN which was 7 KB
and
HARDPOLE_1003321_20080209_230548_DLG.SBP which was 1 KB

I copied these files to my computer - just in case.

(hardpole is the username I set, then the Serial Number of the unit, then date, then I dont know - perhaps a time related thing !)

Then I opened RealSpeed and selected FILE OPEN - and chose the larger of the two files (ending in SBN) and it seemed to read it in correctly. I got a plot of my walk around the park and the track points displayed on the right hand side.

BUT - as my card reader seems Dodgy I wondered about using NAVILINKII to read the logged data.

So I connected the unit to my laptop and set it to Navilink mode, opened Navilink and chose to Connect and then read the data under NAVI DATA tab. This worked and I got the data from the internal memory of the GT11 - I did this without the card in the GT11 so I could be sure I wasn't getting info from the card. Then I clicked on the DELETE button in NAVILINK which clears the internal memory. The same as the DATA LOGGER - CLEAR menu on the GT (this perhaps answers one of your questions in the original post, The SPEED item also has a menu item CLEAR available that I assume clears the averages etc...) The Navilink SPEED GENIE tab has a clear option but none of the Navilink items except Navi Data work for me.

This gave me four files

GPSTrip_N01003321_001.PLT 18 KB
GPSTrip_N01003321_001_PLT.gpx 28KB
GPSTrip_N01003321_001_PLT.kml 9 KB
GPSTrip_N01003321_001_PLT.NMEA 29KB

The KML file can be read by google earth and lays your track on the satellite images, nice for screen dumps.

Realspeed seems to be happy to read either of the GPX or NMEA files and the plot looks the same. BUT after reading those I need to use the EDIT - DELETE INVALID to remove some strange red lines (perhaps where it logged when there was no fix or something).

I then put the card back in the GT and used navilink Navi Data again but it got no data, I think showing that it will not read the card data, perhaps the Log Data tab would but again it wont work on my laptop / GT11 - not sure why.

So to summarise, the files you get on the card should be at least 7KB (I only walked for a few minutes - perhaps 203KB would be right for your bike ride).

I cant read the card data using navilink but instead must actually move the card, which would be fine if the card reader in my laptop worked ! Oh well maybe I will just continue to use the internal memory and forget about the card. The navilink ? internal memory does have the cool option of the Google Earth file.

Strangely I think the manual says the internal memory will log about 2 to 3 hours at 1 second but on Tom Chalcos mtbest web site he says 7 hours - which is plenty for me ! The only reason I bought a card was that hopefully sometime soon I will get to sail and it might be for more than 2 hours in one day.

If someone out there has navilink working I would love to know what I have done wrong (I think I will try it on the other laptop just in case, if that works I will let you know !)

And Bubs - dont feel bad - Im supposed to be a technical person and as you can see I'm struggling with this as well and if you hadn't asked the question I wouldn't have even found out about the mtbest.net web site.

hardpole said...

Hi Again,

I thought I would let you know what happened with my GT11.

I followed the instructions at http://mtbest.net/setting-up-navi-GT-11.htm

ie: updated firmware to 1.62

Set Memory Card to Log on-fix, Don't do this. Set it to 'ON' there have been reported problems with 'ON FIX' missing data points, The only down side to this is that you will get a slightly larger file but if you set a minimun logging speed to 2 knots it won't log while you are sitting around anyhow.

Set NMEA items to SBN 1 sec
Min Speed set
Formatted the card just in case
Set file size to Card Size

Made sure all the settings were as specified - sounds like function=navigation is important

IT IS!

Set Data Logger to 1s, Data Item option I couldn't find !

This is because that choice disappeared from the menu in later firmware revisions. Don't worry it is now .SBP by default. There used to be an option of .TRK which is not much use to us.

This logs to the internal memory of the unit - not to the card.

If set up according to the instructions it should log to both

Then I went for a walk, with the unit on.

When I put the card in my laptop I just go a crazy scrambled directory listing but then I tried another laptop and got a sensible listing with the folder GPS_DATA. So sounds like my laptops card reader is stuffed.

A good tip when viewing the GPS_DATA folder is to have 'view' set to 'details' so you can see the date each file was created. It makes it easier to find the day/
session you are looking for.

This folder contained two files

HARDPOLE_1003321_20080209_231333.SBN which was 7 KB
and
HARDPOLE_1003321_20080209_230548_DLG.SBP which was 1 KB

These 2 files contain the same data. You should be able to open either in the analysis program. SBN is the binary file automatically writen to the SD card and the SBP one is the data logger file that you have 'saved to card'

I copied these files to my computer - just in case.

(hardpole is the username I set, then the Serial Number of the unit, then date, then I dont know - perhaps a time related thing !)

Then I opened RealSpeed and selected FILE OPEN - and chose the larger of the two files (ending in SBN) and it seemed to read it in correctly. I got a plot of my walk around the park and the track points displayed on the right hand side.

You should have got the same plot from the other file as well. It is smaller because the format is more compact.

BUT - as my card reader seems Dodgy I wondered about using NAVILINKII to read the logged data.

So I connected the unit to my laptop and set it to Navilink mode, opened Navilink and chose to Connect and then read the data under NAVI DATA tab. This worked and I got the data from the internal memory of the GT11 - I did this without the card in the GT11 so I could be sure I wasn't getting info from the card. Then I clicked on the DELETE button in NAVILINK which clears the internal memory. The same as the DATA LOGGER - CLEAR menu on the GT (this perhaps answers one of your questions in the original post, The SPEED item also has a menu item CLEAR available that I assume clears the averages etc...) The Navilink SPEED GENIE tab has a clear option but none of the Navilink items except Navi Data work for me.

Perhaps this is because you have not had the genie turned on or have cleared the genie data?

This gave me four files

GPSTrip_N01003321_001.PLT 18 KB
GPSTrip_N01003321_001_PLT.gpx 28KB
GPSTrip_N01003321_001_PLT.kml 9 KB
GPSTrip_N01003321_001_PLT.NMEA 29KB

This is just the data logger data converted to the other formats. You are better off with the 'log data' sbp file unless you specifically want the data in the .gpx or .kml format. Both tads give you the same data in a different form. It seems you are correct that you can't get the .sbn file from the card with Navilink.

The KML file can be read by google earth and lays your track on the satellite images, nice for screen dumps.

Realspeed seems to be happy to read either of the GPX or NMEA files and the plot looks the same. BUT after reading those I need to use the EDIT - DELETE INVALID to remove some strange red lines (perhaps where it logged when there was no fix or something).

I then put the card back in the GT and used navilink Navi Data again but it got no data, I think showing that it will not read the card data, perhaps the Log Data tab would but again it wont work on my laptop / GT11 - not sure why.

So to summarise, the files you get on the card should be at least 7KB (I only walked for a few minutes - perhaps 203KB would be right for your bike ride).

I cant read the card data using navilink but instead must actually move the card, which would be fine if the card reader in my laptop worked ! Oh well maybe I will just continue to use the internal memory and forget about the card. The navilink ? internal memory does have the cool option of the Google Earth file.

Strangely I think the manual says the internal memory will log about 2 to 3 hours at 1 second but on Tom Chalcos mtbest web site he says 7 hours - which is plenty for me ! The only reason I bought a card was that hopefully sometime soon I will get to sail and it might be for more than 2 hours in one day.

I think the extra time came about because the format was changed to .sbp only and this is a much more compact file. If you have logging to card turned on and you save the data logger files to the card each day you will have a backup of the session. It will take months or years to fill the card up and when you remove it you will have a record of all your sessions.

If someone out there has navilink working I would love to know what I have done wrong (I think I will try it on the other laptop just in case, if that works I will let you know !)

And Bubs - dont feel bad - Im supposed to be a technical person and as you can see I'm struggling with this as well and if you hadn't asked the question I wouldn't have even found out about the mtbest.net web site.

Hope this helps.

mineral1 said...


Hardpole and bubs, when you have set you GT-11 up as per Mt Best site instructions, the NAVi-link function isn't active and you use card files only. The NAVi-link part is no longer used.

>>>>>>>>

Mineral, this has changed, there's a new version of navilink out now, called navilink2, this will read the .sbn and .sbp files from the GT11, also reads the speed genie data. Well worth downloading and updating. Think I'll start a new thread and say so.

why do we need navilink??? sounds to complcated i use the sandisk usb card....
pull it out of the navi fold it in half and stick in the usb port....job done. card readers you can buy for under $10 and just as easy.
p.s i have genie but never use it...it never gives me what i wish for any way

Guess I missed one of the navilink2 features that appeals to me, it can convert .sbn and .sbp files into the other formats, including .kml that goes straight into google earth. Yes I know google also loads .gpx files if you have the windows version, but for some reason the linux version of google earth doesn't handle .gpx files.

decrepit said...


Mineral, this has changed, there's a new version of navilink out now, called navilink2, this will read the .sbn and .sbp files from the GT11, also reads the speed genie data. Well worth downloading and updating. Think I'll start a new thread and say so.

Are you sure about this Decrepit? I havn't found a way of reading the SBN file from the card with Navilink II yet. I can only get the logger file (in two ways). Am I missing something?

Not that it matters to me anyhow.... I use the card reader method.

One advantage of Navilink II is that it allows cloning and uploading of settings. This was previously only available with the command line version (beyond me I'm afraid ). This could be a good way to solve all these setup issues like what Bubs had. Just publish the settings file and have people upload it or do it for them at point of purchase. Lots of issues solved!

Hardpole. The merged single SBP file is why I use the card and the logger. I clear the logger before each session so I only get an SBP file with the single session. But I know my other sessions will be saved on the SD card as SBN files if I can't download them immediately or between sessions.

Of course, if you don't do that and have a number of sessions in an SBP file, RealSpeed will separate them by date anyhow and allow you to choose which ones you want to analyse and then allow you to save them as separate files.

I may be wrong, but I think you'll find that the navilink II has two ways of reading, depending on the tab at the top.

Logger data - confusingly is the Card Data - BUT it merges all the sessions on the card.

Navi data is the Log (internal memory) so just since the last clear. You can clear this from the NaviLink screen.

It also reads speed genie - but I dont know what format that is in. And you can clear that.

I think they sort of got the names backwards !

But if Im wrong it wouldnt be the first time.