GPSrChive Discussion Forum

Hello All,

I noticed that since new the Montana 700 was very slow to start up to a usable state after putting a new waypoint file on it.
Just updated my personal waypoint file with a few new ones and pasted it to the 700, deleting the old file first as I always do with my Garmin devices.

It's a .gpx file containing 791 waypoints.
Included the xml header etc. and all the waypoints have the same format as between the <wpt </wpt> tags.

GPX Code

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<gpx version="1.0" creator="GPSBabel - https://www.gpsbabel.org" xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0">
  <time>2023-04-14T11:40:24.607Z</time>
  <bounds minlat="-25.289173000" minlon="0.000000000" maxlat="0.000000000" maxlon="152.287072000"/>
  <wpt lat="0.000000000" lon="0.000000000">
    <name>WPT791</name>
    <cmt>WPT791</cmt>
    <desc>WPT791</desc>
    <sym>City (Small)</sym>
  </wpt>
</gpx>

The file is created with GPSBabel which does not add the symbols, the <sym>City (Small)</sym> line, I do that myself by using the text editor Geany's 'Replace' function.
I never have any issues with this waypoint file, except the 700's slow first startup when a new file is added to the device, and the old file is always deleted first.

I remembered to time it tonight after adding the updated .gpx file.
On first startup after adding the file the 700 takes 4 minutes 20 seconds from pressing the power button until it can be used.
After the first startup it then starts much faster, as expected.
For comparison, a 276CX with the exact same file added takes 34 seconds at first startup from pressing the power button until it's usable.
And a Montana 610 takes 44 seconds at first startup from pressing the power button until it's usable.

Any ideas why the poor startup time on the 700?
Is it indexing the entire .gpx file before starting up to a usable state where the 276CX & 610 do not?
If it was a file with near the 10,000 waypoint limit it would probably take a week before it's usable

I suggest that you load the obtained file from the GPSBabel program into the program dedicated to Garmin devices (MapSource, Base Camp) and save it to a file.

File obtained from MapSource.

MapSource.png

I ran the file through DNRGPS (works on Linux), saved it as waypoints.
DNRGPS takes the filesize of the waypoint's .gpx file from 135.9 kb to 316.6 kb.
It took 4 minutes 29 seconds for the 700 to get to a useable state from the press of the power button at first start up.
And it messed all the icons up, blue flags instead of the City (Small) as I desire.
I put the same file on my 276CX, power button push for first start to usable time is once again 34 seconds, icons now blue flags also.

Formatting now looks like this:

Spoiler

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<gpx version="1.1" creator="GDAL 1.10.1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:gpxx="http://www.garmin.com/xmlschemas/GpxExtensions/v3" xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1 http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/gpx.xsd">
  <metadata>
    <bounds minlat="-25.289173000000002" minlon="0.000000000000000" maxlat="0.000000000000000" maxlon="152.287071999999995" />
  </metadata>
  <wpt lat="0.0" lon="0.0">
    <name>WPT791</name>
    <cmt>WPT791</cmt>
    <desc>WPT791</desc>
    <sym>City (Sma</sym>
    <type>WAYPOINT</type>
    <extensions>
      <gpxx:lat>0.0</gpxx:lat>
      <gpxx:lon>0.0</gpxx:lon>
      <gpxx:y_proj>0.0</gpxx:y_proj>
      <gpxx:x_proj>0.0</gpxx:x_proj>
    </extensions>
  </wpt>
</gpx>

Which breaks the icons because for some reason it cuts <sym>City (small)</sym> down to <sym>City (sma</sym>.

I do not believe the formatting of the .gpx file is the issue here, it is the poor startup time of the Montana 700 after a new .gpx file has been added.
Other Garmin devices do not take several minutes to start up when a new .gpx is added.


@GPSrChive is anything we put in posts except our own typed text now required to have spoiler tags?

LostAgain wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2023 7:01 pm I ran the file through DNRGPS (works on Linux), saved it as waypoints.
DNRGPS takes the filesize of the waypoint's .gpx file from 135.9 kb to 316.6 kb.
It took 4 minutes 29 seconds for the 700 to get to a useable state from the press of the power button at first start up.
And it messed all the icons up, blue flags instead of the City (Small) as I desire.

<sym>City (Sma</sym> is incomprehensible to Garmi devices, the software has applied blue flags by default.
Apparently Montana takes this time to load 791 waipoits.

LostAgain, are you using the exact same file name each time? Try renaming it each time you update it and see if the load time improves.

Yes for some reason DNRGPS breaks the <sym> line during the conversion.
And yes, it appears the Montana 700 takes that long to load that number of waypoints.
Once it's loaded them the first time it's good, startup is fast from then on.
Next time I have new waypoints to add I might try editing the .gpx waypoint file on the device and adding the new waypoints to it, instead of deleting and replacing the entire .gpx waypoint file.

@GPSrChive, yes, it is renamed each time, I use upoi then the date .gpx.
So for this latest one it's upoi-14-04-23.gpx
And it makes no difference, the initial startup after adding the new .gpx is still slow.
EDIT: I just emailed it to you so you can try it on your 7XX device.

Oh, I always thought, that this type of slow is normal. My initial Import of about ~ 280 waypoints takes also about 2 minutes.

LostAgain wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2023 7:43 pm @GPSrChive, yes, it is renamed each time, I use upoi then the date .gpx.
So for this latest one it's upoi-14-04-23.gpx
And it makes no difference, the initial startup after adding the new .gpx is still slow.
EDIT: I just emailed it to you so you can try it on your 7XX device.

I wonder what else is going on with your Montana 7x0, what other files you have loaded that may make this task take longer than it should.

I copied the GPX file you provided to my [microSD]\Garmin\Test\ directory, started the stopwatch on my phone, and squeezed the power button on my Montana 700 v16.50. 36.18 seconds later, the boot sequence was complete and I was looking at the Map page.

All my .gpx files go in the \Garmin\GPX folder on my devices, exact same files on the 700, 610 and 276CX.
I have this 1 waypoint file and 15 track files, 9 of which are shown on map.
I have a MicroSD card in, with a purchased from Garmin, Australian topo map on it in the 700.

I just cleared everything from the GPX folder, cleared the current activity and archive folder's contents and removed the MicroSD card, started up, then shut down.
Then I pasted only the waypoint gpx file back into the GPX folder, 1st startup time after adding the waypoint file = 4 minutes 13 seconds.
Changed nothing, shut down, started up again, startup time = 14.21 seconds

It is only my Montana 700 that does this, my Montana 610 and GPSMAP276CX do not show this same behaviour, their startup times do not change, or if they do it's so small it's not noticeable.

I just pasted all the tracks back onto the 700, plus the contents of the archive folder, and reinserted the MicroSD card, startup time = 14.92 seconds.