Optimizing Routes for TT Rider 5

[Koen]

As the only person in a motorcycle club I own a TomTom rider 5 (and a 3)
Most of the club members own Garmin devices. You'll understand later why.

All routes are created in .gdb format containing all routes for a trip, (4 per day). The trip organizers put a lot of work in the routes, riding them, editing and checking them. As Garmin does not seem to limit the number of waypoints I receive for a day trip a .gdb file with 4 routes of ca 400-600 waypoints each.

Issues I have are :
1. The free version of Tyre does not seem to be able to handle .gdb files So I need to use ITN converter. Does the paying version of Tyre allow to handle .gdb ?
2. The number of waypoints can not be handled by the TT Rider, but splitting the routes is not a workable solution. So I spend in average as much time to reduce the route to an (for TT) acceptable number of waypoints as to ride it.
3. Due to map differences the route makes loops as waypoints are some time off route.

Some of the people not yet using a GPS device are charmed by the design and basic functionalities of the TT Rider but not charmed at all due to the issue with the exchangebility of routes.

Question 1: Who is the wizzard who can help me continue to enjoy my TT rider, without having to spend entire evenings editing perfect routes to reduce the number of waypoints from far too much but workable on a Garmin, to an TomTom rider acceptable level ?

Question 2: We're planning a 4 day trip ... I'm not planning to bring my PC, and I'm afraid the Rider's memory is too small or that I need to reset it due to a technical issue. So how can I take more then the devices memory in routes ? I can't find the possibility to use it with a Memory card.

Thanks,

Koen

 

[Arno]

Put this into Google

convert .gdb to .itn

Ignore first return as it will tell you to check with Google.

Don't have a Garmin but the 2nd one may be what you need.

 

[canderson]

@Koen
For this and many other purposes, I use a tool called GSAK. It's WAY more than you really need, however. The underlying conversion engine for it can be used in stand-alone mode, and is called GPSBabel. You can get it here: http://www.gpsbabel.org/

This really amazing little piece of software will convert pretty much anything to anything when it comes to GPS file formats, and will easily pick the waypoints out of a gdb file and convert to a TomTom itn or ov2 file for your Rider units.

 

[Koen]

thanks Arno and Canderson, I know what to do in the coming days.

feedback will come after trying the applications.

Koen

 

[canderson]

Just a warning ... if there are too many waypoints in the *.gdb, you may need to take a really vanilla text editor like Notepad and break the itinerary up into blocks of 48 points each. An *.itn file can't use more than 48. *.itn files are human readable, so if you're careful about where you cut, you should have no trouble.

 

[Koen]

Thanks Canderson .. the limit of 48 has been incresed to an astonishing 100 in the Rider 5... ;-)

 

[canderson]

Excellent! Didn't know that. Will file that away in the memory banks for the future.