Tablet/Garmin question
 

Hi all ... first post here.
Can anyone help with a technical problem? My wife and I are about to do a 3 month tour of Germany and France. As a navigation aid to using regional Michelin maps we want to use our Garmin Edge 810. We want to take our Galaxy Tab S2 for general computing and entertainment (nice and light and compact). Presently I can produce GPX files on the Ride with GPS website and download them to the tablet. However I am unable to transfer the file from the tablet to the Garmin. I have a micro USB to USB (OTG) adaptor cable to connect the 2 devices and by all accounts the Tab S2 is OTG compatible. I've experimented with various Android apps but so far have had no luck ... any ideas?

If you are going to manually place the file on the 810, then you have to put it in the /garmin/newfiles folder. After restarting your 810, it should import the file. If it does not, then the file wasn't acceptable. Unfortunately your edge doesn't tell you what it didn't like about it. gpx files are not always a course that the 810 will import. Sometimes it's simple things in the header records of the file that it's not finding.

Are you certain the file is a .gpx track file? Try a .tcx course file instead.

If you can't browse the file structure of the 810 with your tablet, then likely you don't have the drivers and app to do so.

Thanks Iride01 ... prior to the latest trip I would have no trouble successfully transfering GPX files from my Windows laptop (as you say ... into the "new files" folder). The laptop just reads the Garmin as a mass storage device. Copy and paste or drag and drop is easily accomplished. This is not the case with the Tab 2 ... it does not recognise the Garmin. I understand that the Tab 2 can not act as a "host" which can read mass storage devices in it's standard configuration. My question relates to what modifications, and/or additional apps are required to make this happen.

Not seeing how you are going to get the Garmin to be read as a drive by the Galaxy.

An alternative is to not use RWGPS but instead use Garmin Connect. The maps are OpenStreetMaps OR Google, so essentially the same as RWGPS. I find building "courses" (Routes in RWGPS speak) to be as easy in Connect as RWGPS.

Then use the Connect app on the tablet or a smartphone to BT sync the Connect route to the 810.

You can use the "My Files" app that comes on a Tab S2 under "Apps" with a OTG cable to transfer files to a Garmin. When you plug a Garmin in is's slow to show up so you may need to wait for it to appear.

It can be done using a rooted Nexus 7 2013 with the "stickmount" app.

The 810 looks like a USB stick to the computer you attach it to. Maybe, look up how other people use USB sticks on your tablet.

If your tablet has a microSD card reader, you might be able to put the card from the 810 into the tablet and write the files to it that way.

It looks like it should work simply.

You have to copy the files from the tablet to the location (directory/folder) that the attached USB stick/Garmin shows up in the file system (it might not be obvious where that is).

This should do it!

Thanks people for all the suggestions ... I'm at work ATM so will experiment with some of this and respond ASAP.

Can you edit, e.g., cut out parts of routes with Garmin Connect? I find this a really beneficial feature with http:ridewithgps.com but you do have to pay for membership which provides this.

As far as I can tell, yes. It's possible to edit a saved course online by either moving control points, or using undo and drawing a new route for the segment changing.

I just tried this on some saved courses I created for a summer trip in the Adirondacks. I had not as yet sent to the device. I would assume that if it was on the device, you could create new online, save with a new name, dump the old off the device (or not) then add the new.

Can your Samsung tablet with the OTG cable read a simple USB flash drive? Samsung sometimes does funky stuff with the USB port so your issue might be the OTG just isn't compatible.
Does your garmin have a microSd slot? I set mine to log to the card then just pop it out and in my old dell tablet s I don't have to carry a cable.

Many thanks to everybody who responded on this forum and a couple of others for the ideas and suggestions ... the crisis has been averted. Turns out my USB OTG cable was the problem. Today I purchased a new one, plugged it in and bingo ... life is good.
I've also been able to win the battle with the somewhat clunky Bluetooth functionality of the Garmin 810. I'm now able to sync routes to the Garmin that I've created and downloaded from Garmin Connect. And, if for some reason both of those options are not viable, the micro SD card from the 810 can be transferred, and written directly to when inserted into the tablet's SD card drawer. That's an option that would quickly become tedious but its reassuring to know it's there in the worst-case scenario.

MicroSD was going to be my suggestion as well, but seems like you got it all sorted. Hope it's an enjoyable trip, sounds like a lot of fun.