What's new

Garmin GPS + Mac + Ascent

snoogly

Maximum Pace
Oct 14, 2007
695
48
Oh so cool! (not my stats ~ the software!). Clunking along on a heavy MTB, with a wheezy asthma attack.

The software is soooo easy to use. Just synch Ascent to your GPS, and Bob's yer uncle. Shame it can't output videos, but a screen capture application can do that for you.

I guess PC users are spoilt for choice, but on a Mac this is a dream ...

http://randomhawk.com/filebox/roads.mov

http://randomhawk.com/filebox/ride.mov

Ascent: http://www.montebellosoftware.com/

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TVU-0vZa_o0
 
GPS in my future?

what GPS unit are you using and anything you don't like about it? where did you get the maps from?
 
what GPS unit are you using and anything you don't like about it? where did you get the maps from?

Garmin 605.

My only problem is that my eyes are so bad it's hard to make out map details on the screen.
 
No - the Ascent software sucks them in from Microsoft TerraServer and VirtualEarth projects.
 
Looks cool!

That's great that some of the training/GPS software is making it to the Mac (finally!). I plan on getting a 705 when I get back to the States and this software looks like it will work great.

I was trying to test the software out and I saw that there was an example file in the extras folder, but the file was empty! How do you have it set up for activities, conditions, etc. I was just curious the best way to set it up. Is an activity considered 1 ride? Or are Road Biking, hiking, and mountain biking activities? That part was a little confusing.

-dave
 
A ride is an activity (I think!). I must admit mastering the final details of the software is confusing.

So far I have just imported all the ride histories from the 605 - either by synching, and importing them all, or by navigating to an individual history file on the 605 itself.

After you import you can label the ride (or activity ..!!??) in a number of ways: your bike, the weather, your condition, your weight, etc etc. The drop down menus for these factors can be edited by you - so the sky is the limit in how you want to label your rides.

It does some funky heart rate stuff too - but as this is only based on your height and weight it is probably not very accurate.

So far I haven't found a way to extract GPS co-ordinates from the rides, or even discover the exact co-ordinates of a certain point. It may well be impossible with this software, but that can easily be done by importing a ride into one of the Garmin applications.

For me, the joy of this software is that if I ride a very rambling route (in which I 'lost' most of the time), and then when I get home I can see my exact route animated on the computer screen in a matter of seconds.
 
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