GPX/TCX conversion to Garmin FIT

[Mick F]

I've found an interesting anomaly.

I have a Garmin Edge 20. Small device, and I use it for tracking my rides and very occasionally for following a course.
For following a course created on a mapping website, it needs to be converted to FIT format and placed in the New Files folder.

So far so good ..............

Usually, I use an app on my Mac called "JaVaWa RTWtool" that works excellently, but after an update, it works differently a bit. Not knowing any better, I Googled "convert gpx to fit" and found this site.
https://www.gpsies.com/convert.do?language=en
Seems fine eh?
Just upload any format, and download it in any format. The one I chose was Garmin FIT + ANT.
Hey ho, that sounded fine, so I did it.

This was Tuesday 27th August, and off I went for the ride. One of the functions on the Edge 20 is to show you how far you have to go yet, and how far behind (or in front) you are from your Virtual Partner.

I've recreated the issue I found using the website just now in the comfort of my armchair quaffing a glass of beer and at the same time sorted out my JaVaWa RTWtool app for next time and it works properly.

The distance I had to do was actually 37miles or so,
The gpsies website output into my Edge 20 showed this:

Note it says 2668miles

After nearly ten miles, it showed 2667miles, meaning that the poor Edge 20 couldn't cope with the "real" distance of 26,680miles!

At the end of my ride, the Edge should play a little congratulatory tune, but it didn't. I never investigated further that day, and just saved what I'd done and deleted the uploaded course.

Another experiment is on the cards for next week methinks.

[amediasatex]

Are you sure you have to upload as FIT? Both my Garmins (an old edge 200 and a newer edge touring) both accept GPX and TCX into the new files folder and then auto-convert and import them to FIT into the courses folder when you turn them on.

[Mick F]

Yes.
It must be a FIT file.
Nothing else is recognised.

My Garmin Edge 305 and 705 wanted GPX or TCX
My Garmin Montana will accept GPX and TCX both track and route ............. but an Edge 20 demands FIT.
Rides are saved as FIT also. No choice.

[amediasatex]

Well that’s an annoying step backwards in usability then...

[Psamathe]

Have you tried https://www.gpsbabel.org/.

Available for macOS. I've used it for other conversions but I've never had need of a Garmin .fit file.

It's free and pretty straight forward to use (and to uninstall if it isn't what you want).

Ian

[NickJP]

If you create courses on RideWithGPS they can be exported from there as FIT format files.

[Mick F]

No issues getting a FIT file. Many ways of doing a conversion or even downloading a FIT route and course.

My point is that the gpsies.com website gives an amusing result.
Tried another route and conversion yesterday of only a mile, but the conversion STILL gave a 26,000mile result.

[st599_uk]

Can you open it with a text editor, like notepad?

May be human readable.

[Mick F]

Can you open it with a text editor, like notepad?

May be human readable.

A random route created as a TCX on BikeHike and then converted by gpsies.com

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[theriddler]

Can you try recalculating the distance on the source file?

http://tcxtools.com/tcx/distance/
https://gotoes.org/strava/Combine_GPX_TCX_FIT_Files.php I used this a lot to combine several FIT files but it only outputs GPX/TCX. You can upload a single GPX and use it to recalculate distances

Try GPX Babel on the command line. https://www.gpsbabel.org/index.html

Code: Select all

gpsbabel -i gpx -F input.gpx -o garmin_fit -f output.fit

[tim-b]

Hi
FIT files use the following:
data,0,position_lat(semicircles),position_long(semicircles),altitude(m),timestamp(s),speed(m/s),distance(m)

If you put a speed into bikehike (default is 15mph) or use an existing track that you have cycled then the speed gets included in the output to corrupt total distance. Try a bikehike file set to 0mph and the gpsies conversion gives an accurate distance

Regards
tim-b

[Mick F]

Thanks Tim.
Interesting.

Just put the same random route into BikeHike and saved it at zero speed.
Now transferred it into the Edge 20 and waiting for the unit to find GPS .......................... sometimes it's almost immediate, and sometimes it takes and age ................................. like now.






Done it at last.
Random route still shows at 26,000miles.
Looking at it on Ascent, it still shows 15mph even though I saved it with a new name and zero speed.

I'll try a new BikeHike route and save it with a new name and zero speed. Put it into Ascent, and it shows 15mph.
On the Edge 20, it still shows at 26,000miles.

[tim-b]

Hi
Ah, ok, something, somewhere, has changed, I've just run a new test file and I can't repeat the earlier error. GPSies is now giving an accurate conversion of distance.
It was originally giving me 20,000-odd metres for a 3.14 mile route saved at 15mph, but was accurate at 0mph, and I didn't keep those test files.

I put the new GPSies converted test file into another online converter and the fit to csv conversion gave me this:Error at file offset 54, last valid timestamp was (0) : 19012_Bodmin15.fit: 0: local message type 0 (file_id) not expected mid file. Possible corruption.

Something is or has been "off", but I can't repeat it now

Regards
tim-b

[Mick F]

Thanks again.

I've found out, that creating a route on BikeHike at zero speed always comes out as the default 15mph.
Save it as 1mph, and it's correct, therefore it needs a positive speed not a zero.