Track Point Count

[Rob24189]

I'm looking at two different tracks of a similar Hike route (same trails) on wikiloc.com. One is mine and the other by a different member. They both cover approximately 10.5 miles. Mine has 170 track points and the other has 2,282. Not even close.

Questions:
Is the a setting on the GPS that sets the number of collected points?

Is there a benefit to the greater number of points?

[maps4gps]

 Yes         Yes and No.

Depends on GPSr make and model - try setup\tracks\record method - on my OR300 the options are: by distance, or by time, or auto(maticly) determined by software in GPSr.  There is also setup\tracks\interval with the options depending on the record method. 
On my 76csx its mainmenu\tracks\setup\record method with distance, time, and auto options and an interval 'box' with options depending on the record method.

How many points to record depends on your personal preferences and the trail geometry.  I would expect that your 170 points, or an average of 332 feet between points is too wide.  Whereas, 2282 points, or an average of 25 feet between points may be optimal for that trail.  A trail with switchbacks every 200 or 300 feet would not be shown too well with points 330 feet apart.  However, remember that ever reading has some amount of error; think of one component back and forth along the trail, another from side to side, and a third up and down.  With lots of points, each with some error, a track with very closely spaced points could show a total trail distance much greater than the actual trail distance, perhaps even twice as long.  There is no one optimal setting  which would be best for all conditions.  Most track logs can be improved with some planning and post hike editing.

Which track looks better to you 170 points or 2282 points? 

[Rob24189]

maps4gps,
Thanks for the reply. I have started to look at and experiment with the settings on my 60CSx. Yesterday I tried two different settings on a 75 mile car ride I needed to take. On the way out I set the options at "Record Method = Auto / Interval = Most Often" and on the way home I used "Record Method = Auto / Interval = Normal". On both settings the the Points collected was 500.

Could this "500" number the max the unit will collect because of where the data was saved, the internal memory? If I had set the option to save the track to the data card would it have saved a higher number of points?

Thanks for your help,
Rob

PS I'm headed off to test a track using the "save track to data card option".

[maps4gps]

Yes there is a limit to the number of points saved on the GPSr; and 500 may be it. 
Yes more points will be saved to the data card along with some additional information which is not save to the GPSr's internal memory track log.
Did you look at the tracks saved?  If I remember correctly you can set the internal track log to stop recording when it is full, or to continue saving by replacing the existing points as needed.

[Boyd]

The tracklog limit is 10,000 points. You can see this if you set the gps to record one point per second. You will see it rollover after 10,000 seconds (~2 hrs 46 min).

[eaparks]

Could this "500" number the max the unit will collect because of where the data was saved, the internal memory?

Check the setting:  Main Menu > Setup > Map > scroll across top to "Map Setup - Tracks" and see what number your "Track Points" is set on.

If I had set the option to save the track to the data card would it have saved a higher number of points?

Yes - to the track on the data card.  No - to the track stored to the gps's memory.