My second seminar for Docwong.com
On Thursday, December 4th, in cooperation with Doc Wong, and the clinics that he puts on at his office in Belmont, I lead a session about how to make the best use of your GPS by exploiting the hidden features of BaseCamp.
Why?
The reason that I put on this seminar is that, after we completed the last seminar, there was a good amount of demand for another session, where we might cover some more advanced topics. I wanted to give back to Doc, and to the group of riders that supports his clinics, so I decided to put on Pt II.
Thanks to everyone that attended
I was very pleased with the number of attendees, and by my estimate, there was about 18 or so folks in attendance. The group was mixed, in that some of them had attended Pt I, while most did not. So, I decided to put on a seminar that was advanced, and covered advanced topics, while still being something that everyone could get a lot out of.
A little bit about BaseCamp
It really should be said that BaseCamp can produce some extraordinary results, and it “WILL HELP YOU” manage all of your travel plans, when combined with the GPS and a laptop. My opinion is that there are really two barriers that prevent a wider adoption of BaseCamp, to a larger community. Those problems are
- BaseCamp relies on terminology that can be confusing, and is not really well defined within BaseCamp , or on the Garmin Website
- BaseCamp can be damn confusing and hard to use
- BaseCamp’s user interface does not follow all of the “normal” and conventional ways that we have come to know, when we interact with s/w, in this modern age.
So, for these reasons, adoption among people that know about BaseCamp is smaller than it should be, and adoption by others is impeded by these “barriers to entry”.
About the presentation session on Dec 4th
During the session, I alternated between showing a PPT presentation, using BaseCamp to demonstrate how to perform all of these actions, and giving more demonstrations of Garmin Express. We talked for over two hours, and the group was very engaged. Some audience members took notes, and some did not. So, at the beginning of the meeting, I made a commitment to publish the slides / PPT, so that those people that did not take notes, can still benefit from all of the examples that I’ve produced.
With that said, click here to open a webpage containing the PDF version of the PowerPoint file.
What level was this session taught at?
When I worked with Doc to put this session together, I wanted to be sure that it was more advanced than the previous session. So, I covered topics that I considered to be more advanced. See the list below to see if you agee.
Basecamp Pt 1
- Understanding what BaseCamp is
- Connecting your GPS
- The difference between BaseCamp and GarminExpress
- Important distinctions (Way Points, Routes, BreadCrumbs, Tracks)
- Creating a Waypoint
- Creating a route
- Organizing your data (Collections, Devices, Folders, & Lists)
- Keeping your GPS clean
- Downloading info into GPS
- Capturing your Trip Logs
- Understanding “Your GPS is going to recalculate the route“
- Using Google Earth, Google Maps with your GPS
Basecamp Pt 2
- Understanding BaseCamp is
- Organizing your data into folders, lists, categories
- Understanding routing
- Understanding Riding Profiles
- Custom waypoints and POIs
- Custom Menu – Power on & finger over signal strength
- Sharing Data with others
- Backup and Restore of Basecamp
- Keeping your GPS clean
- Capturing and using your trip logs
- Understanding the file structure of your Zumo 660
Will there be more sessions?
Well, we’ll just have to wait and see whether there is interest, or not.
