Bushnell Backtrack D-Tour

[Lorry]

Hi.

This has been driving me mildly insane for a while now - I have a Bushnell Backtrack D-Tour which is quite a nice little tracker, and it has the option to connect to their software and export a map... The problem is, their idea of exporting a map, is to export to either a JPG image, or to an embedded Google Map. Here's an example.

http://backtrackdtour.com/share/map.html...s=standard

The files stored on the device aren't recognised as anything by Routeconverter (they are called "Upload files.btk" and binary) and once they are imported into the Backtrack software (which oddly is written in Adobe Air) they are shuffled off to a server and never seen again.

Net searches find very little, which seems odd because these are quite popular devices and I can't for the life of me work out how to un-embed that Google Map, and if I could, I am not sure I could get the tracks from it anyway.

Any ideas? I can't actually believe that Bushnell were quite so insane as to not have a way of exporting the route anyway, that seems to make the device crippled to hell.

This is some of the data, there is probably some sense to be made of it, if I understood more what data was usually recorded in such things - Here's the top and bottom:

0000-0010: 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00-e1 7a 84 40-66 86 57 44 ........ .z.@f.WD
0000-0020: 66 66 a6 3f-01 00 05 00-03 fd dc 07-0a 0c 12 13 ff.?.... ........
0000-0030: 2d 00 00 00-00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 -....... ........
0000-0040: 02 f7 00 00-ba 00 00 00-00 00 00 a0-94 82 46 40 ........ ......F@
0000-0050: 00 00 00 20-4b 36 50 c0-02 f7 01 00-bb 00 00 00 ....K6P. ........
0000-0060: 00 00 00 c0-94 82 46 40-00 00 00 20-4b 36 50 c0 ......F@ ....K6P.
0000-0070: 02 f7 02 00-bc 00 00 00-00 00 00 c0-94 82 46 40 ........ ......F@
0000-0080: 00 00 00 20-4b 36 50 c0-02 f7 03 00-bc 00 00 00 ....K6P. ........
0000-0090: 00 00 00 c0-94 82 46 40-00 00 00 20-4b 36 50 c0 ......F@ ....K6P.
0000-00a0: 02 f7 04 00-bc 00 00 00-00 00 00 c0-94 82 46 40 ........ ......F@
0000-00b0: 00 00 00 20-4b 36 50 c0-02 f7 05 00-bb 00 00 00 ....K6P. ........
0000-00c0: 00 00 00 a0-94 82 46 40-00 00 00 00-4b 36 50 c0 ......F@ ....K6P.

...

0005-c440: 02 f9 4e 0d-91 00 00 00-00 00 00 40-da a0 46 40 ..N..... ...@..F@
0005-c450: 00 00 00 a0-7b 16 50 c0-02 f9 4f 0d-91 00 00 00 ....{.P. ..O.....
0005-c460: 00 00 00 40-da a0 46 40-00 00 00 a0-7b 16 50 c0 ...@..F@ ....{.P.
0005-c470: 02 f9 50 0d-91 00 00 00-00 00 00 40-da a0 46 40 ..P..... ...@..F@
0005-c480: 00 00 00 a0-7b 16 50 c0-02 f9 51 0d-91 00 00 00 ....{.P. ..Q.....
0005-c490: 00 00 00 40-da a0 46 40-00 00 00 a0-7b 16 50 c0 ...@..F@ ....{.P.
0005-c4a0: 04 f9 52 0d-91 00 00 00-00 00 00 40-da a0 46 40 ..R..... ...@..F@
0005-c4a8: 00 00 00 a0-7b 16 50 c0 ....{.P.

Sensibly the data seems to look like:

02 f7 00 00 ba 00 00 00-00 00 00 a0 94 82 46 40 00 00 00 20 4b 36 50 c0
02 f7 01 00 bb 00 00 00 00 00 00 c0 94 82 46 40 00 00 00 20 4b 36 50 c0
02 f7 02 00 bc 00 00 00 00 00 00 c0 94 82 46 40 00 00 00 20 4b 36 50 c0
02 f7 03 00 bc 00 00 00 00 00 00 c0 94 82 46 40-00 00 00 20 4b 36 50 c0
02 f7 04 00 bc 00 00 00-00 00 00 c0 94 82 46 40 00 00 00 20 4b 36 50 c0
02 f7 05 00 bb 00 00 00 00 00 00 a0 94 82 46 40-00 00 00 00 4b 36 50 c0
... etc

The chip is a SiRF Star III GPS receiver chip in it. I'd have thought I could have seen a timestamp in there (the start data would be 16:53 2012-11-12) but nope. Maybe it's not even recording time and date

[routeconverter]

The files stored on the device aren't recognised as anything by Routeconverter (they are called "Upload files.btk" and binary)

Does gpsbabel support these files?

The chip is a SiRF Star III GPS receiver chip in it. I'd have thought I could have seen a timestamp in there (the start data would be 16:53 2012-11-12) but nope. Maybe it's not even recording time and date

I guess it does. In the absence of documentation, the challenge is to decipher which bits and bytes carry which information in which representation. Start with well-known time and position and try to find the information as GMT time and WGS84 coordinates in the .btk file.

[Oluffen]

Hi there!
I agree 100% with you. Very strange that they don't provide an export of the route in standard format. Did you ever find a solution to this?

Regards,

Johan

[Lorry]

Did you ever find a solution to this?

Unfortunately no - So now I am in the stupid position of having to carry a Backtrack, which is logging my route into what should be perfectly usable data for geotagging and also having an Amod geotagger clipped to my belt recording the exact same data.

I may take some time to have another ponder about it later - Although even if I work out the format I have no idea how to do much with it - Though I guess I could export it to a text format that way.

Michael.

[Oluffen]

I do not have the skills for itmy self but I am very surprised no one else "out there" have come up with some sort of a converter.

I do know as much of GIS and geographic data that I understand that when you have figured out how the data is represented there is not a big problem to put it in a file format that then could be used in a standard GIS.

There is people capable of reverse engineering almost everything, how come no one has done this?

/ Johan

[kumo]

I found something about a software named >>>Fugawi<<< which may be able to read *.btk files.
And this 'Fugawi' software appears to have a Google Earth plugin that is able to export data in *.kml format.

And I read that *.btk file format may be a commercial format. If so, then the authors of the format have their legal rights and surely have their hands on it. And their lawyers may have their eyes on unwanted converter tools.

[Lorry]

http://www.degruyter.com/dg/viewarticle....eventlink/$002fj$002farsa.2011.46.issue-4$002fv10018-012-0005-y$002fv10018-012-0005-y.xml?t:ac=j$002farsa.2011.46.issue-4$002fv10018-012-0005-y$002fv10018-012-0005-y.xml

Would seem to be useful given that the thing has a Sirf IV in it.

[Lorry]

I am not even sure the "proper software" even works any more - I guess I should try and find a copy and see!

I don't think their lawyers are going to be too interested so far, since all we have done is fail

I found something about a software named >>>Fugawi<<< which may be able to read *.btk files.
And this 'Fugawi' software appears to have a Google Earth plugin that is able to export data in *.kml format.

And I read that *.btk file format may be a commercial format. If so, then the authors of the format have their legal rights and surely have their hands on it. And their lawyers may have their eyes on unwanted converter tools.

[Lorry]

Just noting that it has a Sirf IV chip in it, and I am guessing the backtracker doesn't do THAT much data conversion from the dump of that - So I shall have a look at the output format on that. The bottom link from Tigre251 on http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic..._ID=104126 is quite useful in that respect.

[Oluffen]

I found something about a software named >>>Fugawi<<< which may be able to read *.btk files.
And this 'Fugawi' software appears to have a Google Earth plugin that is able to export data in *.kml format.

And I read that *.btk file format may be a commercial format. If so, then the authors of the format have their legal rights and surely have their hands on it. And their lawyers may have their eyes on unwanted converter tools.

Thank you for this information you can be right with the legal aspects of this, but why did Bushnell use this format in the D-tour Back Track GPS? They would definitely sell more of the product if you where able to use the data.

I will try to install the demoversion of this Fugawi programme to see if I can make anything from it.

Anyhow Lorry´s recent reply to this might be something. Something that makes me regret that I quit programming long ago...

Glad that this thread has woken up if we're lucky ww will find a solution.

/ Johan