{"id":2799,"date":"2017-05-13T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-05-13T03:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2017-05-13\/2799"},"modified":"2017-05-13T12:00:30","modified_gmt":"2017-05-13T03:00:30","slug":"a-fit-to-gpx-converter-that-understands-fit-version-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2017-05-13\/2799","title":{"rendered":"A FIT-to-GPX Converter that Understands FIT Version 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nThat Face<\/span>\nwhen you realize that Garmin has screwed you yet again\n( statue at the Ushio Kannon Temple — \u725b\u5c3e\u89b3\u97f3<\/span> — described here<\/a> )<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

I've complained for more than a decade<\/span> about what a horrible<\/span> company Garmin is (such as here<\/a> in 2006, here<\/a> in 2013,\nand here<\/a> last year, among others). The only thing<\/span> worse than their hardware\ndesign is their software design, but it's a strong<\/span> competition to the bottom, backed by an apparent company-wide disdain for their\ncustomers.<\/p>\n\n

The latest evidence of this disdain is new firmware for some of their cycling computers that renders them utterly incompatible\nwith Garmin's own desktop software<\/i>, and, for good measure, almost all other track-processing software in existence. Of\ncourse, this “<\/span>feature”<\/span> is not even hinted at in the release notes. In my case<\/span>, they got me via a firmware<\/span> update for the Garmin\nEdge 820 that I cycle<\/span> with.<\/p>\n\n

The problem is manifest in the “<\/span>FIT”<\/span> file that the unit produces\nafter an activity, containing info about the activity (the route you took, the status of the sensors such as your heart rate along\nthe course, etc.). Since the “<\/span>FIT”<\/span> file format was created by Garmin\nmore than half a decade<\/span> ago, it's been at “<\/span>Version 1<\/span>”<\/span>, but this new firmware update bumped the FIT file format to “<\/span>Version 2<\/span>”<\/span>. And that's the problem, because\nGarmin's own software<\/i> can't handle Version 2 FIT files.<\/span> If your workflow with Garmin's product\nrelied on Garmin's products, you are screwed.<\/p>\n\n

(If you relied on other, non-Garmin software, you're almost certainly screwed there as well, because almost nothing handles\nFIT Version 2.<\/span>\nThe only saving grace here is that Strava can<\/i> handle a\nVersion 2 FIT file,<\/span> so a riot<\/span> has been averted.)<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nGarmin<\/span>\n( taken during this ride<\/a> )<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

My after-ride processing requires a GPX<\/span> file, which I used<\/span> to convert to\nvia the most-excellent GPS Babel<\/a>, but like most other software, GPS\nBabel<\/span> doesn't work with the new FIT files. So, I came up<\/span> with a cheap<\/span>\nsubstitute “<\/span>fit2gpx<\/tt>”<\/span> script that invokes the ANT+\nconsortium's “<\/span>FIT to CVS”<\/span> java utility under the hood. That utility\ndoes handle both Versions 1 and 2 FIT files<\/span>, and perhaps will be kept up-to-date going forward, so even\nif Garmin decides to screw everyone again with a surprise<\/span>-and-unsupported move to “<\/span>Version 3<\/span>”<\/span>, perhaps we'll be covered.<\/p>\n\n

Here's the script at GitHub:<\/p>\n

“<\/span>FIT to GPX”<\/span> at GitHub<\/a><\/p>\n\n

It's my first project to try GitHub with.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/1.8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCalm Thoughts<\/span>\n
( from this ride<\/a> )<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

As I mentioned, the script is cheap and kludgy; it does exactly what I need,<\/span> but not much more. The GPX file<\/span> it produces is not\neven standards compliant, because it uses simple Strava extensions not published as a DTD.<\/span> This is why I'm trying GitHub, to allow\nothers to make these changes if they like.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nPanasonic LX100 at an effective 28mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/2.1, ISO 2500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLife With Garmin<\/span>\ndown a black hole\n
( from this ride<\/a> )<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I've complained for more than a decade about what a horrible company Garmin is (such as here in 2006, here in 2013, and here last year, among others). The only thing worse than their hardware design is their software design, but it's a strong competition to the bottom, backed by an apparent company-wide disdain for their customers.<\/p>

The latest evidence of this disdain is new firmware for some of their cycling computers that renders them utterly incompatible with Garmin's own desktop software, and, for good measure, almost all other track-processing software in existence. Of course, this \"feature\" is not even [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}