rwgps choices (FIT vs TCX)

[Rob Tulloh]

Hi there,

I noticed this week that rwgps now offers a FIT download option. The help says that some Garmins will load faster with FIT and some Garmins are not compatible with TCX. I have been using TCX for the past 3 years with great success. Does anyone have any experience with FIT?

Rob

[Mongo]

Rob, I don't have anything profound to say other than i tried exporting a ride in both fit & tcx format & then read it back into rwgps as well as garmin connect & strava. Of the 3 sites, only rwgps would import those 2 exported files back in..the other 2 sites gave errors for both formats.   I went into the rwgps site and reviewed the ride mileage & elevation for both import & the metrics was the same...so I came to the conclusion there wasn't much difference between the 2 formats, at least from a data perspective.  I wish one of the other sites would have take imported the file since I'm not sure if it was a fair test since I likely used the same engine to export & then import the files.

Other things to note was that the tcx file was ~20x the size of the fit file for the specific ride I chose to export.

As for the loading time, I'm not sure if that matters for a garmin device other than the first time the files is imported in.  The courses on the garmin are stored in the fit format, so I'm guessing the .fit file imported is read in faster initially since it is already in the native format...for the tcx file import, I'm assuming the garmin device would have an overhead delay to translate the tcx file into fit format, but once it is read in & stored, the course will remain as a fit file so any subsequent power-ons will see very little difference, if any, if you imported a tcx or fit file for a course.

So if you are happy with tcx files, I don't see any harm in using them over a fit file & the only downside is that overhead delay in the initial power on, but we are talking seconds, not minutes.

Scott

[Rob Tulloh]

Thanks Scott!

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