G'day all,

I was reading the post (above) about entering waypoints that someone else may have given you, into your Elite 5 DSI. It strikes me as a very arduous, slow process to do it within the E5DSI unit (especially for those whom have to sit in their boat while doing so.) I got to thinking, and doing some research on the 'net and I have come up with a cunning plan that lets you enter all the data using your PC.

It works something like this:

1) Enter waypoints into a database, using a simple front-end form
2) Save the waypoints into a tab delimited file called data.txt
3) Convert the data.txt file to a data.usr file that the Lowrance E5DSI can read, then save to the microSD card for the unit.
4) Load the waypoints into the E5DSI from the card

I have found a way of very simply doing steps 2,3 and 4 and can now type all of my waypoints into a spreadsheet to create the data.txt file. The problem with Excel is that I can't easily filter the data. For example, if I'm going to Lake Somewhere, then I really only want the waypoints for Lake Somewhere. With Excel it is not as easy to extract just the data that I want. So, I have built an Access database that allows me to enter the data and can filter just the information that I need. (This doesn't mean that you can't just load every waypoint that you have in one hit, it just gives some more flexibility.) Now I am working on automating the creation of the data.txt file. So far so good.

What I am assuming is that because I need to enter my waypoints in the format of Degrees and Decimal Minutes, everyone else is too. And that is my question. Those of you whom have entered waypoints manually, was it in the format DD MM.MMMMMM for Latitude and DDD MM.MMMMMM for Longitude? I need to know this because once I have perfected this application I intend to make it available to you all for free. I want it to work in every case, not just for some who just happen to have their E5DSI set up the same way as I do. I need this information so that I know which fields the user has to enter the data into and which fields the program will automatically enter the data into.

From the prototype, I can tell you that I can enter about eight waypoints using my PC, in the time it takes me to enter one in the E5DSI. The main increase in speed is where I choose to add a waypoint name of my own (rather than the one that the E5DSI allocates by default) and then a description of the waypoint. Thumbing through all of those characters in the unit is a pain.

So, can I have a show of hands please? Are all of your E5DSI's set up to input degrees and decimal minutes?

Cheers

Russ