Losing points in TCX merge

[DrSegatron]

I successfully uploaded 11 TCX segments with 105 631 recognized points. In the merged TCX/GPX I get around 200 points out. All segments are there but it seems only one in 500 points make it. Discard Points is off.

in: http://files.sys5.se/tcx.zip
out: http://files.sys5.se/GOTOES_7738139540207582.tcx
settings: http://files.sys5.se/gotoes_settings.png

[fulmar2]

Hi - I see what you are saying. I looked at your files, and many of the so-called points are "empty". What I mean by this is that there is a timestamp - but it doesn't have any associated relevant data. So, for example, the device recorded the time, which shows as a "point" in my tool... but then the device did not record a position or elevation or anything else... just the time. Simply having a timestamp with no other associated data is pretty much useless, so my tool simply ignores it and moves to the next timestamp to see if it has any relevant associated data. You can see what I'm talking about in the screen capture attached where I included a small screen capture of a slice of one of your source files. If you REALLY want all of the points to show in the resulting file, you can check the "Interpolate Points" checkbox. If you do that, my tool will add in estimated position to the empty points that your file has created. This will make a BIG output file, and it is kind of unnecessary because you're basically faking the information between the points. The only benefit would be: if your track is really choppy or irregular, faking the information between the points would smooth the data.

Explanation of "missing" points.

[DrSegatron]

Yeah, those timestamp trackpoints are a bit weird, don't know why those are output from my source. But there ones with location still describe the route in high resolution. For example, the "59,04km Road Cycling.tcx" file alone contains 6450 points with a location.

[fulmar2]

OK, I see what the problem is with your files. If you look at the timestamps, there are many duplicate time stamps. My tool is able to calculate in 1 second resolution... but these files have multiple time stamps occurring within the same second. Since many of these duplicate time stamps were empty as I mentioned before, the tool was just overwriting the same event on the same second with the empty values (when they were empty; if they were not empty, you'd get a point as you were seeing). The files you have provided are a non-standard implementation of TCX; in other words, improperly formatted. I'm curious where you got them... but meanwhile, I wrote a workaround to solve your issue. The workaround, when it is reading the files looks for duplicate timestamps (i.e. within the same second) within individual files. If the tool encounters a value, it will put that in. If the value is missing (as it is in many of your time stamps), the tool will substitute in the last known "good value". This improved the number of points that were put out, but you're still going to have fewer points. Hope that helps.

[DrSegatron]

Now what is output looks really nice! But the first half of the segments is missing. Is this a scaling problem? Too many points perhaps?

The workouts are exported from MapMyFitness, they seem to have some problems with their exporter; one of the segments has a corrupted section also.

For the next trip, should I record plain old GPX files in OsmAnd or something and then upload the track to my fitness service instead of doing it the other way? I would still need to merge the GPX segments into one in the end.

[fulmar2]

Since your files only have position, elevation, and distance, GPX should be fine. GPX doesn't store distance, but my tool can just calculate it for you. If you don't like what you got from the TCX and you think that your other device can record a better GPX file, then I'd recommend you try that next time... or maybe try recording both concurrently and then later using the merge tool on both to see what you like best.