Files library

General Description

BikeDashboard file library screen

The first tab of this application shows your BikeDashboard files library.

What is in this library?

Four file types:

1. Your external traces.
   Here are all the files you downloaded from various web site.
   You can check the links section for some good links.
   If you know some web sites that provide good routes, please send me a mail so that I can add them.
   You can easily add the files you downloaded to this collection following the "import external traces procedure".
2. Your Workout Files
   In this folder you will find all the traces you have recorded using BikeDashboard on your PDA.
   You can press Analyze after having selected one of them to have access to all the statistics (see "Performances Analysis" section for more details).
3. Your Maps Files
   That is where your calibrated maps are. You can open them on the PDA to see moving maps on the map Tab.
4. Your Training Files
   That is where your training targets files are saved.
   For more details about training targets, see the training preparation section.
   

 

Import external traces

You can download GPX traces from many web sites.
The following procedure shows you how to do so by downloading them from www.bikely.com
However, the procedure remains the same, no matter which website you are downloading your traces from.

1. First step: go to the web site you want to download the route from… and download it on your computer.
   
   
2. When you download the GPX file, you can either save it directly to your BikeDashboard external traces folder (My Documents\My BikeDashboard\My External Traces Files\) in which case, there is nothing else to do… or you can save it anywhere else (then go to 3.)
   
3. Launch BikeDashboard Desktop application.
   On the Files Library tab, click Import new file button on the right of External Traces.
   
   
4. Select your newly downloaded GPX file and click Open (or something else depending what language your Windows is in!).
   
   

 

PDA Synchronization

Each time you connect your PDA to your computer, ActiveSync will fire up.
When BikeDashboard desktop software is running at the same time (and ONLY when it is running) it will ask you if you want to synchronize your BikeDashboard files as well.


If you click Yes, all your files will be synchronized this way:

External traces	Copied from Desktop to PDA
Workout files	Copied from PDA to Desktop
Training files	Copied from Desktop to PDA
Map files	Copied from Desktop to PDA

When renaming or deleting a file using the desktop application, all changes are immediately replicated to your PDA if your PDA is connected (and if you have clicked yes when you were asked if BikeDashboard should synchronize files). Otherwise, all those changes are queued and will be applied next time you will synchronize.

 

 

Performances Analysis

 

General Description

This tab gives you a new way to evaluate your workout sessions with several graphics and also by overlapping your route on Google Earth (requires Google Earth 4 or >).
All the graphics are time based (i.e. X axis represents the time line, Y axis the measured value(s)).

 

Open a trace file

You can only analyze files which are present in the Workout folder of your library.

There are two ways to do this:

1. On the Files Library tab, select the file for which you want to display the statistic, and then click the Analyze button.
   
   
2. On the Performances Analysis tab, click Load route data
   
   A popup window will open showing the content of your Workout files folder.
   
   Select the file you want to analyze then click ok.
   
   If you want to show statistics for a file that has not been recorded using BikeDashboard, you first need to copy this GPX file in your local Workout Files folder (normally My documents\ My BikeDashboard\My Workout files\). It will then show when you click Load route data button (no need to restart the desktop application) or in your Files Library (you need to restart the application).
   However if you are using a trace file which has not been recorded with BikeDashboard PDA application, it is possible that some data will be missing.
   BikeDashboard can recalculate some of this (speeds and distances), as long as timestamp and position are present in the file.
   Also, if elevation (altitude data) is not recorded, related graphs won’t show anything.

 

Main details of the route

Main details of the route you have opened are repeated on each tab.
They include:

1. The file name,
2. Start time,
3. End Time,
4. Total length,
5. Total climb
6. Total descent,
7. Max speed
8. Average speed.

Focusing on a specific period

If you want to "zoom" on a part of your route, you can use the slider control on the top right of the tab:


The main details of the route and the graphs will adjust in real time to reflect these changes.

 

Create / Calibrate a Moving Map

To use a moving map on your Mobile Device, your first need to
have a picture of this map (you can get one by doing a screen shot on Google Earth / Google Maps for instance),
know the coordinates of the corners of this picture.
Once you have gathered those two elements, you can launch the BikeDashboard desktop application.

On the Moving map calibration tab, click Open Map button.

A file dialog appears. Select the picture file you want to use as a map.
Once you have opened it, the map is displayed as the tab background.
You then need to indicate the WGS84 coordinates (longitude and latitude) of the upper left and bottom right corners.
You do so by typing them in the related text fields.
Once it is done, click Save Map button.
Choose a file name and validate.

Your map and its calibration data are now ready.
You just need to copy the picture file and the newly created calibration file (file extension is .mdb) on your PDA (preferably in My documents folder) to be ready to use it.

Both file need to be in the same folder on your PDA!

to be continued...