Free GPS Maps

In reply to M1MAJ:

I put together a VBA script in Excel a while back. The CSV database export needs to be imported into this workbook. It exports selection into GPX so you can create files according to your current needs. You can import GPX into basecamp and upload data to your Garmin device. It is for my personal use, but I am happy to share if someone interested.

Peter

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I have just found some information about adding / replacing POIā€™s on the Garmin GPS Devices. It seems that instead of loading Summits as WayPoints is should be possible to load them as POIā€™s and use a suitable custom Icon too.

http://www.cycletourer.co.uk/cycletouring/custompois.shtml

I have now tested this by creating a sample CSV :

;Longitude,Latitude,Name,Details
-2.005800,51.919900,G/CE-001,Cleeve Hill 330m 1pt
-2.086700,52.416100,G/CE-002,Walton Hill 316m 1pt
-2.062700,52.060100,G/CE-003,Bredon Hill 299m 1pt
-1.320500,52.714500,G/CE-004,Bardon Hill 278m 1pt
-0.711500,51.771700,G/CE-005,Wendover Woods 267m 1pt

Loading that via the Garmin POI Loader (Install new custom POIā€™s onto your device), this adds a Poi Folder and a Poi.gpi file to the Mirco SD card so I guess the only limit is the space on the SD Card.

In reply to G0LGS:

This seems a better way to deal with large number of summits.
Thanks to brought this to my attention.

Peter

1 Like

After further experimentation (and reading the help) I have found that the Garmin PoiLoader even processes .gpx files so you can load Martynā€™s complete uk-summits.gpx (it will create a 220Kb poi.gpi file).

Note: You may have to turn the GPS off/on for it to notice the new POI file.

To see them from the ā€˜Findā€™ menu go to the ā€˜Custom Points of Interestā€™ and they will be listed in order of distance.

Stewart G0LGS

I ordered two 4GB SanDisk Micro SD Cards with SD Adaptors a few days ago, they arrived today and work fine in my Garmin eTrex Vista HCx.

I also found another source of downloadable Contour maps at Talkytoaster ā€“ Here to help with your Garmin OSM mapping needsā€¦

I have downloaded 110107-GB+Contours-Routable-MapSource.zip and got Mapsource to write them to a new SD Card and added the converted uk-summits.gpx using Garmin PoiLoader.

I have had a look around several local summits and the maps seem to have enough detail to be useful and not too much clutter, although not all of the available paths are show for some summits (i.e. G/CE-003).

Stewart G0LGS.

In reply to G0LGS:
Hi guys im downloading this one as i type this

Adrian
MM0TAI

1 Like

In reply to G0LGS:

I have just found some information about adding / replacing POIā€™s on
the Garmin GPS Devices. It seems that instead of loading Summits as
WayPoints is should be possible to load them as POIā€™s and use a
suitable custom Icon too.

Second that on using POIsā€“had to do that for the HL file over here, much easier on the device.

By the by, has anyone come up with a sexy little SOTA POI icon yet?

I whipped up a 24 pix icon a while back but itā€™s a bit ghetto and when those free moments do pop up Iā€™ve preferred to go outside and play in the cold instead of sitting in front of photoshop or imovieā€¦

I think the one I came up with, while allowable in size, is a bit big, and 18 pix is more preferable, maybe with white border to make it visibleā€¦

The small size makes it a challenge!

Jason HL4/W2VLA

1 Like

In reply to HL4/W2VLA:

Try the Icon from SotaBeams at

http://www.sotabeams.co.uk/cards.htm

You can also convert the TomTom POI to a Garmin one (using POIEdit) and use that for navigating to parking spaces for the UK summits.

Stewart G0LGS

In reply to G0LGS:
How can I assign the icon to POI? I always get only a small circle. I use GPX file, and named icon to have same name, but still no effect.

I would go with the standard summit icon. There is one drawback with POI approach for me. They not get displayed on the map, only the destination one.

Thanks,
Peter

In reply to MM0TAI:

Hi Adrian,

There is a problem with my delivery of the Garmin Topo maps, which appears to have become lost in the delivery system so in the meantime I downloaded the contour map from your link, currently the file size is about 167Mb

I installed a blank 2Gb micro SD card in my Garmin Extrex Vista HCx then ran the ā€œUSB Mass storageā€ routine from my GPS once connected to my PC. My PC found the card & recognised it as a USB storage device. I created a folder on the card called GARMIN then after renaming the downloaded & unzipped IMG file as intructed on the website, I copied this file across to the Garmin folder I had created on the SD card.

The GPS saw this map file straight away & after hiding the basemap & setting the display mode to ā€œDaytimeā€ I now have a quite detailed road & contour map of most of the UK, I am sure there are gaps but I have not found any major ones yet.

The contour lines do not show up clearly with the display in ā€œNighttimeā€ or ā€œAutoā€ mode if it is after sunset, due to the colours used, but in Daytime mode they are quite clear.

So far I have found no errors after checking a few local roads & summits so that does look like a very good free download :slight_smile:

Thanks & 73,

Mark G0VOF

1 Like

In reply to G0VOF:
Hi mark, im in need of a memory upgrade as i only have the stock 64mb card. SO i couldnt download the contour version. However i have tried the other one today and pretty much all of the roads round here are blank. Itā€™s based on the openstreetmap which i think stewart g0lgsā€™ link to velomap is based on the same maps too. I only realised this after i posted my link.

73
Adrian
MM0TAI

Peter,

How can I assign the icon to POI? I always get only a small circle. I
use GPX file, and named icon to have same name, but still no effect.

I just saved it with the same name as the .gpx file that I loaded via POILoader.

Stewart G0LGS

In reply to G0VOF:

Itā€™s not bad at all for free! If Iā€™d have known how slow the USB downloader was Iā€™d have pulled the memory card and stuffed it in the high-speed reader. As it was it took 3x longer to transfer over USB to the GPS than it did to download over the net.

Andy
MM0FMF

1 Like

In reply to MM0TAI:
I should add that the roads that are missing could be considered minor roads, but Iā€™ll see what I can do with updating the map using my gps routes that Iā€™ve made so far just trying it in the car.

Adrian

In reply to G0LGS:
Thanks Stewart,
I was using JPG, not BMP. It works now. Now I have problem with the map TYPs and cgpsmapper keeps crashing, but itā€™s another topic.

Peter

In reply to HG1DUL:
Ok so after a few problems with my new SD card i now have a map im happy with. I went for a 4GB micro SDHC card for the Garmin 60csx not realising that they dont support FAT32. After trying to re-format unsucessfully to FAT16 i found a 1GB card in an old phone.
Also discovered that the maps from ukgeocachers website is over 2 years old i opted for one of stewarts links to talkytoaster. The owner of the website claims to be updating these maps on a weekly basis!!!

Heres the latest Full GB with contours map @342Mb, so far its the best map ive tried.

http://talkytoaster.info/110107-GB+Contours-Routable-GMAPSUPP.zip

73
Adrian
MM0TAI

In reply to G0LGS:
Anybody using Magellan ?

73 Alain F6ENO

In reply to MM0TAI:
If you implement the firmware upgrade from the Garmin update site for the 60csx, it will take SDHC 4gb cards.
See Garmin: GPSMAP 60Cx/60CSx/76Cx/76CSx Updates & Downloads
73 Jim g0cqk

In reply to G0CQK:
Hi jim, Iā€™ll check what version Iā€™m on tommorow but Iā€™m pretty sure it said no updates available, but I canā€™t remember was that for the firmware or the basemapā€¦ I will report the findings either way.

Thanks

Adrian

In reply to MM0TAI:

After a bit of an anxious wait my Garmin Topo North of England & Midlands Micro SD card arrived the day before I activated G/SP-008 Boulsworth Hill with Tony 2E0LAE.

I had downloaded the free GB Countour map from an earlier link on this thread which is pretty good, & I would have used it if my Garmin map had not arrived. I do have to say though that the Garmin Micro SD card is somewhat better (in the areas it covers)IMHO.

Countour wise they appear pretty much the same, which if they both use the same orginal source (OS data?) they should be, but the Garmin did everything I would expect & more, with some very minor tracks & paths being available.

I have not tried the latest version of the free routable contour map from toastytalker, but I doubt it could be better in this area than the Garmin map.

I am still very new to GPS, but was very impressed with my experiences last weekend.

It does appear though that you have to be a little crafty in order to view the Garmin topo map in Mapsource, as ā€œimport mapsā€ does not seem to work. A Little renaming of certain files did the trick though.

Thanks for all the links & files posted here :slight_smile:

Best 73,

Mark G0VOF