Garmin Topo map - sell it to me

[fhills]

Recently acquired a second hand Garmin Etrex20x with Garmin Topo europe on it - over 3 gig.

I took it off (backed it up) as I rather like openfietsmap and am used to it on my Etrex20.

Also I don't need the whole of Europe to hand most of the time.

Does the Garmin map have any particular advantages/attractiions other than postcode searching?

[fuaran]

Depends on exactly which version of the Garmin maps it is. There are several different ones, eg Topo Active or Topo Light etc. Some are all Europe, some just UK. And has been a few updates.

The Garmin Topo includes elevation data. This means it can give you hill shading, which can look quite nice. Also could give you an elevation profile, if you plot a route.
The Openfietsmap has contour lines, but don't think it includes the proper elevation data within the map.

Also a question of style. ie what colours and symbols your prefer.

[frankly frankie]

Plus the pre-installed one is going to be about a year out of date, and if like me you never use Garmin Express it will stay that way.

Plus Garmin have a helluva nerve taking what is essentially an open source project and rebranding it to suit themselves.

But it is good if you spend time in Europe (yes I know I know - on the European mainland then) to use as a general basemap and just download small current OSM maps for the areas you are most interested in.

[fuaran]

Plus Garmin have a helluva nerve taking what is essentially an open source project and rebranding it to suit themselves.

It is what makes free licences a great thing. Anyone is able to use the data for any purpose, including commercial products.
More people using OpenStreetMap will mean more contributors, and more updates. So a better map for everyone. Better to have an official Garmin supported OSM map, instead of relying on volunteers and donated web hosting to provide it.

[frankly frankie]

But - being branded 'Garmin' it's not visibly OSM, so no direct incentive to contribute to the OSM project.

[fuaran]

It is not an officially endorsed project from the OpenStreetMap Foundation, so they can't brand it with their trademarks. Garmin give fairly obvious credits to OpenStreetMap. Doesn't it display a message every time you switch the GPS on?

[fhills]

Plus the pre-installed one is going to be about a year out of date, and if like me you never use Garmin Express it will stay that way.

Why do you never use Garmin Express Frankie?

(I have to dig the wobbly PC out if I do want to use it - no way of using its functions on a chromebook)

Part of the reason I took it off is because the Garmin seemed unable to read either it or the openfietsmap (can't remember which) if I tried to put both on the Garmin. I did read in some openfietsmap guidance that this could happen with two maps reading the same dataset, but I am not techie enough to understand this. Pretty sure that this was an issue even if I disabled one map before trying to load the other.

I did recently connect the Etrex20x (the one the few years old topo map was taken off) up to Garmin Express and it kindly offered to download the latest latest version to the unit for me. But it quoted an install time of 3 hours (in contrast to minutes for other updates) so since this gave me visions of nail-biting windows updates I declined.

[pdm]

The Openfietsmap has contour lines, but don't think it includes the proper elevation data within the map.

FWIW,  I use Openfietsmap on my Etrex 30x and Etrex Vista HCx. Both route properly and display elevation profiles properly.

[fuaran]

The Openfietsmap has contour lines, but don't think it includes the proper elevation data within the map.

FWIW,  I use Openfietsmap on my Etrex 30x and Etrex Vista HCx. Both route properly and display elevation profiles properly.

Looks like that has been added since I last tried Openfietsmap. Seems Mkgmap now has some support for adding DEM data and hill shading etc.