Author Topic: Topo Schmopo  (Read 2428 times)

GdS

  • I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass
Topo Schmopo
« on: 05 July, 2022, 07:37:31 pm »
I can confirm that the preloaded TopoActive maps that come with the eTrex 22x / 33x are this

Useless for cycling!!!

it did come with a warning in the destructions about not being able to navigate on road so I wisely kept my old SD card with Europe City Navigator which works fine in the 22x

they also do not have any topographic contours in the UK.

I just tried setting it to take me to Gatwick Airport. About 100m up the road it decided I needed to take a random and completely out of the way path and carried on doing so for the whole 20km ride, witn much ignoring and the device keeping recalculating which can't be good for battery life. Even when I was on a dead straight road towards my destination it tried to take me off road. It did do some on road turns but it seems only when there was not a nearby footpath to take me down.

The final straw was riding along the public road at the far W end of the runway, not good enough for this map it suggested I scale the 20 foot high fence with bike and ride around the apron road! at least it didn't suggest the runway which was slightly shorter!

in short, it might be quite useful following a pre-planned track sans navigation with a lot of canal towpaths which is exactly what I have planned this week as it will show the water. Otherwise don't get rid of your navigable road maps no matter how old if considering these devices (or be prepared to stump up more for them)

Bit of a cheek advertising this as a Garmin product as I presume you could download the whole thing for free from OSM?

Kim

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Re: Topo Schmopo
« Reply #1 on: 05 July, 2022, 09:00:51 pm »
I presume you could download the whole thing for free from OSM?

Indeed:  https://www.openfietsmap.nl/ has nice easy-to-install packages.  It's navigable (albeit with cyclepaths included, which is sometimes useful and sometimes a disaster), and IMHO a better-looking map (ie. easier to read on the murky screen of a newer eTrex) than the one Garmin supply.

Worryingly the SMC contour overlays seem to have disappeared:  http://www.smc.org.uk/ContourMaps.php

Feanor

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Re: Topo Schmopo
« Reply #2 on: 05 July, 2022, 09:32:55 pm »
This is now annoying me.
I have the SMC contour maps here, but I can't find them...

GdS

  • I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass
Re: Topo Schmopo
« Reply #3 on: 06 July, 2022, 10:36:22 am »
I presume you could download the whole thing for free from OSM?

Indeed:  https://www.openfietsmap.nl/ has nice easy-to-install packages.  It's navigable (albeit with cyclepaths included, which is sometimes useful and sometimes a disaster), and IMHO a better-looking map (ie. easier to read on the murky screen of a newer eTrex) than the one Garmin supply.

Worryingly the SMC contour overlays seem to have disappeared:  http://www.smc.org.uk/ContourMaps.php

I notice the openfietsmap Europe is a whacking 14GB compared to what's on the 22x which only has an 8GB internal memory. Is it possible to preview these before download?

Kim

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Re: Topo Schmopo
« Reply #4 on: 06 July, 2022, 11:22:00 am »
I notice the openfietsmap Europe is a whacking 14GB compared to what's on the 22x which only has an 8GB internal memory. Is it possible to preview these before download?

That's the Basecamp installer.  The region files that you'd install on the eTrex are a couple of gig each.  (scroll down)

GdS

  • I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass
Re: Topo Schmopo
« Reply #5 on: 09 July, 2022, 11:06:14 am »
It worked fine as a basic map while following a track, if anything the detail was a bit annoying as hard to see the magenta line.

It didn't go into night mode when the rest of the display did, is this something that can be changed?