Author Topic: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible  (Read 2757 times)

Bianchi Boy

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eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« on: 22 December, 2013, 04:24:57 pm »
Hi,

I have been using my eTrex 30 for a while now and there are some features that I love. POI file searches - not been restricted to 500 points on a tracks. But others that are driving me mad.

This thread is about the map and track colour. I have down loaded the OSM map and the background is always light grey. This makes picking up the road quite hard for me. I used to use night mode on the eTrex HCx and had the track in pink. This made it easily visible.

Do I need a different map? Have I not found the correct setting? How do you have this set?

Oh how I yearn for the old style string and pin maps, they were really easy to read as you bumped along a road.

This goes along with my attempts to get the device to beep when off track. I have set the map to Marine mode and set the "Off Course" alarm - used to work on HCx - does not work on 30.

BB
Set a fire for a man and he will be warm for a day, set a man on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life.

Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #1 on: 22 December, 2013, 04:50:03 pm »
You chose the wrong device mate,  ;)

Om me TomTom, I have a choice of day and night colour schemes.
The 'Day colours' are "Americana", which is very similar to Rand McNally maps' colour scheme  :thumbsup:
The 'Night colours' are "Britannia', which are strangely very similar to the AA road Atlas.

Incidentally, on the Rand McNally website, there is a scrolling advert for the Foris 850 GPS guidance device.

http://store.randmcnally.com/foris-850.html

Has anyone OTP seen one? used one? USA only, I guess.
Wouldn't be surprised if its manufactured for Rand McNally by G,g,g garmin.

mcshroom

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Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #2 on: 22 December, 2013, 05:52:15 pm »
There are settings for changing the map and line colours.

It's in the Display>Setup menu I think.

[eta]covered in this article: -

http://www.aukadia.net/gps/lw3_0.htm
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fuaran

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Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #3 on: 22 December, 2013, 06:39:26 pm »
Which OSM maps are you using? Most of them use the default Garmin style and colours, which can look a bit rubbish. Look for maps which use a "TYP file", this should change the style to look better.

I like the maps from here: http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/
Choose the Generic Routable map, then for the option "Include a TYP file" , pick Mapnik.

Or try the TalkyToaster maps, they have an option for "OS 1:50K Look and Feel".

Kim

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Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #4 on: 22 December, 2013, 07:28:44 pm »
^ This.  Garmin's colours are optimised for Garmin's maps, and are particularly poor with the higher clutter of OSM maps in urban areas.

I'm not sure that OS colours are necessarily the best, either.  What's good on paper isn't necessarily what's best on a small screen.

Try a few and see what you like.


(TomTom have at least thought about colourblind users in their various colour schemes.  Unfortunately the wrong flavour of colourblindness for me to benefit from.)

Euan Uzami

Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #5 on: 23 December, 2013, 09:34:40 am »
I personally find the best track colour is black.

I compiled the gmapsupp.img myself from OSM raw data and in doing so removed a lot of the 'clutter' in town centres like waypoints for pubs etc but IIRC it didn't change the background colour.


Bianchi Boy

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Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #6 on: 23 December, 2013, 04:37:25 pm »
I have selected the typ option 'Mapnik' and have just downloaded the img file. Do I need the typ file or do I just use the img file downloaded?

BB

Set a fire for a man and he will be warm for a day, set a man on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life.

Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #7 on: 23 December, 2013, 05:00:42 pm »
I thought the map colours for Metroguide and Topo GB were fine. A bit like Rand McNally and understandable. I always had the route in magenta, 'Vanilla flavour' as delivered.

Bianchi Boy

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Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #8 on: 23 December, 2013, 05:07:08 pm »
Hmmm maybe I am using maps with poor colours. I am using the standard OSM maps download.

Where do I get the metroguide maps from. I have no interest in topo maps as this just adds detail I do not need when riding my bike.

BB
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frankly frankie

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Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #9 on: 23 December, 2013, 05:22:35 pm »
I have selected the typ option 'Mapnik' and have just downloaded the img file. Do I need the typ file or do I just use the img file downloaded?

You don't need the TYP file.  The etrex wouldn't know what to do with it.

Quote
Oh how I yearn for the old style string and pin maps, they were really easy to read as you bumped along a road.

If this is referring to the older-style spidery single-line rendering of GPS maps, as opposed to the newer-style where a road is fussily represented by 2 parallel lines, more like a paper map - I rather agree.   The newer rendering seems pointless to me.
when you're dead you're done, so let the good times roll

Biggsy

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Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #10 on: 23 December, 2013, 05:33:01 pm »
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Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #11 on: 23 December, 2013, 08:19:49 pm »
Hmmm maybe I am using maps with poor colours. I am using the standard OSM maps download.

Where do I get the metroguide maps from. I have no interest in topo maps as this just adds detail I do not need when riding my bike.

BB

Nah, nah, nah,, you don't want Metroguide maps, They haven't got auto routing capability.

frankly frankie

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Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #12 on: 24 December, 2013, 01:24:06 pm »
'course they have.  It's just been nobbled, is all.  Un-nobbling costs from free to cheap. 

More of an issue may be that they are beginning to get a bit out of date - the data in Metroguide probably dates back to about 2008 at latest.  That would never have bothered us with paper maps but now people get edgy if it's not this year's model.
when you're dead you're done, so let the good times roll

Bianchi Boy

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Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #13 on: 24 December, 2013, 03:51:12 pm »
Used mapnik OSM style maps today and they are a lot better. The background is still light but the roads are much clearer. Maybe I am doing something wrong but the velo maps look the same as the standard OSM - IIHO very hard to read on a Garmin. I also tried auto routing on velo maps and it tried to take me on all sorts of off road paths. I think I had selected the correct options for auto routing with no small lanes - but it still went for the small mud tracks. It also did this in Basecamp and I had set the road types to avoid un-metalled - but the auto routing did not care.

So the best I have found so far is the OSM maps with the mapnik typ file used for the style.

BB

Set a fire for a man and he will be warm for a day, set a man on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life.

Re: eTrex 30 map display - colours are terrible
« Reply #14 on: 24 December, 2013, 08:20:03 pm »
'course they have.  It's just been nobbled, is all.  Un-nobbling costs from free to cheap. 

More of an issue may be that they are beginning to get a bit out of date - the data in Metroguide probably dates back to about 2008 at latest.  That would never have bothered us with paper maps but now people get edgy if it's not this year's model.

I got Metroguide for the eTrex Legend Cx  with only 24meg of internal memory and no card slot. 2003 or 2004 ?? Even so, not all of England would go on the memory.
Map tiles were chosen for each ride.
There was a guy who had a method of routing by drawing straight lines between junctions. I used his system until I bought Topo GB. The problem with Topo GB is that if auto routing was desired, only 6 or 7 map tiles could fit on the 24 meg memory.