What am I doing wrong? - novice help please - solved

[matthew]

Right, I have just purchased an eTrex Vista HCx.

Yesterday I downloaded Andy's OSM maps package and copied the gmapsupp.img file into the units SD card in the /garmin folder. Turned it off, turned it on and it saw the map and showed it on screen, Success.

However today I turned it on with the intention to go round the village and pick up some missing roads. No map shown! 

Can anyone give me a pointer to whats going on?

Thanks

Matthew

[Sergeant Pluck]

In setup, on the "Map Set-up - Information" page, is your map of choice selected, i.e. is the box ticked to "show" the appropriate map?

[andygates]

In the words of the Dell bloke, "have ye turned it off and onnagain?" 

[matthew]

In the words of the Dell bloke, "have ye turned it off and onnagain?" 

This is the problem - After the first power cycle the map was found, after a second the map has disappeared.

In setup, on the "Map Set-up - Information" page, is your map of choice selected, i.e. is the box ticked to "show" the appropriate map?

When I go to the Map Set-up information page there are no maps listed?

[andygates]

It can't find the file.  Remove the memory card, give the contacts a wipe and put it back. 

If you've got a handy card-reader, check that the file is still there (in case the festive goblins have et it).

[matthew]

But it can, when I go into the setup -> System -> card info it sees the card and that there is 295.5Mb of Maps!!

Matthew

[andrew_s]

If Andy's maps are the same as the ones I've got loaded, it's not just one map you've got to turn on in Maps -> Setup. There's roads etc by area, then contours by area as a separate set.

[frankly frankie]

1. Reseat the card (but you've done that) - to be honest from what you described I would have said this is the most likely.

2. Menu > Menu > Setup > Maps > 5th tab across > Menu > 'Show all maps'

(where Menu = the bottom left button)

If in the same menu you see a separate entry for 'contours' try turning this off.
In the same menu try turning the base map off, and the nautical map off.

Also check (again in map setup) that you have Detail set to 'More' or 'Most' ('More' can be preferable in some circs, gives faster screen redraws) and that you have the map display set to a sensible zoom level (try 200m - the number visible bottom left of the map screen)

BTW the folder should be /Garmin (uppercase G) but I don't know if this matters or not - but if the GPS is allowed to create the folder itself that is how it names it.


PS also I would try copying the map file into the card using a card reader - the GPS connection to the PC is extremely slow which never inspires confidence - OK for tracks and routes etc but transferring maps can be a real grind.

[andygates]

Delete, recopy, curse the voodoo of IT.

[matthew]

Delete, recopy, curse the voodoo of IT.

Here we have the answer, thanks Andy.

I suspect I failed to unmount the garmin properly after the original upload 

Now I shall just have to learn how to upload tracks to OSM to improve the data for the village.

Matthew

[andygates]

I suspect I failed to unmount the garmin properly after the original upload 

Linux is worse for that that Windows, but sometimes it happens to all.

Now I shall just have to learn how to upload tracks to OSM to improve the data for the village.

Easy

1: Use GPSbabel ([url-http://www.gpsbabel.org/]download here[/url]) to slurp the track off your GPS onto your computer as a GPX file.

2: Go to the upload page at OSM: OpenStreetMap | Login

...and so on   There's lots of discussion on the long "free maps" thread.  Which reminds me, I have to finish North Tawton at the weekend if the weather's good...