Free maps for Garmin

[David Martin]

For folk wanting to add to OSM, it works much better if you set your GPS to record as often as possible - a point every second.

I have realised this, looking at the sparsity of the trace from today's meander.
tracking software now reset to 1/s. The 5s gap I did have was just about fine for walking.

You need to be logging your tracks to SD card for this to not be a nuisance.
I find a small digital voice recorder useful, and that it's easier to record the location of a roadside object such as a phone box by riding in a small circle than by mucking about marking waypoints.

Another point is that if you've got a good cycling GPS trace, it's handy to check existing OSM roads against it. What's there could have come from an automatic recording of a car journey or from a scan of an out of copyright OS map (usually tagged as source=NPE (New Popular Edition), and the accuracy may not be that good.

Yup - most of the Dundee stuff is from tracing of Yahoo satellite imagery and is about 5m or so out compared to my GPS signal. I'll redo the park ride with the higher resolution and it should just about capture the twists and turns.

..d

[inc]

Yup - most of the Dundee stuff is from tracing of Yahoo satellite imagery and is about 5m or so out compared to my GPS signal.

The error can be down to the Datum used most mapping GE, Garmin etc uses WGS84 by default ( can be changed)   but OS uses OSGB36. If I put a track from my Garmin into OS mapping it gives the 5M error but after conversion it is fine.

[Greenbank]

Is there a way to get an profile plot of a route in Mapsource using the OSM mapping data coupled with the SMC Topo data?

(Note that I'm asking about routes, not GPX files of tracks that I've ridden and therefore contain the elevation data).

Is this possible using Mapsource and the Garmin Topo GB data? (If anyone has that).

I basically want to be able to mess around with routes and see the associated profiles. I know I can do this with bikely but it's trickier as you can't just drag a route around on bikely.

I know it's possible to do this kind of thing with Memory Map but that's £156 for the whole country.

[tonycollinet]

Have a look at bikehike - you can drag routes round, use Google and OS maps simultaneously, and get an elevation profile. Then you can export a GPX.

[frankly frankie]

For folk wanting to add to OSM, it works much better if you set your GPS to record as often as possible - a point every second. You need to be logging your tracks to SD card for this to not be a nuisance.

This seems a bit OTT to me - in the OSM Wiki there are guidelines about "how accurate do you need to be" and they are showing accuracy levels way below this, and implying that any more is just overloading the database. 
I think 'default' GPS settings should be OK - but not 'saved' tracks which are often downsampled.

I do think the whole project is a bit more problematic than, say, Wikipedia.  In that, anyone who can string a few words together and knows their subject, can make a contribution.  Its great. 
In OSM, to be effective you also need to work within, or almost within, all the guidelines that exist to pull together a really good resource.
At best, its great - but if sub-optimal contribution is made, then it is to quote the OSM Wiki again "unhelpful".

[andygates]

Depends how you're doing it: I have super-detailed logging for the micromapping I was doing at the weekend.  Back at base, I loaded the GPX into JOSM instead of uploading it, then edited the map as usual -- it means that I can get the map data + my GPX without all the clutter of everyone else's over the top.

As is the case with all wiki projects, commercial stuff isn't necessarily more trustworthy.  Garmin UK Topo for where I work is bonkers, with made-up roads that have never existed; OS and local streetmaps are a couple of years out of date.  Swings and roundabouts.

Now, who's on the Dun Run route that we can get to ensure it's all spiffy for the summer?

[Richard Fairhurst]

I actually think OSM's a whole load less problematic than Wikipedia. Both are supposedly compilations of factual information, but in OSM, there's a pretty simple definition of a fact: what's on the ground. It's either right or it's wrong.

With Wikipedia, different people have differing interpretations; there are shades of grey. Hence the thousands of edit wars and disputes that go on. OSM has thus far only really had one serious edit war, in the disputed territory of Northern Cyprus.

On tracklog resolution, 1pt/2sec works for me when cycling, but when I trace the line in Potlatch I use more points on curves than on straight bits of road. Potlatch's automatic track import will actually do this for you if you like - handy if you've got a long, previously unmapped rural road and can't be fussed to trace around all the bends by hand.

Incidentally, I finished mapping National Route 4 at the weekend - other than three or four tiny gaps of a few hundred yards, it's now complete in OSM from London to Fishguard. (Lon Las Cymru from Cardiff to Holyhead, and the Pennine Cycleway, are both also almost complete.) Will see if I can put together a new Garmin download including it at some point.

[frankly frankie]

On tracklog resolution, 1pt/2sec works for me when cycling,

Of course - I forgot - Andrew_s rides at twice my speed ;- )

[andygates]

Richard, how are you working relations for the NCN routes? 

[Richard Fairhurst]

Generally I'd create a relation with type=route, network=ncn, ref=8, name=Lon Las Cymru - something like that.

That said, I've not tagged NCN 4 as a relation yet: I think others have done it as far as Bath, but west of Bath it's plain old-fashioned ncn_ref tags. I'll move it all into a relation at some point but I'd like to improve Potlatch's relation handling a bit first: at present, it writes a new version of the relation every time you add a way to it, which is fine but does tend to make the history rather huge. It should probably cache it for a while before writing, or at least offer that as an option.

[David Martin]

I've not got to grips with the multiplicity of relations and routes. I'm just about managing to get highway type and where known, name and classification in. The key thing IMO is getting the base data in, ie the roads properly marked. Annotation is easier for third parties to contribute.

..d

[tonycollinet]

A Ha!

Success. - Based on the leeg method.

I've created an excel spreadsheet to simplify the selection and downloading of map tiles. Basically I input the number of the top tile of each tile column I want in a map from the tile selection website. I also enter the number of tiles I want from that column, and specify if any should be skipped (if they are water only they don't exist).

At the moment, the spreadsheet can only handle 10 columns - which is enough for mainland uk, but not including Ireland - I'll need to expand it to 13+ columns.

Advantages of the spreadsheet:
1 - identifcation of "water only" tiles is much easier.
2 - once set-up, all tiles can be downloaded using a batch command. The same batch file can be run each time the tiles are updated.

The spreadsheet then generates a list of wget commands to download the tiles.

I Copied the commands to a batch file - ran it, and all the tiles were downloaded. Unziped and then used sendmap to generate the img file.


Using this method, I've been able to select all 56 tiles for mainland UK and create a map file, based on the tiles from 3rd December.

[nuttycyclist]

Damn.  Time to get coding then on a free replacement.  Which will work on Linux too.

There already is,  http://qlandkarte.sourceforge.net/  this link says it is dead, well actually superseded but it works fine until the ( much improved)  GT & M  versions have binaries  available. Also allows upload/download and is a direct  Linux replacement for Mapsource.

qlandkarte appears to have an ubuntu package in Hardy already.  Another reason to use Windows bites the dust. 

I've already got qlandkarte installed on this linux box.  It has found my home address ok, but where can I get maps from to actually see any detail more than a dot (yes I have a mapsource CD from 2002, is there something I can do with that? Can I get updated maps?)


I haven't plugged the GPS in yet though...  I only have a serial cable and this ubuntu box only has USB ports.

[simonp]

I'm struggling with qlandkarte too - I downloaded some supposed garmin img format files for OSM.  All I get is a bunch of tile rectangles, nothing is rendered. 

[Greenbank]

I'm struggling with qlandkarte too - I downloaded some supposed garmin img format files for OSM.  All I get is a bunch of tile rectangles, nothing is rendered. 

I used these: OpenStreetMap for Garmin - Download

[simonp]

Ooh, they're routable too.  Will have to experiment with those in MapSource as well, could be used for route planning.

[nuttycyclist]

I'm struggling with qlandkarte too - I downloaded some supposed garmin img format files for OSM.  All I get is a bunch of tile rectangles, nothing is rendered. 

I used these: OpenStreetMap for Garmin - Download

I've downloaded and unzipped the .img files from there.   Now how do I get them into qlandkarte?






I'm beginning to remember why Windows was so successful compared to other platforms

[simonp]

I'm struggling with qlandkarte too - I downloaded some supposed garmin img format files for OSM.  All I get is a bunch of tile rectangles, nothing is rendered. 

I used these: OpenStreetMap for Garmin - Download

I've downloaded and unzipped the .img files from there.   Now how do I get them into qlandkarte?






I'm beginning to remember why Windows was so successful compared to other platforms

I guess it would be either file->load map or file->import map.

What would it be on Windows?

[simonp]

I was able to load the uk/ireland map from alex's link using file->load map.

qlandkarte does have the feel of a work in progress.  It's nice being able to scroll around the maps.  Unfortunately the world ends not too far from here in a westerly direction (for minor roads) which means still more map tracing needed for audax use.  I might have some gpx logs out that way, will have to have a look.

[nuttycyclist]

Well I got the maps in, but unless I'm overly mistaken there don't seem to be any local roads in this area. 

[inc]

I haven't plugged the GPS in yet though...  I only have a serial cable and this ubuntu box only has USB ports.

 Setup - driver - dropdown list, the last two items are Garmin serial, no idea if they work though.

[simonp]

Well I got the maps in, but unless I'm overly mistaken there don't seem to be any local roads in this area. 

You know what you must do 

[nuttycyclist]

I haven't plugged the GPS in yet though...  I only have a serial cable and this ubuntu box only has USB ports.

 Setup - driver - dropdown list, the last two items are Garmin serial, no idea if they work though.

err...   the problem is that I cannot physically plug the cable into the computer as there is no serial port.

[nuttycyclist]

Well I got the maps in, but unless I'm overly mistaken there don't seem to be any local roads in this area. 

You know what you must do 

Yes       I was fearing that reply 


Let's focus on trying to get the GPS working, then somebody will have to give me an idiot's guide as to how to get the data back to the public domain

[andygates]

Idiot's guide:

1: Install GPSBabel: GPSBabel: convert, upload, download data from GPS and Map programs

2: Power up your GPS and connect it to the computer.

3: For the input, tick "Device", for output choose a filename, and ensure that Waypoints and Tracks are ticked.

4: Click "Let's Go" and it'll suck the tracks and waypoints off your GPS to the GPX file on your computer.

5: Go to OpenStreetMap: OpenStreetMap

6: Click the GPS Traces tab and sign in.

7: Click the Upload A Trace link and follow the instructions.

8: Wait about half an hour (sometime less, sometimes more) for the trace to get into the public database.  You'll receive a mail when it is ready.

9: Edit!

(Lordy, I'm hooked - I'm planning my commutes to fill in blank spots!  )