Author Topic: Free maps for Garmin (Read 193818 times)

RW · « **Reply #625 on:** 29 April, 2010, 09:20:41 pm »

Thanks everyone for your replies. You won't hear from me for a week or so - I'm off to France

. It's a bggr tha I've got a horrible chest infection and most of the cycling I planned won't happen

. I've got loads of existing tracks though and I'm keen to get started when I get back.

Richard Fairhurst · « **Reply #626 on:** 30 April, 2010, 03:16:10 pm »

Quote from: frankly frankie on 29 April, 2010, 01:22:59 pm

I find you do have to split your tracks into short chunks before uploading, or they get downsampled too much.

If you're converting tracks into ways, hold Shift when you click 'Edit with save' (or 'Edit live') and it simplifies it a bit less - usually means you have to manually take out redundant points, though.

Quote

The most difficult thing I find is drawing large roundabouts (mini-Os are easy).

You probably know this, but you can click on the little 'tidy' icon (or press T) and it'll make your rough diamond into a lovely perfect circle. I added that because drawing roundabouts was hacking me off too.

andygates · « **Reply #627 on:** 30 April, 2010, 03:23:36 pm »

But then I always get anal-retentive about the flares...

frankly frankie · « **Reply #628 on:** 30 April, 2010, 06:32:09 pm »

It fascinates me how adding a feature or two to an almost blank canvas can act as a 'seed'.
Here's what has happened to the OSM map of Falaise (a significant but not large town in Normandy) over the last year ...

Last April it looked like this:

(images from Mapsource, not the online render, the red circle is a Mapsource overlay not a map feature)

Then I cycled through with some friends in May, stayed the night and moved on.
So a couple of weeks later it was looking like this:

By February of this year it was looking like this:

red marley · « **Reply #629 on:** 30 April, 2010, 07:38:48 pm »

It's like a more constructive version of the Broken Window Theory.

andygates · « **Reply #630 on:** 30 April, 2010, 09:34:16 pm »

Something less impressive but similar happened after I dropped a point for McMurdo Station. Some nerd who had worked there added rough info!

The same is true of wikipedia - it's a wiki thing in general, to lay a stub and watch the other good faeries itch to flesh it out.

MSeries · « **Reply #631 on:** 03 May, 2010, 10:28:05 am »

Quote from: leeg on 02 January, 2009, 10:29:38 pm

Quote from: frankly frankie on 30 December, 2008, 10:52:35 am
Quote from: zzpza on 29 December, 2008, 10:13:52 pm
Quote from: tonycollinet on 29 December, 2008, 10:07:39 pm
Which ones do I need to work with these maps?? (starting at the low price end)

any that can use maps.

The Edge series and other newer Garmin types like Oregon have a completely 'new' way of handling the card data generally, which obviously does work -

older card-carrying Garmins don't treat the card as a 'drive' and you can't really navigate around it - AFAIK, you have to upload the maps into the GPS via Mapsource to register them properly. So you'd still need a copy of Mapsource. Enabling this map in Mapsource will at very least need a registry hack won't it? I haven't seen such a thing as yet (maybe haven't looked hard enough).

And the single map file is too big for older non-card-carrying Garmins - their memory limit is 24Mb.

Great project though.

I had a play around today and have managed to get the South East of England onto my Garmin Etrex Vista C (old model with 24mb internal memory). Here's what I had to do (there may be short cuts I've missed);

1. Download Sendmap20 and unzip it into a directory, from http://cgpsmapper.com/download/sendmap20.zip

2. Use this site to select the map tiles you need Coordinate-To-OSM-Tile - this also gives you a command line for later use.

3. Download (to the same dir as sendmap20) the above .img map tiles from Computerteddy's site - http://osm.ammit.de/osm/latest/img/

4. Unzip each of the files to get the .img files

5. Connect your gps via USB, switch it on. Open a DOS window, cd to the sendmap20 dir and run the command line from step 2 but remove the -l parameter so for the 6 tiles for SE Eng that is;
sendmap20 63272362.img 63272361.img 63272542.img 63272541.img 63272722.img 63272721.img

That's it, the maps appeared in my GPS. Those 6 tiles used approx 12mb space (those that didn't include a lot of sea were about 7mb each).

The tiles on Computerteddy's site are refreshed once a month so you'd have to repeat steps 2 to 5 periodically to keep up to date.

This looks like what I am looking for. I have some questions though.

Does it produce routable maps so I can have the GPS find me a route from where I am to a place ?
Did it work on your Vista C ?
The Computerteddy link is dead, do you know of an alternative ?

frankly frankie · « **Reply #632 on:** 03 May, 2010, 02:19:35 pm »

http://ulrichkuester.de/OSM/CoordinateToOSMTile.html to find which tiles you want
http://openstreetmap.teddynetz.de:81/latest/img/ to download them - they're refreshed weekly as far as I can see, but of course the data source may not change much in that time. I find my own updates (which appear online in OSM's basic render straight away) take about 2 weeks to filter through to these downloadable tiles.

MSeries · « **Reply #633 on:** 03 May, 2010, 04:01:31 pm »

Quote from: frankly frankie on 03 May, 2010, 02:19:35 pm

http://ulrichkuester.de/OSM/CoordinateToOSMTile.html to find which tiles you want
http://openstreetmap.teddynetz.de:81/latest/img/ to download them - they're refreshed weekly as far as I can see, but of course the data source may not change much in that time. I find my own updates (which appear online in OSM's basic render straight away) take about 2 weeks to filter through to these downloadable tiles.

thanks, how do you show them in MapSource ?

I have followed the instructions with MapsetToolKit (v1.77 Beta) and I can load the sample that came with sendmap20 but can't load the tiles I want. The same tiles load to my GPS using sendmap20 though, but they don't seem to be routable. When i try to goto an address it starts calculating but says "no road found near start"

do you have any idea about my other questions, in particular 'are these map routable ?'

fuaran · « **Reply #634 on:** 03 May, 2010, 04:56:57 pm »

No, those Computerteddy maps are not routable.
There's instructions for installing them in Mapsource (using MapSetToolKit) here: OSM Map On MapSource - OpenStreetMap Wiki

MSeries · « **Reply #635 on:** 03 May, 2010, 05:08:21 pm »

Quote from: fuaran on 03 May, 2010, 04:56:57 pm

No, those Computerteddy maps are not routable.
There's instructions for installing them in Mapsource (using MapSetToolKit) here: OSM Map On MapSource - OpenStreetMap Wiki

Thanks, I followed the instructions, what was missing was I had to check "Blank Overview maps" If they are not routable I may as well stick with those I have from Metroguide. Thanks for your help though

I came across this site that'll do it all for me: Worldwide routable Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap don't know if it's been linked to before. I have loaded the maps into MapSource and they look OK. BUT I have since got the autorouting to work with my MetroGuide Europe anyway.

frankly frankie · « **Reply #636 on:** 04 May, 2010, 03:08:53 pm »

Hmm - routable OSM - you'd be a braver man than I, Gunga Din.

After all, all it takes to foul it up:
* a missing road or 2 (plenty of those)
* a mal-formed junction (I see those every time I visit the edit facility)
* a 1-way tagged the wrong way (ditto)

What particularly bothers me is, if minor roads get extensively mapped by cyclists, but parallel major roads remain unmapped - and then people try to autoroute through this network - it will make the quiet roads busier. I know several areas in France where the map is currently in this state.

andygates · « **Reply #637 on:** 04 May, 2010, 03:16:24 pm »

Works mostly fine. Sometimes sends you down silly routes, but so does commercial satnav. I've been using routable OSM as my primary wayfinder for ages now. It was shonky a year ago, granted.

MSeries · « **Reply #638 on:** 04 May, 2010, 03:19:23 pm »

Quote from: frankly frankie on 04 May, 2010, 03:08:53 pm

Hmm - routable OSM - you'd be a braver man than I, Gunga Din.

Well as I said I've made my MetroGuide routable in both MapSource and my GPS now anyway so that'll do for now. I looked into ROSM as a way of getting something routable for free. While I was waiting for them to be generated I managed to get MetroGuide to work for nearly free.

the potential for foul ups that you list exists for all maps, we take them on trust.

Richard Fairhurst · « **Reply #639 on:** 04 May, 2010, 05:57:11 pm »

Quote from: frankly frankie on 04 May, 2010, 03:08:53 pm

What particularly bothers me is, if minor roads get extensively mapped by cyclists, but parallel major roads remain unmapped - and then people try to autoroute through this network - it will make the quiet roads busier. I know several areas in France where the map is currently in this state.

I wouldn't worry too much. I think OSM in the UK probably now has 95% of A and B roads mapped (I keep trying to pick off the missing B roads...), but by and large it's only us cyclists who are using it for navigation anyway.

andygates · « **Reply #640 on:** 08 May, 2010, 10:28:50 pm »

It'll take OSM-on-TomTom or penetration of the dashboard market with smartphones to do that. Garmin means that it's hikers and bikers, and hikers don't use navigation.

Greenbank · « **Reply #641 on:** 09 May, 2010, 09:08:46 pm »

It (Routable OSM) kept on trying to direct me down footpaths and byways. It seemed that the last thing it wanted me to do was go in a straight line.

Once it said "Left into Alley" which was a gated driveway of a farm. Odd.

I may not have had it set to the best option (Bicycle, no 'dirt roads') so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt as it could have been my cack-handedness as it was my first use of this GPS.

More playing required.

andygates · « **Reply #642 on:** 09 May, 2010, 09:26:53 pm »

'Bicycle' is by far the Garmin's weakest routing: it has some funny ideas involving leafy lanes, as far as I can tell. It does the same with other maps. It's neither fish nor fowl.

Greenbank · « **Reply #643 on:** 09 May, 2010, 09:37:43 pm »

This is the new improved "Bicycle" routing from the cycling specific Edge 705, supposedly improved upon the non-cycling specific eTrex. Still needs lots to be desired though obviously.

For example, going through Marlborough West to East. Coming in on the A4, going out through Mildenhall and Axford. Obvious route from the A4 is High Street, bear left for Kingsbury St, R into Silverless St and SOX.

I got "Right onto dirt track" here (the green arrow). No idea where it would have taken me, or how it would have got to where I wanted to go.

I need to go back and look what routing options you get under each mode. It doesn't have the fabled "delivery" mode of the eTrexes.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #644 on:** 09 May, 2010, 09:40:36 pm »

But surely the routing problems are due to the mapping rather than the device?

andygates · « **Reply #645 on:** 09 May, 2010, 09:55:48 pm »

Not if the device assumes that bikes prefer traffic-free routes. And it's not the same as the "avoid highways" setting: for example I've been directed onto a major A-road and then onto its bike path. In that case, a good choice.

*head asplode*

It's all voodoo IMO. If you want to stay on roads - you're riding a road bike - route as for a car, with optional "avoid highways" if there's a pig of an autobahn in the way. YMM,O,V.

Jules · « **Reply #646 on:** 09 May, 2010, 09:59:36 pm »

Quote from: Greenbank on 09 May, 2010, 09:08:46 pm

It (Routable OSM) kept on trying to direct me down footpaths and byways. It seemed that the last thing it wanted me to do was go in a straight line.

Once it said "Left into Alley" which was a gated driveway of a farm. Odd.

I may not have had it set to the best option (Bicycle, no 'dirt roads') so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt as it could have been my cack-handedness as it was my first use of this GPS.

More playing required.

See my Severn Across posting. I spent much of the dawn fighting with concepts like "left onto track", "right onto unmade road". Perhaps a solution is a version of OSM with only metalled roads?

andygates · « **Reply #647 on:** 09 May, 2010, 10:09:53 pm »

Just be a car in the eyes of your routing.

Panoramix · « **Reply #648 on:** 09 May, 2010, 11:01:55 pm »

This guy: Openmtbmap.org – Mountainbike / Bicycle/ Hiking Maps based on Openstreetmap avoided the issue by marking unmade road as toll road so if you tick "avoid toll road" it does not route you on unmade roads

sbseven · « **Reply #649 on:** 09 May, 2010, 11:12:06 pm »

Quote from: Greenbank on 09 May, 2010, 09:08:46 pm

It (Routable OSM) kept on trying to direct me down footpaths and byways. It seemed that the last thing it wanted me to do was go in a straight line.

Once it said "Left into Alley" which was a gated driveway of a farm. Odd.

I may not have had it set to the best option (Bicycle, no 'dirt roads') so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt as it could have been my cack-handedness as it was my first use of this GPS.

More playing required.

Who created the OSM garmin map you're using? If it wasn't andy then it's possible the creator has played around with road class and speed priorities, upping all the off-road track values. Was it a "bike specific" one?

Quote from: Julesh on 09 May, 2010, 09:59:36 pm

See my Severn Across posting. I spent much of the dawn fighting with concepts like "left onto track", "right onto unmade road". Perhaps a solution is a version of OSM with only metalled roads?

This is possible. You can build an OSM Garmin map where certain types of ways are deliberately not routable. E.g. no routing on motorways and trunk roads or no routing on unpaved tracks. You'd do it by either changing the road style away from the garmin routable road codes (0x01 to 0x1B?) or playing with the road class and speed values to make certain roads very unattractive to the routing algorithm. You can do both of these things with mkgmap.

Shaun

Author Topic: Free maps for Garmin (Read 193818 times)

red marley