Newbie daft question...

[frankly frankie]

I would think the preference of people receiving these files for validation would be to receive a raw, unadulterated track file as far as possible.  Things like, for example, spurious top and tail of track generated while travelling to/from the start/finish, IMO are best just left on.  They are easily spotted in the software and only a minor inconvenience.  Likewise small breaks in the track, they aren't really a problem at all.

[phil d]

If you're using a Vista HCx, its best to set it to log the track to the memory card, then you never have to worry about running out of space. If you do this it will log the track as one GPX file per day. If you switch the eTrex off and on it will create separate tracks, but they will still be in the same GPX file. I'm not sure about the AUK software, but it should accept this.

When I submitted just such a track (created on a Legend HCx, with a break while I was inside Hereford Cathedral with the unit out of satellite sight) there was no problem with verification at all.

On one ride I was most concerned to see the early part of a track being deleted on-screen as I approached the end of a 200+k ride.  The tracklog on the card, however, was complete with both start and finish.

[Kim]

On one ride I was most concerned to see the early part of a track being deleted on-screen as I approached the end of a 200+k ride.  The tracklog on the card, however, was complete with both start and finish.

See my post above.  With "wrap when full" switched off it would have simply stopped logging and without intervention you would have lost the end of the ride.

[Biggsy]

Right, so I know about City Navigator, Topo, OSM and contour maps.  Is there anything else that works with a 605 - be it useful or fun?

[frankly frankie]

POIs?  Not very exciting, but for example, Decathlon (France) have a downloadable file on their website of all their store locations in Europe (excluding the UK ones, strangely).  This can be placed on the SD card and the stores can then be accessed in the Find menu - and they will show on the map in normal use if the zoom is close enough.
Using a POI Editor you can merge several datasets and assign various symbols - so I have a single POI file including all Decathlons, all Intersport, all Sport 2000 and lots of French LBS - so I can always do a find on 'nearest bike shop'.  Strangely, my combined file also includes all real-ale pubs in York.  It's easy in the GPS Find menu to filter the search to any one of these categories, so you can combine anything (because, like the map, you can only have one active POI file).

All that said, it's sat on my GPS for 2 years and I haven't really found a use for it (nearby Decathlons tend to make their presence rather obvious anyway!).

[Biggsy]

Good idea, thanks.  I expect I'll find some useful ones.

[Plodder]

Good idea, thanks.  I expect I'll find some useful ones.

The most useful for me to date has been the CAMRA Good Beer Guide POI file.
http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=280240

[Somnolent]

nice idea but it rather goes against the grain to pay for it.

[rafletcher]

REsurrecting this, as I never got around to doing anything last year. I'm (still) struggling to get maps onto my Garmin 705 despite reading this thread!

Now I've finally managed to get a job in a sensible location, I'm looking to ride the 16 miles to work on occaision, and would like to route several different ways to do so which I understand I can do in garmins Trianing Centre - but that's a question for later perhaps!

I've downloaded andygates's maps-with-contours from ravenfamily.org (having seen him refer to them on the how-to in OSM) and so have the zip file. Now how on God's earth do I get them into Mapsource and onto the Garmin?  If I double-click on the zip file I downloaded (GMAPPSUP) I get an error message about winzip only supporting IMG files in the ISO format    And that's me stuck.

Hopefully someone can take me through the next stages step by step!

[Biggsy]

Sorry this is not a step-by-step guide, but a few questions that may help others to help......

What options do you see when you right-click the zip file?  You want to unzip it.

Then do you want to combine it with a Garmin City Navigator map*, or use the OSM map with contours on its own?  If combined, do you have a City Navigator map on DVD or memory card only?

You might need to use another program like MapSetToolKit at some stage.

* So that you can switch between maps on the 705.

[frankly frankie]

Hopefully someone can take me through the next stages step by step!

The .img file is well-formed to go straight onto the GPS but I think getting it into Mapsource is quite complicated.

The easy way to get OSM maps into Mapsource is to use the version downloadable via the 'build my map option' at:
http://garmin.na1400.info/routable.php
it's the same map data as in Andy's maps (though without the contours, and different styling) but it has the other advantage (IMO) that it is available in smaller chunks.

NB as I write there's a note on that page to say the server has a long queue of requests - 5 day's-worth (!) though I just downloaded a single tile on demand and that was speedy enough.
Normally the request queue is 1 hour or less, so the 5 day thing looks like a temporary fault.

[rafletcher]

Sorry this is not a step-by-step guide, but a few questions that may help others to help......

What options do you see when you right-click the zip file?  You want to unzip it.

Then do you want to combine it with a Garmin City Navigator map*, or use the OSM map with contours on its own?  If combined, do you have a City Navigator map on DVD or memory card only?

You might need to use another program like MapSetToolKit at some stage.

* So that you can switch between maps on the 705.

Right-clicking has the "extract to" option - but whichever I select I get the same error message:

"Error - Winzip only supports IMG files that are in the ISO formet" 

[Biggsy]

Have a go with this alternative unzipper:

IZArc - The Best Freeware ZIP Utility - RAR 7-ZIP UNZIP UNRAR ENCRYPT ISO BIN

[andygates]

Winzip is being silly. 

"IMG", being short for "image", is used by lots of different programs to mean lots of different things.  ISO's a CD image.  You're not using a Mac, are you?

Anyhoo, a copy of 7-zip will do the job, and it's free as Biggsy sez. 

[Greenbank]

If I double-click on the zip file I downloaded (GMAPPSUP) I get an error message about winzip only supporting IMG files in the ISO format    And that's me stuck.

Could be two things:-

a) The browser unzipped the file for you when it downloaded it (older versions of Netscape and Firefox used to do this).

Skip the unzip step and try copying the GMAPPSUP.IMG file onto the Garmin to see if that works.

b) The browser stripped off the .zip extension when it downloaded it (another annoying thing some browsers do).

Try renaming the file to GMAPSUPP.IMG.ZIP and then right clicking on it to unzip it.

But, by the sounds of it it's more likely to be (a).

[rafletcher]

Thanks guys - I think it's still a .zip - it's IE of course, but the file listing has it as a zip file in the description - BUT the .zip was stripped from the filename so I'll try the GMAPPSUP.IMG.ZIP  (it's listed just as GMAPSUPP in explorer)

And if that works I'll be back to see how to get it into mapsource!