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Free Maps for Garmin GPS


ibycus

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I'm using some custom programs to do it. I'd share them, but they really aren't in a 'finished' state. You could use GPSMapEdit to do it, but assigning entity types isn't the most straight forward thing to do. I don't know how other people are handling this, possibly through a series of search and replaces on the DBF files.

PostGIS is my favoriate way to process through data like that. Allows me to quickly process the elements.

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ibycus, do you have a list of all the states in your map handy? I would like to add it to gpsfiledepot and only want to select the states you've already completely. (you are actually more than welcome to register and add it yourself then you can update them as you make updates).

 

Dan

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I don't have one yet, but I probably should, so I'll make one.

 

ALABAMA

ARIZONA

ARKANSAS

CALIFORNIA

KANSAS

KENTUCKY

LOUISIANA

MINNESOTA

MONTANA

NEBRASKA

NEVADA

NEW_HAMPSHIRE

NEW_JERSEY

NEW_MEXICO

NEW_YORK

NORTH_CAROLINA

NORTH_DAKOTA

OHIO

OREGON

WYOMING

 

States I have downloaded, but not processed yet, and thus can add relatively readily:

ALASKA

CONNECTICUT

DELAWARE

DISTRICT_OF_COLUMBIA

FLORIDA

MAINE

MARYLAND

MASSACHUSETTS

MICHIGAN

MISSISSIPPI

MISSOURI

OKLAHOMA

PENNSYLVANIA

RHODE_ISLAND

SOUTH_CAROLINA

SOUTH_DAKOTA

TENNESSEE

TEXAS

UTAH

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Are you taking requests for US States, ibycus? Cause if you are I vote for Washington. Especially if I can add if to the Canadian Topo map...hint...oh so subtle hint...heh.

 

I think I've had requests for just about every state now :). As I don't have Washington downloaded yet, it may be a little while, but I'll add it to my list.

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The Colorado topo map is great. Is there by chance a topo for Kansas and Utah anywhere?

 

You probably want IndyJpr's thread. I'm looking in to topo, but I'm not there yet.

 

As an aside, how are those doing the topo downloading the data? Manually? Or is it batched up somehow?

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As an aside, how are those doing the topo downloading the data? Manually? Or is it batched up somehow?

I'm making a tutorial as I make Mississippi and I just wrote how I download the DEM data. Its definitely not batch. I wish I could send the requests from a server and then just have a server sit there and process it all.

 

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-...elevation-data/

 

I think I've worked out *how* to batch it. I haven't done it yet, but in theory it shouldn't be too tough. (in part I wanted to make sure I wasn't duplicating effort).

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I'm making a tutorial as I make Mississippi and I just wrote how I download the DEM data. Its definitely not batch. I wish I could send the requests from a server and then just have a server sit there and process it all.

 

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-...elevation-data/

 

Glad you're doing the tutorial. It's been a while since I made any custom maps. Who knows, maybe I'll tackle NC!

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As an aside, how are those doing the topo downloading the data? Manually? Or is it batched up somehow?

I'm making a tutorial as I make Mississippi and I just wrote how I download the DEM data. Its definitely not batch. I wish I could send the requests from a server and then just have a server sit there and process it all.

 

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-...elevation-data/

 

I think I've worked out *how* to batch it. I haven't done it yet, but in theory it shouldn't be too tough. (in part I wanted to make sure I wasn't duplicating effort).

If you batch it I definitely have a server I would dedicate to doing it. Processing still takes awhile though.

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If you batch it I definitely have a server I would dedicate to doing it. Processing still takes awhile though.

 

Is it a windows server? The process is going to involve some coding, and I'm most fluent in VB.

 

Basically as far as I've worked out to this point, its

 

1. Request URL (as indicated on your Excel sheets)

2. Parse returned data to find the "Forms"

3. Submit a "GET" request based on the form data

4. Parse returned data to get Status URL

5. Periodically refresh to get update on status

6. Download file when available.

 

If I could work out the format of the GET request, it might be possible to skip steps 1 & 2 which would greatly simplify the process.

Might be able to optimize the proceedure a little bit by submitting the next "GET" just before submitting the request for the file (that way the server gets working on the next file while we download).

 

The risk is of course getting banned from the USGS server, as I'm not sure if an automated download is permissible. :).

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I can use a windows server. I know some vb but I've never really done scraping of the pages. Done it for text files.

 

That is an interesting way to do it. It would make life so much easier. Its quite annoying to have to individually download them all.

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Which GPSr's will this work with? CS and later? Csx and later?

 

Should work with any of the Gamin mapping capable units. I've successfully loaded the maps on to:

 

60CS

Legend (original)

Venture Cx

Mobile XT (On Palm Pilot)

Nuvi 650

 

I know its been loaded on *many* other types of GPSrs (I haven't heard of a type that it doesn't work on). There are a few issues with the display (roads very thin) on the Colorado (more of an issue for the Canadian Mapset), these are being worked out (actually they are worked out, I just haven't recompiled everywhere).

 

HTH

 

Dale

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Ok, question from a newbie. I down loaded the garmin stuff and your file. I can see it in mapsource. Now how do I load the map into my GPS?

 

I have a 60CSX.

 

Thanks.

 

Click the button beside the Magnifying glass (or hit 'm').

 

Select the tiles you want.

 

Click Transfer --> Send to device

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Could you please add Mississippi to your to do list? I will be attempting to add contours for a couple of sections of selected Quads, but the whole state would be nice to have.

I am working on Mississippi right now. contour data is all download and will be processed by the end of the week. Water data is starting to download.

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...11&t=191353 post in there if you have insight, suggestions, or any trail data.

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I am interested in checking out your maps(specifically wisconsin :rolleyes: )Do I download your exe file and go from there? Do I wait till I know you have wisconsin?

 

Hi,

 

Haven't done Wisconsin (yet). Busy with final exams right now, otherwise I'd run it for you right now.

 

Dale

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I am interested in checking out your maps(specifically wisconsin :rolleyes: )Do I download your exe file and go from there? Do I wait till I know you have wisconsin?

 

Hi,

 

Haven't done Wisconsin (yet). Busy with final exams right now, otherwise I'd run it for you right now.

 

Dale

I understand I am "studying" right now also. Do I then wait till you "run" wisconsin then run your exe? If I do this will I be then getting all the maps that you have run?

 

mark

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Wow. This is great. Now I can give my husband some maps once I find him a GPSr.

 

I have one question.... I've installed the maps on my computer and can see them in Mapsource. But when I try to select the maps to make a set to download, I can't get the eastern part of Long Island. It shows on the map online, and displays the county name, but doesn't get a yellow outline or turn pink when I try to select it. Something weird there?

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Wow. This is great. Now I can give my husband some maps once I find him a GPSr.

 

I have one question.... I've installed the maps on my computer and can see them in Mapsource. But when I try to select the maps to make a set to download, I can't get the eastern part of Long Island. It shows on the map online, and displays the county name, but doesn't get a yellow outline or turn pink when I try to select it. Something weird there?

 

Coordinates? I could probably figure it out, but I want to make sure I'm looking at the right place.

 

I'm guessing this is one of the counties that crashed my program. I skipped it and moved on. I've since found the problem (I think) and will include it in a later version.

 

Dale

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Oooooh I see the problem. I'll have to figure out how to overcome it, but I do see the problem. (the problem is that the county is defined by multiple polygons. I hadn't thought of this, and I'm not sure how I can deal with it directly.

 

If you select at N40 46.756 W72 43.514 and transfer to your GPS, do you see the map?

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I get the name of the map transferred over and can choose it on my Map Setup menu, but when I zoom in, it looks like there's no data. I don't see any roads, just the minimal highway, shoreline, etc from, I guess, the base map.

 

Stupid me erased my City Navigator maps when I did that test! I guess they can load up again over dinner. :rolleyes:

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i just want to think you again for the maps they are pretty accurate more so then i would have thought, there is a "very" small pond out in the middle of just about no where hidden by the forest that i go to and couldn't believe it was on the maps i know some roads by their older local names and some on the maps had both the older and newer names.

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Great project! New to the forums here. I just picked up a Venture HC a few days ago. Assuming these maps work on my GPS and that you have the time, I'd like to put in another request for Missouri. I'm heading down there on Tuesday. Good luck on your exams!

 

On a related note, does anyone know how I would put the original map back on the Venture HC, if needed? I'm worried I'm going to screw up and have a non-functional unit.

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Finally decided to give this a try. Did the download, brought up MapSource, selected the county segements to try and loaded on my Colorado 300. Don't see the 'new' streetlevel maps until I adjust zoom level down to 0.2 mi or lower. Is that correct, is not possible to see the streets at higher zoom or is there some setting on my CO I need to change?

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Great project! New to the forums here. I just picked up a Venture HC a few days ago. Assuming these maps work on my GPS and that you have the time, I'd like to put in another request for Missouri. I'm heading down there on Tuesday. Good luck on your exams!

 

Oh, yeah, if it goes by voting, add another Missouri request from me. We're biking the Katy trail next month, and if I ever get over being too cheap to win an Ebay auction, I'm hoping to have a new GPSr for my husband to bring. It would be great to have the map on his.

 

Hmmm... it would be double great if the Katy Trail shows up on the map. That will be interesting to see.

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Great project! New to the forums here. I just picked up a Venture HC a few days ago. Assuming these maps work on my GPS and that you have the time, I'd like to put in another request for Missouri. I'm heading down there on Tuesday. Good luck on your exams!

 

Oh, yeah, if it goes by voting, add another Missouri request from me. We're biking the Katy trail next month, and if I ever get over being too cheap to win an Ebay auction, I'm hoping to have a new GPSr for my husband to bring. It would be great to have the map on his.

 

Hmmm... it would be double great if the Katy Trail shows up on the map. That will be interesting to see.

 

Doesn't really go by voting, but I've bumped Missouri to next in line 'just cuz' (mostly the 'heading there on Tuesday' comment). Missouri is now processed, I just have to upload it to the website.

 

Dale

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Doesn't really go by voting, but I've bumped Missouri to next in line 'just cuz' (mostly the 'heading there on Tuesday' comment). Missouri is now processed, I just have to upload it to the website.

 

Dale

 

Thanks! By the way, I loaded a small portion of Arkansas (I'll be heading there too) into my Venture HC and it seems to work fine. I'm in Michigan so I can't test the accuracy yet.

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Some here will be familiar with my Canadian Topo Maps. Well, on March 31st, the US Census Department released all kinds of fancy new data on to their website, including features like rivers, lakes, streams, roads (with names and address information), power lines, some trail information, etc.

 

Unlike the Canadian data source, there is no topo information on these maps. (While topo data is available for the US, I haven't found one that splits the data by county, which to do manually would be rather difficult).

 

Anyways, I've taken a 'first pass' at getting these maps on to a Garmin Unit. They seem to look fairly good to my eyes, but I have no idea how accurate the data is (Canadian Census data for the roads is ridiculously bad), but on the surface it looks like its not too bad (in many cases there appears to be more detail than what is no my City Navigator v7 maps, my dataset for Alabama that I've processed is ~50MB)

 

Before I go too far, I wanted to make sure that there is some interest.

 

There are a couple of deficiencies in my maps, some of which will be harder to address than others.

 

Weaknesses

There is no 'auto-routing' capability on these maps. Its also not likely that this will be there any time soon.

Addresses aren't included - these may eventually be included.

Data is split by county - this means lots of individual map tiles. This isn't likely to change.

Maptiles are named with an obscure numbering system (specifically according the FIPS # of the county if that means anything to you). Again, not likely to change

Given that the data is split by county, and counties have irregular boundaries, the map tiles overlap... this is fixable...don't know how big of a deal this is, but its something people would notice.

No street level addressing

No Topo Data - Not likely to change unless I can find a datasource that splits the data by county...or possibly create a seperate mapset to overlay on these maps.

 

Strengths

The amount of data seems to be pretty high. (50MB for Alabama)

The quality of the data at least seems good on the surface.

Probably relatively up to date data (brand new release)

Free.

 

Given the above, how useful would this data be to people? If there is no demand, I likely won't go too far with it. I've got Alabama done, and I've downloaded a few more states (a state takes me a couple of hours to fully process start to finish).

 

If there is interest, I can post my Alabama map tonight. If you're really interested in your home state, let me know, and I'll try to get the data for it downloaded, processed compiled and uploaded.

 

Dale

 

**edit to add link to the mapset

http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe (future versions will likely be linked to under http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa, but there is nothing else there right now)

 

How about maps of Masschusetts or all of New England?

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Nice work, Dale. I eagerly await the addition of topo. :huh:

 

I've noticed some funny things in the California maps. I have no idea if any of it is under your control though.

 

I can find many of these errors. These are just examples.

 

Some islands show as water. Example N32 46.555 W117 14.127

4b5b1e92-5be8-40f2-9f0c-cf537874ad56.jpg

 

Some bodies of water are given the names of other bodies that are far away. Example N37 08.382 W122 22.622

6df6d952-e9ae-4b6a-87b1-511e6b022799.jpg

Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir is actually here: N37 31.241 W122 21.788

Foster City Lagoon is actually here: N37 33.915 W122 15.917

 

Some parks and military installations are mislabeled too. Example N32 50.010 W117 03.391

d27ff5af-583f-4ee6-aae7-c5ecd2aee6f9.jpg

Mesa College here should be Mission Trails Regional Park

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