Free Maps for Garmin GPS

[+Fishnic]

i will volunteer to check accuracies of Illinois and Wisconsin

[+Naked Baby]

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)

 

I downloaded and installed the IbycusUSA.exe file, now how do i use it? I have Mapsource installed, now what?

[Polynomial]

I downloaded and installed the IbycusUSA.exe file, now how do i use it? I have Mapsource installed, now what?

 

On my installation there's a drop-down menu in the upper left that says "Trip and Waypoint Manager v4". If you click on the down arrow you should be able to select Ibycus USA 1.1. Then use the map tool (hover over the icons to get their description) to select the areas you want to download to your GPS. Then I believe (don't have the GPS hooked up right now) you select Transfer in the toolbar and then Send to Device....

[+ibycus]

I downloaded and installed the IbycusUSA.exe file, now how do i use it? I have Mapsource installed, now what?

 

On my installation there's a drop-down menu in the upper left that says "Trip and Waypoint Manager v4". If you click on the down arrow you should be able to select Ibycus USA 1.1. Then use the map tool (hover over the icons to get their description) to select the areas you want to download to your GPS. Then I believe (don't have the GPS hooked up right now) you select Transfer in the toolbar and then Send to Device....

 

That is correct.

 

I'll check those areas in California and see if this is a problem with the source data, or something in my conversion (I'm guess I've somehow managed to botch the conversion, although I don't know how).

 

Are any of the lake names right?

 

Dale

[+Naked Baby]

I downloaded and installed the IbycusUSA.exe file, now how do i use it? I have Mapsource installed, now what?

 

On my installation there's a drop-down menu in the upper left that says "Trip and Waypoint Manager v4". If you click on the down arrow you should be able to select Ibycus USA 1.1. Then use the map tool (hover over the icons to get their description) to select the areas you want to download to your GPS. Then I believe (don't have the GPS hooked up right now) you select Transfer in the toolbar and then Send to Device....

 

That is correct.

 

I'll check those areas in California and see if this is a problem with the source data, or something in my conversion (I'm guess I've somehow managed to botch the conversion, although I don't know how).

 

Are any of the lake names right?

 

Dale

 

how about massachusetts and rhode island

[+GPSlug]

Are any of the lake names right?

I think more are right than wrong.

[+9 pointed star]

Do you have TX., OK., and LA? Those are the first I really need. Thanx.

[murphie48]

It would be much appreciated if you could do Florida. No rush as I haven't even picked out my GPS (newbie).

 

Speaking of which, anyone have recommendations for an easy to use GPS for the South Florida region? It's all cities where I am, but once I get my feet wet I might venture to the more rural areas like the Keys.

[groundhog123]

Another vote for Texas and Oklahoma. Hope your finals went well and thanks for the work on this.

[jd102]

Does anyone know if a South Carolina map exists?

[+xakdublin]

I've tried downloading the exe several times in different ways on different browsers and keep getting a NSIS error saying the file couldn't pass error checking verification..

 

Either way if Pennsylvania, Vermont, and New Hampshire could be done, I'd love you long time (if I could get the thing to work first)

[+ibycus]

I've tried downloading the exe several times in different ways on different browsers and keep getting a NSIS error saying the file couldn't pass error checking verification..

 

Either way if Pennsylvania, Vermont, and New Hampshire could be done, I'd love you long time (if I could get the thing to work first)

 

What's the size on your EXE file? Sounds like a corrupted download. Have you tried downloading with a different browser? I find some browsers better than others at large downloads (I know I had to install firefox to get some of the road network files to download).

[+xakdublin]

I've tried downloading the exe several times in different ways on different browsers and keep getting a NSIS error saying the file couldn't pass error checking verification..

 

Either way if Pennsylvania, Vermont, and New Hampshire could be done, I'd love you long time (if I could get the thing to work first)

 

What's the size on your EXE file? Sounds like a corrupted download. Have you tried downloading with a different browser? I find some browsers better than others at large downloads (I know I had to install firefox to get some of the road network files to download).

 

Each time downloaded marks it at 445MB, downloaded in Firefox, IE with and without the Orbit Downloader (which kind of annoys me anyways so I should get rid of it.) I'll try it in Mozilla too and see if that does anything.

 

::Edit:: I just found a bypass in the error checking process, by using /NCRC in the command line, and when this copy downloads, if it doesn't work either I'll try that.

Edited May 1, 2008 by xakdublin

[+xakdublin]

/NCRC didn't work, only continued about 1% into the install and decided it was corrupted again. I'm not sure what the deal is anymore. I'll try downloading on my Macbook on the Windows partition

 

...annnnd nothing.

Edited May 1, 2008 by xakdublin

[+ibycus]

/NCRC didn't work, only continued about 1% into the install and decided it was corrupted again. I'm not sure what the deal is anymore. I'll try downloading on my Macbook on the Windows partition

 

...annnnd nothing.

 

I've got a new installer ready to be uploaded. I'll get it going right now. Should be available by the morning.

[+ibycus]

Each time downloaded marks it at 445MB, downloaded in Firefox, IE with and without the Orbit Downloader (which kind of annoys me anyways so I should get rid of it.) I'll try it in Mozilla too and see if that does anything.

 

The exact file size (to the byte) should be 466,959,260 bytes. I'd give you an MD5, but I no longer have the installer on my system.

[+xakdublin]

I checked the exact size and got the same reading as you, 466,959,260. I can't think of anything else on my end that could be wrong. I look forward to the next version though. Thanks for the quick action

[+Naked Baby]

How about massachusetts!!!?!?!?!

[+ibycus]

I checked the exact size and got the same reading as you, 466,959,260. I can't think of anything else on my end that could be wrong. I look forward to the next version though. Thanks for the quick action

 

Next version is online. I'm not sure what the problem could be either. Only thing I can even remotely come up with is that maybe there is a problem with some kind of security setting on your computer.

 

(New version is 581,588,506 bytes, available at http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe)

[+JSWilson64]

(New version is 581,588,506 bytes, available at http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe)

 

Awesome project! Do you have an updated list of what's included in the latest version?

[+HeyGeocacher]

Awesome! These look great. I would really appreciate Iowa whenever you get a chance.

Good job.

[+ibycus]

(New version is 581,588,506 bytes, available at http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe)

 

Awesome project! Do you have an updated list of what's included in the latest version?

 

I do now

 

ALABAMA

ARIZONA

ARKANSAS

CALIFORNIA

KANSAS

KENTUCKY

LOUISIANA

MICHIGAN

MINNESOTA

MISSOURI

MONTANA

NEBRASKA

NEVADA

NEW_HAMPSHIRE

NEW_JERSEY

NEW_MEXICO

NEW_YORK

NORTH_CAROLINA

NORTH_DAKOTA

OHIO

OREGON

PENNSYLVANIA

SOUTH_CAROLINA

UTAH

WYOMING

[+JSWilson64]

ALABAMA

ARIZONA

ARKANSAS

CALIFORNIA

KANSAS

KENTUCKY

LOUISIANA

MICHIGAN

MINNESOTA

MISSOURI

MONTANA

NEBRASKA

NEVADA

NEW_HAMPSHIRE

NEW_JERSEY

NEW_MEXICO

NEW_YORK

NORTH_CAROLINA

NORTH_DAKOTA

OHIO

OREGON

PENNSYLVANIA

SOUTH_CAROLINA

UTAH

WYOMING

I'll double-vote again for Texas - it's bigger than France, it deserves maps!

[CivilVet]

I vote for Iowa and Maine

[+xakdublin]

I'm throwing in the towel rather than be a thorn in your side, I've got the newest build, same filesize, disabled A/V, shut down certain programs, trying on the macbook, and several other things, and it's just not working out for me. Maybe I just need to give up.

[TexasTrails]

Thank you for all your efforts.

 

I will vote for Texas!

[+ibycus]

Thank you for all your efforts.

 

I will vote for Texas!

 

Texas is in the works right now. It should be part of the next release.

 

Dale

[+Naked Baby]

Thank you for all your efforts.

 

I will vote for Texas!

 

Texas is in the works right now. It should be part of the next release.

 

Dale

 

Massachusetts!!!!!!

the maybe Rhode Island

[PG+LT+WD+AD]

Idaho please. Thanks for all your work on this

[jd102]

(New version is 581,588,506 bytes, available at http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe)

 

Awesome project! Do you have an updated list of what's included in the latest version?

 

I do now

 

ALABAMA

ARIZONA

ARKANSAS

CALIFORNIA

KANSAS

KENTUCKY

LOUISIANA

MICHIGAN

MINNESOTA

MISSOURI

MONTANA

NEBRASKA

NEVADA

NEW_HAMPSHIRE

NEW_JERSEY

NEW_MEXICO

NEW_YORK

NORTH_CAROLINA

NORTH_DAKOTA

OHIO

OREGON

PENNSYLVANIA

SOUTH_CAROLINA

UTAH

WYOMING

 

OMG, you have SC in there now? You might have just saved me alot of work... I am downloading the file right now...

 

I've been creating some maps of my local area, but I might be stuck.

 

I was downloading the various SDTS files for my area, running them thru SDTS2MP to create mp files, then running the mp files thru cGPSMAPPER.

 

Everything was working great til i tried to process the hydrography tar.gz file for the middle part of a local lake. It blows up in SDTS2MP w/ an error when it goes to generate the mp file. The quads left and right of the bad one seem to work fine, but that middle one wont convert. I'm still messing w/ it, but you might have saved me the trouble....

 

Jeff

[uptroll]

(New version is 581,588,506 bytes, available at http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe)

 

I tried to download the above new version and received this message:

404 Not Found

The requested URL /ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe) does not exist.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

Ron...

[+xakdublin]

I tried to download the above new version and received this message:

404 Not Found

The requested URL /ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe) does not exist.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

Ron...

 

Copy the link, make sure the ) isnt on the end of it. That's whats messing it up, and I had that problem too but that's a quick and easy fix.

Edited May 3, 2008 by xakdublin

[+ibycus]

Fixed link:

http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe

Edited May 3, 2008 by ibycus

[uptroll]

I tried to download the above new version and received this message:

404 Not Found

The requested URL /ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe) does not exist.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

Ron...

 

Copy the link, make sure the ) isnt on the end of it. That's whats messing it up, and I had that problem too but that's a quick and easy fix.

 

Thanks for the easy fix. I guess I need new glasses!

 

Ron.

[jd102]

ibycus,

 

My area of SC looks pretty good.

 

Some of the roads are wrong, but they are wrong in the data I got from Tiger too... Certainly close enough for my needs right now tho. The lake where I live is definitely more detailed than on the Lowrance I had. Excellent...

 

I already have some hypsography imgs that I was messing w/ and I can overlay those on top of your maps when need be.

 

Thanks alot for your work, you got a PayPal link?

 

Jeff

[+JSWilson64]

Texas is in the works right now. It should be part of the next release.

Schweeeeeeeet!!!!!!! Dude, that rocks!

[+BJSwart]

Newbie question: I have a download with MN on it. When WI, IA and IL come out how do I get those? Thanks for putting up with me!

[+ibycus]

Newbie question: I have a download with MN on it. When WI, IA and IL come out how do I get those? Thanks for putting up with me!

 

Right now, you'll have to redownload, and install the latest version. At some point I'll look at getting an "Updater" working with this mapset that will only download the new/updated tiles, but for the moment, I'm not there yet.

 

Dale

[+larrymuld]

OK I have no Idea what I am doing wrong. I have downloaded the new file over night then tried to install it but the installer said it could not be verified so I deleted it and spent the last two hours downloading it again. Still no luck same error.

The file size is 554mb (581,588,992bytes) is this correct?

It gives me a NSIS_error

for more information

nsis.sf.net/nsis_error

 

Any help would be great.

Thanks,

Larry

[+ibycus]

OK I have no Idea what I am doing wrong. I have downloaded the new file over night then tried to install it but the installer said it could not be verified so I deleted it and spent the last two hours downloading it again. Still no luck same error.

The file size is 554mb (581,588,992bytes) is this correct?

It gives me a NSIS_error

for more information

nsis.sf.net/nsis_error

 

Any help would be great.

Thanks,

Larry

 

That file looks slightly too big??? Is that the Size or the "Size on Disk".

 

If you drop me an e-mail, I'll send you a program to check the MD5 sum which will tell you if the installer is corrupted.

It should be cc89eb7612db9be095418c7625a3e0fe .

[+xakdublin]

I dont know if it's of any relevance but when I bypassed the check before the install using NCRC, I checked the details of the install after it failed and it had stopped on the first or second file. Is there any prerequisite resident software we need to have that it's requesting and cannot find?

 

edit: specifically, the installer shows TigerData.tbd and TigerData.img as the only 2 files that were accessed (or attempted) before the failure, and the img file being the last of the 2

Edited May 4, 2008 by xakdublin

[+JSWilson64]

Right now, you'll have to redownload, and install the latest version. At some point I'll look at getting an "Updater" working with this mapset that will only download the new/updated tiles, but for the moment, I'm not there yet.

You might want to consider using Bittorrent to distribute the file, or maybe break it into pieces? Large downloads can cause major headaches, especially with lower-speed connections. I realize the project is in a state of flux, but once you set upon a "final" version with every state/map section included, I'd be glad to seed it. I'm sure there are plenty of others here who would, too. Your call - I'm not about to seed something without permission.

[+ibycus]

Your call - I'm not about to seed something without permission.

 

I've you'd like to seed it, be my guest, or burn it and put it in caches etc. (although I'd wait until the next release before you do this, as I'm in the midst of a fairly major update right now)

 

The only thing I ask is that however you distribute it, you don't charge for it.

[+ibycus]

I dont know if it's of any relevance but when I bypassed the check before the install using NCRC, I checked the details of the install after it failed and it had stopped on the first or second file. Is there any prerequisite resident software we need to have that it's requesting and cannot find?

 

edit: specifically, the installer shows TigerData.tbd and TigerData.img as the only 2 files that were accessed (or attempted) before the failure, and the img file being the last of the 2

 

I'm getting very tempted to completely abandon this installer and use my own (I've got one already for the Canadian Topo Maps... I just have to adapt it to work with these).

[+larrymuld]

I dont know if it's of any relevance but when I bypassed the check before the install using NCRC, I checked the details of the install after it failed and it had stopped on the first or second file. Is there any prerequisite resident software we need to have that it's requesting and cannot find?

 

edit: specifically, the installer shows TigerData.tbd and TigerData.img as the only 2 files that were accessed (or attempted) before the failure, and the img file being the last of the 2

 

I'm getting very tempted to completely abandon this installer and use my own (I've got one already for the Canadian Topo Maps... I just have to adapt it to work with these).

 

Ok well I THINK I will wait. I tried it again and still got the same error. Thanks for your help.

Larry

[+ibycus]

I dont know if it's of any relevance but when I bypassed the check before the install using NCRC, I checked the details of the install after it failed and it had stopped on the first or second file. Is there any prerequisite resident software we need to have that it's requesting and cannot find?

 

edit: specifically, the installer shows TigerData.tbd and TigerData.img as the only 2 files that were accessed (or attempted) before the failure, and the img file being the last of the 2

 

I'm getting very tempted to completely abandon this installer and use my own (I've got one already for the Canadian Topo Maps... I just have to adapt it to work with these).

 

Ok well I THINK I will wait. I tried it again and still got the same error. Thanks for your help.

Larry

 

Did you check the MD5 sum? I'd really like to know for my own benefit if this is a problem with the installer or the download.

 

If its a problem with the installer, then it doesn't matter how many times you download the file. If its a problem with the download, a 'good' download will eventually install properly (not that I expect you'll want to keep downloading it over and over again).

 

Here is a link to a windows MD5 Summer (I can give you directions on how to use it if you like)

http://www.md5summer.org/

 

Dale

[+xakdublin]

Happy update here:

 

I downloaded the file on an unsecured 12mb line at a friends place, around 1am this morning, and tried the installer on a whim, and now it's installing fine, no error at all. Maybe in the time it takes to download the file it might have a chance of messing up? I wouldn't think it took long enough to time out or anything so that it messed up at home, as I have a 5mb line which is still pretty decent.

 

But either way I have the working file now, so I wonder if anyone else will have this luck now?

 

Addition: Wow. I checked the tracks from my drive from northern vermont to Lebanon NH and all of them are marked right on the road lines. It's amazing to see how correct the maps are after getting used to the basemap and being poor.

 

Thanks so much for this gift of maps Dale. It is unfortunate it doesn't support routing but this will definitely hold me over for a long time til I get City Navigator, or maybe I won't now.

Edited May 5, 2008 by xakdublin

[Big Yac]

might there be any maps of Ohio available anytime soon? Preferably small enough to fit on one of the black and white eTrex Legends (8MB) memory

[+ibycus]

Ohio *should* be in the next release (assuming my compile last night went OK)

[+larrymuld]

I dont know if it's of any relevance but when I bypassed the check before the install using NCRC, I checked the details of the install after it failed and it had stopped on the first or second file. Is there any prerequisite resident software we need to have that it's requesting and cannot find?

 

edit: specifically, the installer shows TigerData.tbd and TigerData.img as the only 2 files that were accessed (or attempted) before the failure, and the img file being the last of the 2

 

I'm getting very tempted to completely abandon this installer and use my own (I've got one already for the Canadian Topo Maps... I just have to adapt it to work with these).

 

Ok well I THINK I will wait. I tried it again and still got the same error. Thanks for your help.

Larry

 

Did you check the MD5 sum? I'd really like to know for my own benefit if this is a problem with the installer or the download.

 

If its a problem with the installer, then it doesn't matter how many times you download the file. If its a problem with the download, a 'good' download will eventually install properly (not that I expect you'll want to keep downloading it over and over again).

 

Here is a link to a windows MD5 Summer (I can give you directions on how to use it if you like)

http://www.md5summer.org/

 

Dale

I downloaded both the installer here at work on t-1 line so I did nto have to worry about the wireless connection and I also downloaded the MD5 file. I will try the installer thoffof my jump drive and also the installer. I will reply with the results later tonight.

Larry