Adding maps made simple...

[+ilikejello]

I bought a GPS (Garmin 400t), City Navigator NT, and National Parks west 24k. I also downloaded Ibycus Topo for Canada. My objective is to load all of CN, National Parks west, and a small part of Canada Topo. The steps I took were

 

1. Load all maps on PC into Mapsource. (unlock maps which is a whole other topic)

2. Open each map and use map tool to select the segments. Total 2486 maps - 2511.3mb

3. Select send to device, point to SD card and wait... A L ON G T I M E!! SD card has 2,565,312 file called gmapsupp.img file on it after wating A L O N G I M E.

4. Put SD card into GPS and turn on.

5. Goto Options > Select Map and only see TOPO U.S. 2008. No other maps available!! bummer!

 

So, knowing a bit about technology I power off the GPS, remove the SD card and reload the image from a backup I made on to the SD card (because as I said, I know a little about this stuff and some guy named Murphy). Popped it back in and Viola, all maps are now available.

 

- What if I didn't make a copy? Would I have had to repeat the process that took so long.

- Generating the image took around 9-10 hours on my laptop (XP, 1gig ram). Is this normal? Is there an easier way? I realize that the Canada and National Park topos are not compressed but still... 10 hours?

- What if I want to add another map or just a segment. Will I need to repeat the whole process?

- Is there an easier way to do this that won't take so much time?

 

If these questions have been asked I appologize but the search function here seems to be acting up and I couldn't find anyhting. If there are solutions, please point me to them and thanks for your help!

[+JSWilson64]

- What if I want to add another map or just a segment. Will I need to repeat the whole process?

I can answer this one - YES. You can't add to an existing set, at least not with my 60 CSx.

 

As for the speed of generating the maps, that seems awfully slow. Did you load the maps to your PC, or was it getting some from the optical drive? Is your card reader USB 1.1 or 2.0?

 

As for your other questions, I don't know why that happened, but I would say "bravo" for making a backup before popping the card into the GPS!

[+ilikejello]

- What if I want to add another map or just a segment. Will I need to repeat the whole process?

I can answer this one - YES. You can't add to an existing set, at least not with my 60 CSx.

 

As for the speed of generating the maps, that seems awfully slow. Did you load the maps to your PC, or was it getting some from the optical drive? Is your card reader USB 1.1 or 2.0?

 

As for your other questions, I don't know why that happened, but I would say "bravo" for making a backup before popping the card into the GPS!

 

Well, not being able to add to an existing image kinda sucks. Anyone besides me find this a shame and somewhat archaic given todays technology? Anyway, I think a work around might be to rename my existing one and create a new image for "special" occasions. Then I could swap them when needed. Ahhh, but I doubt very much one can rename this file IN the GPS! So, that would mean my idea would be useless unless I carried my laptop with me on my trips, NOT. Maybe someone knows of a hack or third party progam to load seperate images and be able to switch? Or mabe JS, we are both assuming it can't be done and someone will shine the light, point us to the right coordinates, etc!!

 

FWIW - I have the maps on the HD and am using USB2.0 and 9-10 hours later... poof image created! I suppose I could load it on my Quad core PC with Raptor drives, and 4gb of ram. That might cut it down to oh say 6-7 hours.

 

Wow, I am whining!! Sorry, I know creating these images is NOT likely to be a common occurance but I just can't imagine this hasn't been an issue to others? Oh well, on the bright side I found my first cache yesterday and will head out to the mountains (that is of course if the honeydo list isnt' to long) this weekend to try out my new toy.

Edited April 17, 2008 by ilikejello

[+JSWilson64]

FWIW - I have the maps on the HD and am using USB2.0 and 9-10 hours later... poof image created! I suppose I could load it on my Quad core PC with Raptor drives, and 4gb of ram. That might cut it down to oh say 6-7 hours.

I know cranking out ~1 GB worth of MetroGuide data takes a while - 1-2 hrs? I can't remember exactly. Just be glad you sent it to the card, and didn't try it with the GPS attached. That takes even LONGER!

 

You could always put different map sets on different SD cards. They'd each compile quicker than the giant set, but the total time would probably be more.

[+Red90]

What GPS are you do this on? Some of the newer GPS unit have ways to allow more than one IMG file.

 

Ooops, sorry, re-read.... Colorado....

 

You can put maps on the internal memory as well as the SD card. Put ones that you don't need to change in one place and ones that you want to change in the other.

 

Do you need so much on the unit at once? Do you travel that far and often?

Edited April 17, 2008 by Red90

[+ilikejello]

What GPS are you do this on? Some of the newer GPS unit have ways to allow more than one IMG file.

 

Ooops, sorry, re-read.... Colorado....

 

You can put maps on the internal memory as well as the SD card. Put ones that you don't need to change in one place and ones that you want to change in the other.

 

Do you need so much on the unit at once? Do you travel that far and often?

 

So I can have 2 images that are seen by the Colorado? So for example I can have one with City Navigator on the Colorado, and another image on the SD with say Canada topo and Ntl Parks 24k topo AND I can use them all at the same time?

 

Red, it really isn't so much an issue of "needing" all these maps as wanting. After taking so long to compile the image I thought "hey I only want to do this once and be done with it". But I see that is not possible so no biggie. I just need to remember to save these images and load them when needed.

 

Back to the compiling of the images... So do I need a Cray computer to compile these images or is there a something I am missing?

[sokolo0]

Try GmapTool. http://www.anpo.republika.pl/download.html#gmaptool

It is very simple programme. Read readme.txt from unpacked file.

Joins .img files generated by Mapsource and creates one gmappsup.img file ready to transfer to GPSr.

Christopher

Edited April 18, 2008 by sokolo0

[+ilikejello]

Try GmapTool. http://www.anpo.republika.pl/download.html#gmaptool

It is very simple programme. Read readme.txt from unpacked file.

Joins .img files generated by Mapsource and creates one gmappsup.img file ready to transfer to GPSr.

Christopher

 

Thanks sokolo0! This may indeed come in handy! Good find!