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Garmin Colorado 300


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Did I hear something to say that you can now load Memory Map on GC300 ?

 

Any news would be useful.

 

Nope you can not load the maps, however, the latest release of Memory Map on the PC will support the Colorado to send/receive waypoint/route data. Haven't tried it yet, but have upgraded to the latest Memory map. No probs so far!

 

Jon.

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Nope you can not load the maps, however, the latest release of Memory Map on the PC will support the Colorado to send/receive waypoint/route data. Haven't tried it yet, but have upgraded to the latest Memory map. No probs so far!

 

Jon.

 

Hopefully that means the Oregon will also support the transfer of route data...

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No, Memory Map maps will not run on the Colorado. The issue that was discussed in these forums was a problem of getting the Mem Map program on the PC to recognise the USB connection of the Colorado so you could transfer data (waypoints etc). This has apparently been fixed now with the latest version of MMap (although I haven't tried it yet).

 

Chris (MrB)

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With the Memory map "upgrade" comes both a change in the licensing conditions and also the way in which you register it.

In my experience with Memory map transferring data can actually alter the coordinates from the ones shown by Memory map and the ones then shown by your Garmin gps

i.e SX64320 54380 as shown on Memory map can perhaps be translated on the Garmin as say SX64326 54385.

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With the Memory map "upgrade" comes both a change in the licensing conditions and also the way in which you register it.

In my experience with Memory map transferring data can actually alter the coordinates from the ones shown by Memory map and the ones then shown by your Garmin gps

i.e SX64320 54380 as shown on Memory map can perhaps be translated on the Garmin as say SX64326 54385.

This will be a difference in the algorithms used by each to convert the coordinates from the format they store them in (most likely wgs84 lat/lon) to the British Grid format.

The errors here are well within GPS accuracy ranges, so not much of an issue.

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This will be a difference in the algorithms used by each to convert the coordinates from the format they store them in (most likely wgs84 lat/lon) to the British Grid format.

The errors here are well within GPS accuracy ranges, so not much of an issue.

The error being the error in the display format of each, the lat/lon in the background will remain the same, and thus the navigational capability also.

This assumes that the coords were entered in each as ll, if transcribed over from the gps screen in os format, the error may result.

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Now that is very interesting... but.... if you already have memory map you have to buy it again. This is what has put a lot of people off the Satmap.

 

Yup, totally agree. Having invested in many Paper & MM versions of OS maps I can't see myself paying once more for the same, albeit possibly updated, maps for the Garmin. However... This does also mean that the unit is capable of displaying bitmap'd images as maps, so it may be possible to scan/convert your existing maps into the Garmin format? If of course the map specifications and tools are released or produced to do so. For anyone starting out with a Colorado/Oregon, the usual route to go is to also purchase UK Topo, this may no longer be the way to go, and OS mapping could become the preferred option.

 

J

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I have to agree with the Blorenges regarding the need for MM to back up the topo maps. There is a fair bit missing from the topo that you sometimes need MM to help with, particularly footpaths.

 

The option for MM on the Oregon looks quite exciting, especially if the initial launch is expanded to 1:50000 of the whole UK, that would make MM obsolete for me.

 

The Oregon is without doubt the best bit of caching kit I have used to date, this would just make it better.

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Interesting and out in Nov at a cost of £129 for National Parks at 1:25000- but not sure if that is for just one National Park or the lot?

I am getting a bit leary of all the different but very costly platforms and gps devices each one of which is incompatiblel with anything else.

The cost is really now getting over the top.

For instance why is there not a decent gps that integrates fully with MM?

At every turn there seems to be need to duplicate maps you already have under an OS licence?

i believe that OS themselves are partly responsible for this. I notice that they are fighting very quietly but very hard to make sure the price of their digital data is kept as costly as possible- and to make the licencing as restrictive as possible

Added to that there seems an incapability of gps manufacturers to provide at a small cost a gps that does what it says on the box.

I have just bought a small laptop for well under £300 that is alot more complex than any normal GPS and does what it says on the box.

I can only come to the conclusion that as Garmin have little competition they are taking the mickey.

I also think that applies to OS as well at least for mapping data for this country .

And from what I understand OS was until fairly recently in public hands so in effect we are paying twice firstly as the public for the majority of the data to be collected and secondly now privately.

I also believe that OS managed to secure a fifty year!! right to the data.

Not much chance for any competition there then?

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Have had a word with Garmin who suggest that there are three cards.

I think all have routing capabilities based on a vector map but also have some raster mapping.

Card one? - routing + all the national parks at 1:25000.

Card two ?- routing + all the National Trails at 1:25000.

Card three? - routing? + the whole country at 1:50,000.

I think the cost is about £130 per card.

The release date is the beginning of November.

These cards can only run on Colorados and Oregons unfortunately.

I am unsure just how well vector mapping will be handled by them?

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Have had a word with Garmin who suggest that there are three cards.

I think all have routing capabilities based on a vector map but also have some raster mapping.

Card one? - routing + all the national parks at 1:25000.

Card two ?- routing + all the National Trails at 1:25000.

Card three? - routing? + the whole country at 1:50,000.

I think the cost is about £130 per card.

The release date is the beginning of November.

These cards can only run on Colorados and Oregons unfortunately.

I am unsure just how well vector mapping will be handled by them?

 

Details are here: Garmin Active Regions.

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Card three? - routing? + the whole country at 1:50,000.

 

If that is OS 1:50k maps for the whole country, that's my baby! However, the link you provide (just above) describes it as Great Britain National Parks 1:50K, so I'm still confused. I'll wait for clarification, but that one looks like the dogs dangly bits to me for £130. Fingers crossed!

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Have had a word with Garmin who suggest that there are three cards.

I think all have routing capabilities based on a vector map but also have some raster mapping.

Card one? - routing + all the national parks at 1:25000.

Card two ?- routing + all the National Trails at 1:25000.

Card three? - routing? + the whole country at 1:50,000.

I think the cost is about £130 per card.

The release date is the beginning of November.

These cards can only run on Colorados and Oregons unfortunately.

I am unsure just how well vector mapping will be handled by them?

 

Thanks for the info. I really hope Garmin are telling the truth here.

I don't know much about how Memory Map etc works (not that techy to be honest), but I'm interested in having OS maps on my Colorado, but for MM it seems to be around £100 per National Park. £130 for the lot seems too good to be true. Or is this purely a map whilst MM offers all sorts of additional features that would make up that additional cost? I fear it will be £130 per region, but I am a bit of a pessimist! Please let me be wrong.

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So do I.

I think a lot of the cost could be down to the licensing.

Memory map can be viewed and used on both a pc and a pda, can be used in conjunction with a gps, can be printed from.

With the Garmin cannot be viewed on a computer, cannot be transferred to a pda, cannot be printed from.

That may explain the price differential -hopefully.

If it were £130 per region dont bother, I most definitely wouldnt.

Just to put it into perspective I believe you can obtain memory map standard 1:50,000 for well under £200.

That involves a lot more digital data than you willl find on all the national parks 1:25,000 card and the licencing for that card is a lot stricter.

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So too good to be true!

Have just spoken with Garmin support who now tell me that there are 35 cards!

Each one comes with the vector map but 34 of them come with just one national park or just one national trail on at 1:25000!!!!

The last one comes with all the national parks on but only at 1:50000.

It makes memory map look a bit of a bargain.

I most definitely am not up to buying the same vector map 35 times!!

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Just checking out Memory Map website and prices. Whole of the Nat Parks at 1:50K is £30. At 1:25K each is £100. Whole country at 1:50K is £200. Prices at retailers would be less than this so Garmin's prices are really expensive - OK, so you get the road atlas scale but that's not a lot of use for country walking!

 

Chris (MrB)

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I think at the end of the day, there's never going to be a 'perfect' electronic OS mapping solution because the way they license their data is {word I can't use here!}. It's extremely expensive (which gets passed on to the consumers, who tend to go "no way am I paying that!") and the restrictions they place on developers and consumers alike are insane, controlling the data with an iron fist. A good example is OS versions of Multimap. You can import any map you like into non-OS versions of MM - something you have every right to do with your own maps or stuff you own or have bought the rights to - but try and do it on the OS versions and you'll find that that it won't let you, a restriction imposed by the OS.

 

OS OpenSpace (their web-based service) is also riddled and crippled by restrictions on it's use that mean that it's virtually impossible to use it effectively because as soon as your site gets popular, you'll hit against an immovable usage limit (30000 tiles per day IIRC, which is nowhere near as many as it sounds). Oh yeah, and the website you host it on has to be free to access and entirely advertising free so you either need very deep pockets or suicidal business sense.

 

This is becoming a rant :laughing: but the point is this, it's not just Garmin's fault - until the OS get a grip of things and realise that people don't want (1) stupidly high prices and (2) stupid restrictions on use, there just isn't going to be a really useful and value-for-money solution for electronic OS mapping :anibad:

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I am fully aware of the idotic licencing of OS data. What I find really upsetting is the data collection was paid by us as taxpayers before it was privatised. Not only that for some reason they have been granted the digital rights to data for up to fifty years in the past!

So no possible competition and we pay for the data and the licence time and again!

I sometimes wonder if it is possible with the aid of maps published over fifty years ago and say 10,000 geocachers if it is possible to produce your own map of GB. Somehow Harveys manage it on a small scale I think for various areas such as the Lake district.

I also think that there is some free data from somewhere on contours etc?

However as far as Garmin is concerned there is more than a licence fee involved with both the setup and the price of these cards.

After all I can buy Memory map for the national parks for £30 and for that can print from it, use it in conjunction with my GPS, put it on my PDA and view it on a computer.

This card will only work in conjunction with a Garmin GPS (only the Oregon and Colorado), no printing, no viewing on a computer no putting on my PDA.

And as for the routing side of it that costs me from Garmin less than £50 per GPS from Topo v2.

As I posted earlier a no brainer.

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There are now tools available that allow you to calibrate and upload your own maps, images & Aerials photos to certain Garmin GPS units, therefore it can't be too difficult to export the Memory Map data to the Garmin. Either via cut & paste or a print to file utility (such as zan). Obviously you'll have to already own the OS Mapping in the first place, but it would save you from having to pay for it a second time, which is what my gripe is.

 

J

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Just checking out Memory Map website and prices. Whole of the Nat Parks at 1:50K is £30. At 1:25K each is £100. Whole country at 1:50K is £200. Prices at retailers would be less than this so Garmin's prices are really expensive - OK, so you get the road atlas scale but that's not a lot of use for country walking!

 

Chris (MrB)

Yep sweet smell of rip off permeates from this post. the whole of the natonal parks at 1:500000 is not a bad price and may give it a try however we all know 1:25000 is the premier mapping but £30 compared to £1900? Please get a life. We should see the price drop down if everyone sticks to their guns and ignores their kind offer.

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Just checking out Memory Map website and prices. Whole of the Nat Parks at 1:50K is £30. At 1:25K each is £100. Whole country at 1:50K is £200. Prices at retailers would be less than this so Garmin's prices are really expensive - OK, so you get the road atlas scale but that's not a lot of use for country walking!

 

Chris (MrB)

 

Anquet whole-UK mapping is a similar price: £400ish (including their hardware which retails at £200ish) http://www.anquet.co.uk/anquet-hardware-bundles.htm

 

Again, if you already have Anquet on PC and a suitable PDA you still pay again for the licence even if you've already bought it once and also paid your taxes.

 

As for 1:50k mapping, it's all I even use, although I must admit to sketching in the field boundaries from 1:25k on OS getamap for some low-country trigs. 25k is too much paper, too much cost, except maybe for a few special areas.

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So too good to be true!

Have just spoken with Garmin support who now tell me that there are 35 cards!

Each one comes with the vector map but 34 of them come with just one national park or just one national trail on at 1:25000!!!!

The last one comes with all the national parks on but only at 1:50000.

It makes memory map look a bit of a bargain.

I most definitely am not up to buying the same vector map 35 times!!

 

Has anyone actually bought any of the OS maps for the Garmin yet? I'd be interested to see what the take-up is like and how well it works.

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So too good to be true!

Have just spoken with Garmin support who now tell me that there are 35 cards!

Each one comes with the vector map but 34 of them come with just one national park or just one national trail on at 1:25000!!!!

The last one comes with all the national parks on but only at 1:50000.

It makes memory map look a bit of a bargain.

I most definitely am not up to buying the same vector map 35 times!!

 

Has anyone actually bought any of the OS maps for the Garmin yet? I'd be interested to see what the take-up is like and how well it works.

 

I can't even find them on sale anywhere yet. No more news anywhere I don't think.

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Did seem to recall that beginning of November -middle of November perhaps?

Am not really interested any longer and at that kind of price in that kind of format with so many licence restrictions I wont be buying.

Its just one endless rip off.

OS rip off + Garmin rip off = one massive rip off too far.

Enoughs enough.

Both need to get their acts together on the mapping side.

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Thanks for the link. I was holding out a faint hope that the price was for the whole of the UK but no, :D oh well guess I will have to find somethoing else to spend my £130 on :unsure:

 

I had also been hoping....

 

I was looking at Garmin Topo 2 the other day and was tempted. It has the roads and turn by turn navigation, but I think the GB Discoverer would be better as at least you get a 1:250,000 of the whole country with road names and turn by turn as well as a National Park (Dartmoor AND Exmoor in my case). I've just had my backdated pay award.... I might be tempted.... even though it's not what I really hoped for.

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Has anyone tried the OS maps on an Oregon yet?
At that price, I doubt it! ;):D

 

Topo maps for the Garmins are a similar price and people buy those. These OS maps might be 1:25k for a small area, but they have 1:250k for the whole country with street level mapping and routing (as far as I am aware), which I think is a better option for me than Topo. I haven't seen them in stock anywhere yet. The only place I have seen them listed is Wiggle, but 0 in stock. I'd like to know how much of the SWCP trail is included on the map, and if it is as much as you get with the Memory-Map one it'll be quite good. That one or Dartmoor&Exmoor are my options.

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Topo maps for the Garmins are a similar price and people buy those. These OS maps might be 1:25k for a small area, but they have 1:250k for the whole country with street level mapping and routing (as far as I am aware), which I think is a better option for me than Topo.

Ah that explains it a bit. I was under the idea that the routing was only for the area covered by the OS mapping. I'm curious then, if you wander outside the area covered by the OS mapping (whilst using routing) does it fall back on the poor old basemap or does it generate a proper map from the routing data (as with proper in-car GPS).

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