Venture Hc + Topo Maps.

[green802]

Can somebody please tell me how much of the Southern (Uk) Topo maps could I fit on a 24Mb Venture.

 

I'm torn between the simplicity & cost of the eTrex H (I used one recently for the first time ever) and the slightly more whistles & bells (usb) Venture. The Hcx range is off my budget so its down to these two. I realise adding the maps up's my budget.

 

My needs are for teaching on training areas such as Salisbury Plain. The Plain is possbily the biggest area I'll need in one go. All other training areas I could load up when needed. I am assuming that you can cut and paste certain areas to the Venture using Topo maps?

 

How detailed are Topo maps compared to O/S ?

 

Thankyou in anitcipation,

 

Green802@hotmail.com

Edited November 24, 2008 by green802

[+Chuy!]

View the TOPO map before you buy.

 

Those bells/whistles of the HC are well worth it. The biggest difference right away will be the color screen. I consider it an essential feature when viewing maps, especially TOPO maps. You will not regret just that one feature.

[+briansnat]

I'm moving this to the UK forum where perhaps someone who has the products in question can assist.

[+drdick&vick]

I would honestly suggest that, if you want to use the TOPO maps, you spend another £30 or so more and get the Legend HCx as this will accept a micro SD card and you will be able to load as much of the TOPO as you want. The Venture is handicapped by the fact that it will not accept any memory cards.

IMHO spend the bit extra.

[+Amberel]

Can somebody please tell me how much of the Southern (Uk) Topo maps could I fit on a 24Mb Venture.

 

I'm torn between the simplicity & cost of the eTrex H (I used one recently for the first time ever) and the slightly more whistles & bells (usb) Venture. The Hcx range is off my budget so its down to these two. I realise adding the maps up's my budget.

 

My needs are for teaching on training areas such as Salisbury Plain. The Plain is possbily the biggest area I'll need in one go. All other training areas I could load up when needed. I am assuming that you can cut and paste certain areas to the Venture using Topo maps?

 

How detailed are Topo maps compared to O/S ?

I've just loaded the 9 tiles centred round Salisbury Plain and they come to 21Mb. That gives you all the plain and a pretty big margin all round.

 

How good are they? They are better than nothing. If you think that sounds a bit like damning with faint praise, it is . They are only JUST better than nothing .

 

Apart from the fact that you get to see such a tiny window on the map, they do look slightly better on the eTrex than they do on the PC.

 

How about this for an alternative. You can get FREE topo maps to go on the eTrex from http://www.ukgeocachers.co.uk/garminoverlays/index.php . These use OpenStreetMap data, which is incomplete but mostly not at all bad, and getting more complete all the time. And where it is complete, the detail is MUCH better than the Garmin topo maps. And did I say it was free ? With what you save on the maps, you might be able to get a colour Garmin and a 2Gb micro SD card.

 

I can't tell you what the free maps show for Salisbury Plain. I don't use them, but ONLY because they don't do routing, which I need for my motorbike, but which I'm guessing isn't important for you (as you haven't mentioned it). Maybe someone who has these maps can look at that area?

 

As an aside, if you can get an eTrex with everything else, but without the electronic compass, my advice is to do so. The electronic compass is a pain in the neck. On my eTrex HCx it requires recalibration every few minutes, and is woefully inaccurate even then. I have it switched off all the time, but sometimes it gets switched on accidentally and it screws the machine up completely. I wish I could totally and permanently disable it. I don't know how good the electronic altimeter is, but I've never tried to use it and woudn't miss that either.

 

Rgds, Andy

Edited November 25, 2008 by Amberel

[+Pharisee]

How detailed are Topo maps compared to O/S ?

 

The major difference between OS maps and Garmin's Topo maps is that the OS maps show buildings and boundary lines (with field boundaries on the1:25K scale), the Topo maps don't. If you were to remove those from the OS maps then quite honestly, the difference isn't all that great. The OS maps are more colourful but that's about it. Topo shows all the roads and the railways, rivers, canals etc. are all shown and are accurately placed; and of course, contour lines. A lot has been made of the fact that not all footpaths are shown and in truth, they aren't but from my experience I reckon the the coverage is better than 90%. Paths are shown in green on a colour Garmin and I have noticed that some farm tracks are shown as green paths but are NOT public rights of way so you have to be a little careful.

 

For me, one of the best features is the fact that the locations of all OS triangulation pillars (but not rivets, surface blocks etc) are pre-loaded as Geographic points of interest. It's very easy to search for the nearest trigpoint... and route to it if necessary.

 

The auto-routing is a bit 'clunky' compared to pukka jobs like the Nuvi or TomTom but it IS usable. As far as memory goes, it takes about 1.6Gb of memory to load the whole of the UK. I have a a 2Gb microSD card in my 60CSx and that currently has the whole of the UK Topo, all of Austria, a great chunk of southern Germany and a big area of France around Paris loaded from City Navigator and there is still a little space left.

 

In conclusion... perfect it ain't but it's the best we've got and in my view, worth the (discounted) price.

[+Amberel]

The major difference between OS maps and Garmin's Topo maps is that the OS maps show buildings and boundary lines (with field boundaries on the1:25K scale), the Topo maps don't. If you were to remove those from the OS maps then quite honestly, the difference isn't all that great.

I've just lined up the GB Top maps and the OS 25K maps side by side on my 2 screens here, and the difference is remarkable. As was obvious from my previous post, I don't have a high opinion of the Top maps, but Salisbury Plain seems even worse than most areas.

 

Not only to the Topo maps not show all sorts of detail like earthworks, barrows and tumuli, buildings, phone boxes, danger areas, monuments, water towers, golf courses, WCs, churches, pubs, cycle routes, pylons, cemeteries, railway cuttings and embankments, and a myriad other things, on Salisbury Plain they don't even show wooded areas, and not even some of the metalled public roads!!! And yes, I am on maximum detail. They don't differentiate between footpaths, bridleways etc., and more importantly, they don't differentiate between rights of way and other routes.

 

I do have an eTrex with GB Topo, but I also have a PDA/phone with built in GPS, running Memory Map.

 

Rgds, Andy

[+Pharisee]

I've just lined up the GB Top maps and the OS 25K maps side by side on my 2 screens here, and the difference is remarkable. As was obvious from my previous post, I don't have a high opinion of the Top maps, but Salisbury Plain seems even worse than most areas.

 

Not only to the Topo maps not show all sorts of detail like earthworks, barrows and tumuli, buildings, phone boxes, danger areas, monuments, water towers, golf courses, WCs, churches, pubs, cycle routes, pylons, cemeteries, railway cuttings and embankments, and a myriad other things, on Salisbury Plain they don't even show wooded areas, and not even some of the metalled public roads!!! And yes, I am on maximum detail. They don't differentiate between footpaths, bridleways etc., and more importantly, they don't differentiate between rights of way and other routes.

 

I do have an eTrex with GB Topo, but I also have a PDA/phone with built in GPS, running Memory Map.

 

Rgds, Andy

 

Sorry, Andy but my GPSr has a screen that's 1.1/2" wide and just over 2" high. I don't want the display cluttered up with "earthworks, barrows and tumuli, buildings, phone boxes, danger areas, monuments, water towers, golf courses, WCs, churches, pubs, cycle routes, pylons, cemeteries, railway cuttings and embankments, and a myriad other things". The only things I need are roads, paths and other geographical stuff like rivers, canals and railway lines accurately placed. Topo does that for me a lot better than the other Garmin offerings and they are all that's available. It doesn't profess to be an equal to OS mapping so I don't expect it to be such. To get OS mapping for the whole of the UK on a PDA or the like that can accept them, legitimately, will cost you a big fistful of blue drinking vouchers more than Garmin charge for their Topo mapping package. I still maintain that it's not bad value and it does exactly what it says on the tin.

[green802]

Thankyou to all who've answered.

 

It's between the eTrex H and something that will display maps.

 

The H will fit all my basic needs for nav'ing over training areas used along side a Silva and paper map.

If going for mapped unit then the maps need to be detailed / of use.It would be good to keep the paper map in my bergen as standby.

 

Therefore if I'm going to "Up Spec'" Its a case of:

a) are the maps any good. If they so, which Garmin should I go for?

 

So far I've crossed off:

Topo Maps & Streetmaps.org. No real subsitute for O/S

Vista Hcx:Always carry a Silva dont need electronic compass.

Summit Hc: Alt'y not required with a contoured map.

 

So its down to:

Venture Hc. USB connection, toggle button and added features.Best priced of USB's

Legend Hcx, As above but bags of memory for detailed maps,to be added later.

H, Bargain cost with simplicity & ruggedness.

 

If there was a USB connection on the eTrex H for upgrades and co-ord downloads It would be a simple choice @ £60 odd quid.

 

Thank you all again.

 

Green802.

 

p.s The Geocaching thing is a secondary requirement for fun walks with my kids.

[+Amberel]

Sorry, Andy but my GPSr has a screen that's 1.1/2" wide and just over 2" high. I don't want the display cluttered up with "earthworks, barrows and tumuli, buildings, phone boxes, danger areas, monuments, water towers, golf courses, WCs, churches, pubs, cycle routes, pylons, cemeteries, railway cuttings and embankments, and a myriad other things". The only things I need are roads, paths and other geographical stuff like rivers, canals and railway lines accurately placed. Topo does that for me a lot better than the other Garmin offerings and they are all that's available. It doesn't profess to be an equal to OS mapping so I don't expect it to be such. To get OS mapping for the whole of the UK on a PDA or the like that can accept them, legitimately, will cost you a big fistful of blue drinking vouchers more than Garmin charge for their Topo mapping package. I still maintain that it's not bad value and it does exactly what it says on the tin.

My reply was in response to your statement:

 

> If you were to remove (buildings and boundary lines) from the OS maps

> then quite honestly, the difference isn't all that great.

 

At that point I wasn't comenting on whether the differences were good or bad, or on how much they cost, whether or not they were good value, or comparing Topo to other Garmin maps. I was observing that the difference between Topo and OS maps actually IS that great. It is a yawning gulf.

 

I have both an eTrex HCx with Topo and an Asus P750 PDA/phone with MemoryMap, and I take them both with me all the time. The Asus has a screen that is a little larger than the eTrex, and a slightly better resolution. If you put the two side by side, the OS maps make the Topo ones look very, very sad indeed. The lack of detail is bad enough, but the missing public roads is even worse (I agree this is rare, but I found them missing from Salisbury Plain). Paths are frequently VERY inconsistent and the lack of definitive rights of way is a very major disadvantage.

 

Yes, the Memory Map route is very expensive, and it's not suitable for an eTrex. For those reasons and others, the Topo route is a perfectly valid choice for many people (including me). But that doesn't mean the maps are anything like as good as OS maps.

 

Rgds, Andy