Free maps for Delorme?

[+cr4zybilly]

Is there something out there like gpsfiledepot.com for delorme units (or can I get the garmin-formatted maps from there to work on my PN-30)?

 

I know I can spend $40 on an all-you-can-eat plan w/ delorme, but things are tight right now and I've got to re-up my premium membership here before I get new/better maps.

 

Any suggestions/recommendations?

[NordicMan]

I've never heard of any free Delorme maps. You can't share maps between units..

[+Pax42]

Your only other option also requires an initial outlay of money. In the past Delorme has offered a discount on their Xmap software for PN owners who call them directly. The discounted price is $100. As far as I know, that offer is still good. Xmap allows you to create your own geo referenced maps from any available free images or scanned maps from other sites. Those can then be loaded to the PN.

[+cr4zybilly]

Your only other option also requires an initial outlay of money.

Ugh. That's a pretty serious bummer.

 

I should have got a Garmin.

[+Deadelm]

Your only other option also requires an initial outlay of money.

Ugh. That's a pretty serious bummer.

 

I should have got a Garmin.

 

Magellan Triton could have been an option. Best viewing free maps available for nearly the entire earth.

[+Pax42]

Your only other option also requires an initial outlay of money.

Ugh. That's a pretty serious bummer.

 

I should have got a Garmin.

Serious bummer? You just paid around $200 for the Pn-30 and you evidently recently renewed your premium membership for $30 but that extra $30 for all-you-can-download maps (it's $30 for the subscription, not $40) makes it all a bad decision? The cheapest Garmin handheld most closely comparable to the PN-30 would have cost you at least $30 more. Actually, you can get the PN-40 for at least $30 less than the next comparable Garmin. I'm not putting down Garmins. They're fine units, but one of the big selling points of the Delormes has been their better pricing.

Edited May 3, 2010 by Pax42

[+dakboy]

I've never heard of any free Delorme maps. You can't share maps between units..

Depends on your definition of "share".

 

If you own multiple PN-series devices, your cut maps can be used on all of them, provided you've registered them with TopoUSA. And the downloaded maps (not the "default cuts" DeLorme lets you get now (those are tied to your device), but the full, raw data) are not locked to any one device or TopoUSA installation.

Edited May 3, 2010 by dakboy

[+Woodstramp]

I believe I saw the Delorme annual map subscription at Walmart.com the other day for like $20 when I ordered a car charger for my PN. That's a purty cheap map buffet.

[+cr4zybilly]

Serious bummer?

 

Yeah--serious bummer. I blew all my cash on the nicest unit I could afford and now they want me to spend more money to make it usable b/c their data formats are less than free ("free" as in speech), and all their software is utterly proprietary, they force me to use Windows to connect to the unit (little to no Linux support), etc.

 

It's a nice unit and does paperless great, but this sentiment that "you've already spent a big chunk of change on the unit, just pay a little more and it'll actually work the way we're pitching it" is ridiculous.

 

I simply don't have the cash in my budget right now to even re-up my geocaching.com membership which ran out today (which isn't to say that I don't have cash, just that I've got my priorities straight and know how a budget works), let alone lay out MORE cash for maps, etc.

 

So yeah, it's a bummer that there's tons of free resources out there for Garmin users but Delorme's policy of restricting their users by refusing to play nice with more interoperable, free and open formats could only be described as a "serious bummer" or perhaps "reason to consider a different company".

[+TotemLake]

Go for the refund and find a comparable Garmin at the same price with the same bundle that can also handle aerials and be happy.

[+dakboy]

Yeah--serious bummer. I blew all my cash on the nicest unit I could afford and now they want me to spend more money to make it usable b/c their data formats are less than free ("free" as in speech), and all their software is utterly proprietary, they force me to use Windows to connect to the unit (little to no Linux support), etc.

GPSBabel has been working with the PN-40 for close to a year now, in addition to appearing as a drive when put into "connect to PC mode" and the ability to copy TopoUSA pre-cuts to the SD card via your file manager of choice. And you don't have to use TopoUSA for downloading maps with the Map Library, it's available via a web interface at http://data.delorme.com/

 

Garmin doesn't have Linux support either (beyond GPSBabel). Does anyone?

 

Seems to me that someone who's truly concerned about free software would have researched this before buying.

Edited May 3, 2010 by dakboy

[+user13371]

I dunno if that'd be a "serious bummer" for me, or just "oh well..."

 

I won't suggest (as Totem Lake did) that you just "take the refund" -- I can see from previous posts you bought your PN-30 just over a month ago on eBay, so the 30-day money back guarantee from DeLorme and most retail outlets isn't an option. So the best approach now is to figure out what to do with the device in hand.

 

Are the road maps and topo maps that came with it generally adequate for your geocaching and day-hiking needs? If so, I'd just live with the unit "as is." If I decided I absolutely needed more/differemt maps and aerial imagery, I'd just figure out how to budget an additional $20-$30 eventually to get DeLorme's map subscription.

 

Anything you can do to save 8 or 9 cents a day over the next year to finance that?

Edited May 3, 2010 by lee_rimar

[+deercreekth]

Serious bummer is when you buy a fancy new Garmin and find out you've got to spend an extra $100 to get the detailed routable street maps that come in the box with a DeLorme. I went caching with someone who recently bought an Oregon 450. He was driving to a cache and trying to follow the arrow on his GPS and I started giving him turn-by-turn directions thanks to my PN-40.

Edited May 3, 2010 by deercreekth

[+user13371]

Serious bummer is when you buy a fancy new Garmin and find out you've got to spend an extra $100 to get the detailed routable street maps...

But you don't have to. Routable OpenStreetMaps are available for free on the Garmin -- and in my opinion, in some areas these are better, more up to date than Garmin's offerings: http://garmin.na1400.info/routable.php. Not to mention all the goodies (routable or not) one can get from GPSFileDepot. The increasing availability and low price (often free to the end user) of open-sourced/crowd-source mapping products are gradually eroding the selling point of maps that "come in the box."

 

DeLorme's lock-in to their own mapping products may eventually turn into a DIS-incentive for buying their GPS products -- you're either gonna WANT DeLorme's specific maps or you're gonna buy someone else's GPS. I'm not sure that's the "serious bummer" the OP thinks it is -- usable maps DO come in the box, after all. But if there are other mapping products you want/need that are easy to get/use on Brand G, or unavailable/hard to get for Brand D, then what happens?

Edited May 3, 2010 by lee_rimar

[+Pax42]

Isn't there still cost involved with putting aerial maps on the Garmins with the new Birdseye functionality? I thought I recalled reading that the subscription fee was $30 a year just as Delorme's with the difference being any imagery downloaded to a Garmin unit was locked to that one unit.

Edited May 3, 2010 by Pax42

[+user13371]

Isn't there still cost involved with putting aerial maps on the Garmins with the new Birdseye functionality?

Yup, $30/year for Birdseye -- if you want Garmin's imagery. But even without Birdseye, or buying anything else, you can make/load your own custom maps/imagery. Not to mention what the OP first asked about: huge libraries of stuff that other folks have already built, downloadable from GPSFileDepot.

 

On DeLorme's side, you can spend $30 for their map library subscription, or $99 for their XMap tools if you want to build your own from other data sources. For "free" you get just the maps that come in the box.

Edited May 3, 2010 by lee_rimar