Street map for Oregon 450

[+WebiG]

Just got an Oregon 450 at the Labor Day sale at REI - love saving that kind of cash! But, the pre-loaded map only shows freeways and major highways. I'd like a street map, like the one I have on my Nuvi, on my Oregon. I've seen references to downloading free maps using Base Camp or MapSource, but the process sounds quite complicated and I'm afraid of screwing something up. But I've heard the Garmin maps you buy aren't that great either... Any suggestions?

[+mpilchfamily]

Kind of depends on the type of street maps you want. Do you want them to be routable like your Nuvi where it can give you turn by turn directions or its that unimportant?

[+WebiG]

Thanks for defining what "routable" meant - I didn't know that. I would say this is optional for the Oregon. The screen is too small to be very useful while driving, but when we are doing suburban and urban geocaching, it is helpful to see the streets.

[+dfx]

I don't think the process of installing a "genuine" Garmin map is any easier than installing any one of the free maps. It works the same: you install the map to your PC and then use one of the Garmin tools to load the map (or parts of it) to your GPS. The exception is when you buy the map preloaded onto an SD card, then you just put the card in and that's it. But that option can be quite limiting.

 

Some of the free maps are also available as a single file download, you get the file, put it on your GPS (or on your SD card) and you're good to go. I would really suggest that you give one (or several) of the free maps a try and get the Garmin map only if you don't like the free ones or just can't get them to work.

[+Triple Crown]

Just got an Oregon 450 at the Labor Day sale at REI - love saving that kind of cash! But, the pre-loaded map only shows freeways and major highways. I'd like a street map, like the one I have on my Nuvi, on my Oregon. I've seen references to downloading free maps using Base Camp or MapSource, but the process sounds quite complicated and I'm afraid of screwing something up. But I've heard the Garmin maps you buy aren't that great either... Any suggestions?

 

You can get lots of free topo & trail maps at GPS File Depot and free routable street maps at Open Street Maps just be aware that the Oregon has no voice capability, so you just get beeps when it's time to turn.

 

The Garmin City Navigator NT product is super easy to use, and the price has dropped recently so you can get it pretty cheap.

Edited September 11, 2011 by Triple Crown

[+cliptwings]

gpsfiledepot.com has wonderful free street, topographic, trail, and point of interest maps available for every U.S. state. They also have a great tutorial on how to transfer maps from your computer to your Oregon. This tutorial will prevent you from screwing up the file system on your Oregon. I have used many of these maps with no difficulty. I highly recommend this free site.

[JustMyName]

http://daveh.dev.openstreetmap.org/garmin/Lambertus/

 

Copy the .img file to the Garmin directory on the built in memory or SD card.

 

On the unit then go to Setup -> Map -> Map Information Select Map to enable if needed.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

I recommend you get the City Nav. maps from Garmin on the micro SD card. Works great on my 450, snap it in and you're good to go. I got the City Nav software for my 60 CSx but I like the card approach better....you can also move the card to another unit if you like.

[+Triple Crown]

I recommend you get the City Nav. maps from Garmin on the micro SD card. Works great on my 450, snap it in and you're good to go. I got the City Nav software for my 60 CSx but I like the card approach better....you can also move the card to another unit if you like.

 

The City Navigator on microSD IS easy to use and portable, however it can't be updated and you can only look at the maps on your computer while the GPSr is plugged in to it, also you can't add maps to the card so any other maps you want to install will need to fit on the units internal memory. For ease of use the microSD card is the way to go, for maximum flexibility, the DVD version is better, but it is also locked to just one GPSr.

[+WebiG]

Thanks. I looked on the Open Street maps site. The file that appeared to be the whole US (the largest file size) also looked like it only covered a latitude range outside of my location (122 degrees west) - ? Or am I just reading this incorrectly? So, what I would do is just copy the .img file from the Open Street Map site, then do I paste it into Base Camp or Map Source? Or do I just paste it into the directory on my Oregon when it is plugged into the computer? Thanks for all your help!

[+ecanderson]

Thanks. I looked on the Open Street maps site. The file that appeared to be the whole US (the largest file size) also looked like it only covered a latitude range outside of my location (122 degrees west) - ? Or am I just reading this incorrectly? So, what I would do is just copy the .img file from the Open Street Map site, then do I paste it into Base Camp or Map Source? Or do I just paste it into the directory on my Oregon when it is plugged into the computer? Thanks for all your help!

Once the OSM system has generated a file for you (unless it's a prepackaged one), you can just rename it to something like wholeus.img and slide it over into the Garmin folder on your Oregon ... or create a Garmin folder on an SD card and put it there. Given the size of the map you're talking about, you may well find that necessary! I never thought to look for a 'canned' USA map there. Is there one, and how big is it??

[+WebiG]

OK, I feel dumb. I downloaded a planimetric map for the northwest from GPS File Depot. The instructions stated that when you download the file, it would load it into MapSource. But, it downloaded it into BaseCamp instead. What is the difference between BaseCamp and MapSource, other than I cannot see how to tranfer a map to my Garmin from BaseCamp. How do I move the file from BaseCamp to MapSource? Sheesh...

[+coggins]

OK, I feel dumb. I downloaded a planimetric map for the northwest from GPS File Depot. The instructions stated that when you download the file, it would load it into MapSource. But, it downloaded it into BaseCamp instead. What is the difference between BaseCamp and MapSource, other than I cannot see how to tranfer a map to my Garmin from BaseCamp. How do I move the file from BaseCamp to MapSource? Sheesh...

This is explained on the GPSFileDepot site as a tutorial "How To Load Maps On My Garmin GPS Unit".

 

Double Sheesh...

[+luvvinbird]

OK, I feel dumb. I downloaded a planimetric map for the northwest from GPS File Depot. The instructions stated that when you download the file, it would load it into MapSource. But, it downloaded it into BaseCamp instead. What is the difference between BaseCamp and MapSource, other than I cannot see how to tranfer a map to my Garmin from BaseCamp. How do I move the file from BaseCamp to MapSource? Sheesh...

I guess that City Navigator North America NT on a micro SD card is looking pretty good now...?

[+ecanderson]

I guess that City Navigator North America NT on a micro SD card is looking pretty good now...?

Depends on the use model. I couldn't do that. My Birdseye wouldn't come near fitting in internal memory, for example.

 

As Garmin continues to try to push people towards Basecamp, they're just going to have to adjust to the new interface. No, it's not intuitive.

[+WebiG]

Got it! Thanks for the link to the tutorial - should have looked for that. I guess I was just "thrown" when all the info I was seeing mentioned MapSource and not BaseCamp. My maps are showing up nicely. THANKS.

So, is BaseCamp a new map management program that Garmin is pusing/promoting? Is it a replacement for MapSource?

[+ecanderson]

So, is BaseCamp a new map management program that Garmin is pusing/promoting? Is it a replacement for MapSource?

As to the second question - some of us old die hards would say no, but yeah, that's where it's all headed. The user interface is so very different from that of MapSource, and so unintuitive at times, that many of us who had grown accustomed to the old application still struggle with it at times. There's a definite learning curve involved. I doubt we will ever see any additional update to MapSource, and it won't surprise me if it soon goes the way of Spanner and other applications that currently reside in the Garmin orphan heap. AFAIK, nothing is shipping with MapSource now.