Garmin Discovery Maps

[Mabel_G]

Great!!!

I have just bought a Garmin 64s with teh 1:50k map of GB

but Garmin have stopped selling the Garmin Discovery Maps range, based on the Ordinance Survey of GB.

so i'm stuck with the 1:50k maps.

why would a company who sells a product based on maps stop selling the reference standard maps for the uk?

i don't understand!!

Strange.

I'm sure i can down load maps into the unit, i just have to work out how.

there will be websites that explain how to do it.

but it wont be as simple as download the map into the unit and off i go.

strange decision.

wish i had avoided Garmin now.

very disappointing

will avoid Garmin in the future.

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

Have a look at what is on offer from Open Street Maps, the maps need to be in the Garmin format, however there is a website that supplies maps free of charge that can be downloaded and installed on Garmin units, see link (Click HERE)

 

[Mabel_G]

thanks for that

i have downloaded and installed into basecamp the uk map from OSM

it's not as pretty as the OS maps and i'm not so sure how accurate it is or what scale it is, but i will give it a go.

i have installed it into basecamp i just don't know how to get it onto my 64s
i don't think it will go into the 64s memory.

i have a feeling from what i have read that it has to go onto a sd card but that would mean i cant have my 1:50k os maps installed simultaously as they are on an SD card also.

the folder with the download in contains lots of .img files

but IF the garmin can only read one file then i need to get them into some other format some how.



seems a lot of effort when garmin could (did) supply them as a download.

still seems a bizarre thing to stop selling if you make your bussiness selling map products.

 

[Mabel_G]

ah

i built a smaller map of my holiday area and noticed in the directory of osm that there was a zip file with a single image to put on an sdcard.

so that solves that issue, but i can only have that or the os 50k installed at any one time by the looks of it.

unless i can get one of them into the memory somehow.

 

[Mabel_G]

the new style is nice in appearance

i will go and play with them.

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

The concept of a map 'scale' only had any meaning when they were printed on paper, as for the level of detail on OSM, it can be very high indeed, showing individual trees, the walls of a houses etc., however, the data is entered by many thousands of people so there won't be a consistent 'scale' over the entire map

Basecamp can combine your 50k map and your OSM maps into a single file and send it to your 64s
goto :- Basecamp >> Maps >> Install Maps and select all the maps you want installed, (Both new and old), then basecamp will send all maps as a single file


Click Image for more detail

 

[Mabel_G]

Thank you I will try that.

I didn't think you could do this with the garmin maps.


The 50k maps are on an microSDcard and the map is only visible when the 64s is connected.

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

Basecamp usually makes a copy of maps it finds on GPSs so that they can be used even when the GPS is not connected, it maybe that this has been disabled to prevent copying, but other Garmin maps do this like the CN Europe 2018.30 in the picture above, it still may be possible to add the OSM to your OS 50k using the method detailed above

 

[Mabel_G]

well...

i have been learning how to use the 64s and I like it.

i downloaded the OSM map of the UK and tried it out on some local walks and was not disappointed.

I am familiar with the OS maps as i have been using them for 40 years but he OSM was not bad at all.

i understand the comment about scale being relevant to printed maps but what the scale also informs the user is the level o detail that you can expect. That's what i was really interested in.

maybe a new (or existing) term to indicate level of detail is required.

I can only see the OS 50K maps in Basecamp when the 64s is connected to the computer.

so it looks like i can't have both maps installed at the same time - pity.

changing microSDcards in the field is tricky.

but if the OSM map of the lake district is up to scratch then i wont need the 50K.

time will tell.

I might try copying all the contents of the OS 50K map onto the same memory card as the OSM card and see if it will work - O suspect not. not sure how file naming will work...

work a punt i guess.

 

[Chris B]

Hi Mabel_G
Your 64s has about 3.5Gb internal storage so you could copy the OSM map to the Garmin directory found there.
You should ensure it has a unique name and does not over-write a file of the same name.
Doing this would allow you to have both maps loaded on the device simultaneously.

However, which map displays depends on the display priority of the maps - think of it as layers. For example, if the OS 50k has precedence you will only see that map as it overlays the other.
To overcome this look at setting up different profiles - one for OS 50k map only and another for the OSM map.
This allows you to switch map sets by just toggling to another profile.

Hope that helps.

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

You should ensure it has a unique name and does not over-write a file of the same name.

So are you saying that the 64s will see and display maps contained in files of different names?, most Garmin products expext to read a map file called GMAPSUPP.IMG
EDIT
I'm not sure if Garmin units will allow any *.IMG file name, but here are a few some unit will expect to find :-

• GMAPPROM.IMG = the pre-installed map
• GMAPBMAP.IMG = the base map
• GMAPSUPP.IMG = additional maps i.e. from Basecamp etc.

 

[Mabel_G]

Thanks Chris & Nuvi-Nebie for the above information.

I copied the OSM which i downloaded, which was called gmapsupp.img (by OSM)
(I just unzipped it)

to two other file names;
GMAPBMAP.img
GMAPPROM.img

this gave me the same map but with 3 different names
gmapsupp.img, GMAPBMAP.img, GMAPPROM.img

I copied them into the 64s Memory, into folder,

F:\Garmin\CustomMaps

and removed the SDcard from the 64s

and i could not see any of them.

shame.


when the SDcard has the map gmapsupp.img in a folder called Garmin I can see the map

SDcard: (F:\Garmin\gmapsupp.img)

so it looks like i can't copy the files to the 64s memory!

what a pity.

I don't think Garmin have thought this trough.

thanks for the help.