Garmin maps info

andy37
andy37 Posts: 120
edited December 2014 in MTB buying advice
Im buying either an 810 or 1000 soon for use on both my road and MTB, i believe the base maps in these units are suitable for road navigation but wondered about off road and seen as most places we ride are remote if these will be highlighted? How easy is it to get 3rd party maps installed onto these units?

Cheers,
Andy

Comments

  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    There was a thread about os maps for them earlier in the week. IMO they're not worth having (ive got a 1000), and the standard OSM maps are better for navigating. The 1000 can do turn by turn navigation off road as well as on too.
  • freezing77
    freezing77 Posts: 731
    edited December 2014
    andy37 wrote:
    Im buying either an 810 or 1000 soon for use on both my road and MTB, i believe the base maps in these units are suitable for road navigation but wondered about off road and seen as most places we ride are remote if these will be highlighted? How easy is it to get 3rd party maps installed onto these units?

    Cheers,
    Andy

    With the base map you can just about navigate motorways and main A roads, heres a sample at maximum detail.

    This is central London
    15246059442_3bea685657_c.jpg

    For the very good openstreetmap go here http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

    choose generic routable new style
    presuming you are in the uk choose uk from united kingdom from the europe dropdown list, depends how busy the server is you may be able to download your map directly or submit your email to get a link sent to you.

    The link will contain links to various files, you want the one with this description
    Compressed file containing a single image that can be placed directly onto the SD-card of the GPS. Unzip first!

    The following link is valid for 24 hours, due to the size of the file you will be best to put it on a micro sd card in your garmin, the garmin supports 4 and 8gb cards the file must be placed in a folder called garmin,
    Compressed file containing a single image that can be placed directly onto the SD-card of the GPS. Unzip it first.

    http://osm.pleiades.uni-wuppertal.de/garmin/generic/24-12-2014/08f885c920cd888d064df6cbfa5999d8/
  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    But OSM maps are free and vastly more detailed. The 1000 comes with them installed from new, dunno about the 810.
  • njee20 wrote:
    But OSM maps are free and vastly more detailed. The 1000 comes with them installed from new, dunno about the 810.
    The 810 comes only with the basemap.
  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    Oh well, 15 mins well spent installing OSM maps then!
  • andy37
    andy37 Posts: 120
    sorry been out all day and Thanks for posting everyone.

    njee20, ive had a scan through and cant find any threads on garmin and/or os maps. you cant remember which section it was in can you or poss a link?

    freezing77, obviously i dont have a garmin yet but ive briefly seen the screens on them and surely they give more detail than that screenshot you posted?? If that is the max detail then surely i need some better maps for off road.
  • andy37 wrote:
    sorry been out all day and Thanks for posting everyone.

    njee20, ive had a scan through and cant find any threads on garmin and/or os maps. you cant remember which section it was in can you or poss a link?

    freezing77, obviously i dont have a garmin yet but ive briefly seen the screens on them and surely they give more detail than that screenshot you posted?? If that is the max detail then surely i need some better maps for off road.

    The screenshot i posted is at maximum detail as advised.

    On the global map the detail is such that nothing shows within a 2km radius of my house and I live in surburban west London. No roads, no tracks , Esher get a mention, the line you see across the screen is to give you an idea of scale.

    15934053088_68ba6e26c5_b.jpg
  • The same view in openstreetmap

    16095708076_39c6315cca_b.jpg
  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    And as OSM maps are completely free the base map is a red herring, so ignore that

    Certainly locally (to me) the OSM maps are better to navigate with than OS because they include some of the trails as well as official footpaths/bridle ways, OS maps obviously only has the official rights of way.
  • Here is a screenshot of the 1:50k ordnance survey (OS) maps available for the garmin, as you can see they pixellate at higher zoom levels as they are raster images.

    15502079733_b3f0227be3_b.jpg

    Same view on OSM

    15934536390_ff2920b9e5_b.jpg