Garmin 520 Basemap Query

mimizan
mimizan Posts: 10
edited June 2017 in Road general
I've been running a basemap from OpenstreepMap that covers most of central Scotland for a couple of years.

I'm heading to France this week, so thought I'd add some map tiles for the area of France I'm travelling to.

Openstreetmap is saying this will take 11.5 days.. I am 2769th in the Queue!! :(

The question I have is.... Will my Garmin have any issues recording my ride when I am there, given that I will not have the French BaseMap installed?

Comments

  • vpnikolov
    vpnikolov Posts: 568
    https://extract.bbbike.org/

    You are welcome. Select Garmin Openfietsmap Lite (ASCII)

    Apparently openstreetmap.nl is overloaded as one of the servers has been shut down and there are no immediate plans to bring it back up. I guess because of lack of funds. Just use the above, provides exactly the same maps in about 10-15 minutes.

    Oh... and change that 520 for an Elemnt Bolt and you will never be bothered again with base maps.
  • wongataa
    wongataa Posts: 1,001
    You can record a ride anywhere with a Garmin device. The map does not affect recording. If you don't have a map covering your location the only issue is that the map screen will be blank. This is true for any GPS device.
  • plowmar
    plowmar Posts: 1,032
    The Elmnt Bolt covers the world then does it or have I misunderstood?
  • wongataa
    wongataa Posts: 1,001
    I believe the Element devices come with maps of the whole world out of the box.
  • plowmar
    plowmar Posts: 1,032
    I did look at the element after my previous post re garmin 520/820 but was not impressed re the map quality on a small screen and as it was for my wife she wanted a smart phone sized unit which was easily read. So went for the 1000 @£350 prepared to pay an extra £35 for U K mapping.
  • wongataa
    wongataa Posts: 1,001
    plowmar wrote:
    I did look at the element after my previous post re garmin 520/820 but was not impressed re the map quality on a small screen and as it was for my wife she wanted a smart phone sized unit which was easily read. So went for the 1000 @£350 prepared to pay an extra £35 for U K mapping.
    If you buy a Edge 1000 in the UK it comes with Europe wide maps that cover the UK. Additionally, for all Garmin Edge devices you can get freely available maps of the entire world. You don't need to buy maps for the units.
  • Mapaputsi
    Mapaputsi Posts: 104
    Might be too late for you now but I had a similar issue a couple of weeks ago. Was heading to Belgium on a Thursday and requested the map on Sunday.. only to be put in a queue with an 8.5 day wait!

    Thankfully that queue moved a lot faster than estimated and I had my map by the Tuesday afternoon.
  • cgfw201
    cgfw201 Posts: 674
    Waiting 24h for a map which then had to be plugged in to a computer, change the file name and dragged into a folder on the unit for the 50th time (ish) was what made me lose patience with my 520.

    Absolutely garbage technology for 2017, upgraded to an Elemnt Bolt and it's in a different league. Maps are miles better, and the WHOLE planet is covered with high quality OSM maps.
  • londoncommuter
    londoncommuter Posts: 1,550
    cgfw201 wrote:
    Waiting 24h for a map which then had to be plugged in to a computer, change the file name and dragged into a folder on the unit for the 50th time (ish) was what made me lose patience with my 520.

    Absolutely garbage technology for 2017, upgraded to an Elemnt Bolt and it's in a different league. Maps are miles better, and the WHOLE planet is covered with high quality OSM maps.

    The frustrating thing is it doesn't need that much more memory to keep most of us happy most of the time. It's just that little bit too small to get a decent area in. Would have added pence to the cost to add 50Mb more.
  • Websta24
    Websta24 Posts: 162
    I switched my basemap on the 520 using the links from DC Rainmaker. The maps where much more detailed than the standard. The trouble is, the unit has about 50mb of usable space. So every time you wanted to cycle a different part of the country/world you had to download another map, plug it in, drag and drop etc..

    I switched to the Elemnt bolt, i managed to sell my 520 on here and with my Wiggle discount i got the bolt for £175. The turn-by-turn is miles better. The screen is clearer and although its black and white, i always found the 520 looked like an early 00's Nokia!

    The Elemnt & Bolt have mapping pre-installed for what seems like everywhere!
  • wongataa
    wongataa Posts: 1,001
    The 520 isn't really designed for mapping which is why it has such a small memory. It is just a nice to have extra over what the 500 had. Garmin have always had the 7xx/8xx/1xxx series for actual mapping.
  • kaiserpc
    kaiserpc Posts: 22
    It's to try and force you to buy the 1000 or 820. I keep a number of maps on my PC from bbbike for various parts of the country / other countries that I cycle in and then just swap as required - tbh it's a 5 minute job.
  • penski
    penski Posts: 124
    Not sure if it's too late, but I also noticed that the predicted 12 day wait was usually off by a large margin - normally the maps were ready in half that time or sometimes less

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