Mapomatic – Applications of Mapping

After too long, we’ve finally released an updated Garmin OSM map for the UK.  As well as the standard map (suitable for all users), we’ve also managed to release a version with routing information too, which will be useful for those who would like to use the navigation features of their Garmin GPS.

Some of the routing data (also supplied by OpenStreetMap) is a little experimental still, so it may not produce perfect results, but it’s certainly well worth trying.  We should also point out that the version of the map with routing data is now well over 256MB (it’s actually around 300MB), which means if you only have a 256MB memory card in your Garmin, it will no longer fit.  If you really don’t have the space, we are still producing the standard Garmin OSM map too for your use.

Finally, we *know* that the canal and cycle maps are woefully out of date; we’ve had some technical difficulties with the tools we use to create these maps, and continue to work on this problem; we hope to release updates to both very soon, especially for those of you about to embark on your summer holidays; we’ll post here on the main website when the updates are ready…

As always, head to the Garmin OSM Maps download page for more information, and the links to download the new maps.

For the last few years, the Garmin 60CSx has been the GPS device of choice for many users; rugged, a decent viewable screen (without the touchscreen of the newer models it’s often easier to read in sunlight), and generally a good device, but things move on, and the new GPSMAP 62 brings a whole range of new technologies to this rugged range.

Although there are 3 models in the US, the top model includes  full US mapping, so may not be available in an equivalent in the UK, so let’s at least look at the two other models to see the spec:

“With a 2.6” sunlight-readable color display, up to 20 hours of battery life and a high-sensitivity GPS receiver and quad helix antenna for unparalleled reception (the GPS receiver features HotFix, which automatically calculates and stores critical satellite information and can use that information to quickly calculate a position), the GPSMAP 62 series features three distinct waterproof models to suit various activities and interests. The basic GPSMAP 62 includes a built-in worldwide basemap with shaded relief. The GPSMAP 62s adds a 3-axis tilt-compensated electronic compass and wireless connectivity for sharing routes, tracks, waypoints and geocaches between other compatible Garmin handhelds. GPSMAP 62s also includes a barometric altimeter that tracks changes in pressure to pinpoint your precise altitude. Users can also plot barometric pressure over time, which can help keep an eye on changing weather conditions.”

It supports the full paperless geocaching options of other recent Garmin GPS, and the Garmin Custom Maps feature that’s also supported on the Garmin Colorado, Garmin Oregon and Garmin Dakota models.

Here’s a nice touch for existing users of other recent Garmin GPS devices; “The GPSMAP 62 series is made even more versatile through its universal mounting system that is compatible with the same accessories as Garmin’s Oregon, Dakota and Colorado products.”

The Garmin GPSMAP 62 should be available in July, although we don’t have any confirmed UK pricing yet (I’d expect it to fit in above the Garmin Dakota range, but less than the most expensive Garmin Oregon models).

Article first published at UK Gadgeteer.

SatMap have quietly released a new firmware, v1.4, for their SatMap Active 10 devices.  As well as addressing a range of bugs, the full Changelog is included in this article.  Highlights include better Geocaching.com support, better power management, including hibernation support.  For the full changelog, read the rest of the article…

Continue reading ‘SatMap release new firmware’ »

Garmin has today announced two new touchscreen models. The Dakota10 & Dakota20, pictured here.

Physically smaller than the iconic Garmin eTrex, Dakota boasts a much bigger color display thanks to the 2.6-inch glove-friendly touchscreen.

Lightweight, rugged and waterproof, Garmin’s new Dakota devices quickly acquire and maintain satellite reception – even in heavy tree cover or deep canyons – thanks to a high-sensitivity GPS receiver with HotFixTM, which automatically calculates and stores critical satellite information and can use that information to quickly calculate a position. Everyone from geocachers and youth scouts to surveyors and hunters can take advantage of Dakota’s 850 MB of internal memory, which can store up to 1,000 waypoints, 50 routes, 2,000 geocaches and an active tracklog of up to 10,000 points and 200 saved tracks.

The Dakota20 adds even more features, including a 3-axis compass, barometric altimeter, a microSD card slot for increased mapping and memory storage, and wireless unit-to-unit connectivity for sharing your waypoints, tracks, routes and geocaches wirelessly with compatible Dakota, Oregon, Colorado and Foretrex devices. Dakota 20’s 3-axis, tilt-compensated electronic compass shows your heading even when you’re standing still, without needing to hold it level.

Continue reading ‘Garmin Dakota new GPS models’ »

Engadget have picked up a story from gpsreview.net that cover the possible addtion to the Garmin Oregon range, the new models 500 & 500t will include a camera. No detail on what functionality a camera is likely to bring, we suspect geotagging of photos.

The Ordance Survey Outdoors Show takes place in 20 days time, starting on the 27th March 2009, and finishing on the 29th March, with over 250 exhibitors and lots of “Have a go” activities to take part in as well.  Pocket GPS World has managed to negotiate a discount to this show, so head over to their site for more information and the instructions on how to obtain a discount on advanced tickets.

It’s a while since we’ve heard anything from SatMap, but, according to Pocket GPS World, they’ve just released a new update (v1.3) for their device. The Changelog states this update includes:

Map Features

• OSGB: the grid reference in the UK is now in 10 figure format (e.g. TQ 1596257240)
• European Datum: now included to support international mapping (e.g. UTM)

User Interface

• European Languages: Swedish, French, German and Italian are now supported.
• GPS Position: now has a new icon featuring a Direction of Travel Indicator.
• Planning Screen: now shows the blue GPS position circle and the brown planning position circle on the screen.
• 2D GPS Data Indication: if the GPS signal is poor, the unit will display position but not elevation data. This is shown as a “2D” icon.
• Map Scale: this is now displayed continuously during zooming.
• Trail Up / North Up: the switch between these two options is now instant.
• Live GMT (UTC) Time: now added to the GPS Status screen.

Functions

• Button Lock: now available on double press of the Power Button (indicated by the padlock icon).
• Power Off Confirmation: two key operation to close the unit down to prevent accidental power off.
• Press & Hold Backlight On: in the Power Control setting it is now possible to select an “Always Off” option on the Screen Turn Off function. This allows users to save power by having the backlight always off: to turn it on, press and hold the backlight boost button.

Settings

• Map Title Screen: this now auto cancels after 5 seconds.
• One Button Press: this is now the default setting, but the double press option can be restored in Button Control settings.

Routes

• New Data Box Options: total ascent, total descent, max and min elevation have been added.
• Trip Log Screen: the ?Stop? button now stops all data recording until re-started, including the height profile graph.
• Distance To End: now measures the distance to the end of the route, along the route itself.
• Knots & Nautical Miles: now available as an option.
• Waypoint and POI Names: now displayed when the cursor is over them.
• POI Naming: when POIs are entered there is a prompt to name them.

This update is available from here, with a warning that you must be running v1.16 or higher else you risk corrupting the device; story courtesy of Pocket GPS World. [Via UK Gadgeteer]

With the New Year brings new ideas, and today we would like to announce we are launching our OSM Canal Map for Garmin GPS units.  As with all our maps this is initially UK based only, although we are looking to expand and offer more countries during 2009 (if you have any particular requests, please create an account in the forums and ask for your country).

The Canal Map is a little experimental at the moment, and we would welcome feedback good and bad in our forums.  We started with a similar profile as our UK OSM Cycle Map for Garmin, and de-emphasised the cycle routes (although they still appear on the Canal Map to show our Canal Map users easy routes into town centres), and added a number of very specific canal / river POIs (Points of Interest) as well.

Most of the additional POIs are self-explanatory, using the standard Garmin symbols for Marinas, Boatyards etc. but we discovered Garmin did not have a symbol for locks, so we have used the White Navaid symbol for this.  If any Canal Map users can find us a more appropriate symbol, we’ll happily change over.  Also, as OSM maps each individual lock gate, we often find at least 2 occurrences of the lock name in close proximity, which can make the name look blurred.  We’re looking into whether there is anything we can do to improve this, but do let us know whether it’s a real issue or not.

Of course, if you zoom in sufficiently far, you can actually see the individual lock gates…

We believe this is the first UK Canal Map for GPS devices created using OSM data, and hope it proves popular.

As always, this is available for download alongside our other OSM Maps for Garmin here.

 We’ve now completed our first hardware review.

This review is of the Garmin Colorado 300. We make some comparisons to the GPSMap60Csx.

We’ll take a look at using the Colorado 300 to go caching. Including some screen shots to wet you appetite.

Follow the link to get to the Full Review

Introduction.

The Garmin Colorado 300 is the fisrt GPS to support paperless geocaching. In this review we’ll look at the Garmin Colorado 300 from a geocaching perspective and compare it to a Garmin GMAP 60CSx We’ve had both units on loan from Garmin UK for the past few months.

Whats in the Box.

So what do you get for your money, at the time of writing a Colorado 300 from Amazon is £265, with the GMAP 60CSx £210.  The contents of the box for both units is roughly the same.

Design.

The Colorado moves away from the traditional Garmin user interface of a cursor keypad, and 8 function keys, all functions on the unit are now controlled using the Rock ‘n Roller™ input wheel designed to allow easy one handed operation.

Colorado 300 Design Overview

GPSMap60 Design OVerview

From the images above the differences between the units are clear.

In physical size, theres not much difference between the units.

In Use, lets go caching.

Using the Colorado for paperless caching is an absolute pleasure. To make best use of the Colorado you need to be a premium member of the main geocaching listing site geocaching.com. Then simply create a pocket query for the area you wish to go caching in, download to an SD memory card, insert the card into the bottom of the Colorado 300, and off you go.

In the field we found the GPS reception to be matched to the GPSMAP60 both in accuracy, satellites seen, with the Colorado 300 aquiring it’s initial GPS fix slightly faster than the GPSMAP60. Both units proved to be a significant improvememnt on our current GPS60 Garmin unit, not surprising really given that developments in GPS technology.

The paperless caching capabilities of the Colorado give you access to the all the details on the cache listing page, including that all important hint. Along with several of the previous logs, these often prove invaluable in giving you some guidance on those more challenging geocaches.

The size, shape and weight of the unit mean that it sits nicely in the hand, making following of that all important arrow a pleasure, where the Colorado really wins over previous GPS units from Garmin is the introduction of the  Rock ‘n Roller™ input wheel, using this input device located atop the Colorado’s clear LCD display you can easily use the same hand that you’re holding the unit in to navigate you way round the extensive menus and features of the Colorado 300 simply by rolling the wheel with an action similar to that used on a mouse wheel, or rocking the wheel in an action that can be best described as pushing a joystick. At first it does seem a little alien, but we soon got to grips with this new input device.

Perhaps the best example of the  Rock ‘n Roller™ input wheel working to best effect can be shown on the map page, previously you would have used the cursor pad on the GPSMAP to move around the map, and the ‘in’ and ‘out’ buttons to zoom the map, using the ‘enter’ key to select or mark an item on the map. Now you simply rock the input wheel up, down, left and right to move around the map pretty much as before, roll the wheel to zoom in and out, and press the wheel to select, all whilst holding the unit with the same hand that your using to navigate around the map.

 Memory Expansion.

Discussed above in the geocaching part of this review, both the Colorado and GPSMap can have additional maps, and waypoints added by way of an additional memory card, in addition the colorado can have geocaching information stored on the card. The location, and type of memory card differ between the two units.

With the Colorado, a standard full size memory card can be used, installation is under the battery cover, into a slot in the bottom of the unit, as illustrated below.

Colorado 300 Memory Installation

The GPSMap60 uses a microSD card located underneath the batteries. Again this is shown below.

GPSMap60  Memory Installation

One thing is clear, you certainly don’t want to be swapping the memory of the GPSMap60 when your out in a field, microSD cards are tiny, really tiny,  they’re smaller than a mobile phone sim card, and anyone thats ever had to remove or re-insert on of those will agree it’s not the easiest task.

The colorado makes use of the larger full size SD card,  which makes it easier to change in the a field, but not something we’d recommend doing unless you absolutely had to.

Screenshots.

Conclusion.

Would we recommend the Colorado 300 ? Thats a most definitive yes, so much so with the unit from Garmin now returned, we’ve gone out and bought one to go geocaching with.

Tech Specs.