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Finally, we *know* that the canal and cycle maps are woefully out of date; we’ve had some technical difficulties with the tools we use to create these maps, and continue to work on this problem; we hope to release updates to both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…

The full changelog for v1.4:

General Update

• New Splash Screen

Status Bar

• The Battery indicator has been reduced in size and set vertically, and has been improved to show more accurate power metering for Lithium batteries as well as showing when it is fully charged. Additionally there is now a Run and Stop icon beside the battery which shows the user if the Trip Log is running or is stopped.
• Small Battery Icon
• Improved Power Metering Optimised for Lithium Primaries and LiPol Rechargeables
• Run / Stop Icon for Statistics Log
• Toggle Icon When alternate mapping is available.
• WAAS/EGNOS Enabled GPS Icon turns blue Selective availability : WAAS (USA) EGNOS (Europe)

GPS Map Page

• Track Up (Low Centre Spot) Blue spot lowered option to allow more mapping to be seen ahead. Only 2 data boxes allowable to show max mapping.
• Toggle Function (Top Left Button). New concept of toggle maps. Satmap now has the ability to issue different map types. For example Aerial coverage can toggle to A-Z mapping, that then toggles to CAA mapping, and then toggles back to Base mapping (typically 1:50k or 1:25k). When an alternate map is available the status bar icon will show. On switchover, the name or type of the new map will briefly show (i.e. Aerial, A-Z or Base Maps)
• Satmap has always been able to display multiple map scales. On previous versions of software, these maps were viewed by zooming in and out. Now Satmap has introduced the ‘Map Toggle’ feature: this allows users to ‘toggle’ between different maps available at the point with a click of a button without zooming. It is accessed from the GPS Map screen and is the top left button (showing three layers of mapping stacked on top of each other). This feature requires specific map packs: at launch this will only be the custom map series, with National Parks available in Spring.
• Better handling of co-incident points i.e. a waypoint on a POI (list box now appears) allowing the POSITION INFO screen to be always accessed.

Large Map Areas / Aerial

• Better supported: Map packs treated in handy bite size to effectively allow unlimited mapping to be used (limited currently by 32GB SD card size)
• JPG tile format now supported leading to better handling of very large / hi res aerial imagery.

Planning Screen

• Distance measurement tools improved. Using the Set Marker function (joystick press whilst in Planning Map) it is now possible to measure distance and bearing (either Mag. or Grid) between any 2 points. Previously users could only measure from their own location.

Position Info Screen

• Lat/Long (DD MM.DDD) and any other supported Grid Ref system can be display simultaneously (E.G UTM or MRGS)

Hibernate (on the latest Platforms (09.02.15 and higher))

• Effectively a Stand By mode – default set at 2 hours (during which time the satellite data is saved (ephemeris and almanac) so unit does NOT take 20 seconds to load Windows, and does NOT take 1:30 to get satellite lock. Typical lock time out of hibernate : 3-10 seconds. Essentially this means that the useful battery life can be extended by switching on for a quick lock and then switch off. Note: logging and snail trail does NOT occur during hibernate.
• Hibernate timeout added to Advanced Power Control (0-8 hours)

Screen Capture

• On backlight boost button now saves a jpg of the screen display (with date time stamp to a. SD card, or b. Flash if no SD card available). Press the Back Light button for 2 seconds and a camera icon appears on the status bar to indicate that a screen shot has been captured.

Settings

• More options to set target speed
• Memory Status : More detailed and clearer information about memory usage (SD Card, Flash and RAM). Low memory exclamation mark added in Memory Status area.
• Backlight many more low settings (1,2,4,6,8.10,20,30% etc) to protect night vision.
• Red Backlight; also to protect night vision.

Data

• Moon Phases added for Data boxes.

Datum Support

• Enhanced: New maps and datums now self-contained on SD cards, so they will plug and play without the need for fresh software updates for new countries.

Routes

• Routes Menu tidied up functions now on buttons list is for actual routes only.
• Folder concept now supported
• Better handling of very large routes and high numbers of waypoints. More strict filtering to restrict on required waypoints to be displayed.
• Invisible / Inactive routes now do not load in memory at all.
• Inactive routes can be set to show only start point  allowing many more routes to be loaded.
• Better track to trail convert; better filtering to retain fewest WPs but best shape.
• Better visibility of active routes; the current leg contains blue arrows and has a blue border.

POIs

• Warning radius increased to 3km (i.e. total diameter 6km) and red hatched for warning purposes.
• POI-Set by Postcode now available (for the UK units with Postcode data).
• POI-Set by Co-ordinate added.
• Enhanced support for Geocaching.com data (i.e. full hints and geocache log are supported)
• Folder concept supported.
• POI Icon selection extending to spots, geocaching and other common symbols

SatSYNC 1.4

• Folder manipulation on both the Internal Storage and SD Card available on units with platform 09.02.21 or higher.
• Imported Routes and POIs now available immediately in their respective menus without the need to restart the unit (platform 09.02.15 or higher)

World Map

• Routes and POIs display more accurately now.

TRIP LOG Screen

• Buttons rearranged for more function and clarity.
• Clearing the ‘snail trail’ (or ‘crumb trail’) is now done from the Trip Log screen. In place of the reset function is now a Menu button that gives access to all the features needed to set the Trail info and the Trip Log.

Power

• During Critical Battery shut down unit will now be revived if connected to external power; previously it would always shut down.
• Battery fully charged Icon now supported (previously not available)

Google Earth

• Google Earth is a great resource and now the Active 10 can interact with it more effectively, allowing routes to be created, downloaded and uploaded between Google Earth and the Active 10.

This is an impressive list of new features, and we are especially pleased to see SatMap continuing to innovate and provide feature updates to their existing customers.  A small note though; to benefit from the Hibernation features, you need to apply the update via SD card, and not via download; the SD card can be purchased from SatMap directly.

If you want to read how all these new features fit into the working of the device, head to the SatMap website and read the full (updated) user manual here.

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.

Here’s the full release:

Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation, today announced the Dakota 10 and Dakota 20 handheld GPS navigators, packing a high-sensitivity GPS receiver, worldwide basemap and color touchscreen display into a compact, waterproof device with up to 20 hours of battery life.

“As families and friends explore the outdoors – from an exotic locale to the local park – Dakota helps keep their adventures affordable and enjoyable,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales.

“While kids have fun with Dakota’s small size and simple interface, parents can take comfort in never losing their way thanks to high-sensitivity GPS and extended battery life.”

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 HotFix TM , 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.

Based on the innovative interface of Garmin’s award-winning Oregon series, Dakota’s glove-friendly, color 2.6-inch touchscreen display is easy to read and use in all conditions, responsive to the touch of your finger, yet resistant to the forces of nature. Weighing only 6.75 ounces, Dakota lasts up to 20 hours on two AA batteries and can connect to your PC or Mac via USB connection.

Dakota 20 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.

It’s fun and easy to get into paperless geocaching with Dakota. You can download up to 2,000 caches, with information such as location, terrain, difficulty, hints and description — no more paper print outs and manually entered coordinates. Visit Garmin.com/geocache for more information.

Dakota comes preloaded with a worldwide basemap and is compatible with Garmin City Navigator NT for turn-by-turn directions on city streets, Blue Chart g2 for marine charting, and TOPO U.S. 24K and 100K map software for incredible terrain detail (each sold separately).

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.

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

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.