Mapomatic – Applications of Mapping

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.

OSM2Go is an editor for openstreetmap.org map data. OSM2Go is designed for simplicity and user friendlyness and not for maximim feature count. It is meant for simple mapping on the road.

Take your n810 out and mark your favorite restaurant on OpenStreetMap, enter your childrens playground to the database, map your entire neighbourhood or just correct this OneWay that recently changed direction.

Screenshots from different versions:

Continue reading ‘OSM2Go – OSM Mapping on Nokia Tablets.’ »

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.

As we mentioned just less than 3 months ago, our plan was to release updates to our Free UK Garmin OSM Maps on a regular basis, and this is the first such update.

Just like last time, we have released both the standard UK Garmin OSM Maps, and also the UK Garmin OSM Cycle Map (which highlights cycle routes more than normal roads).

Although it’s not easy to comment on what’s changed between the two maps, as that is a natural result of what the OpenStreetMap users have updated, we do know that there have been lots of mini mapping parties in and around London over the Summer improving the quality of the mapping.  One of the key things they were doing was reducing the number of unnamed roads in the city, so if nothing else, Londoners will see more road names within the data.  We also have seen a lot more POIs (Point of Interest) added to the main OSM database across the whole of the map, many of which are reflected in these new files.

Head over to our download page for more information, and the latest updates…

The UK SatMap Active 10 GPS device, which offers a whole range of OS maps (at additional charge) has just received a fairly major software update. The new version, v1.15 features the following updates:

• A blue ‘You Are Here’ dot to distinguish current location from the red track dots.
• The ability to hide inactive routes to avoid ‘clutter’ on a map. (Main Menu > Settings > Routes Control)
• A battery meter that gives a more accurate indication of the power remaining, and an indication of when the unit is connected to an external power source.
• A more accurate record of the trip data.
• The ability to download the raw track data from the Active 10 onto a PC (via SatSYNC).
• The ability to display elevation data derived from the GPS system as opposed to from an in built height data set. (Main Menu > Settings > GPS Settings)
• The ability to calibrate the compass from the compass page.
• A low power mode that automatically sets up the unit up to maximise the battery life. (Main Menu > Settings > Advanced Power Control)
• The ability to reset the track and the trip log simultaneously. (Main Menu >Routes Menu > Reset Data)
• A 15 second screen off option. (Main Menu > Settings > Power Control)

“The new software also has a new power management system that significantly reduces
the overall power consumption of the Active 10, thereby improving battery
performance. It should also improve the GPS acquisition time and upgrade the signal
lock in difficult conditions such as under tree canopies.
The most obvious change is to the start-up operation: when switched on, the Active 10
(with no map card loaded), goes to the GPS status screen first. Yellow blocks appear on
the bar chart whilst the unit is picking up the satellites, which turn orange once they
have acquired the data from each one. Once a sufficient number of satellites have been
acquired, the unit locks on, and then automatically switches to the GPS Map screen.”

About the only thing missing from the SatMap website is information on how to obtain the new software…

[Via UK Gadgeteer]