Garmin RMP

manumuskin

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
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millville nj
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Boyd

Would there be a program (hopefully either free or a cheap one time payment) that does the equivalent for Garmin gps's that Triton RMP does for Magellan Triton. I have had no end of problems with this triton and now it will not except tracks from my computer/Vantage Point but I really love the ability to make my own maps out of aerials that I can do with Triton RMP.I want a program where I can take a jpeg or Tiff image of an Aerial photograph and make a map of it or can download USGS topos from the usgs store and make my own maps from them.I have tried everything I know to remedy the track situation including trying multiple computers updating and reinstalling vantage point and the same for the firmware and nothing works.If I can find a program that will work for garmin like rmp does for Triton Magellan will be history.They have non existent tech support.
 
Boyd

Boyd

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Jul 31, 2004
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Al: yes there are programs for this with Garmin. You can make small, simple maps this way:

http://www.garmin.com/us/products/onthetrail/custommaps

But these programs let you make bigger maps and will read georeferenced files so you don't have to do that part yourself:

http://moagu.com/?page_id=155
http://www.the-thorns.org.uk/mapping/
http://mobac.sourceforge.net/

However there are limitations. You must break the map into "tiles" that are each no larger than 1024x1024 pixels. If you are using USGS 24k topo maps, for example, each tile would cover about 2 miles x 2 miles. The good thing is that they show through a wider range of zoom than the Triton RMP maps. The programs listed above will automate the process of creating the tiles. mapc2mapc is kind of cool in that it lets you create irregularly shaped maps by turning individual tiles on or off.

Most of the garmin models only allow a total of 100 of these tiles (such as the Oregon, GPSMap 62s or eTrex 30). The Montana allows 500 tiles total. A new model of the Oregon has just been announced, won't ship until March. I don't know if it will allow a larger number of tiles or also have the limit of 100. It looks very cool but is pretty expensive - $400

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=145&pID=113532

This is the Montana, also rather expensive (street price in the $400-$450 range)

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=145&pID=75226

Recently the best bang for the buck has been the Oregon 450. Christmas sale price was $200, has gone up since then. When the new model is released, it should get cheaper. This is what Guy and several other members have.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=145&pID=63349

If you want the 24k USGS topos you should just subscribe to Birdseye, unlimited downloads for $30 and there is no "tile limit" for these, you can store as much as you memory card allows:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=98816

The NJ 2007 aerials are also available for $30 unlimited downloads here:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=70144

I think these make more sense than creating your own maps, since they have no limitations and you don't need to convert anything. Just download and use them immediately.

FWIW, when I get the time I plan to make my map available for download also. Each USGS quad will consist of 16 tiles, so you could only load 6 quads on most of the Garmin units, or 31 quads on the Montana. http://boydsmaps.com
 
manumuskin

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
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millville nj
www.youtube.com
Thanks! I think I'm going to have to go Garmin.Is that Birds Eye 30 dollar fee and the 2007 30 dollar fee one time fees or a yearly fee?
The one remaining feature I'd like to see on garmin that magellan has is the distance to point on Magellan will read out in feet from a mile away whereas the Garmins (at least Guy's Garmin) will only read in feet once you get to less the one tenth of a mile from your destination which is 528 ft.It's nice when beating across a thick swamp to see your progress counting down in feet instead of having to estimate how many feet you have to go by converting hundredths of a mile to feet in your head.
 
Boyd

Boyd

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Jul 31, 2004
9,625
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Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
The $30 subscriptions give you unlimited downloads for one year. However, once you download the imagery it never expires. So just download everything you want during the year and you won't have to renew. After you download and copy the files to a memory card, make a backup of them to a folder on your computer. These files will never expire. But after the year is over, you cannot use Garmin's software to send Birdseye to your GPS.

When you send Birdseye to the GPS with Garmin's software, it checks to see if you have a valid subscription. If so, it inserts an unlock code in the data that authorizes it for your GPS. So these are the files you need to save - the unlocked ones that you have already sent to your GPS.
 
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