Garmin 1490 and 100K Topo of the complete southwest area?

[problemchild200]

Im looking for a map for my 1490 nuvi that covers all southern states in 100k topo. So that would be az, mt, ut, ca, or, wa, id, wy, nm, co.

Does such a thing exist?

Also I have paired my 1490 to my laptop via bluetooth and the garmen software refuses to to see the 1490. It just keeps "scanning" and then says it cant find it.

I like the 1490 and it would be perfect if I could get the 100k topo and bluetooth working. Im going to use it for fishing and duck hunting.

One last thing. How do I load maps from the memory card? I cannot figure out how to do that? The base unit only has 450 megs of free space even after deleting all other than english language files.

[maps4gps]

Garmin has a 100k topo product. 
The mapsets here are more detailed and therefore larger in size.

[Boyd]

I have a 1350 and although there are some differences, I think these are based on the same platform. I found that my 1350 really mangles topo maps. The contour lines are drawn really heavily - they are thicker than the roads and make the map confusing. It also doesn't render the polygon fill for swamps/wetlands properly. Instead, it renders it like water, giving the appearance of huge "lakes" in areas that actually have no open water. In fact, when I made my map of New Jersey I specifically tweaked the format to fix these issues on the 1350.

On your model, the maps can be either in internal memory or a card. Either way, create a directory called Map at the root level of the filesystem. You can use the Garmin installers and Mapsource to send the maps you want to either the internal memory or the card. After doing this, the maps will be contained in a file named gmapsupp.img in the Garmin directory.

Re-name this file something descriptive like 100ktopo.img - just be sure it has the .img file extension. Now put the file in the Map directory of either the card or internal memory and it should be recognized. You can repeat this procedure if you want to add more maps later.

For some reason, on my 1350, if I use Mapsource to send the map to the Garmin directory in internal memory as gmapsupp.img, the Nuvi will not recognize the map. However, if I do the same thing on a memory card, it works. Another Garmin oddity.  

But the GPS will recognize any valid map file with a .img extension if it is contained in the \Map directory on either the card or internal memory.

[problemchild200]

I loaded the southwest maps you have here and see what you mean about the elevation lines. They are BIG!.

The best GPS system I have ever had was using my laptop, VZW cell phone, an external 10db gain omni antenna,  Garmin USB-18 GPS,  the internet and Google earth to track where I was going. Simply amazing to see yourself on a Sat. map driving a dirt jeep trail while you look for good duck hunting areas.

This Nuvi is a long way from that system but a lot less wires too.

[Boyd]

You can use the maps here with Garmin nRoute software on your laptop. nRoute was a free program that Garmin used to offer; it looks pretty much like Mapsource with reatime navigation features. You can get it here: http://www.gawisp.com/perry/nroute/

I have used version 276 on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 without issues.

Garmin just launched their BirdsEye service this weekend also for aerial imagery, and despite some intitial glitches, I'm impressed. Not compatible with the Nuvi though: http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,140.30.html

It is possible to fix the topo map display issues on the new Nuvi models if you know how to use "custom types" in maps. You would have to see if the mapmaker objected to you changing their mapset(s) however.

For all mapmakers, if you want your maps to look good on the Nuvi series you should redefine custom bitmapped types for contour lines that specify a fixed pixel width - I would suggest:

0x20 - 1 pixel
0x21 - 2 pixels
0x22 - 3 pixels

You should also redefine the wetland polygon fill (0x51) with custom bitmap. This will fix the biggest problems on the new Nuvi units. I think these new types also improve the appearance of the map on all Garmin GPS'es.

If you already have a .typ file in your mapset, it is easily modified using the online editor here: http://ati.land.cz/gps/typdecomp/editor.cgi

If you don't already have a .typ file, you can create one using the same tool. For the "traditional" way to create custom types and some background on what they are, see pages 32 - 41 in this tutorial: www.cgpsmapper.com/download/GM8DocV2.pdf

[problemchild200]

What units work with birds eye? I bought my 1490 at costco so I have 90 days to return.

[Boyd]

Only the newer handhelds - Oregon, Dakota and Colorado series.