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Garmin Oregon 550 and 24k topo

Started by Vern2, March 17, 2011, 07:35:49 AM

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Vern2

 ??? Got the 550 because I own 2008 Topos. The combination of 2008 Topos and Birdeyes does not give me address Routing. Looking to 24k Topo's and Birdseye to give me that. Am I figuring it right?

Another concern is the dark shading of 24k topo's. How bad does that mess up Birdseye images?

Edit:
Called Garmin, Birdseye is on top of 24k topo's, so streets should show through without degrading Birdseye... maybe. Also 24k allows address routing. The street maps are 2009 City navigator.

Vern

Boyd

Yes, the 24k topo's have Navteq roads and POI's, like City Navigator - see: http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,1844.0.html

You can turn off shaded terrain if you don't like the effect. All line and point objects will display on top of Birdseye. Polygons are hidden.

Vern2

 :) Boyd thanks good info. I've got a 7200 with life city maps and just started loading POI's, cool stuff. And yes I got that, Polygons are hidden. That'okay I guess, that means Blm land is not bordered I think your trying to say.

I know probably newbe question but how many layers of maps can an Oregon 550 have? Would it be a possiblity for Birdseye, 24k Topo and say BLM Polygons? By the way I"m running 10,000 square miles of Birdseye on a 16 gb sd card. Takes about 45 sec to turn on and 1 sec delay on map dragging refresh, not bad.

So I guess I'm trying to have the best of both worlds. I've already turned off the shading that comes from the GPS, that helped. Arizona, where I'm at, has only 27 percent privately owned land. So that makes a lot of off roading, if you can stand the heat.

Boyd

I have not used any of the transparent BLM maps. However, if they use polygons I am pretty sure that Birdseye will cover them up.

I also have a full  16gb card with Birdseye and see similar results - slow startup. I have the old Oregon 400t however (has Topo 2008 pre-installed). I don't know what the limit is for active mapsets, but suspect it's pretty big. But it could be kind of a mess also depending on what you are putting into the mix. A mapset doesn't need to be transparent to show on top of Birdseye, but it needs to be transparent (and have the correct draw order) to show on top of another regular Garmin map.

Vern2

#4
Thanks Boyd, I just ordered the 4 state 24k Garmin Topo on Amazon. That way I'll have address routing 2009 streets, plus a good Topo. The Blm stuff costs $20 bucks a year, so I guess not a big deal.
Birdseyes:
I have an area of 89 mils by 89 mile in Birdseye. It's a little less than 12gb. I found you can que up multiple Birdseye downloads. Even thou it's slow you can have a 24 hour download. 11gb took 4 days, about 96 hours.

Would like to run my solid state 9" Dell laptop. Would Garmin Mobile PC run on it? I'm running XP now on that PC.

Vern


Boyd

I have played around with the free demo of Mobile PC on both XP and Vista 64 - no problems. You could try installing that to see if it works before purchasing. It is a discontinued product now however, although I'm sure some vendors will still have copies in stock.

See: http://forums.gpsreview.net/viewtopic.php?t=10233

I have found that it does not correctly display the custom types that I use in my own maps, so it's not something that interests me. You might also want to check out nRoute, which is free and renders topo maps in the "classic" style (which is good :) ) http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,1092.0.html

I have run nRoute on Windows 7, XP and Vista 64 with no problems also.

Vern2

#6
Boyd, don't know if I should be starting a new thread on each of these off topic questions. Let me know.

Now this is interesting, or I'm reading this wrong. With nRoute I could plug my Dell mini 9 into Oregon 550 and see the screen on the PC?

Edit: On the interface, I have Garmin Serial, NMEA In/Out, Text Out, RTCM, Garmin Spanner? Don't see Interface IIRC.

Use only the GPS signal, got it. Well the 24k Topo can ce used, Wonder if it will recognize Birdseye?

Vern

Vern2

Quote from: Vern2 on March 17, 2011, 07:35:49 AM
??? Got the 550 because I own 2008 Topos. The combination of 2008 Topos and Birdeyes does not give me address Routing. Looking to 24k Topo's and Birdseye to give me that. Am I figuring it right?

Another concern is the dark shading of 24k topo's. How bad does that mess up Birdseye images?

Edit:
Called Garmin, Birdseye is on top of 24k topo's, so streets should show through without degrading Birdseye... maybe. Also 24k allows address routing. The street maps are 2009 City navigator.

Vern

Boyd

Vern, you kind of lost me in that last post. nRoute does not display the screen from your GPS. It just uses the GPS to receive data about your position. You must install maps directly into nRoute, and since it's very old and unsupported software, it will not work with the newer Garmin products (such as City Navigator NT). Not sure if it would work with the 24k topo's, but I kind of doubt it. It definitely won't work with Birdseye!

It should be able to receive position data from the GPS however. Can't remember the correct setting on the Oregon, but I think it's Garmin Spanner. Regardless, it doesn't sound like it will do what you want. MobilePC is the same - you need to install the maps on your computer, it doesn't show the screen from your gps and doesn't read the maps installed on the GPS.

With either of these programs, although they will work with the Oregon, it's a bit awkward. More practical to use a little USB GPS receiver. They are pretty cheap ($40 perhaps). But again, they may not really do what you want anyway.