Question about Maps on the Oregon 550

[Reno8]

I have some questions that hopefully somebody can give me some insight on. I have an Garmin Oregon 550. I have the DVD TOPO U.S. 100K from Garmin which is the reason why I bought the 550 and not the 550T. I also have City Navigator for it. I was wondering if I could put the maps on the unit seperately or do I have to do them together. If I do them seperately will one just write over the old one..

And if I have to do them together with Mapsource will they show up seperately on my GPS so I can disable CN and just use TOPO when I'm hiking?

Then if I download a NE TOPO map from this site with a 24K scale can I just add it to my GPS or will it overwrite the others or do I have to do ALL of them together again. Hope not!

 I know its a few questions but loading maps on my GPS takes awhile and I don't want to find out the hard way that I have to do them ALL together.

Thanks in advance.

[maps4gps]

MapSource and BaseCamp will send the data to the GPSr using the file name 'gmapsupp.img'; and overwrite any existing file by that name.

Send data from one of the mapsets to the GPSr and rename the gmapsupp.img file to somename with a .img extension.  Then do the same for additional mapsets.

You can try testing this with a segment/quad from one mapset, than one from another for the same area.  Use the area you are currently in; otherwise you will have to pan to the area to see any data.

[Boyd]

What you want to do is no problem. As maps4gps said, just keep sending the maps and renaming to files with names you will remember, like UStopo.img, CN.img, whatever.img.

However you need to be aware of the segment limit on your device, which will only recognize a total of ~4,000 of the individual tiles that make up the maps. This limit applies to the sum of all the different maps on the unit and not each separate file.

The DVD version of US Topo has about 6,600 segments in order to be compatible with older units that have very small amounts of memory. Therefore it will not be possible to install all of that map on your Oregon. When you use Mapsource and select an area of the map to transfer, you can see how many segments are being sent.

The version of US Topo pre-installed on the 550t has been created with much larger tiles and allows the whole US to available while using less than 500 segments. The downloadable and pre-loaded card versions are also similar.

City Navigator also uses pretty large tiles and I think it only eats up a few hundred segments. Segment size is chosen by the map author, so it's impossible to generalize about how many will be contained in any of the maps posted here.

[Reno8]

Thank you very much. I have an 8GB SD card in it as well so fitting the maps shouldn't be a problem. If I have the TOPO 100K and the TOPO 24K  from here on it at the same time do I have to disable the 100K to use the 24K? Should I always keep the DEM base map enabled?

Thanks everybody!

[Reno8]

So what your saying is a can put the maps onto my GPSr one at a time and they won't overwrite each other as long as I change the name of the mapset?

What is the best scale distance to set for the TOPO map?

Thanks

[Boyd]

Zoom scale is a personal preference, based on what you're doing. Generally speaking, once you zoom in as far as 800 feet you will see all of the details on the map. For hiking, I often use the 500 level. For driving, perhaps .3 miles. But you will decide what works best for you as you use the maps. It's something you will probably be constantly changing as you use the unit.

The segment limit is completely separate from the size of the file. As I said, US Topo contains 6,600 segments but is less than 3gb. So if you loaded 4,000 of those segments you'd only be using about 2gb of storage but you you would be at the limit of what the Oregon can handle. An 8gb card is a good size however, the only reason for a larger one would be if you want to download a lot of Birdseye imagery.

As we said above, every time you send a map to the Oregon you will find a file in the Garmin folder named gmapsupp.img. Rename this to whatever you like but keep the .img extension. Repeat as needed.

[jbensman]

Thank you very much. I have an 8GB SD card in it as well so fitting the maps shouldn't be a problem. If I have the TOPO 100K and the TOPO 24K  from here on it at the same time do I have to disable the 100K to use the 24K? Should I always keep the DEM base map enabled?

Thanks everybody!

CN covers 24K and 100K
24K covers 100K

So CN will always display if enabled.  To see 24 you have to disable CN
To see 100K you have to disable CN and 24 K

The GPS will use the DEM data even if the map with it is disabled. 

[Boyd]

That is generally true, however the "stacking order" is actually controlled by the mapmaker. For example, I am finishing up a topo map that will cover up City Navigator when enabled. This allows me to use City Navigator for routing while viewing the topo.

The more technical answer is that maps are assigned a "draw priority" between 0 and 31 that determines their stacking order. Higher numbers are shown on top of lower numbers. US Topo 100k has a priority of 20, City Navigator has a priority of 30. For the map I mentioned above, I used a priority of 31.

I believe the priority will default to 25 when you make your own maps, but it can be set to whatever the mapmaker desires.

[Reno8]

Thanks everybody! Your time is very much appreciated.

[jbensman]

That is generally true, however the "stacking order" is actually controlled by the mapmaker. For example, I am finishing up a topo map that will cover up City Navigator when enabled. This allows me to use City Navigator for routing while viewing the topo.

The more technical answer is that maps are assigned a "draw priority" between 0 and 31 that determines their stacking order. Higher numbers are shown on top of lower numbers. US Topo 100k has a priority of 20, City Navigator has a priority of 30. For the map I mentioned above, I used a priority of 31.

I believe the priority will default to 25 when you make your own maps, but it can be set to whatever the mapmaker desires.

I am curious why you are going that way instead of just making transparent overlays for everything but the roads?

[Boyd]

I want complete visual control of of every element of the map, but I don't want the trouble of making routable maps. This gives me the map appearance I want, but with City Navigator working behind the scenes for routing as well as lane assist, speed limit display, etc.

[Seldom]

How do you correllate the highway data on your map w/ the data in CNNANT, since that data is changing with every new development that's built (and I haven't bought a copy since 2009)?

[babj615]

I want complete visual control of of every element of the map, but I don't want the trouble of making routable maps. This gives me the map appearance I want, but with City Navigator working behind the scenes for routing as well as lane assist, speed limit display, etc.

PRECISELY what I want also. I have some Topos I use from this website, and contacted the author about doing this, and was told it would be too much trouble to upload a second version compiled to draw above CN.

So, for now, NO CN when I am using my Topos.

[Seldom]

So, for now, NO CN when I am using my Topos.

Lots of transparent topo available here.  Just go to the Custom Maps page and filter for topos+transparent.

The way I dealt with it for Southern UT and Northern AZ was to provide only topo, hydrography, and wooded area cover.  CNNANT (or your routable OSM download) provided the rest.

[babj615]

So, for now, NO CN when I am using my Topos.

Lots of transparent topo available here.  Just go to the Custom Maps page and filter for topos+transparent.

The way I dealt with it for Southern UT and Northern AZ was to provide only topo, hydrography, and wooded area cover.  CNNANT (or your routable OSM download) provided the rest.

True, have tried some transparent topos and did not find anything that even comes close the the detail and accuracy of Northwest Topo. I know they have the NW Trails in transparent, but the TOPO as a whole is as good as it gets. Far superior even to Garmins 24k maps.

I don't really need on road navigation in my GPS anyway, I can just use my iPhone for that

Thank you for the suggestion, Seldom!