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Oregon 400c basic use questions

Started by MES, February 03, 2010, 07:00:15 AM

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MES

New to the forum and GPShandhelds.  I purchased an Oregon 200 in Nov and was learning my way around it...only to have it stolen from my truck. I recently replaced it with a 400c, great price, even though I won't use the coastal maps very often.  As with my 200, I've downloaded Alabama topos from this site. I use my 400 for hunting, hiking, and some auto use.  I have a 1G card that I have my maps on.

My Issues; It seems that on NORMAL map detail, I can't zoom in past 800ft or I lose all map detail (topo lines, streets, water) except my tracks and waypoints. If I lower the detail I can zoom more, but even on LEAST I can only get 200ft without losing all detail.  Is this normal? I don't remember this with my 200.  What am I doing wrong?

Also, on the unit and on Mapsource, I get a "as the crow flies" track to recent waypoints. How can I stop this?


maps4gps

The map detail should first appear at specific zoom level and remail displayed all the way to the 20' zoom.  While it is possible to change this when creating the map, it is seldom done.

Try having just the AL topo on the unit.

Did you change some setting somewhere?

MES

Ok that solved the detail issue. I disabled the US Marine detail map and now I can see what I need.  Thanks for that.

Any ideas on the straight track line?

Seldom

Assume you are trying to route to waypoints?  If so, set routing options to "follow road" rather than "off road".  "Follow road" will follow trails too.

eaparks

MES: The disappearance of the detail that you are referring to is a problem that is due to the base map of the 400c having aerial imagery in it's basemap.  I experienced the same problem with my Oregon 400c about a year ago. 

After much communications with Garmin they acknowledged they were aware of the problem both in the Oregon 400c and in the Colorado 400c.  They said that it would be fixed in future software updates.  I can't confirm or deny this since I no longer have the 400c. 

Do upgrade the software to the lastest on Garmin's site and if you still loose detail when zoomed in as you were talking about then the only option is as maps4gps said, disable the US g2 marine maps.

Another option, since you didn't mention using the marine maps as a normal use of yours is to back up the US g2 marine maps to your computer and completely remove them from your GPS.  The g2 maps take up about 890 Mb, giving you this much more usable memory on the unit's internal memory.  You can always add the g2 maps back if you want to.  The g2 maps are in the Garmin folder as "gmapprom.img".

MES

#5
Eaparks, thanks for that info, most helpful. I've run the web updater a few times and I'm pretty sure I'm up to snuff on the software.  I'll keep checking.  Being new to handhelds, I'm cautious in messing with files (I've read somewhere that it's easy to delete Oregon info) but I'm willing to learn. I'm very interested in backing up the g2maps to my computer then deleting them from the unit...would you help me with a step by step?  Also, if I were to do this, would the internal memory handle a significant portion of the state maps offered here...or at least the Southeast states?

(patience with me) is the basemap and the Marine map the same? If so, how would it be listed under the "map information" tab?  All I see is the AL topo maps and the Marine maps (disabled).  This has solved my problem of seeing detail at any level.  However, when I zoom out past my topos, I have nothing.  When I enable it (marine), I see a nationwide color map (like google earth).  I'm thinking this is my basemap because I can zoom into other areas of the nation but it appears to be the spartan garmin basemap.  Help me understand.

Boyd

I'm not sure that you can disable the basemap on the oregon. I have to option to do that on my 400t. You could try copying the file gmapbmap.img to your computer as a backup, then removing it from the Oregon I suppose.

But yes, be very careful unless you really know what you're doing.  You *should* be able to backup everything on your GPS by just copying all the files to a folder on your computer.

Seldom

I've disabled the basemap (as well as hillshading)  on my OR300.  On zooming out, everything's white.  From what the OP describes, it sounds like with the 400C the coastal maps are the basemap.

eaparks

#8
Yes, unique only to the 400c units, they have an aerial imagery as the base map that appears only when you are zoomed out to rather great distances.  This aerial imagery not only causes problems with other maps when zoomed in to lower distances but also causes display problems with other maps when zoomed out at great distances.  Thus, in my case the CN NT v8 maps and the US Topo v3 would only appear properly in a relatively narrow zoom range in more or less the middle of the zoom scales.

I had originally documented this problem in Groundspeak in quite a bit of detail, asking for help, before I found out from Garmin what the problem was.  I'll try to find the link to my original Groundspeak thread and post it here.

I would have thought Garmin would have fixed this problem long ago.  At that time, I had my suspicions that the fix might be something that was not a simple fix with the current format and structure of the basemap combined with the g2 maps.  After about 6 weeks of not being able to properly use all of my Garmin maps (4), Garmin volunteered to exchange it, at not cost, for an Oregon 400t

Mes: I'll be glad to help with step by step instructions on backing up everything to your pc if someone else doesn't do it before I can get to it later tonight.  Is very simple. The backup to PC will take about an hour (GPS is 1.0 usb).

If I remember correctly once you delete the g2 maps you will have about 1.7Gb of internal memory available for other maps plus the space on your 1Gb memory card.

eaparks

#9
Initial report of problem with some details and Garmin's response.
http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=213574&st=152 post #153

MES; step by step instructions to backup all the files on you 400c to your computer:  As with most things with a PC there is more than 1 way to accomplish the desired end result.  I've tried to simplify the steps the best I can.

1.  Connect GPS to PC with USB cable then turn on GPS in Mass Storage Mode (will default to this if you haven't put it in "Spanner" setting).

2.  On your PC Screen  open 2 seperate/identical windows of "My Computer" side by side.  In 1 of these windows go into "My Documents" and create a folder called "Oregon 400c backup" and open this folder "Oregon 400c backup".  In the 2nd window of "My Computer" open the "Garmin [ ]" drive; you will see a "Garmin" folder, a "Whereigo" folder, and a "autorun.inf" file; Copy and paste all 3 of these to your folder you created called "Oregon 400c backup".  The "Garmin" folder will take about 50 minutes because it is 895 Mbs through a 1.0 usb transfer.

3.  After copying verify that all files have transferred and compare the size of the files to the originals; just to confirm all went well.

Now to Delete the g2 marine charts in the GPS:
1. Go back to the "Garmin [ ]" drive and open the "Garmin" folder, in that folder there will be a file called "gmapprom.img"; DELETE JUST the "gmapprom.img" file, this is the g2 marine charts.

2. If you later want to put them back on your GPS copy just the "gmapprom.img" file you saved on your PC back into the Garmin folder in your GPS.

MES

Thanks very much.  When I get some time I will attempt this. 

FLHiker

Good tutorial.  I was wondering if I could use the maps from here in the main memory of the Garmin, and move the ones delivered with my 400t on the MicroSD?

eaparks

#12
Yes, and Yes.  But your GPS treats both memory locations (internal memory and memory card) the same so I don't see any benefit in just swapping the stored location of the 400t original map.  You could just remove the 400t original map all together, you will loose demographic data display, which may not be of any concern anyway.

edit to add: depending on how the author of maps on here made their maps, they may not display at some zoom levels such as 200, 300 , or 500 mile, would have to check to see.

FLHiker

Agree.  No real added benefit.  I was just thinking that the maps might access a little faster with the onboard memory versus the MicroSD.  I suspect that the difference wouldn't even be noticeable.


Boyd

I think it will have to do with how fast your SD card is. The "current wisdom" is that map access is the same on internal memory vs cards on the Nuvi series. But recently I copied my really detailed "Map of the Pines" to an SD card and tried to use in my Nuvi. It barely worked at all. The GPS could not read the file fast enough to keep up as I drove. I was really surprised. It just wasn't usable.

Now this was an old class 2 sd memory card. I am going to have to try the same thing with a class 6 card and see if it helps. But the map works fine in internal memory. Just guessing that you might see something similar on the Oregon, although I haven't tested that.