Shonkymaps are a set of "unofficial" Garmin compatible topographic maps that cover the whole of Australia. They may be unofficial but they are fantastic! The data comes from the Official 250,000 scale mapping data from The Australian Government, Geoscience Australia (http://www.ga.gov.au) and is licensed for non-commercial use (so they are legal Government maps, nothing "shonky" about them at all). The long story is that the person who created ShonkyMaps was not satisfied with the Garmin base map that came with the Garmin GPS, and at the time there were no other topographic products either official or unofficial. He created his own set of downloadable topographic maps as a hobby / labour of love. He runs the official data through a conversion routine and it is freely available to anyone. There are very few gotchas with the maps, the main one is that they are not designed for auto turn-by-turn navigation. But for bushwalking for geocaching they are sensational.
The author of these says that this "project has been a hobby/labour-of-love for the past few years. I created these maps for my own bushwalking / geocaching use, and if you find them useful then that's a bonus. I do not expect payment as this is not a commercial undertaking, However I have spent many 1000's of hours perfecting these maps. I hope you might find these maps useful in the country and rural areas. For navigation within city and built-up areas a commercial map product such as Garmin CityNavigator may be more appropriate." What a great person!
But I did find it challenging to install them, and I don't know why it was so hard. The directions are a bit average, I got there in the end but it was quite hard!!! And I am not entirely sure what I did right or wrong along the way, so I have listed all of the steps I went through below just in case it helps anyone else. It took me hours to work this out.
My PC is running Windows 10 Home
- OS Name: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
- Version: 10.0.10586 Build 10586
- System Type: x64-based PC
- Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5
- CPU: 760 @ 2.80GHz, 2801 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
First I went and Registered my Garmin GPSMAP 62st online
STEP 1: Installed Garmin Express software
- Downloaded from the Garmin website here http://software.garmin.com/en-AU/express.html
- I used this to update the software on the Garmin
- GPSMAP 62st
- Upgraded the firmware / software to the latest version 6.30 (current)
STEP 2: Installed Garmin BaseCamp version 4.6.2 (latest)
- Recognised Garmin (F:) and Memory Card (G:)
- "Device Information" function works
- Basically everything seemed OK
STEP 3: Installed ShonkyMaps on the PC
- ShonkyMaps comes as a Windows installer and it installs the maps in the following directories
C:\Program Files\shonkymaps\
contour
detail
detail minus contours
largescale
- There are FOUR map sets on the CD
A) Large-scale overview maps of Australia. When downloaded to the unit, these maps have a zoom range of approx 5km - 50km. They are particularly useful where the GPS unit does not contain an Australian Basemap. On the CD, these maps are in the shonkymaps/largescale directory, and the map images all begin with 810.
B) Detailed maps of Australia. These are smaller in scale and contain significantly more data. These are the main maps you would use from day to day. The zoom range is approximately 200m - 5km, depending on the area and size of the map. In remote areas the zoom range is slightly higher. These maps are in the shonkymaps/detail directory and the map images all begin with 800.
These maps will display as "Shonky Full Topo" in MapSource, and have topographic (contour) information at 50m intervals (100m in Tasmania).
C) A transparent contour (elevation) overlay map. These maps only contain contour elevation lines, and can be used in conjunction with other commercial products such as CityNavigator. The map will appear on top of whatever is being displayed at the time, but may only appear when zoomed in to a detailed scale such as 300m or less. This is displayed as "Shonky Transparent Contours" in Mapsource.
D) A detailed map MINUS the contour layer. This series contains the same as series B, but without any elevation data. These maps use less memory than series B), although you can always download the transparent contours in addition to this series if you want both.
The author states that for most users without other commercial products will only need to use maps A) and/or B).
- You can select which map you want
I got this bit working
- SUCCEEDED on Windows 10 PC
- In BaseCamp I could then select the maps from the menu i.e. select Maps > Shonky Full Tops
- Maps appears in BaseCamp
STEP 4: Install to GPS
This is where it got untidy and I came a cropper
- In BaseCamp from the menu select Maps > Install Maps on Memory Card (G:)
- "Ztops" flashes up on screen
- "MapInstall" window loads and hangs for (minutes)
- The "Find Device" button is grey, Devide ID is also grey
- "Not Responding" error message
- FAILED repeatedly, I could not get this to work, I tried everything. Reinstalling, etc. Nothing seemed to work.
STEP 5: Suspecting that there might be something "Shonky" about shonkymaps I then installed OzTopo Demo V8.0
- This is a good commercially available mapset for Australia, more vehicle focussed
- SUCCEEDED on Windows 10 PC
- But it also failed to upload to my Garmin (Arrrrgggghhh)
STEP 6: I then thought to upgrade the garmin USB Drivers
- Installed Garmin USB Drivers software version 2.3.1.1
- https://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=591
- Same error message
- FAILED
STEP 7 - In desperation I tried to downloaded the Garmin compatible OSM maps for NSW
- They had a different installation method
- The file provided on the OSMAustralia website is installed using a software program called "Img2gps"
- I downloaded Img2gps
- Selected 4 x image files and the "Auto" option
- Tried usb, com1, com2 etc down to com9
- Error message "Cannot detect GPS"
- "Check if your GPS is turned ON and connected to the computer.
- If you are using USB port - be sure to use latest Garmin USB drivers!" (which I was using)
- Selected the "Folder/Card" option then "Copy Maps" then "USG Drive (G:)
- "4 maps copied to G"
- Exit / Success
BUT despite successfully loading, they still did not work - they were visible on the card but not the GPS
EVENTUALLY after rebooting a couple of times and playing with it almost as a lost cause. And after an hour (or several) of stuffing around and playing with all the settings, rebooting, etc, somehow I connected the USB cable and it asked me if I wanted to connect as "Mass Storage" or similar to which I replied NO. This was the first time I got this message on the GPS.
And at this point everything worked. Go figure....
