Mac/Windows Software

Basecamp Windows Basecamp and GB Discoverer SD Cards

Basecamp and GB Discoverer SD Cards

Former Member over 15 years ago

Good Morning,

I have just ordered a new Garmin Oregon 450 with the full GB Discoverer OS maps. I have now discovered that the OS map data on the SD card cannot be used within Basecamp to plan routes. This severely reduces the attraction of this bundle as I would have to pay another £200+ to add the ability to plan my routes on my PC. It seems that map data bought in DVD format can be used in Basecamp as well as on the GPS unit however at the moment the GB discoverer maps are only offered in download or sd card format. I am considering cancelling my order due to this issue and would be greatful if you could answer the following questions:

Will I be able to use the SD card OS data within Basecamp in the near future?

Is it possible to use the downloaded version of GB discoverer within Basecamp?

Is there a cheap alternative of obtaining a DVD for owners of GB Discoverer SD cards?

Will the GB Discoverer maps be available in DVD format in the near future which will work with Basecamp?

Thanks for your help!

Michael

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

I have some bad news with respect to the GB Discoverer card series. At this time the raster data in the product cannot be displayed in BaseCamp. It was not until I came in this morning that I was able to confirm that is what is happening.

The vector data is still read which is why the reports that "something" is still displaying but at very low quality.

Unfortunately the only answer I can now give is the all to frequent "It is our policy not to discuss future versions or schedules, so I can't provide you any specific information."

We do understand that it is the raster data that makes the GB Discoverer products so valuable.

0 SwissMountainLeader over 15 years ago

I had wondered if it was something like that, thanks for the update.

I'm a bit confused though, I can understand you can't comment on future versions of schedules but this apparently is supposed to work, it doesn't so it's a bug, not a new feature. So can you confirm it is a bug? I think you can see the difference, Garmin might not be committed to providing a particular new feature but they are obliged to fix bugs in supported products I'd have thought.

If it is a bug then it's purely a question of how hard it is to fix and test and how important it is.

There's also what I'd see as a bug in the map naming, in fact is it bigger than just the name? Can this new feature to read maps on SD cards work with more than one map?

I'd really like to see a situation where I could read multiple OSGB maps on the same card. There's enough capacity on the 550t and an SD card that I can fit all I need onto it without changing cards and that's important to me.

I still don't quite understand the support for reading maps off the device and card, will all maps installed there have this facility? For example, when I'm working away and don't take a laptop with me, can I install the freely downloadable Basecamp onto any PC, plug my GPS in and use all my installed maps? That's a killer feature if I can do that, head and shoulders over any other mapping tool I use.

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

We have plans to add support for the raster imagery on these products in a future version of BaseCamp.

I apologize for answers that seem vague, evasive or sometimes even bizarre. Trying to do the best I can to address your concerns while remaining inside of Garmin's communication policy :)

The intent would be that any full map (not a user generated subset from MapInstall or MapSource) that the device could read would also be read by BaseCamp. I'm still in the process of defining how our various units discover maps on internal memory and SD cards so I can't answer any specifics about naming or configurations yet.

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

garmin/GPX/userdata.gpx errror with Birdseye

I just subscribed - I get the same message and go no further. Unable to download any images - Oregon 550 - s/w 3.1

I just purchased the Birdseye Imagery and was all excited about using this Sunday, but alas I get the same error that it can't transfer the file garmin/GPX/userdata.gpx If anyone can help before Sunday please do!!

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

Try this: https://forums.garmin.com/showpost.php?p=33532&postcount=5

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

Slightly off topic I know, but Garmin-supplied GB Discoverer maps seem to give Garmin (and therefore its customers) a headache each time a software update is issued. As others have commented, tracks are no longer produced on Oregons (and other GPSr types) with firmware 3.70 installed. Like many others, I have parted with £120 in good faith and I would expect a supplier of Garmin's standing to test its software with all its products before release. I should add that 3.70 is a GCD update and not a beta version.

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

Hi guys - new to this forum and read this post with interest having just bought a shiny new Oregon 450t with bundled UK Discoverer mapping on an SD card.

So to summarise 4 pages above, there is (currently) no way for me to view my nice new 1:50k mapping on my laptop??

If the answer to that is "no" then I think I've been sold a pretty useless product. What use is the mapping if I have to use AN Other product to create/review routes etc? More like half a bundle than a whole bundle.

This is such an obvious requirement I cannot understand how Garmin released it in this format? If it is some kind of technical hitch then I'm sure the brains at Garmin could solve it in a flash. If it is a licensing issue then it should not be released until a finished product is available. It is just this kind of disappointment that puts people right off a product/company. And I'm very sceptical that a quick fix will be available, and even more sceptical that it won't cost me more ££$$.

Just seems completely bizarre to have it set up like this. I have all of UK on Memory Map and could've bought the Adventurer 2800 for half the price but I stuck with Garmin and splashed out the extra dosh as I have had good experiences with their products in the past, owning 4 previous Garmin gps units. Now however I'm heading back to the store for a refund - this product/bundle does not do what is says on the tin!

Hoping I haven't gone too heavy on the rhetoric, but having just splashed a hefty £450 for this I would at least expect to be able to see the maps I've just bought on the screen - hardly an unreasonable request!

Thanks for reading!!

Grrrrrrr.

0 SwissMountainLeader over 15 years ago

I think there were two issues, not reading all the maps from an SD card and not reading the raster layers of the OS maps. I think the first looks on target to fix but I've not seen any news on the second.

You make a couple of good points there though. The Garmin support policy for maps right now is "we've already got your money" :(

This is a dire industry sector at the best of times and there's precious little sign of it getting better. I don't really buy your suggestion it's substantially better with a different manufacturer, you might be able to pick one area and identify a particular manufacturer is providing a better product but you can't find one that's actually better on a larger scale. In the UK there's a lot to be said for Satmap and the new delorme/quo product looks good, in France you might find the IGN Evadeo is quite good but they're all poor or limited in some way.

Cheap manufacturing and readily available chipsets means the barrier to entry for GPS devices is pretty low, I see our local Aldi has one on offer next week for a couple of hundred francs for example. That means you're really looking at software support and mapping being the area that distinguishes manufacturers and right now it's anything but distinguished.

It's amazing that the OS maps work that way given how much they cost, that we now discover it was entirely arbitrary is shocking, there was an assumption previously that this was some sort of licensing restriction but now apparently with a new software release it's supposed to work. It's just a bug, even if it never gets fixed then that particular cat is out of the bag now. Other maps are sold under the Garmin brand with claims they support routing when it's known full well they don't really, claims so far from the reality that it's questionable if they're legal under trade descriptions legislation in some countries.

I still think Garmin are producing pretty good GPSr's and I think Basecamp is headed the right direction but as the GPSr becomes a commodity item their market position looks very weak. There will arrive a point, really fairly soon I think, where all that really distinguishes GPSr's is the mapping support and unless Garmin raise their game substantially they'll be nowhere.

Right now they don't even pretend to support the maps they sell, attempts to log problems go entirely unanswered and it seems there's not one single person in Garmin who supports any mapping product. The normal support channel appear amused or bemused at best if anyone tries to log problems with maps.

The software products I have from Garmin, IGN and SwissTopo are without doubt the worst quality of product and support I've ever seen and I speak not only as a professional mountain leader but as a former software engineer for some 20 odd years.

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

I'm new to GPS and this forum but I am just getting to grips with the Oregon 300 and GB National Parks mapping (SD card) bundle that was generouusy given to me by work colleagues when I retired in January. Just downloaded - today - Basecamp - and seems I have walked straight into the same issue discussed here. :mad::mad: It sees my GB Discoverer National Parks 1:50K map on the card but I get only minimal detail - absloutely none of the OS details or grid lines. I had (before I "discovered" basecamp) laboriously manually loaded waypoints and routes, using OS grid references derived from "real" OS maps into the Oregon. Basecamp sees all that too but shows it with minimal and totally useless detail. I also get a message when opening Basecamp that says my Oregon is connected at "limited speed" - which may impact Basecamp performance ...how this can be the case when I am connected via USB to a pretty fast Tosh laptop (5 months old with maximum RAM) is beyond me.

NOT impressed .....top of the range hardware (?) and totally useless software ....:eek: I am not comfortable trying any tricks that involve renaming files - the last thing I want to do is corrupt the SD card.:(

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

The Oregon 200/300/400 has slow USB 1.0 (or maybe 1.5?) ports. However, that is a generic message that Basecamp gives when you are viewing maps that are resident on the GPS as opposed to maps loaded on your computer. I get the same message when using City Navigator from my Nuvi 1350 in Basecamp.

There are other threads discussing issues with the GB discoverer maps vs Basecamp. Since I'm in the US, I have not used them. But I gather that Basecamp cannot access the raster imagery (scanned map) that is part of your GB maps.