Basecamp and GB Discoverer SD Cards

These ideas should are worth a shot for anyone who is having issues with maps not displaying. These seemed to work for me with a couple of tests I ran. In these cases I was trying to get BaseCamp to read the built in base map after copying it off onto a fresh SD card. The naming and folder seemed to be the key. There is one other suspicion I may have for while the maps might not be read but that will have to wait until I can get back into the office.

I totally understand the frustration. Just asking everyone to keep their cool as much as possible :)

zhenkel...i haven't checked to see if you're a guy or a girl..it doesn't matter! I'd give you a big hug and kiss right now!!! Or a beer! That worked!!! What I did though is rename all 3 files on my SD card. Not sure if that makes a difference:

Topo24K_GreatLakes.gma to gmapsupp.gma
Topo24K_GreatLakes.img to gmapsupp.img
Topo24K_GreatLakes.unl to gmapsupp.unl

(After copying them of course!) When I did that then opened BaseCamp..it started importing it right away! As you said, a popup comes up when it's done saying "The only restriction on this map is you can't print" or something to that effect!!! You've saved my weekend!!! Thanks zhenkel!!! :o Please accept my apologies for ranting here... I take it all back!

Thanks again!!

Dave

Dave

Glad that worked! Looks like we've got some steps that work for these cards. Now if I could just get confirmation from one of the OSGB users as well that would be great.

Just me thinking off the top of my head but one of the things I'd like too look at for the future is updating BaseCamp to use the same process to "discover" maps as our devices do. I'm glad these steps work, but the end goal would be to have a much more intuitive user experience.

OK here's what I've found out from some testing. On your SD card create a Garmin folder. Copy the map image to this folder. The map image should be named gmapsupp.img. This needs to the full image, not a subset that was created with MapInstall/MapSource. If possible try using the card outside of the unit or a different SD card.

If this still doesn't work let me know.

First, thank you very much for taking the time to respond and second I'm extremely relieved that is supposed to work. Personally, I spend more time planning routes then I do using a GPSr on the hill so this matters to me.

However, sorry but I think that isn't going to work. I make use of the feature to have multiple map files on the SD card with different names. That was only available fairly recently and it's a vital feature for me.

I have the whole of the Swiss Topo loaded and the whole of the European City Navigator into a single gmappsup.img on the SD card. I've no choice about this, the two map sets won't fit on the internal memory. Having multiple files was a good workaround for those of us stuck with these SD/download only maps that we can't build into large gmapsupp's.

I can, and will, try renaming my current gmappsupp.img but I'm fairly sure that won't work from previous experience. The Swiss maps aren't very well done and when I tried that before they became locked if I renamed the file.

To me, this doesn't seem very serious, Garmin are supporting multiple map files and different names so extending that to these maps doesn't look a big deal.

But, I have just tried renaming the OSGB map on a spare SD card and it doesn't really work. It looks OK to start with and Basecamp on Mac/XP reads the map but it doesn't display it properly. So the maps recognised properly but not displayed correctly. You can see on the attached screenprint, there's no detail at all. There's something there, it's not like it's the basemap.

Personally, I'm quite clear about the root cause of this problem. The OSGB maps should never have shipped in this format, they should have been in Basecamp/Mapsource all along then none of this song and dance would have been necessary. A product that cost £122 shouldn't have these sort of limitations, for anywhere in the world I work and buy maps either digital or paper this is the most exorbitant pricing I've experienced excepting maybe a map of a region of the Himalaya I once bought ;)

Garmin Base Camp and Discover GB SD's

I have tried this with Base cam and the overlay is more like the Old TOPO GB and not what i expected was a OS 1:50 Overlay. take a look at the Screen Grab of the Bikehike site, this is what I was expecting.

The Birdsy Eye images are some what poor also. I think I may have purchased a "DUCK EGG"

Does anyone know if other standard map names will be recognized by BC as preinstalled maps? Some units support names like gmapsupp1.img for example . That would allow people to use up to four maps (2 in internal memory, 2 on SD card) until Garmin gets the naming straightened out.

No is the quick answer to that. I just tried gmapsupp1 and it doesn't work.

Sorry but I'm out of tricks with the tools I have available to me right now. When I get back in the office I'll see what else I can come up with.

I know that additional gmapsupp files can be read off of the device's internal memory if the unit tells BaseCamp that it has that functionality. If there's a way to get that up and running with the current version and SD cards I'll let you know.

As for the quality I'll continue checking this out when I can get my hands on a copy of the cards that you're using. The A/B screenshots are very helpful to understand what your expectations are for the map quality. In these cases does the unit give you the expected level of detail?

As I replied up above any of these hoops that you or others have to work through right now are NOT the way we want BaseCamp to operate long term. The end goal will be to just plug in a card or unit and start planning your trips. I apologize again for the difficulties you and others are having with this new feature and all the feedback you're giving will be rolled into making an upcoming version of BaseCamp work more smoothly.

here are 300m zooms of the same location.

one form the device and one from basecamp

personally, I'm not working in the UK until June so I don't need the map until then :)

ZHENKEL

I echo what the others have said here, Thanks for taking the time to help over the weekend we all need a little respite. I have been trying a lot of the Birdseye Images today and the Quality is definatly not a constant. I did one near my home and it's come out spot on very hi res. another one about 5 miles away was so poor I binned it after download, this did however seem to download very quick compaired to an equivilent area. If you need any Emails sent of "Snagit Screen Grabs" please PM me and I will forward them to you.

Regards Ian