An honest question about JNX

Todd_Garmin bump

Garmin-Leslie

Yes I was gutted to see Garmin have taken this feature away without making JNX files transferable before shutting down.... I really hope Garmin hasn't finished completely with satalite /arial imagery.... Its a big step backwards.

I've tried to add satalite imagery using custom maps and KMZ files a few days ago, although I'm still trying to get to grips with the map making progress, as none I've made have shown on the watch yet.. But I'll keep at it... I know there's a way, I'm just not doing it correctly.

Also.. we can still download a tiny test area from Garmin BirdsEye through basecamp to the watch with a lower resolution...I have it on my 7x but its not very useful. 

Sam201176 said:

I've tried to add satalite imagery using custom maps and KMZ files a few days ago, although I'm still trying to get to grips with the map making progress, as none I've made have shown on the watch yet.. But I'll keep at it... I know there's a way, I'm just not doing it correctly.

It's definitely possible, I've done it - but it's extremely difficult. You have to do everything in exactly the right order and with exactly the right settings or it won't work.

I was able to take a PDF cartoony-style map of Disneyland from the Disneyland website, skew it to perfect 1:1 proportions in Photoshop, and apply it to a map layer in my Fenix. See page 2 in this thread for more info screenshots of it:

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-6-series/211606/remove-or-at-least-shrink-map-labels-and-icons/1447636#1447636

It took me many hours of messing around with it before I was finally successful, but now I can't remember exactly what I did anymore. Someday maybe I'll get around to trying to replicate the steps I did before and document it for a tutorial.

I agree with you and OP that it's a huge bummer that they've decided to cancel birdseye service. Sure it is/was an archaic service with mediocre graphics, terrible desktop software, and unreasonably slow dial-up download speeds, but that doesn't mean we don't still want it (absent any better options). Thankfully my subscription is still good until next May, but I don't know what I'll do after that.

C.sco said:

It took me many hours of messing around with it before I was finally successful,

Agreed that this technique is a huge time sink.  Only useful for very specific applications.  The Disney overlay, for example.

Also the zoom level restriction that I noted in that thread is very problematic. As soon as you zoom out further than 120ft map scale, the image disappears.

Birdseye imagery would appear on the screen zoomed out up to 2mi map scale - I think because of the nature of birdseye imagery files containing 3 different imagery detail levels (but the KMZ file only containing 1 detail level)

What I want Garmin to come in is just to allow us to load our own JNX maps, created with softwares like SASPlanet. 

Currently, when you built a JNX map, you have to transfer it to your Fenix7X using basecamp, at that time Basecamp "activates" your JNX to use on your device if you have a valid BirdsEye subscription. So now that they are killing the service, we will lose this ability.

This can be fixed if Garmin removes this lock from Fenix7X firmware, that way we'll be able to load our own maps without requiring activation.

That's all I really want, to keep using a feature that was advertised for the Watch and now is being silently taken away.

Good to hear that you were successful, so it is at least possible, but as you said it's totally non intuitive, Garmins instructions offer little in detailed steps, just a brief outline... A step by step up to date tutorial would be very helpful if you do decide to give it a go again... I'll try again too in a few days.... 

I think you guys may lose the focus, and again that's not your fault. Garmin made this all too complicate.

But here are the rules and options:

KML: You can create maps, its slower and the amount of area you can cover is quite small. The bigger your map goes, slower performance gets. This type of map works without BirdsEye

JNX: Those are the "Birdseye" mapping format, you can create your own maps up to 100MB. Which is basically nothing, supports multiple layers and performance is great. You can have whole countries on this format with a good performance, but only if Garmin activate your map. That could be done before by subscribing to Birdseye and loading your map using basecamp, so gamin would activate your custom map and it would work on your device.

This is the one that is now gone and can't be used anymore.

Again, Garmin whatever was your idea with Birdseye or the reasons behind killing it, it doesn't matter. All that I'm asking is the ability to load my JNX maps in peace, without requiring your activation now that you killed the service.

Other than that, I'll be honest, so far I've tried to reach Garmin through multiple channels and I have been ignore in all of them. The fact is: You sold me a product with a specific feature that now you are pulling away. Yet Im here trying to get a workaround in place.

So all that I want is that before this becomes something bigger, that you consider this option. No one wants to waste time fighting legal battles, but I can assure I won't go down quietly after paying 1.6k on a device that was advertised as having a feature, to know watch you kill it and ignore  my voice.

It's funny, here I'm begging to have something that I paid for back. Isn't it offensive ? ridiculous ? Is that how you believe you should treat those that like myself,  bougth your devices and supported you?

Give it a thought Garmin, I'm out.