intn'l travel ppc GPSer softw

[mikeo1313]

theres nada. allready found out

[mikeo1313]

EDIT: I can now say that after an exhaustive review, after my first post, of gps software & maps I think garmin hits the sweet spot.

I never fiddled much with maps nor gps's until I got my touch pro's gps unlocked with bored's fix some days ago.

In the process of digging for gps map utopia I'll share some concepts, info & links.

I understand people prefer igo or tomtom for various reasons like hearing the street name in the TTS navigation but seriously, not having access to Garmin stuff or the flexibility garmins mapsource offers isn't a worthy nor wise tradeoff IMO. Not to mention I seriously would rather hear nothing then a mistake, Garmin xt has been VERY accurate with distance estimation & advises turns for you VERY gradually & accurately (atleast on my Touch Pro), to the point where it even navigated better then a standalone navigator a friend let me borrow while on a NYC trip not long ago.



1. Consolidation. Garmin has an app called mapsource that installs on your desktop. Though high capacity cards are out there and you can arguably put all of Europe without going past 1.5gb the thing is you will be updating, you might want a map section instead of a whole future map source + you might want things centralized. Use mapsource 6.13.7 over the updated version let me reserve reasons why or waste your time finding out for yourself, good.


2. Methods. Mapsource is exactly that. It stores all your map products, each accessible via drop down menu and theres a menu option to trasfer to device. The ppc garmin xt software only references 1 img file (the garmin map file format) named GMAPSUPP.IMG in the \garmin folder of your sd card. The neat thing about mapsource is you can have maps of the whole wOrLD, select various cities of various places with map selection tool and it will accumulate a city/ocean map complie list in the left pane /w aggregate output size. This can then be tranferred via "transfer to device" option to any Garmin product (software laptop, ppc or dedicated standalone). For ppc garmin xt you just have to be activesync'd so it can be listed in the dropdown, all other products are via usb if I'm not mistaken.


3. Maps. Currently I got North America, Europe, Brazil, Mexico, Chile & Colombia streets in my garmin mapsource application that were allready in mapsource format. Garmin has some of these or others FOR FREE (legal), in individual IMG files. I also have Garmin Atlantic & Americas bluechart ocean map charts and if I'm not mistaken Garmin has the best coverage & flexibility in this area of map products also. I have found what seems to be plausibly accurate & free open source maps of many rare locations (4 which I haven't found an official map product for yet) like Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Ecuador, Panama, Guatemala & Caribbean Islands (amongst others) (some of which aren't completely developed, but atleast are better then nothing and intuition can tell you they are good enough) the same site's faqs include instructions on how to convert their format to mapsource, ironic aint it. JIK this link IMO does the best job of telling you how to convert an IMG to mapsource.


4. Misc. Besides the availability, widespread adoption & coverage of Garmin, in using my Garmin xt I've liked the fact that it can use the contacts in my ppc for destinations, queries traffic data online of destinations and there is programmed options to use google's engine for searching restaurants, businesses or whatever in & from the gui. Latest version of garmin xt v.5 ? .2w came with POI's & pictures of which can be a destination + garmin sells extras you can later add. + They have a free POI loader which seems they periodically update and the software updates your sd.


I wish when I started fiddling with this thing I would've ran across a post like this instead of having to sift through posts & pages to formulate questions that wouldn't get completely answered and read all the cryptic, elusive & bogus opinions, suggestions & product reviews, to get here.


I understand people might have different experiences but garmin xt on my touch pro sofar has been flawless as far as performance & features.