Recently bought a Garmin Explore after hearing it rated here.I mainly wanted it to be able to download gpx routes and follow them off road. Now I knew the Basemap would be pretty hopeless and thought I could use the dcrainmaker blog to download free maps. The Explore isn’t listed and as it doesn’t have a micro sd card I followed the instructions for the 520. Got as far as renaming the file that was downloaded but for the life of me I can’t get it on the device.Anyone had any success?
Also, if I give up and decide to buy something, what should I go for? Garmin or OS product?

Thanks

i’ve an edge 820, and you just turn if off and plug it into a laptop via USB to see the file system?

Something’s gone wrong there, because the Explore should have detailed maps for the whole of Europe. (Unless you bought an import from the US or another region.)

As Bez said, that’s the raison d’etre of the Explore. You have a problem.

The Explore comes with detailed maps for Europe, I didn’t need to add any on to mine and its used for on road and off road

The Explore comes with 16gb of internal memory so no need for a memory card slot

If for some reason yours has no maps then download UK maps from Talkytoaster

https://talkytoaster.me.uk/maps/british-isles-ireland/

Connect the Garmin to your PC and open the Garmin folder and follow TalkyToaster’s instructions on his website

OK, I’m clearly got this wrong. Yes, I have mapping for Europe but it didn’t look good enough for turn by turn navigation off road.
Thanks for the replies, I’ll get back to sorting my expectations.

Cheers

Maybe you just need to zoom in? It should be detailed enough to cover the smallest of roads plus most bridleways and footpaths.

Edit: I’ve just checked mine and if you’re on the normal detail setting you want to be zoomed in to the 200m level before you see most of the off-road trails.

Thanks
I bought mine from Decathlon uk. They should be selling the right region I would have thought.
Should I see something that looks like an OS 1:25 map? ‘cos I don’t.

No, it’s not like an OS map. Not that the main purpose of the Explore is well served by an OS style map anyway.

Garmin’s dont come with OS maps as standard, Garmin/OS will sell you one for a stupid amount of money (£100+)

TalkToaster does a TT 1:50K LOOK n FEEL* MAPSET for £11

Here’s some pics of my standard Garmin Explore with the European map (you have to download the map for free from Garmin express) as you can see if you zoom in all the trails are visible and i get turn by turn instructions, this is the same all over Europe, i can see trails in Germany, France, Spain etc….

#
^ hope you’re on comission – just ordered for my new edge 820

.. and got the email download about 4 hours later.. plugged my device in, turned off so it showed the ‘connected usb’ screen, extracted the .img file from the zip into the \garmin folder, cloned my ‘ride’ profile and changed the mapping file in that profile. a quick drag to view and zoom on my local trails looks much better!