Ok, so today is a big birthday and I’ve got a Garmin 800, unfortunately it wasn’t bundled with any maps. I’m based in the S.E., what maps should I get and are there any cheaper alternatives to Garmins TOPO series?

Happy Big Birthday

Open Street Maps or Open mtb maps – both free, but not much of a birthday treat then really!

Hi,

Download Mobile Atlas Creator from the web.

This allows you to make up maps on your PC/Laptop from a variety of sources including OS maps 1:25 and 1:50 and save them in a format your Garmin will read.

You can decide on what zoom levels you need along with what area need to have covered.

Open Street Maps are good for road riding too.

Regards

If you are road riding, the euro navigator maps are worth the investment for the ability to navigate routes rather than just follow a line.

Sorry to hijack but quick question about garmin edge 800, should the map rotate around as you are cycling, so it is always facing the way you are going? Mate I go riding with took one out with us on Friday and the map always remained the same way up so was a pain navigating

On my 705 there is a setting something like “always track up” which keeps it always facing the way its going, I think that its the default setting, so maybe he has changed it when messing around in the settings.

Download the openstreet maps from http://talkytoaster.info/ukmaps.htm

This will give you free city navigator/topo maps for the uk.

Mobile Atlas Creator 1.8 will let you create garmin custom maps that you can download to the unit and give you OS mapping and ariel photography for small regions.

simonbea there is a setting under mapping for set the orientation mode to north up or track up. Set this to track up for the map to rotate about you heading

@simonbea, @MSP has got it for you, menu-system-map-orientation and your choices are north up or track up

Thanks to all for the advice. More needed though!
I’ve downloaded some maps from Open mtb maps as well as BaseCamp & Mobile Atlas Creator but cant see the downloads in either! How do I use them?

I think that openmtbmap maps creates a gmapsupp.img file that you dump straight onto the gps once you have connectd it. Take a look at the FAQ on the openmtbmap site. Also look at the velomap site if you are mainly on the road. I normally use map source rather than the prog that you have and the maps seem to arrive their just fine although I often just put the gmapsupp file directly on to the device

@spangelsaregreat and clowner – is the Mobile Atlas Creator method as simple as selecting the “Garmin Custom Map” format to output? How do you load the file onto the device?

I’m familiar with using MAC for Rmaps on my phone, so if it’s as easy as that to put OS mapping on a Garmin it would be a definite deal clincher.

Follow this link: talkytoaster.info/ukmaps.htm and you can download maps at 1:50,000 which can be used for routes.

The process goes

Download File
Unzip file
Copy to the Garmin folder of your GPS and maps can the be enabled.

I have used them and found them fien for route mapping.

Hi,

Only used it to create maps for RunGPS on Android but from memory of reading other threads yes.

Select the map type you want to use (OS etc) then select your map area, set the map output to Garmin then create your map. Copy the map to the relevant folder on your SD card and you should be able to use it on your device. Simples!

Regards

Yeah, to use MAC set the map type to Garmin Custom Map(KMZ), set the tile size to 1024.

Once the map is created copy the *.kmz file into the Custom Maps directory in the Garmin folder.

There is a limit of 100 tiles though so you can’t create custom maps for the whole country just small areas at a time

clowner – Member
There is a limit of 100 tiles though so you can’t create custom maps for the whole country just small areas at a time

How big an area can you cover with 100 tiles? Is a tile the same as an OS grid square?

Another question on this topic, with the openstreetmap supp file installed via SD on the garmin, I get loads and loads of icons such as street crossings, (warning triangles) and other stuff clogging up the roads on the map.
Is there a way to turn these off, or a different streetmap file to download without these, that is still routeable?
thanks 🙂