GPS Contour maps for UK

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

These are now available (and the price is right too). Rob apparently
didn't post his announcement in 'walking', so I assume it only came
out in 'climbing', but anyway you should be able to find the maps at:

http://www.smc.org.uk/books/books_contour_maps.htm

You swine :-) I'll have to buy a mapping GPS unit !

--
NC - Webmaster for http://www.2mm.org.uk/
Replies to newsgroup postings to the newsgroup please.

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the wonderful person
Nigel Cliffe <[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

These are now available (and the price is right too). Rob apparently
didn't post his announcement in 'walking', so I assume it only came
out in 'climbing', but anyway you should be able to find the maps at:

http://www.smc.org.uk/books/books_contour_maps.htm

You swine :-) I'll have to buy a mapping GPS unit !

If you don't have one already I'm not sure this is a 'must have' ..
they're only contours (and summits and trig points and coastline).
However, once you learn how to turn your own tracks into maps ....

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
SC recommends the use of Firefox; Get smart, or get assimilated.

On Wed, 9 Feb 2005 20:44:50 -0000, "Nigel Cliffe" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

You swine :-) I'll have to buy a mapping GPS unit !

If you do, make sure it's got plenty of memory for uploaded maps. My
8Mb Legend will only hold 3 or 4 of the Scottish contour maps, so I'll
have to load maps selectively depending on where I'm going. That's a
small price to pay for the convenience of useful map data though.

--
Al

[This space intentionally left blank]

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the
wonderful person Alan Bremner <[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

On Wed, 9 Feb 2005 20:44:50 -0000, "Nigel Cliffe" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

You swine :-) I'll have to buy a mapping GPS unit !

If you do, make sure it's got plenty of memory for uploaded maps. My
8Mb Legend will only hold 3 or 4 of the Scottish contour maps, so I'll
have to load maps selectively depending on where I'm going. That's a
small price to pay for the convenience of useful map data though.

Feedback appreciated. It would be possible to compile the maps slightly
smaller, but the redraw speed on the handset increases (I already pushed
that envelope a bit on the two or three biggest maps - otherwise your
8MB would have held only 1.5 of them!).

Or we could leave out some of the contours (map size directly relates to
how many contours there are, and how much they've been simplified). 10m
may be overkill for really hilly terrain (although a 50m interval looks
really stupid in places like SE England, where they then only have one
contour for all of East Anglia. 8>.)

If you have unique requirements, and limited memory space, you could
load them into gpsmapedit, trim the areas you don't want (or draw a box
round the area you do want and 'trim outside'😉 and recompile .. I
actually did that for my South Shropshire contour map, since it spanned
more than one SRTM 'tile', and I couldn't be doing with loading several
maps (all too big) to get the area I actually wanted.

It's also fairly easy (once you have them back in .mp mapedit format) to
write a simple program to go delete all the 20m (or whatever) contours
and leave the rest (you can do it from an Excel VBA program).

However memory is now free (unless you buy it from Garmin, when it costs
more than it should) .. a 76C or CS would let you load the whole set I
believe .. Ireland too! You know you deserve one ....

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
SC recommends the use of Firefox; Get smart, or get assimilated.

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the
wonderful person Alan Bremner <[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My 8Mb Legend will only hold 3 or 4 of the Scottish contour maps, so I'll
have to load maps selectively depending on where I'm going. That's a
small price to pay for the convenience of useful map data though.

Quoted message said:

Feedback appreciated. It would be possible to compile the maps slightly
smaller, but the redraw speed on the handset increases

I think you've found a good compromise. The Legend is showing its age
these days with its limited capacity, and function should always take
precedence over form. :-)

Quoted message said:

Or we could leave out some of the contours (map size directly relates to
how many contours there are, and how much they've been simplified). 10m
may be overkill for really hilly terrain

I'm quite happy with the 10m intervals, as they give a better overview
of the terrain underfoot. My GPS is carried mainly as an emergency
backup for poor conditions, and in these circumstances having detailed
contour information will be a definite advantage.

Quoted message said:

If you have unique requirements, and limited memory space, you could
load them into gpsmapedit, trim the areas you don't want (or draw a box
round the area you do want and 'trim outside'😉 and recompile ..

That's certainly something I'll look at. I'm planning a summer trek
across the Monadh Ruadh and it would be useful to take a custom
contour map covering only the area required.

Quoted message said:

a 76C or CS would let you load the whole set I
believe .. Ireland too! You know you deserve one ....

Nonono... stop it! :-))
--
Al

[This space intentionally left blank]

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the wonderful person
Nigel Cliffe <[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

These are now available (and the price is right too). Rob apparently
didn't post his announcement in 'walking', so I assume it only came
out in 'climbing', but anyway you should be able to find the maps
at: http://www.smc.org.uk/books/books_contour_maps.htm

You swine :-) I'll have to buy a mapping GPS unit !

Much more seriously, having downloaded some of the data on the SMC site and
played with GPSmapedit, I'm seriously impressed with the results.

Quoted message said:

If you don't have one already I'm not sure this is a 'must have' ..
they're only contours (and summits and trig points and coastline).
However, once you learn how to turn your own tracks into maps ....

I understand what you mean. However, at the entry level there isn't a big
jump in price from the Venture to the Legend. I'd originally planned on a
Venture for only POI data (trig points, summits, etc). However, the Legend
can give me contours as well for about £20 extra. Much as the colour
screens, larger memory, and (more importantly) the improved battery life of
newer models is impressive, I find it hard to justify doubling or trebling
the price at this stage.

I've noted the stuff elsewhere in the thread about memory capacity limits,
etc of the Legend.

- Nigel

--
NC - Webmaster for http://www.2mm.org.uk/
Replies to newsgroup postings to the newsgroup please.

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the wonderful person
Nigel Cliffe <[email hidden]> said
<snip>

Quoted message said:

I understand what you mean. However, at the entry level there isn't a big
jump in price from the Venture to the Legend. I'd originally planned on a
Venture for only POI data (trig points, summits, etc). However, the Legend
can give me contours as well for about £20 extra.

Yep, if you are buying one anyway then the mapping version is probably
worth the extra. if you already have a Venture then dumping it and
upgrading is hard to justify (although I did just that, with a 6 month
old model). Of course, I've got the time to sit and code maps for the
thing..

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
SC recommends the use of Firefox; Get smart, or get assimilated.

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the wonderful
person Nigel Cliffe <[email hidden]> said <snip>

Quoted message said:

I understand what you mean. However, at the entry level there
isn't a big jump in price from the Venture to the Legend. I'd
originally planned on a Venture for only POI data (trig points,
summits, etc). However, the Legend can give me contours as well
for about £20 extra.

Yep, if you are buying one anyway then the mapping version is
probably worth the extra. if you already have a Venture then
dumping it and upgrading is hard to justify (although I did just
that, with a 6 month old model). Of course, I've got the time to
sit and code maps for the thing..

I was happy with my late twentieth century Garmin 38 until it slipped
out of my pocket and onto a concrete floor, from which it never
recovered :..-(

Its replacement is a Venture and I absolutely hate it! The screen
contrast is diabolical ranging from mud to "as clear as mud" and
though you can change some of the text to a larger size, some of the
text is not configurable. I can't wait to be rid of it to be truthful!

Regards Jeff.

www.astrecks.co.uk

If it works..............DON'T fix it
No Virus Checker? try this free one from AVG it is very good:-
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php
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Bitstring <2005210204159.487683@jeff>, from the wonderful person Jeff C
<[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the wonderful
person Nigel Cliffe <[email hidden]> said <snip>

Quoted message said:

I understand what you mean. However, at the entry level there
isn't a big jump in price from the Venture to the Legend. I'd
originally planned on a Venture for only POI data (trig points,
summits, etc). However, the Legend can give me contours as well
for about £20 extra.

Yep, if you are buying one anyway then the mapping version is
probably worth the extra. if you already have a Venture then
dumping it and upgrading is hard to justify (although I did just
that, with a 6 month old model). Of course, I've got the time to
sit and code maps for the thing..

I was happy with my late twentieth century Garmin 38 until it slipped
out of my pocket and onto a concrete floor, from which it never
recovered :..-(

Its replacement is a Venture and I absolutely hate it! The screen
contrast is diabolical ranging from mud to "as clear as mud" and
though you can change some of the text to a larger size, some of the
text is not configurable. I can't wait to be rid of it to be truthful!

? Sounds like your Venture may be broken - I assume you found out how to
change the contrast ratio?? Mine was fine (a bit washed-out when in the
carry case, but just fine out in the open). I'd still have it if I
hadn't gotten into mapping ..

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
SC recommends the use of Firefox; Get smart, or get assimilated.

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

Bitstring <2005210204159.487683@jeff>, from the wonderful person
Jeff C <[email hidden]> said

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I was happy with my late twentieth century Garmin 38 until it
slipped out of my pocket and onto a concrete floor, from which it
never recovered :..-(

Its replacement is a Venture and I absolutely hate it! The screen
contrast is diabolical ranging from mud to "as clear as mud" and
though you can change some of the text to a larger size, some of
the text is not configurable. I can't wait to be rid of it to be
truthful!

? Sounds like your Venture may be broken - I assume you found out
how to change the contrast ratio?? Mine was fine (a bit washed-out
when in the carry case, but just fine out in the open). I'd still
have it if I hadn't gotten into mapping ..

No its working as it should be, at 48 going on 49 it is my eyes that
are broken. The old GPS 38 had graphics like an old Sinclair Spectrum
which suited my eyes fine, I could use it without specs with no
problems.

I had similar problems with my LCD mobile phone, but now I have a TFT
colour screen phone it's much easier to see, so I am hoping that
upgrading to a VistaC will be better for me.

Regards Jeff.

www.astrecks.co.uk

If it works..............DON'T fix it
No Virus Checker? try this free one from AVG it is very good:-
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php
For a new experience in e-mail clients try:- http://www.pocomail.com/
Kill SPAM forever! Protect your family with Spamjab from:-
http://www.spamjab.com/

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 18:01:30 -0000, "Nigel Cliffe" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I've noted the stuff elsewhere in the thread about memory capacity limits,
etc of the Legend.

Just to clarify, I was referring to the original (greyscale) Legend.
The new Legend C has an increased capacity of 24MB compared tor the
old model's 8MB.
--
Al

[This space intentionally left blank]

I noticed that Message-ID: <[email hidden]>
from Alan Bremner contained the following:

Quoted message said:

The new Legend C has an increased capacity of 24MB compared tor the
old model's 8MB.

Wow. They really are lagging behind when you can get pen drives
containing 128 MB for less than a tenner.

--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

Geoff Berrow said:

Quoted message said:

The new Legend C has an increased capacity of 24MB compared tor the
old model's 8MB.

Wow. They really are lagging behind when you can get pen drives
containing 128 MB for less than a tenner.

Garmin don't seem to understand that memory is cheap, and gets
cheaper all the time. Their new 60CS looked brilliant until I
realised they hadn't allowed for memory expansion.

The forthcoming Magellan 500 takes SD card memory and has USB
download. And the UK topo maps, while not perfect, are already
available - not vaporware.

-adrian

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

These are now available (and the price is right too). Rob apparently
didn't post his announcement in 'walking', so I assume it only came

out

Quoted message said:

in 'climbing', but anyway you should be able to find the maps at:

http://www.smc.org.uk/books/books_contour_maps.htm

In summary, they were created from space shuttle data using public
domain data and software, as discussed here. In addition to contours,

Quoted message said:

there are also UK outline (coastline), trig points and summits UK and

Quoted message said:

Ireland) and some place names.

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
Outgoing Msgs are Turing Tested,and indistinguishable from human

typing.

I've just spent four hours loading 5 maps plus the summits map into my
Vista. That covers all the north east of Scotland plus Mid and West
Lothian. Pretty amazing. I wonder if there will be a drain on battery
life now, and perhaps I'll have to turn down the detail for the times
when I don't need the contour data, but just having it is fantastic. I
never shelled out for MapSource so until now the 24Mb on the Vista has
been going to waste.

Great stuff. I'm very impressed with it. I just wish the upload times
were quicker. One thing I've noticed using the tools recommended on
the SMC site is that if an upload of a map fails (say your batteries
run out mid transfer), you seem to lose all the map data you've already
uploaded. I make sure I have fully charged batteries when I loading
the data now. Which begs another question, does the USB cable for
RS232 GPS units provide power as well as data, and is there any speed
increase in transfers?

Quoted message said:

Great stuff. I'm very impressed with it. I just wish the upload times
were quicker. One thing I've noticed using the tools recommended on
the SMC site is that if an upload of a map fails (say your batteries
run out mid transfer), you seem to lose all the map data you've already
uploaded. I make sure I have fully charged batteries when I loading
the data now. Which begs another question, does the USB cable for
RS232 GPS units provide power as well as data, and is there any speed
increase in transfers?

If you use a standard USB-serial adaptor it won't provide power, but
this USB to eTrex cable will:
http://www.gps4less.co.uk/usbcables.htm

But it still won't make data transfer any quicker - if you want a faster
connection you'll have to upgrade to a Vista C.
--
Craig Wallace
http://craig.neogeo.org.uk
http://www.neogeo.org.uk

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from
the wonderful person [email hidden] said
<snip>

Quoted message said:

I've just spent four hours loading 5 maps plus the summits map into my
Vista. That covers all the north east of Scotland plus Mid and West
Lothian. Pretty amazing. I wonder if there will be a drain on battery
life now, and perhaps I'll have to turn down the detail for the times
when I don't need the contour data, but just having it is fantastic. I
never shelled out for MapSource so until now the 24Mb on the Vista has
been going to waste.

The increase in battery drain should be undetectable .. the unit uses
the same power whether the 24MB is full of maps or zeros. And I doubt
the redraw is affected either.

Quoted message said:

Great stuff. I'm very impressed with it. I just wish the upload times
were quicker. One thing I've noticed using the tools recommended on
the SMC site is that if an upload of a map fails (say your batteries
run out mid transfer), you seem to lose all the map data you've already
uploaded. I make sure I have fully charged batteries when I loading
the data now. Which begs another question, does the USB cable for
RS232 GPS units provide power as well as data, and is there any speed
increase in transfers?

I think it depends on the USB cable you buy whether it also supplies
power, but no it won't help with speed, the limit is how fast the serial
port on the handset can accept bits. If you want 'faster' you need a
handset with native USB support like a C-model eTrex of a 60/76C or CS.

I'm not sure why a failed Xfer would leave you with no maps, but I can
believe it. Step one of the map loading (whetehr you use mapsource of
sendmap) is to blow away all previous maps, step two is to load the new
maps as a 'lump'. If you only get half the lump delivered I can see the
handset would quite probably flush the lot.

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
SC recommends the use of Firefox; Get smart, or get assimilated.

GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote on Tue, 8 Feb 2005 22:41:44 +0000....

Quoted message said:

These are now available (and the price is right too). Rob apparently
didn't post his announcement in 'walking', so I assume it only came out
in 'climbing', but anyway you should be able to find the maps at:

http://www.smc.org.uk/books/books_contour_maps.htm

In summary, they were created from space shuttle data using public
domain data and software, as discussed here. In addition to contours,
there are also UK outline (coastline), trig points and summits UK and
Ireland) and some place names.

I've just spent a few happy hours downloading some of these maps.
They look great; can't wait to take them on a walk. Many thanks, Dave
- this must have taken a lot of work.

A couple of minor feedback points (which don't really detract from the
overall impression of a very useful product):

I found that my Win98SE system refused to play with the contours.reg
file. I tried changing the header in the file to REGEDIT4 (the
version I have) but that didn't work. So I had to hack the registry
manually.

Looking at it again afterwards, I suspect that possibly it's in
Unicode format and that Win 98 may be barfing at that, expecting a
plain ASCII text file?

Also, my copy of MapSource initially installed itself to C:\Garmin\ by
default. I've now reinstalled it to C:\Program files\Garmin\ since
that seems more sensible. But had I not done so a registry hack would
have been necessary anyway, even if contours.reg had worked.

The other point I've noticed is that the coastline file seems to have
moved Derwentwater (one of the few inland lakes included). It's
shifted to the west, suggesting that you'd get wet feet up Catbells.

But hey, I'm not complaining. This is a great freebie.

--
Tim Jackson
[email hidden]
(Change '.invalid' to '.co.uk' to reply direct)
Absurd patents: visit http://www.patent.freeserve.co.uk

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the
wonderful person Tim Jackson <[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote on Tue, 8 Feb 2005 22:41:44 +0000....

Quoted message said:

These are now available (and the price is right too). Rob apparently
didn't post his announcement in 'walking', so I assume it only came out
in 'climbing', but anyway you should be able to find the maps at:

http://www.smc.org.uk/books/books_contour_maps.htm

In summary, they were created from space shuttle data using public
domain data and software, as discussed here. In addition to contours,
there are also UK outline (coastline), trig points and summits UK and
Ireland) and some place names.

I've just spent a few happy hours downloading some of these maps.
They look great; can't wait to take them on a walk. Many thanks, Dave
- this must have taken a lot of work.

Couple of weeks actually, including finding all the pieces. Takes about
24 hours now to clean up (interpolate) the SRTM data with Blackart, make
contour files (Thanks to Brad for fixing Dem2Topo - used to take 24
hours per map!) combine them as appropriate, and compile them to .img
files. Spent most time chasing Gaelic spelling errors (on the Summits),
disagreements about where the summits actually are, typos in OS trig
positions, which put at least one trig pillar in the ocean, and
wondering why a couple of trig points are 100m below ground level (turns
out that in once case they really are - there is a China clay mine and
spoil tip adjacent).

Quoted message said:

A couple of minor feedback points (which don't really detract from the
overall impression of a very useful product):

I found that my Win98SE system refused to play with the contours.reg
file. I tried changing the header in the file to REGEDIT4 (the
version I have) but that didn't work. So I had to hack the registry
manually.

Looking at it again afterwards, I suspect that possibly it's in
Unicode format and that Win 98 may be barfing at that, expecting a
plain ASCII text file?

Good point - yes, the .reg file will likely only work under Win2k or
WinXP, probably not even WinME. I don't have any antique systems around
to test it on anymore. I guess a note on the website would probably be a
good plan.

Quoted message said:

Also, my copy of MapSource initially installed itself to C:\Garmin\ by
default. I've now reinstalled it to C:\Program files\Garmin\ since
that seems more sensible. But had I not done so a registry hack would
have been necessary anyway, even if contours.reg had worked.

That also probably comes with Win9x? ISTR that my WinXP install made a
beeline for c:\program files\garmin.

Quoted message said:

The other point I've noticed is that the coastline file seems to have
moved Derwentwater (one of the few inland lakes included). It's
shifted to the west, suggesting that you'd get wet feet up Catbells.

Possibly. I notice that most of the coastline data seems slightly
shifted to the west. I do have a much more detailed coastline dataset
but it is 3x bigger, and since the coastline is really only there as a
'throw away' marker for the contour tiles, I didn't use the detailed
one. Heaven help anyone who tries to sail round the UK by loading the
coastline data from that mapset! If you want the detailed one, let me
know and I'll arrange for it to get to you somehow .. however the 'more
detailed' one has absolutely no inland lakes at all.

Quoted message said:

But hey, I'm not complaining. This is a great freebie.

Glad you like it. Thanks to the SMC folks for hosting the files (and
doing the upload - no broadband here so I'd still be waiting).

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
SC recommends the use of Firefox; Get smart, or get assimilated.

"Adrian Godwin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Geoff Berrow said:

Quoted message said:

The new Legend C has an increased capacity of 24MB compared tor the
old model's 8MB.

Wow. They really are lagging behind when you can get pen drives
containing 128 MB for less than a tenner.

Garmin don't seem to understand that memory is cheap, and gets
cheaper all the time. Their new 60CS looked brilliant until I
realised they hadn't allowed for memory expansion.

The forthcoming Magellan 500 takes SD card memory and has USB
download. And the UK topo maps, while not perfect, are already
available - not vaporware.

-adrian

UK topo maps for a magellan, can you tell me where please?

Gerald