Magellan UK TOPO maps

  • Thread starter GSV Three Minds in a Can
  • Start date



G

GSV Three Minds in a Can

Guest
Has anyone bought/tried using the Magellan UK TOPO maps yet? I've about
given up waiting for Garmin to come out with some, so I'm re-considering
the alternative, although I recall that the first comments were not very
encouraging.

This is (for me) for off-road walking use, so I could care less about
their city coverage and autorouting or whatever .. just want to know how
well they do at showing paths, tracks, and terrain features, both from
the 'do they have them' and 'are they in the right place'.

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
Outgoing Msgs are Turing Tested,and indistinguishable from human typing.
 
I've seen some of the members at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/magellan_meridian/
discussing UK Topo. From what I've seen so far, nobody has a copy yet. Some
vendors are taking orders, but nobody has said they have it in stock(last
post was a week or two ago). You might try asking over there.

-Skramblr


"GSV Three Minds in a Can" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Has anyone bought/tried using the Magellan UK TOPO maps yet? I've about
> given up waiting for Garmin to come out with some, so I'm re-considering
> the alternative, although I recall that the first comments were not very
> encouraging.
>
> This is (for me) for off-road walking use, so I could care less about
> their city coverage and autorouting or whatever .. just want to know how
> well they do at showing paths, tracks, and terrain features, both from
> the 'do they have them' and 'are they in the right place'.
>
> --
> GSV Three Minds in a Can
> Outgoing Msgs are Turing Tested,and indistinguishable from human typing.
 
On 17/10/04 5:11 pm, in article dRwcd.262802$D%.121889@attbi_s51, "Skramblr"
<[email protected]> wrote:

> I've seen some of the members at
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/magellan_meridian/
> discussing UK Topo. From what I've seen so far, nobody has a copy yet. Some
> vendors are taking orders, but nobody has said they have it in stock(last
> post was a week or two ago). You might try asking over there.

I saw a prototype working at the outdoor show earlier in the year and was
quite impressed. I was told they would be available within 4 weeks! Still
don't seem to be around. Maybe Garmin are waiting until the things actually
work!

--
Andy Howell
Birmingham, UK
 
In article <[email protected]>, GSV Three Minds in a Can
wrote:
> Has anyone bought/tried using the Magellan UK TOPO maps yet? I've about
> given up waiting for Garmin to come out with some, so I'm re-considering
> the alternative, although I recall that the first comments were not very
> encouraging.
>
> This is (for me) for off-road walking use, so I could care less about
> their city coverage and autorouting or whatever .. just want to know how
> well they do at showing paths, tracks, and terrain features, both from
> the 'do they have them' and 'are they in the right place'.
>
I've had a copy for several months. The level of detail can be rather
erratic, and don't expect it to show what an OS map does. However, you do
get contours and most public footpaths and rivers. Major geographical
features are shown. I've found the positioning to be accurate. The files it
produces for the GPS are huge, and you can only fit one region into the
receiver at once. However my Sportrak Colour can be loaded with the whole
of the lake district comfortably - but models memory capacity varies, so if
you don't yet have a receiver make sure it has enough capacity for what you
want. It comes with a PC application that can be used for route planning,
but I tend to use Tracklogs with OS maps for this.

Road detail is significantly less detailed than the Mapsend Streets product
by the way. If you like I could probably send you a screen shot of an area
of your choice to give you some idea of what it looks like (the email
address in this message will work).

My personal opinion is that it is nice to have if you have the money, but
not essential. It doesn't really have enough detail to replace carrying a
map. Due to the low resolution screens on current receivers it is hard to
see how more detail could be shown - to see the detail it does have you
need to be set to a map scale that only shows a kilometre or so around your
current position. Zooming out removes the detail. If you don't plan routes
ahead with waypoints it usefully can show you if you're on right path, but
otherwise it is not essential.

The other replies you have seem to indicate that TOPO isn't yet available,
I'm a bit confused by this as I have it (or has there been a new version?,
I got mine quite soon after it was first released).

Hope this helps.
David
--
David Biggins
Cambridge, UK
 
On 18/10/04 7:23 am, in article [email protected], "David
Biggins" <[email protected]> wrote:

> The other replies you have seem to indicate that TOPO isn't yet available,
> I'm a bit confused by this as I have it (or has there been a new version?,
> I got mine quite soon after it was first released).

Sorry, I was referring to something that used OS Map data.

--
Andy Howell
Birmingham, UK
 
In article <BD993C53.38F95%andy.howellNOSPAM@ecotrendDOTorgDOTuk>, Andy Howell
wrote:
> > The other replies you have seem to indicate that TOPO isn't yet available,
> > I'm a bit confused by this as I have it (or has there been a new version?,
> > I got mine quite soon after it was first released).
>
> Sorry, I was referring to something that used OS Map data.
>
Is this something that works a bit like Memory Map can on a PDA? i.e. displays
OS maps directly? I expect this isn't compatible with current models such as
my Sportrak as I don't expect the screen resolution is high enough, or the
memory big enough come to that.

For anyone reading who might be confused the existing Magellan Mapsend TOPO UK
product does used OS map data, but not the raster image we know and love from
paper maps. It converts height and a limited amount of detail to a data format
suitable for Sportrak and Meridian models. The maps look very spartan compared
to real OS maps.

David
--
David Biggins
Cambridge, UK
 
On 18/10/04 10:51 am, in article [email protected], "David
Biggins" <[email protected]> wrote:

> For anyone reading who might be confused the existing Magellan Mapsend TOPO UK
> product does used OS map data, but not the raster image we know and love from
> paper maps. It converts height and a limited amount of detail to a data format
> suitable for Sportrak and Meridian models. The maps look very spartan compared
> to real OS maps.

I saw something that looked like a normal OS map. But this was months ago!

--
Andy Howell
Birmingham, UK
 
David Biggins <[email protected]> wrote:
> features are shown. I've found the positioning to be accurate. The files it
> produces for the GPS are huge, and you can only fit one region into the
> receiver at once. However my Sportrak Colour can be loaded with the whole
> of the lake district comfortably - but models memory capacity varies, so if
> you don't yet have a receiver make sure it has enough capacity for what you

Note that the Meridian model (although more bulky than the Sportrak) does
have SD card storage so you can easily load up one of several maps.
I keep both Topo and Direct Route (routable street maps) on the same card.

> want. It comes with a PC application that can be used for route planning,
> but I tend to use Tracklogs with OS maps for this.

The PC application suffers from the severe disadvantage that it works
only in lat/long - no OS grid references. ROWs are not distinguished
from other tracks either, so something like Tracklogs is much superior
for planning routes.

>
> Road detail is significantly less detailed than the Mapsend Streets product
> by the way. If you like I could probably send you a screen shot of an area
> of your choice to give you some idea of what it looks like (the email
> address in this message will work).

This loss of detail can sometimes be a problem - they seem to have
removed all minor streets with the intention of reducing urban clutter.
This might sound like a good idea for topo maps, but they've actually
removed a lot of minor rural roads too (possibly something like all
the dead-end roads under a certain length). These rural roads are
often the metalled section that leads into a track, so quite major
byways can vanish from the map just at the point where they change
from an unmade track (shown) to a metalled surface (not shown) !
I hope this is a bug that they'll fix, but Magellan aren't very
communicative.


-adrian
 
Hi I have a explorise 600 and been trying to get a copy of the UK Topo. Is it still available? I have the DirectrSend Uk road maps which is ok but would like something a little more off road. If the maps are unnavailable, can other maps be converted?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom Back