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2. 50% Off All InvisibleShield Products
3. Garmin Handheld Owners Benefit from Downloadable Maps

Enjoy and Happy Memorial Day!

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1. 50% Off InvisibleShields — Extended for Today
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As of yesterday afternoon (no April Fools!) BirdsEye subscriptions were made available on Garmin’s US site. The annual per device subscription will cost you $30 US.  To use Birdseye you simply need to follow the link above, purchase the subscription and then activate it using your GPS device’s serial number. Once your unit is registered with Garmin’s servers you can start to download maps using the newest version of BaseCamp for the PC or Mac. You’ll also need to make sure you are running the latest device software which supports Birdseye — use WebUpdater to download the correct version for your unit.

My initial tests are encouraging. Although the servers have been slow (or down) at times I’ve been able to select and download imagery to both my Oregon 550t and Dakota 20 without a hitch. The process for doing this in BaseCamp is simple: just connect your unit, select a region, choose one of three resolutions and the maps will be downloaded to your computer and then your GPS. Once downloaded you need to enable them like any other map so that they are visible on the map page.

The highest resolution imagery for my area is very good, identical to what is in Google Earth. One complaint I have is that the images are over saturated when they are displayed on the GPS. This may have been a trade off to make the maps a little brighter on dim high resolution displays. My other complaint is the time it takes to download high resolution images for even a relatively small area. At least until the servers are little less loaded you’ll want to be selective about how much you download.  Of the three resolution levels available only high and highest are usable. The standard resolution which you will see if you use the demo feature is blurry even when zoomed quite far out.

So what to do with these new aerial maps?  For me it will be helpful geocaching. Some optimizations in BaseCamp, like the ability download a single tile around every cache in a selected set, would be helpful for planning a day out caching — you can only download rectangular areas at this time which chews up a lot of space and adds download time. As for hiking or biking, again, it would be nice to be able to download just the tiles along a selected track or a route. Here in New England where we have a lot of tree cover I’m not sure how useful these images will be unless I’m biking on double track — something that would actually show up on an aerial.  I have noticed that you can pick out individual trees and stonewalls using the highest resolution maps so they may be more useful than I originally expected.  I reviewed some imagery from an area where I recently did some desert hiking in Arizona and Birdseye maps would have been incredibly helpful there.  The single-track trails (many weren’t marked on any map) were clearly visible on the aerial shots.  I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the area I just visited in Mexico had decent coverage.  Ultimately the usefulness of this feature will come down to your local topography, the quality of imagery in your area and the types of activities you pursue.

It is also worth mentioning several other new features which have been overlooked in the excitement around BirdsEye. BaseCamp now supports the ability to display pre-installed maps. On my 550t after 20 minute initial sync I can now see my built in Topo 100k maps in BaseCamp just like any other map. The GPS has to be attached in order to use the maps. Similarly, BaseCamp supports the ability to display CustomMaps you already have installed on the GPS. For some reason this worked on several of my CustomMaps but BaseCamp threw errors on others.

Dakota and Oregon x00 owners should note that their unit software updates also came with new GPS firmware. I haven’t noticed any difference on the Dakota but the release notes indicate there are fixes to improve acquisition. Users on the wiki forums are reporting that there an no noticeable improvements to WAAS.  There is a bug in the new unit software which causes street names to disappear from the map page.  To keep abreast of bugs found in the new unit software, Birdseye or BaseCamp stop by the discussion group on the Oregon wiki.

Oregon x50 owners coming from the 3.26 beta will notice the Custom Symbol support made the cut to 3.3 but the tracklog archiving features did not. I hope this feature makes its way back into an official release soon — I found it incredibly helpful for managing my tracklogs on my recent trips to Arizona and Mexico.

Related posts:

1. Garmin Announces BirdsEye Satellite Imagery Subscription
2. More Custom Map Updates and Garmin Dakota How To Videos
3. Garmin Releases Topo U.S. 24K on DVD, First Screen Shots of BaseCamp

Update 1/18: Garmin officially announced BirdsEye today.  Availability is March 2010.

Details are still a bit sketchy but it looks like Garmin is finally releasing an all-you-can-eat satellite imagery subscription called BirdsEye for their outdoor handhelds that support Garmin Custom Maps. For $30 a year Oregon, Colorado and Dakota users who install a yet to be released version 3.0.0 of BaseCamp will be able to download all the “sub-meter” satellite imagery they want and then transfer those maps to their device.  The subscription would work on only one device and would require a myGarmin account to take advantage of the new service which is obviously aimed squarely at Delorme and Lowrance who already offer similar services.

Here are some details from the Garmin site.

• Transfer an unlimited number of satellite and aerial images to your device with this subscription and free software BaseCamp™.
• High-resolution sub-meter color satellite imagery captures the world in brilliant clarity and detail.
• Allows you to layer the Garmin vector maps on your handheld (such as TOPO 100K, TOPO 24K or City Navigator^®) with BirdsEye Satellite Imagery for a real-life view of roads, buildings and terrain.
• Makes it easy for hunters to perform preseason scouting, determine placement of stands and locate game pinchpoints.
• Helps hikers and campers find trails/trailheads and clearings for camping areas.
• Lets geocachers determine the terrain type around a cache and identify parking areas close to the caches.
• Allows travelers to view tourist hot spots and landmarks from an aerial view to make excursions memorable without getting lost.

Related posts:

1. Garmin Outs BirdsEye, Updates BaseCamp and GPS Software
2. Garmin Releases Topo U.S. 24K on DVD, First Screen Shots of BaseCamp
3. Garmin Announces BaseCamp™, hints at 1:24k Topos on DVD

• Added profile support for Garmin Custom Maps
• Fixed lockup while using GB Discoverer maps

Links for all of the updates are below, although when I posted this they all didn’t show the latest release.  Running Webupdater is your best option.

• Oregon x50
• Oregon x00
• Dakota
• Colorado

And one more Thanksgiving bonus for new Dakota (and Oregon) users.  Garmin has posted some short how to videos on their training site.   Here’s one that explains how to navigate using the Dakota (or Oregon, they are identical in most respects).

Related posts:

1. Garmin Custom Maps Officially Available on Oregon, Dakota and Colorado
2. Garmin Beta: Custom Raster Map Support for Oregon, Colorado and Dakota
3. Garmin Outs BirdsEye, Updates BaseCamp and GPS Software

If you would like more information on how to use Garmin Custom Maps on your Garmin device see our original post, or check out some of our Custom Maps tips here, here and here.

To start using Garmin Custom Maps you’ll need to connect your GPS unit to your computer and run the Webupdater to install the latest software. The latest software releases for each of the units and associated release notes are provided below.

I’ve been testing with these changes since yesterday and I’m pleased to say that the Custom Maps feature is much more stable and performance has improved over the earlier beta release.  I haven’t seen any of the shutoffs and instability observed during the beta period by many users who were using large maps.  Several issues specific to the Colorado have reportedly been fixed as well.

Garmin Oregon 200/300/400 version 3.3

• Added support for Garmin Custom Maps
• Improved along road routing performance

Discuss on the Oregon wiki.

Garmin Oregon 550/550t version 2.6

• Added support for Garmin Custom Maps
• Added heading to geotagged photo EXIF information (see GPSImgDirection and GPSImgDirectionRef tags)
• Improved along road routing performance
• Improved support for importing geotagged photos to various desktop applications
• Corrected issues causing some geotagged photos to be drawn at incorrect location on the map

Earthcache icon support has also been added in this release.

Discuss on the Oregon wiki.

Garmin Dakota 10/20 version 2.3

• Added support for Garmin Custom Maps
• Improved along road routing performance
• Increased data field font sizes

Discuss on the Dakota wiki.

Garmin Colorado 300/400 version 3.1

• Added support for Garmin Custom Maps
• Improved along road routing performance
• Improved map panning and zooming

Discuss on the Colorado wiki.

Related posts:

1. More Custom Map Updates and Garmin Dakota How To Videos
2. Garmin Beta: Custom Raster Map Support for Oregon, Colorado and Dakota
3. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps — GPS Visualizer Adds Garmin KMZ Support

• Dynamic overlay: This is the process we described in our previous post on the topic. I’ve updated that post to provide links to the new overlay tool and update the screen shots. Using this method you can use Google Earth to find the location you want and, if necessary, preview and modify the overlay before sending it to your Garmin.
• Overlay input form: Enter your location, select the area you want to cover and pick the map type you would like use. No need to mess with Google Earth, and Adam has added a button to preset most of the form for optimal performance on a Garmin GPS.

To use the Overlay input form method follow these steps

1. Navigate to the GPS Visualizer overlay page and select the link for Garmin GPS users.
2. Select a location based on address or coordinates.
3. Set the area that you want your maps to cover.  The default setting of a 10km (6.2 mile) square works pretty well for Topos and Aerial photos and looks good down to about the 800′ (200m) zoom level.   If you want more detail as you zoom in on your GPS map page you can shrink the area of your maps, or if you can cover more area if you are willing to sacrifice map image quality as you zoom in. GPS Visualizer also allows you to use data inside a GPX file to bound your maps (i.e. based on waypoints, tracks, etc) or specific N, E, S, W bounding boxes. See “Coordinate input method” under “General Options” to use these features.
4. Select the map type you want, typically it would be USGS topos or aerial photos.
5. Click Create Overlay
6. On the next page you can select click here to download your overlay and use your browser to save the KMZ file to your E:\Garmin\CustomMaps folder, assuming your GPS is connected and maps to drive letter “E”.  Also note this page contains useful information to determine the coverage area, resolution and m/pixel of your new map.

I would like to thank Adam for adding this support and encourage anyone who finds it useful to make a donation to GPS Visualizer.

Related posts:

1. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps – Using GPS Visualizer
2. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps – Getting Started
3. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps — Random Stuff

Tips

• To combine multiple JPEG images into one KMZ file create a directory in Google Earth and copy or add your individual overlays into the directory.   From the directory select Save Place As to store the KMZ to your GPS.
• You can have a \Garmin\CustomMaps folder on both your SD card and internal memory.
• KML/KMZ uses WGS84 datum but an image can be in any datum as long as it can georeferenced and reprojected (warped) to WGS84
• Draw Order >= 50 will make the an image show up above any installed Garmin maps (see first image below)
• Draw Order <50 will make the image show up on top of the land areas of installed Garmin maps (i.e. land, lakes) but the Garmin map data like roads, contour lines, etc. will show up on top of the custom map (see second image below)

• Custom maps with a higher Draw Order will draw on top of those with a lower Draw Order
• Waypoints, tracks, routes, geocaches, POIs, etc will always draw on top of Custom Maps
• Putting the map page in North Up mode makes map updates much faster and if you’ve referenced maps that are oriented north up the labels are easier to read
• Custom Maps don’t appear in Automotive orientation.

Tools

• GPSVisualizer Overlay KML (see my previous post for detailed instructions on how to use this)
• GlobalMapper (not the free trial version, the $280 version) does a good job creating KMZ overlays.
• MapTiler (0pen source and free!) which is based on GDAL seems to have most of what we need but it uses superoverlays which are not supported.  Add a vote here to have them add support for Garmin Custom Maps!
• gCensus-gt, I haven’t tried it but it looks useful for converting a variety of file types into KML, but it too may only support superoverlays
• Tiler for ExpertGPS. I’m trying to contact the author of ExpertGPS to see if the tool could be modified to create files in the format we need

Resources

• Posts by Rich on gpstracklog here and here.
• Garmin Forum for Custom Maps and KMZ examples
• Garmin Oregon, Colorado and Dakota wiki discussion threads
• Groundspeak discussion thread
• gpsfiledepot.com discussion thread
• Some links to 3rd party map data from DeLorme PN users
• Free raster imagery for the US
• NZ GPS forums

Limitations / Bugs

• No support for multiple custom map layers on the GPS which you can enable and disable separately
• Each individual image should be smaller than 1 megapixel, larger files will render but at a reduced quality
• No single image should be larger than 3MB (per Garmin) because of the time it takes to render
• You can have multiple images in a KMZ, but the GPS is limited to a total of 100 JPEGs across all KMZ files
• As a rough rule of thumb if you want good resolution down the 300′-200′ zoom level the limitations above will mean you can only have a maximum of about 100 sq/miles of imagery loaded
• Only JPEG images are supported
• Google Earth superoverlays are not supported
• Colorado users are reporting that the current tracklog shows up as wide magenta line over the overlay maps.  Garmin has indicated it will be fixed in the next release.
• I’ve seen cases where the tracklog and waypoints stop getting drawn after zooming in/out on a large custom map (still less than 3MB)

Related posts:

1. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps – Using GPS Visualizer
2. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps – Getting Started
3. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps — GPS Visualizer Adds Garmin KMZ Support

This new post also includes instructions on how to use the GPS Visualizer overlay form to create a Garmin KMZ file, a process which bypasses Google Earth.

After Garmin’s announcement yesterday about support for custom raster maps on the Oregon, Colorado and Dakota there has been an flurry of activity as people are trying to leverage existing tools to load publicly available map data onto their Garmin receivers. I’ve found a relatively easy way to get TerraServer map data onto your Garmin using the GPS Visualizer KML overlay.

The list of digital imagery supported by the GPS Visualizer overlay tool is shown in the image below.

Before you start you will need to visit the GPS Visualizer Map Overlay page and install the GPS Visualizer Garmin overlay tool in Google Earth.  You should also have your Garmin GPS connected to your computer in USB mass storage mode, in this example I’ll assume it is available on a Windows PC as drive letter “E”.   To create your Garmin Custom Map follow these steps.

1. Move to a location on the Google Earth map where you want to download maps, for example: Walden Pond, Concord, MA.
2. Select GPS Visualizer Overlays under the Places window, right click and hit Refresh
3. If there is map data available for that location you should see a list of overlays available in the Places window under Garmin Custom Map Overlays.  Double click on the map layer (ie. USGS topo map) you would like to download.  This should start the Google Earth browser window on the GPS Visualizer page for the map image you selected.
4. If you want to use the default map name and Draw Order of 1 you can stop here and save the KMZ file to E:\Garmin\CustomMaps by selecting Click here to download your overlay and selecting Save!  You may need to create the CustomMaps directory if you don’t already have it.  If you would like to edit the name or Draw Order of your map select Click here to download your overlay and select Open.  A new overlay should show up in your Google Earth Places window,  like “USGS Topo map”.
5. Right click and select Properties on the overlay you created in the previous step.
6. Give your map a new name in the Name field, like Walden Pond Topo.
7. Select the Location tab and change the Draw Order field to 50 and click Ok.
8. Right click on the overlay in the Places menu and select Save Place As to save the KMZ file to E:\Garmin\CustomMaps (create the directory if you don’t already have it).

Here are some examples of  how these images look on my Oregon 550t.

Related posts:

1. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps — GPS Visualizer Adds Garmin KMZ Support
2. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps — Random Stuff
3. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps – Getting Started

First I started with a trail map for one of our local (but well known) State Parks. The trail map was in the form of a .gif file so I converted it to a JPEG image and began to follow the instructions on the Garmin site.  Garmin’s instructions are very easy to follow and within about 10 minutes I had my first map loaded onto the Garmin 550t — not bad.

Here’s the JPEG I started with.

Here are some of the screen shots of the custom map on my Oregon.

Although I haven’t tested the accuracy of this particular map, a second map I made for a conservation land near home was very good, my tracks were within 10′-20′ of the trails on the map.

On the GPS unit there really is not any difference between using custom maps and Garmin maps.  You have the ability to enable and disable custom maps just like any other map layer under Setup>Map>Map Information.  All of your maps show up under a button named “Custom Maps” and the name of all the KMZ files which are loaded are visible inside the button.   Custom maps loaded in either internal memory or the SD card (I’ve tested both) will appear on the map page and are enabled and disabled using the same button.  Note: you do not have the ability to enable each custom map separately, they are either all enabled or all disabled. This is an obvious feature improvement that I’m hoping Garmin will consider.

Features (eg. lakes, roads, contours) on the underlying Garmin topo map are selectable through the custom map.  If you notice in the first screen shot image above I’ve selected Walden Pond which is a POI on Topo 2008 and is not part of my custom map.

There are several aspects of the Garmin Custom Mapping procedure that are important to understand because they affect quality of the map you see on the GPS. The first is obviously the accuracy of the map calibration in Google Earth.  Here are a few tips to help you get the best calibration possible:

1. Start by zooming into the area on the Google Earth map where you are going to locate the map image. Your viewable area should be roughly the area covered by your JPEG, maybe slightly larger.
2. Center the map first by grabbing the recenter tool in the middle of the image (green “X”)
3. Rotate the JPEG (if required) to get the rotation correct using the rotation tool (look for a handle on one of the green side “T’s”)
4. Use a shift-click to grab a corner of the image to stretch it into place. Using a shift-click vs. a click will maintain the aspect ratio of the photo
5. Fine tune by rotating or resizing

The second thing which matters is the resolution of the map relative to the real land area it covers.  This will determine the zoom levels where your map is readable without excessive pixelation.  The map I calibrated above was good down to about the 300ft zoom level.  To determine the quality of your maps you need two things:

1. The pixel width of your JPEG image.  This is the first number in the resolution of the image, usually available under image properties.
2. The actual land distance spanned by the top edge of the map in feet (or meters).   You can use the measurement tool (Tools>Ruler) in Google Earth to come up with this number once you have completed the calibration of the map.

Now divide the land distance spanned by the map from 2) by the pixel width of the image from 1) and compare that to the chart below.  Using your ft/pixel (or m/pixel) value search down the “map ft/pixel” (or “map m/pixel”) column until you find the first value that is larger.   That is the most zoomed-in level where you won’t see any pixelation.  In practice I find that one more level zoomed-in is visually acceptable but any more than that and you’ll start to notice jagged lines.

In addition Garmin also recommends that you keep each JPEG image to less than 1 megapixels (e.g. 1024 x 1024 or 2048 x 512), otherwise the unit will render the image at a reduced resolution.  Their suggested solution is to break the map in multiple <1 megapixel chunks, noting that multiple images can be embedded in the same KMZ file, but that’s sounds like another post on more advanced techniques.

As an example, if you want a square map that looks good at the 200′ zoom level you should be trying to get a 1024×1024 image that covers a little less than a square mile (1024 x 4.2 = 4300′ per side).

Hopefully that will keep everyone busy until I can put a post together on how to get USGS topos and aerial images onto the unit, I’ve done this already using some existing tools.   More on that in the next post.

Related posts:

1. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps — Random Stuff
2. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps — GPS Visualizer Adds Garmin KMZ Support
3. Tips on Garmin Custom Maps – Using GPS Visualizer