[OSM-talk] Garmin GPS and OSM-based maps (was: Re: How to get an overview of multiple gpx on OSM map?)

Tue Nov 6 12:46:01 UTC 2018

Whilst it's great that Garmin are offering the convenience pre-installed 
OSM-based maps, it's worth bearing in mind that there are lots of free 
download options - see https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mkgmap for 
creating your own and 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download for 
ready-made downloadable options.

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ is a good place to start for "I want 
maps for a certain part of the world".

There are lots of help questions about the mechanics of installing maps 
on Windows, Linux, MacOS etc. at https://help.openstreetmap.org/ , and 
these might be an easier place to start reading than the wiki (which can 
be a bit confused at times).

I do have a GPSMap64s with preinstalled Garmin maps* that aren't 
OSM-based.  One problem with those is that they contain lots of old, 
inaccurate non-OSM POIs that it's impossible to turn off without 
removing the SD card - hopefully your OSM-based maps from Garmin won't 
share this problem.

Re EGNOS on an Etrex 35, assuming it's similar to an Etrex 30x, it's 
noticeably more accurate (within a few meters as opposed to a few tens 
of meters) when you're somewhere with WAAS/EGNOS coverage compared to 
when you're not (in my case it was Europe with and Australia without, 
but that was a while ago - don't know if the Australian situation has 
changed).

Barometric altimeter (on both Etrex30x and GPSMap64s) tend to be 
accurate to within 10m at the top of the hill if you've calibrated them 
at the bottom, but not if you haven't (apologies for being Captain 
Obvious there!).

Battery use on both Etrex30x and GPSMap64s are something like "one pair 
of rechargeable AA batteries every day and a half" (if it's on all day).

Re the new 66s my understanding is that it can use 2 of 
GPS/Glonass/Galileo at the same time.  Personally I'd wait to see a 
"review involving OSM-based map use" before getting one, but I'm sure 
they'll appear fairly soon.

Other non-Garmin options for "something to last all day" might be an old 
phone with GPS in it and user-removable batteries.  An old Blackberry 
might be an option (they still work after you manage to drop them on the 
floor, and you might find the keyboard more usable than a touchscreen 
when it's cold).

Best Regards,

Andy

* at the time this was essentially "free" due to availability and what 
stock the various discounters carried - in theory its about £60 extra, 
and probably isn't worth that.

On 06/11/2018 11:37, Oleksiy Muzalyev wrote:
> Thank you, dikkeknodel.
>
> I also received an email message with an advice to acquire Garmin 
> eTrex.  I've ordered the Garmin eTrex 35 Touch with the pre-installed 
> «TopoActive» Karte Europa, which is based on the OSM data, as I 
> understood:
> https://www.brack.ch/garmin-hand-gps-etrex-touch-370929
>
> It supports the EGNOS, European Geostationary Navigation Overlay 
> Service, which is supposed to correct the GPS signal. I have no idea 
> how it works in reality. It also has got the GPS and barometric 
> altimeters.
>
> Best regards,
> Oleksiy
>
>
>
> On 05.11.18 19:59, _ dikkeknodel wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Thanks for all the great advice. I’ve looked into uMap and it does 
>> the job perfectly. With all the gpx of over a year of hiking imported 
>> it still runs smoothly.
>>
>> I would like to prevent running into performance issues later though. 
>> Does anybody know if it is wise to add ‘simplified’ versions of the 
>> gpx to uMap instead of the original recordings with 1 s resolution?
>>
>> Since the published data is public, I just have to take into account 
>> not to import gpx which start from my home since I value my ‘sort of 
>> anonymity’.
>>
>> *@Oleksiy*
>>
>> To answer Oleksiy’s question, I record with OSMand on a Moto G4 
>> smartphone, that works like a charm. Off course there is fluctuation 
>> due to accuracy errors, I guess 10-15 m is achievable most of the 
>> time, but close to near vertical mountains it becomes much worse.
>>
>> It however does never happen that I miss long stretches of data 
>> (except for tunnels 😝). I did have that problem in the past, when 
>> <15% battery charge and Android automatically started the battery 
>> saving mode. That just turned of the gps antenna whenever the screen 
>> was off. So now I have set battery saving mode to off.
>>
>> Also OSMand does not drain the battery much. Usually I do take a lot 
>> of notes which OSMand attaches to the gpx and loads perfectly into 
>> JOSM. Recently I also used the voice recorder of OSMand, which really 
>> speeds up the note taking while on the go in comparison to typing. 
>> These also load into JOSM via the gpx, but some fiddling with the 
>> location of the audio is required. Taking notes on the phone does 
>> have an effect on the battery life off course. A 20 km hike in the 
>> mountains easily takes 6-8h, which my phone reaches most of the time 
>> on one charge in flight mode. I do have a power-bank as back-up, and 
>> for multi-day hikes though.
>>
>> Altitude measurements have always been a bit tricky with OSMand. I 
>> guess the raw elevation data from gps fluctuates quite a lot, and the 
>> data processing did not do a good job filtering errors from actual 
>> elevation change. After a hike with 1000m elevation gain according to 
>> the map, OSMand often showed I did 5000m... The graph of the track 
>> you can generate in OSMand also showed a lot of spikes with instant 
>> ascents of >200m. Recently that seems to have changed and the 
>> measurements seem to better represent the actual situation.
>>
>> Hope this helps you with you work OSM workflow!
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> dikkeknodel
>>
>> *Van: *Oleksiy Muzalyev <mailto:oleksiy.muzalyev at bluewin.ch>
>> *Verzonden: *zaterdag 3 november 2018 18:51
>> *Onderwerp: *Re: [OSM-talk] How to get an overview of multiple gpx on 
>> OSM map?
>>
>> Hi _dikkeknodel,
>>
>> I have a question - how do you record a GPX trace during 20 km walk? 
>> It should be about 4 hours.
>>
>> I also record GPS traces but usually for 15-20 minutes. I use a phone 
>> with the OSMTracker app for Android with mixed results. Sometimes it 
>> records a path well, sometimes it turns the second part of the walk 
>> into a long direct line. Such a trace I usually discard.
>>
>> Besides it empties the phone battery rather quickly. I usually take a 
>> power-bank with me, but still it is not a good solution to get a 
>> phone battery empty in mountains.
>>
>> I am thinking of getting a dedicated device which can record the GPX 
>> files, on the OSM map, and also measure and altitude more or less 
>> correctly. The question is - what device, what model.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Oleksiy
>>
>>
>> On 03.11.18 16:09, _ dikkeknodel wrote:
>>
>>     Hi all,
>>
>>     Ever since I moved to Switzerland over a year ago I’ve been both
>>     hiking in the mountains and updating OSM details a lot. Since I
>>     hike at least 20 km every weekend, it must have totaled to about
>>     1200 km by now all across the country. I would love to get an
>>     overview of where I have been so far.
>>
>>     Since I’ve got a GPX file of almost every hike, the data is
>>     there. I am now looking for a nice graphical way to plot all of
>>     these files at once on a nice OSM map, OpenTopoMap as a base
>>     layer would be great.
>>
>>     I’ve been searching for a while how to arrange this (without much
>>     programming knowledge), but I am kind of lost at the moment.
>>
>>     Does anybody have a hint?
>>
>>     Cheers,
>>
>>     dikkeknodel
>>
>>
>>
>>
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