Hi
I downloaded the last two sets of traces that you have uploaded - JOSM was happy with them no issues ( 20110630.gpx & 20110625.gpx ) so not sure what the problem with PL2 if any.

Your traces seem to be a little noisy ( possibly due to being in a built up area ) - and this part of Harvard Campus has excellent BING imagery which will always tend to have a better accuracy than GPS traces and more useful for absolute mapping purposes.

The Garmin Etrex units (depending on which one you have ) have a couple of options on how they store tracks.

The best setting for mappers is to set the units to cache your location every 1/2/5 seconds etc ( I personally cache on 1 second ) using a Garmin HCX Legend with a 2GB memory card. If you have an original Yellow Garmin Etrex, you will not have this option, and you are stuck with the Garmin caching technique, that when it detects that you have made a significant move from your last cached point, or are making a direction change. it is an efficient approach in terms of data storage, but can lead to rather untidy tracks especially when you are walking.

To Clean up GPX tracks before uploading can sometime be useful, especially if you have left the GPS unit on ( perhaps at home or work ) and you find a large cluster of noisy points etc. I usually drop my GPX tracks into JOSM and use the plugin EditGPX to tidy up a trace before upload. You can also merge a number of tracks down into one layer thus saving you multiple uploads of smaller GPX tracks.

You have highlighted a another problem - but I think that needs a new Diary entry
Good luck and enjoy making your traces - have a play with JOSM and some of the plugins, I am sure you will find them useful

The Streets and street names are in one way just the beginning of building the OSM map of a town or region. The map really becomes useful once the information about your community is added. For example addition of location of resources such as Banks, Shops, local facilities, Restaurants, Hotels, Petrol stations, Supermarkets, Libraries, Sports Facilities etc.

One can map a town from Bing in an hour, but that extra data can only really be provided by mappers on the ground such as yourself, so good luck and enjoy yourself and your mapping - and thank you for getting involved!

Might be useful comparing and contrasting the data from different sources - I have used the Cloudmade Garmin IMGs ( http://downloads.cloudmade.com/ )
and recently started using the custom maps found here ( http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ ) which are a little smaller and seem to have sightly friendlier rendering ( for my Garmin Legend HCX ).

I recently spen several weeks cycling in Spain - the OSM maps were great - but I still carried paper, as sometimes there is just too much detail in the electronic version, Zooming in and out all day - I also carried a compass - life saver, sometime you just want to head SOUTH! I always kept the HCX on, logging at 1 second intervals through the whole trip and later uploaded to OSM, some of the most accurate tracks I have generated I think - AA rechargeable batteries on the HCX lasted about 20 hours, recharging them in local cafes and bars ( I carried two sets ).

Good luck - enjoy spain

A very handy tool here for Garmins

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

Yes - Very much enjoy the Sahara desert imagery : fake Steve just possibly?

Love it - agreed - no waste of time - what are computers for?

Great work - Africa needs much more mapping effort - keep up the good work - and YES please - link to the area of the map you are working with - bri

BING imagery does seem to have offsets to GPS Traces around the world. I have edited a number of places with BING but cross references with my own multiple GPS traces taken over multiple periods ( important for accuracy apparently, as it changes / shifts during the day )

JOSM does allow you to adjust the BING imagery with an XY offset. If you ask JOSM to download the GPS traces ( highly recommended ) you can check the imagery aligns with the GPS traces, if not I align the imagery to the average trace - assuming a main road is close by with intersections, allowing northing and southing to be checked.

Assuming there are multiple traces of the GPS on roads, assume that the average of these traces is pretty much about as accurate as we can get right now.

Not all GPS devices are the same, modern units are more sensitive ( Garmin etc ) than previous versions and generally more accurate - 3-5 meters with larger antennas than that possible to fit into a mobile prone thus generally more accurate ( more signal / less noise ).

You can check the date of the pictures in Bing imagery here

http://mvexel.dev.openstreetmap.org/bing/

Try Cloudmade -

http://downloads.cloudmade.com/asia/israel#downloads_breadcrumbs

I Added a button on the tool bar of my josm app with exactly this tag
(
highway=service
service=driveway
source=Bing
)
I have save loads of time - wave a look here to add the Oneclick buttons to JOSM - they are very useful if you are tagging a lot of roads

http://josm.openstreetmap.de/wiki/TaggingPresets

bri

Great to see some high detail, and 'good old fashioned ' walk the streets mapping being carried out in Brazil - Keep up the good work

bri

Also
GPSMID Convert OSM FILE to Java Midlet for Symbian ( works on my Nokia E51 )

http://gpsmid.sourceforge.net/

Josm has become increasingly powerful over the two years I have been using it. The new integration with BING is very good.

Great advice from !i! regarding reducing UI complexity, I have just two floating windows open, Properties and Layers, the rest are opened when needed.

One thing that has really improved my productivity on very repetitive work has been adding my own custom tagging buttons for basic things such as Residential, Unclassified, Tertiary roads and Buildings, with the extra tag of source=BING.

Take a look here
http://josm.openstreetmap.de/wiki/TaggingPresets

I took the original xml script from Dirk Stöcker - added my custom requirements for Residential / Unclassified Road etc ( with tag source=BING) and this has speeded me up no end.

Just as background I completed a lot of work around south Portugal over the Christmas period, as this has become available from BING to map, hence the need for the source tag

Hi Seth

Thank you for asking the community, before proceeding with a best guess. A good general rule in OSM is that if you do not know how to do something review and copy from best practice areas mapped such as in the US, UK or Germany where multiple mappers have worked and reviewed each others edits, so should be about right.

Rainer111 mentioned Merkator, JOSM is also very well developed, and once you start using a desktop editor ( as opposed to Potlatch ) you will not look back. The investment in effort to learn either of these very useful and stable tools is well worth the payback.

bri

Thanks to asciiphil - I created my wn custom XML file with a base from Dirk Stöcker - many thanks

I created 4 buttons in JOSM for Unclassified Resedential roads etc, but all with the added tag, source=BING.

These buttons have dramtically improved my productivity, a real bonus attached is the XML file I am using - all you will need to do is create some 16x16 pixel PNG files for buttons ( use MS Paint etc )( I am a Win 7 user, so modify paths as needed )

XML file as below

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

If you are a JOSM user, download the latest version and BING is incorporated into it as a Slippymap. It is a great new addition and is allowing a great deal of new mapping to proceed in may parts of the world.

bri

I have just reviewed BING imagery in an area I know well and provided multiple GPS traces for ( osm.org/go/wHZ0etG-- ).

BING Imagery is out ( in Kaduna at least ) , so I would imagine it is out in other areas as well.

Unlike the WMS plugin, Slippy maps does not allow local alignment ( in JOSM at least )of the downloaded images from BING.

Is there going to be some work on this? It will be needed I suspect.

As a tip if you are not sure about alignment of imagery, have a look at the GPS traces ( in Potlatch or JOSM by downloading them ) and see how the imagery aligns to the GPS. If there is a noticeable error between the imagery and multiple GPS traces, it is likely the imagery has an offset.

bri

A few tips

The WMS plugin is extremly useful - takes a litle configiration for Yahoo imagery to work - follow the WMS Wiki and you will be fine

osm.wiki/JOSM/Plugins/WMSPlugin

Explore the plugins - there are many

I personally start Josm and reserve 1G of memory, though 512Mb is more than enough even for large detailed areas

In Windows ( if that is what you use create a shortcut with properties as below
where you execute Java with the -Xmx1024M ( change 1024 for 256 / 512 etc to reserve less memory ). With the path of JOSM ( will depend on where you put it )

C:\Windows\System32\java.exe -jar -Xmx1024M "C:\Software\Josm\josm-tested.jar"

Have fun - there is a bit of a learning curve - any questions, just ask

Happy mapping

bri

Hi eebrah - What GPS unit are you using ? - you trace was quite short - but it all helps - let us know it looks like the unit is auto tracking ( logging a point when you have changed direction ) rather than tracking once per second or similar

keep up the good work

Track Export - all the tracks are stored in the Etrex H - I am not totally familiar with it's menu structure. I guess you can specify in the Etrex H model how it stores GPX ( eg 1 sample / second etc ). The original Etrx units had no options to change how they cached but still had a 10000 point memory back in 2003, the H versions have the same. Get a Garmin serial lead and hook that up to your serial port or via a cheap USB to serial and you can recover all the tracks and points using GPX Babel, export them from your Garmin to a GPX file which you drag and drop straight into JOSM ( GPSBABEL is free! - which is what many of us use including me for my Garmin HCX )

Any questions drop one of us a line

good mapping

b