The Garmin H series are good - what i would recommend is a Garmin unit with an micro SD card slot as a minimum, so that the unit can cache to the 'unlimited' space that the SD card offers. Caching / storing at 1 - 3 second interval snapshots of your route to SD card is about as good a trace as you can get with the Garmins, you want to avoid their default setting of auto store which intelligently work out when you have changed direction and then log a point.

This system works well for tracing a route back to where you started but not really good enough for tracing routes.

The Garmin Legend HCX is a great starting point, a unit many OSMers own ( including me ) - not great graphics compared with the modern rivals but enough, and they are very good logging devices ( available on EBAY for a decent sum ). A couple of rechargeable AA batteries giving me about 16-20 hours. and very reliable

Any Garmin 'H' series with a micro SD slot will be fine - just set to log once per second. Compile / merge multiple traces using JOSM, with the EditGPX editor to remove spurious data points / noise, you will be fine

cheers b

Yes - copy all of the above - OSM is VERY MUCH and ONLY real world - Imaginary anything would destroy the credibility of OSM, a very important opensource project which benefits a lot of people around the world.

To be honest it would be wasted effort for you, because people would notice, review, check, then very quickly correct / delete erroneous entries. There are a lot of OSMers out there checking the database every day who know their area and take great pride in knowing it is as accurate as can be.

That all said....top marks for asking first !

b

Welcome also - I have just moved to the Grenoble region. France is really well mapped but there is ALWAYS more detail to add

If you need any assistance drop me a line

bri

Yep - NiMh 2200mAh should get 10-20 - used mine every day on a recent bike trip. For good GPX data I set the unit to log once per second, settings in track log setup. Ensure that you tick Log Track to Data Card. The 100000 point internal memory track log fills up in about 3 hours ( 3600 points / hour ) but the SD card will never fill up. A GPX file with one second logging generated to the SD card is only about 5-8 MB for 12 hours.

Make sure you check out the OSM sourced Garmin img maps from Cloudmade ( http://downloads.cloudmade.com/ ). These give you 'last weeks' OSM compile, country by country

Cheers bri

for pre made routable maps for Garmin etc

http://downloads.cloudmade.com/

Area and Nodes. I think the answer ( and the reason I do it ) is that a Node with properties such as Hotel or restaurant, and a Name will be found as such in GPS devices. When an OSM file is turned into an IMG file, all the nodes are loaded into the GPS device ( I only know Garmin ), and can be searched upon. Also areas don't show up with names in these devices, but nodes do.

cheers bri

Thanks for all the comments as above. Having read all and considered, I am with Marscot, there should be two individual nodes next to one another. One node a Hotel, one a Restaurant.

Thanks for all the feedback

Bri

Node sharing - I found an area in WGC as described above
osm.org/?lat=51.80694&lon=-0.22267&zoom=16&layers=B000FTF

where Sherrardspark Wood was 'node sharing with the Golf Club, some of which I have 'unglued' for demonstration.

To disconnect nodes I use JOSM. Highlight one area, say the golf course, then press and hold shift and select a single or multiple nodes. Select Tools > Unglue nodes ( or just press G ). The nodes of the area highlighted can now be dragged away from the other. A little care s always needed.

My opinion is that nodes should not be shared, a Josm line represents the centre of the road / track etc, and so boundry such as a park or gold course does not end in the centre of the road but to one side of it.

In actuality, boundaries are usually separated by something, a fence, a wall etc so sharing nodes, particularly in a CAD environment which can approach high levels of accuracy ( less than 1 m in JOSM, even though our current surveying tools ( eg GPS ) cant ), doesn't make sense.

Anyway experiment with JOSM and the Unglue nodes ability.

good luck

bri

I compile traces over multiple days into JOSM, merger the layers into one and remove any clearly irrelevant or 'poor' trace data.

If you have an micro SD card for your unit ( highly recommended ) you can set the unit to log once per second to the card, even 24 h of logging ( 3600 pints / hour ) will generate files of about 10 Mb or less.

Of course you can also upload map files to your Garmin's SD card, personal ones you have made, or pre made ( IMG files ) ones from Cloudmade etc. Really useful when cross checking an area you are mapping with the existing data.

Cheers bri

Averages are the key to accuracy, hence the real usefulness of uploading your personal traces to OSM. Over time a road will develop multiple trace data from multiple users over different times, from which a good representation of the road will emerge.

GPS errors are easily visible when the database of traces is are downloaded for a section of the map via JOSM, however the overall accuracy and confidence of the quality of the map representation will be also be seen as multiple traces confirms within sufficient accuracy, the position of the road.

Sufficient accuracy is the key here, how accurate doe the map have to be? As accurate as is reasonably possible given the tools we have today, and accurate enough so that users can navigate to it, thus one or two meters seems about right, about the limits of accuracy of GPS on a good day, on a good location with averaging.

It can be very tempting ( and quite fulfilling! ) to spend time adjusting roads and tweaking things on the map to make them 'perfect', but don't get too hung up about it, if you are that assiduous ( and most of us are ) the map is probably as good as we can get it for now.

Keep up the good work - bri

The Garmin Legend HCX ( and I guess the Vista is identical ) when fitted with an internal SD card will log up to a maximum of 10000 points in internal memory ( just under 3 hours at 1 second logging intervals ). The Legend also caches to the SD card, but with a 500MB / 1GB card caching is essentially unlimited as 24 hours generates a GPX file of about 10MB, thus a 1MB card can hold several thousand hours of caching, even at 1 second intervals.

When the internal memory is full, the SD card GPX file will still be made. When downloading from the Garmin for editing in JOSM, ( I use GPSBabel ) I ignore the tracks in internal memory, and only use the Waypoints. For the tracks I simply switch the Legend into USB mode and drag the GPX files from the top folder into JOSM.

To upload multiple GPX files of the same area, I drag them all into JOSM, merge the layers into one, and if necessary use the GPXedit plugin to tidy up poor or inaccurate tracks ( perhaps due to first switch on, highly built up areas or more usually areas of thousands of points because I left the unit on overnight ).

The resultant GPX file, a compilation of usually many days can then be uploaded in one attempt, which can be quite useful.

Cheers Bri

Hi

I am curious to know why you need to see the IMG file on your PC. The IMG file is created from the original OSM file. There is normally no need to see the IMG as it is just a representation of the OSM data.

To view the OSM file use JOSM. Pre made IMG files for your Legend HCX are available here -

http://downloads.cloudmade.com/

cheers bri

Hi Okorukwu - welcome to OSM - I have done some of the map of Nigeria mainly in the north ( Kaduna / Zaria ) and Ado Ekiti.
All the work on Zaria, Ado Ekiti and other places has been completed by GPS tracks alone and local knowledge.

Kaduna has been well mapped because, there is high resolution imagery, which has been traced over ( using JOSM with WMS plugin ) and by adding street names by traveling through the town with a GPS and taking note of streets manually - this was done in November 2009 when I last visited the town.

There is a lot of work to do in Abuja, the basic framework is there but you will need a good GPS and take lots of notes and waypoints ( possibly with your phone ). If you require any assistance please let me know and I will do what I can as mapping Nigeria with GPS is how I started mapping ( even before OSM existed! )

Cheers bri

First : osm.wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin

You have a couple of options for creating a map for your Garmin. i don't know which unit you have, either you have an older unit which has a serial connection or a newer one with a USB.

To Download pre made maps of countries or areas, try the links that Zartbitter has sent, I personally use the Cloudmade maps here http://downloads.cloudmade.com/ - Download the IMG file of the area / country you need and upload that to your Garmin.

To make a custom map - there are a number of ways - download an OSM file of the area you need direct from the website using the EXPORT tab, or more flexibly use JOSM to download an area, or multiple areas which can then be merged into one layer, saved as an OSM.

The OSM file needs to be converted into an IMG file for use by the Garmin - use MKGMAP to do this ( http://www.mkgmap.org.uk/index.html ) .

Uploading to the Garmin - if you have a newer USB mode simply copy the IMG file you have downloaded or created into the directory 'garmin'. The file must be called gmapsupp.img ( though I understand newer units can accept multiple files ).

For older units which have a serial connection use Mapsource to upload ( there are file size limitations depending on the unit you have.

cheers bri

try this file for testing from CLOUDMADE

http://downloads.cloudmade.com/europe/germany/germany.img.zip

UNZIP - put into the Garmin - Put the Garmin into USB mode and copy the file to the 'garmin' directory ( SETUP > INTERFACE ) and copy the file. There can only be ONE gmapsupp.img file at any one time.

Turn the Garmin on and off again - you should see the map.

Or - go to Cloudmade downloads for Greece - oddly Turkey is not listed - guess they split crete in two - see here - http://downloads.cloudmade.com/europe#downloads_breadcrumbs

Could be a small enough area for you to load into JOSM and make your own custom one via MKGMAP

Don't like to advertise - but if I lost my current unit ( A Garmin Legend HCX ) I would simply buy another - they are that good - If I had a bit more cash I would look at the Oregon 450t. You will find that the functionality of the cheaper units can be a bit limiting once you start getting a little more serious about the mapping. At the least buy a unit that has a SD memory card so you have 'unlimited' caching length at 1 second caching, and have the ability to upload maps to the card built from the OSM data ( your own data ( MKGMAP ) or pre built maps from Cloudmade etc ) - good luck - bri

We really have to be careful here, old maps out of copyright could arguably add more errors or old information to the OSM map. The debate would be that no information on OSM arguably better than wrong or out of date information.

A town like Santo Domingo is rapidly expanding and changing, so any map more than about ten years old could be of little value and certainly would not show the high detailed information that we need such as utilities, banks, fuel etc etc.

Old information is usually out of date, and as such little value.

cheers bri

Sam

You need to download all your GPS 60 data. In a Garmin there are two sets of data stored, the track , and the Waypoints, and these do differ.

The Garmin stores the track you walked in two places simultaneously usually, in the internal memory ( limited to 10000 points ) and the SD card which is unlimited in tracklength

The Garmin records the Waypoints in internal memory.

I would normally download my TRACK from the SD card, and the waypoints are only stored on the Internal memory.

To download the track, put the Garmin into USB mode, and it will appear on a computer as a removable disk drive, the track should be there listed by date as a GPX file

To download the Waypoints you must use a program such as GPSbabel ( http://www.gpsbabel.org/downloaded.html ) which will download all waypoints ( and any tracks stored on the internal memory ) as a GPX file

Both the TRACK.GPX file direct from the Garmin and WAYPOINT.GPX file downloaded from the Garmin using GPSBabel can now be dragged and dropped into the JOSM window.

You should now have cluster of points and tracks which will not look like much, you need to zoom into the cluster of points and download the current map from OSM, so that you can overlay new points onto it ( ie your cameras, marked on the map on your JOSM screen by waypoints)

Now you must create map POINTS, which you would tag as cameras etc, and upload these new points of interest to OSM.

The Waypoints are not added to the map, only the POINTS that you create in JOSM are added to the map with the tags that you have added to the points ( ie the properties of the points ).

If you have more questions email me

Bri

HI

I too was in Santo Domingo in December and added some map detail in the Zona Colonial and also bought a highly detailed local map which I still have.

OSMers CANNOT copy maps that are in copyright or as a rule anything made by others. All the data that you add to the OSM must be your own.

Thanks for the thought, but the data is open source because the OSM mappers
give their data - we cannot take from other sources.

Cheers bri