Garmin Nuvi 660 updates

Thanks mate......I was hoping Doug would come along and give me the benefit of his vast knowledge........

Hi Bill, are you going to Stansbury this weekend

G'day mate,

Not that I'm aware of.....is there something you know that I don't? ;-))

Hi Greg,

We have City Navigator on the GPS. Last night I downloaded the Garmin IMG to GPS uploader and the mapsource files, suggested lower down, to the computer. I have successfully transferred the shonkymaps to the SD card but it is not showing up on the GPS when we transfer the maps across.

Does that make sense? Because it is well and truly out of my league.Thanks for your advice

Annette

Hello - assuming you have compiled the maps correctly on to the SD card there is one more issue that needs resolving...

If you have CityNavigator or other products loaded concurrently they will likely take precedence over shonkymaps, and will display unless hidden by the user.

When more than one mapset is loaded for the same area and more than one mapset is enabled, only the highest priority enabled mapset will display. An exception is transparent maps (such as OZtopo 20M Contours) which will display on top of the highest priority map.
The priority order is as follows;
- City Navigator
- MetroGuide
- BlueCharts
- Tracks4Australia/Shonky/Oztopo
- WorldMap
- the receivers basemap

Your GPS receiver will have a map setup page (I have never used a NUVi so am not familiar with menu keys) that should allow you to select either individual map squares to display, or alternatively select a whole product set. (Try pressing menu when on the map-setup page)

The suggested use is to Show or Hide either Shonkymaps or other product sets as required. You will need to use a bit of trial and error to determine what works best for you.

Cheers
Greg

Forgot to mention - ALL Shonky maps and T4A maps, take up less than 500meg (1/2 gig)
Neil

Thanks for the generous offer Neil. Annette (my SWMBO and who has much more patience with these things than I do)...spent several hours last night and again this morning, trying to pore-over various sites and download Mapsource etc.

I thought I read somewhere that you only had to have either Mapsource OR City Navigator... The Nuvi came complete with City Nav already loaded. Now we are not sure whether it is the COMPUTER that also needs to have this program?

The SD card I have is a 2gb and I've bought a SD card Reader as I am led to believe you can't just download the damn things directly to the Nuvi with the SD card actually IN the Nuvi.

We are really out of our depth with all this.

Annette is going to spend some time today, trying to learn from Doug's website and see what happens by the time I get home from work. If all else fails, I will send you an email and take you up on your offer of the exchange SD Card.

Thanks again,

Roachie

"Now we are not sure whether it is the COMPUTER that also needs to have this program?"

Yes - you need some version of Mapsource on your PC to select the maps you want. As I mentioned in one of my posts above if you dont have Mapsource et al then there is a simple free program available that will compile the maps for you.

Cheers
Greg

Legal way to download

Though I am not so sure its that legal

Cheers
Greg

You would think it is legal as it is straight from the Garmin websites Training Centre Dowsnload section.
It works.

Yeah probably not, what I meant was the procedure described makes use of what I would call a security fault in the training software that allows you to be "upgrade" it to a more functional version of Mapsource without having to pay any money. Probably not what the Garmin boys had in mind.

Cheers
Greg

Hi Neil,
yep, thanks for that. I listened to it this morning on Doug T's website. It sounded real easy until I put it into practice. Perhaps I should have another look at it later when time permits. I'm suffering a'brain overload' right now, trying to work it all out.

cya, Annette

Neil, Roachie here now mate..... Annette has gone for a lie down (head spinning like a top trying to work this stuff out). Anyway, I can't help thinking that we've almost got it!!

Forgive me if I talk in "layman" terms...... but we now have the following on the computer:

When I click on "START" and the menu (?) comes up, there is an icon available called "Mapsource". When I open this up, I can have a fiddle around with a few options and come up with a map of Australia. I can then click on either the "+" or "-" magnifying glass icons and get better detail of various tracks etc. I'm assuming that this is what I've gotta try to get across onto the bloody Nuvi.

Annette is convince that the maps etc are already on the SD card. When I take the SD card out of the Nuvi and install it into the SD card-reader, which I then poke into the USB port on the computer, it opens up a new window called "Removable Disk G" and reveals there are 2 folders called "GARMIN" and "Maps from IMG2GPS". Now, when I open the folder called "GARMIN", I get hundreds of little folders, all with the same icon in the middle (being a greenie-coloured world globe), each with it's own 8 digit code. Also, there is another one of these icons at the end and it's called "SHONKYMC".

Now then, the other folder I mentioned (ie: Maps from IMG2GPS) has a number of these similar folders....but there doesn't seem to be as many as what are on the other folder marked "GARMIN".

So, that's what's on the SD card.

Now, when I stick the SD card in the Nuvi, I hope I'm doing the right thing to actually try and access these maps on the SD card.

What I've been doing is pressing the little spanner icon, which takes me to a screen with 8 boxes. These are marked, MAP, SYSTEM, LOCALE, DISPLAY, NAVIGATION, BLUETOOTH, PROXIMITY POINTS & VOLUME.

Now, what I've been doing to see if the new Shonkymaps are available, is to press the box marked "MAPS", which gives me a screen where I can select from 4 options, but down the bottom there is a tool bar and one of those options is "Map Info". That's the one I've been pressing, and I get another screen that says "City Navigator Australia v7". There is a tick in a box beside this and below it there is a "[1] ALL". I can untick the top thingo and then I have no maps when I go back to the start.

Am I correct when I assume that THIS is where I should be seeing the Shonkymaps become available on the Nuvi?

Okay, thanks for bearing with me. If you hear of a bloke blowing his brains out in Kadina, you'll know the frustration has gotten the better of me..... hahahahaha

Roachie

G'day Neil,

Hey, ya know how the crowd at the cricket will sometimes bow when a legend of the game comes onto the field....???

Well, that's how I feel at the moment towards you ol' mate!!!!!

COS..... I'VE BLOODY-WELL DONE IT!!!!

That last set of step by step instructions was bloody ACE mate!!!

Even a mug like me could understand it.

Annette doesn't even know yet, cos she's gone back to bed; having been up since 1-something-am.... mucking around on this laptop (not just with the mapping problem though).

So, now I've got T4A and Shonkymaps both loaded on as well as the original City Navigator. Fantastic!!!

Thanks again for all your help and the offers of card-swaps etc. Much appreciated.

Cheers for now

Roachie

Thanks for that tip too Neil.......but I think I've achieved the maximum level of (in) competence I'm prepared to attempt with the Nuvi. We don't have a MP3 player as such (but do have an ipod with a FM transmitter gizmo, so we can listen to songs through the Patrol's FM radio) and I don't know that I'll ever be so bored that I have to get somebody to read a book to me....hahahaha

Thanks again..... x 100000000

Roachie