Garmin's Birdseye Imagery

[johnnysneds]

So eventually got my Montana, time to see what all the fuss was about with the birds-eye imagery that Garmin offers from their website for $29.99 (one year subscription).

You need to have Garmin's Basecamp which is a free download.

So I thought I would download the Birdseye Imagery for a trail I have done in Ob Khan National Park a few times. Its good the way you can select around the trails to limit your download data. Below is the selection I made, it was around 5Mb and downloaded in less than a minute. You also have the option to upload it to your device.

All looking good until you start zooming into the detail. Below is a zoomed image of the trail just after the quality deteriorates.

And here's the Google Earth image of the same trail.

And the Google Earth image will still go further into greater detail.

Another problem is the North Thailand Dirt Map Trails will not overlay onto it properly on the device but seems to be fine in Basecamp. Does anyone know why this is?

The imagery on the device of the the downloaded content is also very bright/flared and not very readable. Maybe there is a setting for this somewhere!

Its a great idea and would be awesome with a decent topo map overlaying it. But for now it doesn't seem worthwhile probably due to the lack of Thailand coverage.

Now there must be a way to use those fantastic Google Earth Images instead...

I also found a cool piece of software called topofusion http://www.topofusion.com but I fear this will no doubts suffer the same fate as Garmin and its Birdseye Imagery with regards to Thailand.

 

[MastaMax]

I don't understand what Birdseye is for... I use Atlas map creator to download google earth images and compile them and then send them to my gps as custom maps. Works fine but I can't see what it brings, except for around Chiang Mai and Doi Suthep there is no high quality.

For the topo I downloaded the free topo maps, opened them, changed the priority (so they display on top of the north thailand map) and set background to transparent, then sent them to gps and it works fine.

Only problem with both topo and google earth is that the precision is very limited here in Thailand. Just a mater of time probably.

 

[johnnysneds]

Max - you make it sound so simple, would appreciate it if you could show me how to do this sometime. Im a bit of a noob when it comes to GPS's

 

[KTMphil]

I've been testing ESR V 12 (in MHS and in Mae Sariang) and it seems they have somehow got trail data from satellite imagery. It's not bad, but their data sometimes has the smaller trails as the main route, which is evidence that the data was collected from satellite & not from actual tracks.

 

[AlexUSA]

I use Atlas map creator to download google earth images and compile them and then send them to my gps as custom maps.

That's a seriously good idea. Will have to give this a try.

Would like to see how it looks on your screen. Maybe post a photo of the GPS displaying the map or bring it to the shop one of these nights.

 

[MastaMax]

Ok, here it is for the google earth maps with a simple example:

1) I use Mobile Atlas creator, select the google earth maps, select the tiles I want. For the example here is the Rider's corner on the corner of the moat. I selected only zoom level 18 and 19.



2) I download the tiles and create the atlas as "Garmin custom maps".



3) Drag and drop the custom kmz file in the "Custom maps" directory on the gps and load it. I haven't got my gps unit here so no screenshot yet. It should look like on this image:

Now for the topo map.

1) Download the tiles for free at http://three15.org/

2) Open GPSMapEdit, open the tiles you want (there is a menu "Add..." to add tiles).



3) Go to the map options, set it to transparent. Save and Export.



4) Install the map for mapsource (add this to the registry):



and



5) Open in MapSource and click on send to device:

 

[johnnysneds]

Hey Max, ok ive downloaded Atlas Creator, however im stuck at the first hurdle of your guide I dont have "Google Earth" as a Map Source option as per your first image.

 

[AlexUSA]

Hey Max, ok ive downloaded Atlas Creator, however im stuck at the first hurdle of your guide I dont have "Google Earth" as a Map Source option as per your first image.

The latest version of Mobile Atlas Creater (1.9.x) does not support Google as a mapsource. You will notice from Max's screenshots that he is using version 1.8. Try http://www.mediafire.com/?7avabjo99jpopzl for the old version.

 

[MastaMax]

The latest version of Mobile Atlas Creater (1.9.x) does not support Google as a mapsource. You will notice from Max's screenshots that he is using version 1.8. Try http://www.mediafire.com/?7avabjo99jpopzl for the old version.

yes exactly, forgot to mention, on the main page of Mobile Atlas Creator's website they say that a lot of sources were removed in the last version.

 

[johnnysneds]

Awesome Alex, well spotted. Downloading now. Strange the one I downloaded earlier was only 6Mb, this one is 53Mb!!!

 

[Tom]

I downloaded version 1.8 of this, but it won't work with Google Earth for some reason. I can download from Microsoft Virtual Earth or Google Maps and others, but when I select Google Earth it just shows me a lot of tiles with a big red X in the middle. Google Earth itself works fine on the same machine. Any ideas what might cause this?

 

[Lone Rider]

Well, Google was and still is not happy that people are using/downloading their GE map files and they have therefor put up quite a few restrictions/tricks to prevent you from grabbing parts of Google Earth. That is also the reason why Mobile Atlas Creator V 1.9 (MOBAC) can not download the files while previous versions could do this as Google has told MOBAC to remove that option in the newer versions of the software or otherwise they would take them to court.