Transferring Detail Maps from Mapsource to Mobile PC

Hey CD,

That's a great tip. The Microsoft Installer (.msi) file doesn't have the previous version check in it. It's in the Setup.exe file.

Now that I think about it, that's the same trick for getting a Mobile PC update to install as a standalone free trial version to play with.

...ken...

Thanks for that CD,
I wish I had known that when I got the DVD. It doesn't matter now as 2009 is on all my computers but I'll file it away for next time.

Terry

Attached Thumbnails

 

That's a great tip CD. I actually managed to get a refund this morning on the update DVD for City Navigator Europe NT 2009 so I no longer have the DVD to try this. The full version of the European maps if £80 in the UK which is quite expensive so I have decided to live with the double install of the Mobile PC maps with the North America maps as the primary and the European maps as the GMAPSUPP.IMG file. Having played with this configuration today I have discovered that you can hot swap the 20X devices and the appropriate maps unlock automatically without even shutting down MobilePC. This makes it very easy to use and removes the need for de-installs and re-installs which is what I was having to do before.

Thanks to everyone for your help. Can you suggest additional free mapsets that I can try for expanding Mobile PC coverage? I would be interested to see how additional mapsets behave when swapping between the two City Navigator locked mapsets. Regards, Julian.

Julianp,
You have tested some of the most esoteric problems which some of us will never even see or think of. Thank you for all your very helpful input and keep up the great work and posts.

Terry

Indeed, it has been very interesting to follow this discussion. Thanks for all the testing/experimenting Julian.

Hi Julian,

An observation and a question.

The GMAPSUPP.IMG file is the one that Mapsource creates when you compile a mapset to use in your Garmin device (in your case, Mobile PC). So, if you add more maps to Mobile PC, you'll have to move your GMAPSUPP.IMG that is really the other GMAPPROM.IMG somewhere safe or Mapsource will simply overwrite it when it creates another one for Mobile PC to use. Using additional maps will require you to swap the GMAPSUPP.IMG files around in order to use them.

The good news is that Mapsource can combine multiple "other" maps into a single GMAPSUPP.IMG file so you won't have to mess with more than two: the renamed GMAPPROM.IMG file and the GMAPSUPP.IMG file with the "other" maps in it.

The bad news is that you can't have Europe and North America and "other" maps installed. You can only have any two of the three because you only have the two filenames (GMAPPROM.IMG and GMAPSUPP.IMG) to work with.

Question: what "other" maps are you interested in? Garmin has a pile of map products you can spend your hard-earned money on. There are a multitude of free and commercial Garmin-compatible maps out there. Your search engine is your friend. Just search for something like "Garmin maps free turkey" or "Garmin maps free UK topo" ... you get the idea.

If you're having trouble finding something you're interested in, just holler ... probably best to start a new thread.

...ken...

Has anybody modified the Garmin Device.xml to add a section pointing to a second supplementary file (with a different name) and see what GMPC does with it. It looks like a simple copy-paste operation.

But, then again it might screw the whole thing up!!

Terry

Attached Thumbnails

 

My picture is not lined up properly. It should be split between the data type lines.

Terry

Attached Thumbnails

 

I think you'll find, Julianp, that you can change this arrangement quite easily. Simply go into your GMPC installaton folder (in my case it's C:\GarminMobilePC\) and rename the 'gmapprom.img' file to 'gmapsupp.img' and vice versa. You'll need an intermediate name along the way for one of them, since two files in the same folder can't have the same name at the same time, but once you've done this, you'll find that your Euro maps are now primary and your NA maps are now secondary.

And of course it doesn't hurt to be prudent and make a backup copy of each first just to be sure...

I've pulled this kind of trick often, and it's always worked quite well for me.

By the way, another trick I like very much is to use the latest version of 'gmaptool' -- a GUI version of the application -- to combine multiple mapsets into one 'gmapsupp.img' file. You can always do this from MapSource when you originally create your supplemental maps to begin with, but some free maps that can be downloaded from the internet come already compiled in 'gmapsupp.img' form to begin with, in which case, you can't use them in MapSource (at least not without de-compiling them first, which you can with 'gmaptool', if you're so inclined).

The latest version of gmaptool at the time of this writing is 0.4.0b.
http://www.anpo.republika.pl/download.html#gmaptool

Also, as you're probably already aware, you may re-name your 'gmapsupp.img' file to 'gmapsup1.img', then load another 'gmapsupp.img' from MapSource; both supplementary mapsets will be visible in GMPC.

Hope some of this info is useful.

CC

CORRECTION: I meant to say that you may re-name your 'gmapsupp.img' file to 'gmapsup2.img', NOT to 'gmapsup1.img'. Oops! Sorry about that!

Hey CD,

Either you didn't read the whole thread about Julian's problems with Mobile PC or I didn't do nearly as good a job of explaining things as I thought I did. Julian was trying to find a solution where he could use both City Navigator Europe and City Navigator NA without having to go through the renaming hoops. He's got it working fine.

Now this one's great ... a positive jewel!!! :clap:

I have City Navigator NA 2009NT that came with my Mobile PC, plus I have Metroguide Canada v5 installed as GMAPSUPP.IMG. To test, I fired up Mapsource and added a bunch of segments from two different topo series I have for Canada. After compiling it to an SD card with Mapsource, I renamed it GMAPSUP2.IMG and dropped it into the Mobile PC folder with the other two.

It works a treat!!

When I go into Tools > Manage My Data > Map Sets and click on the MapSource button, the two topo map products are now in the list of map products that I can turn on and off.

Julian,

Now whenever you find some additional maps you want to add to Mobile PC, you don't have to mess with the two originals. You can compile the additional maps with Mapsource, which will name them GMAPSUPP.IMG as usual. Make sure you compile to an SD card or memory stick, then rename the file GMAPSUP2.IMG and drop it into the Mobile PC folder with the other two and you're in business. The third file can contain map segments from as many different map products as you want, as you are selecting them, and Mapsource will compile them all into a single mapset file.

Thanks again, CD. Now I have to go try it on my Palm with Mobile XT and my iQue 3600 and my eTrex and see if they will work with it, too. And I thought I was going to bed early tonite..... mumble.....

...ken...

Just an update. I created a new section in Garmin Device.xml duplicating the section I mentioned and changing it to gmapsup2. I then renamed my supplementary maps gmapsup2.img and GMPC tested ok. I still had the Islamabad map so called it gmapsupp.img. GMPC loaded fine and showed ALL the maps as available. Simple solution and it works fine.

Terry

Attached Thumbnails

 

I forgot to change the xml file to read only and it has resorted to its original form but the maps are still in GMPC. Time for some more testing!

Terry

I think we can safely assume it was the former, Ken, and not the latter. Waddya want? I'm an OLD guy!!!

Glad you like the 'gmapsup2.img' tip. I find it very helpful while diddlin' around to have that extra 'slot' ot play with.

Regards-
CD

Terry, you don't need to muck with the xml file at all. I compiled the topo mapset with Mapsource, renamed the resulting compiled mapset to GMAPSUP2.IMG, dropped it into the Mobile PC folder with the other two mapsets, fired up Mobile PC and it was quite happy to use it.

Perhaps the trick with the xml file might work to add a fourth mapset, if it was necessary, but I think .... tomorrow .... I'll try making a GMAPSUP3.IMG and drop it into the Mobile PC folder without changing the xml file to see what happens.

By the way, I downloaded GMAPTool and cGPSmapper and used them to split the North America 2009NT GMAPPROM.IMG up and installed it into Mapsource. It worked ... Thanks again, CD.

But now I'm stuck. The dang thing is locked, of course, and I haven't a clue how to find the unlock code. If I could find the unlock code I could use GMAPTool to apply it. ... Of course I could also use the unlock wizard in Mapsource to unlock it, too, if I could only find it.

...ken...

CD,
I went to all the trouble of modifying the xml and it isn't even necessary as you say. gmapsup2.img works fine. I just tried it on another computer. I really had not fully understood what you were saying. Too many other things going on.

The easy approach is rename your main supplementary maps as gmapsup2. Then you can transfer another mapset directly from MapSource without worrying about it overwriting your existing supplementary maps. Great tip!

Terry