Talk:OpenSeaMap and Garmin nautical chart plotter

From OpenStreetMap Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

I have a GPSMap 526, and have been trying to create a custom map of Lake Powell for it without success. It looks like you have recognized the unique requirements of chartplotters and found solutions. Can you tell me how you created your map? Thanks (This question is from Frankm, 3.8.2012)

Garmin firmware bug

Since January, a lot of Garmin devices give an error message:
"This chart is not supported"

Garmin support seems not to have a solution.

Firmware version 3.4 and 3.8 works fine
But version 4.0 and 4.2 and 4.4 are wrong.
Downgrade to 3.4 or 3.8 seems to help.

Here you find a manual (in German - may be somebody can translate?):

The proposed solution in the german thread is to downgrade to version 3.4. The OP used the following procedure to downgrade an Echomap 50s.

  1. backup all your data (waypoints, routes, etc)
  2. prepare an SDCard containing gupdate.gcd of the desired firmware version in x:\garmin
  3. remove the file x:\garmin\GarminDevice.xml if it exists.
  4. place the card in slot 1
  5. remove any card in slot 2 (if it exists)
  6. turn the device off
  7. press cursor up and hold it
  8. press the power button and keep it pressed
  9. a message "HOLDING BOOT BLOCK" appears after some time. Keep the buttons pressed
  10. the messages "SOFTWARE LOADING" and "LOADER READY" appear on the screen. You can now release the buttons
  11. if you released the buttons to early you need to remove the file GarminDevice.xml again
  12. it should now boot into the old firmware version.

Garmin Oregon devices seem not to be affected.

Updating the chart for Garmin Chart Plotter 531s

I made several additions and changes in OSM in my region: america southeast, mainly river banks and lakes but so far I could not see those changes in my Garmin chart plotter, because the file that is available has not been updated yet, I found that there was a update on the page on 10 October but the file of my region remains the same September not containing the changes. Also I wonder if I can even compile a chart OSM to run on Garmin chart plotter using the MKGMAP? Thanks

Charts worldwide

Now the Garmin-charts are available worldwide twice per month. --Markus (talk) 08:47, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Mac .gmap or .gmapi installer?

Will these charts be available in .gmap or .gmapi installer formats so I can load them on my Mac? Currently I am able to open OSM based roadmaps in HomePort, but none of the downloadable seamaps. I rather use BaseCamp for land based maps as the routing on BaseCamp is more suitable for cars, and I can store separate points of interest lists in the two. --Skippern (talk) 10:26, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Chart names (related to previous topic)

The .gmap files can be generated using Gmapibuilder. However, I encountered a very painful issue, which should be rather trivial to fix: The different regions (e.g. Europe central and Europe north) have the same name. This makes it impossible to use both charts simultaneously. Since the IDs in the TDB files are different for the two datasets, I assume that the TDB file generation is automatized and hence it should be possible to give unique names to the maps. Renaming the maps a-posteriori by editing the TDB file is tedious, since the CRC32 checksums have to be corrected by hand. Alternatively, a small utility to rename the maps would also solve this problem. (Marekp, 7.5.2015)