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Fenix: Replacing the fenix basemap with a Trail network map

45852 Views 57 Replies 17 Participants Last post by  as4tik, 
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I got so excited about the .img file installation proof-of-concept, I literally ran out to get the fenix at my local shop.
Umm, "Honey, about the credit card bill… remember all those times I saved $20 by changing my own oil?..."

After waiting what feels like a decade for useful ABCHR watch with GPS, now I have two!

I can't yet tell if the fenix & Ambit will be like my children and I'll keep both, or if they be like my other past watches and one of them will be on Craigslist in 6 months. I can tell it's going to come down to two factors

  1. How good is the fenix vs ambit tracks & sensor data in the real world of my hikes and jogs and vacation-wear?
  2. How good is the November Ambit update? I'm excited about that too.
  3. Is one of them better enough at one activity type or usage-model or the other to keep both?
(ok. 3 factors)

Anyway, back to the Trails "map" installation

************ WARNING: Do At Your Own Risk of turning your fenix into a paperweight ********************

  1. I copied the original gmapbmap.img from the fenix/Garmin folder to another folder on my PC for safe keeping.
  2. I used Garmin Map Install
  3. Selected the fenix.
  4. Message: "all my maps won't fit"
  5. So I chose just Washington and Oregon from Northwest Trails
  6. Installed it. Took about 2 minutes.
  7. It placed a second .img file in the Garmin directory of the fenix, called Northwest Trails.img
  8. I deleted the original gmapbmap.img
  9. I renamed the Northwest Trails.img to gmapbmap.img

Voila!
The original basemap .img file is about 558kB.
The new .img file is 4590kB. (about 1/4th of the fenix capacity) and has essentially every known trail in a 500mile by 300mile 2-state area.

Awesome!
Way way more useful to me than the Garmin Basemap.

This is super helpful to a hiker… so I'll have not just my planned route in the fenix, I'll see all the other intersecting trails, and can identify their names. In the watch. It's that extra bit of back-up and confidence, yep, I've had paper maps blow away, and yep, I've had dead batteries in my handheld. Never at the same time though. :). Plus I can impress my friends with 1-inch 70x70 pixel black&white trail maps. Priceless.

Here are images:
Northwest Trails overview in Basecamp - it has a bajillion trails. Make a donation, it's worth supporting.

Northwest Trails zoom-in in Basecamp. What you'd typically use to map/overlay your Route Waypoints.
Text Map Line Organism


A place I've been: my existing Waypoints from Basecamp are in the fenix along with the NW Trails. (Key point = those are not GPS tracks, those are the network of trails from the .img file… aka the Background Map.

An arbitrary trail crossing seen in the map mode of the fenix. Note the crosshairs.

In the Orange menu you can "Select Pt"

And depending on what your crosshairs are pointing to… you get the underlying information (e.g. could be trail name, or POI details. In this case the Pacific Crest Trail.

(p.s. I like Demo Mode.)

Running
And I did go for an hour run with both the fenix and ambit. Both on 1sec tracks. Verdict = No verdict yet.
  • The HR graphs are identical.
  • Tracks on map are very similar. No wildly phubar points. SportTacks-computed distances are within 0.01miles. Ambit "in-watch"/summary distance is 1% shorter. And the truth is out there somewhere.
  • The elevation graphs match. (baro-based I presume)
    • However the Ascent/Descent in Details seems quite (2x) wrong in the fenix… maybe GPS-based?
  • "In-watch" real-time Paces matched pretty close, by GPS standards: e.g. +/- 10 seconds.
    • Fenix Current Pace is not really instantaneous, it's doing some default smoothing I guess. It lags the Ambit by a few seconds when coming to an abrupt stop. Like the jump stop my basketball coach taught me in high school.
  • Can't review the HR and speed summary in the fenix. Huh?
  • Trending to give a slight nod to the Ambit for Training, for me. But also have no doubt that the fenix + Garmin Connect will be more than fine for the 97%.

Oh, and one more thing:
No fenix Automatic mode switching between Altimeter ("Variable") and Barometer ("Fixed")? If true that'll be a bummer.
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as4tik said:
Convert map in to img format is very difficult. There are no simple way for this.

without purchasing Garmin MAPS you may use maps from OpenStreetMap
Click to expand...
Hi As4tik,

I was on openstreetmap. I saw that we can export map in xml. What is the format to choose ? When i Will have the export file, what i have to do ? (Where to put the file). Can the Fenix use other maps than img maps ?
Thanks
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as4tik
Falconeye75 said:
Hi As4tik,

I was on openstreetmap. I saw that we can export map in xml. What is the format to choose ? When i Will have the export file, what i have to do ? (Where to put the file). Can the Fenix use other maps than img maps ?
Thanks
Click to expand...
You do not need to use the export to their main website. Maps directly from there can not be picked up for Fenix.
But you can use a different server, which is able to convert maps from OSM to "img"-format for Fenix.
For example here is the server: Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap

Choose no more than one sector. Then the map will not much about 5MB. After converting the wait for you will receive an email with a choice that can be used. From there you have to download "osm_generic_gmapsupp.zip" This is your map in the format of "img" to easily copy the memory Fenix.
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as4tik said:
You do not need to use the export to their main website. Card directly from there can not be picked up for Fenix.
But you can use a different server, which is able to convert maps from OSM to "img"-format for Fenix.
For example here is the server: Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap

Choose no more than one sector. Then the map will not much about 5MB. After converting the wait for you will receive an email with a choice that can be used. From there you have to download "osm_generic_gmapsupp.zip" This is your card in the format of "img" to easily copy the memory Fenix.
Click to expand...
As4tik, you solution is the easiest way to have img maps on a garmin device !!! Thank you very much.

Do you know if I can rename the map gmapsupp.img to another one, for exemple Paris.img or must the file have the oringinal name : gmapsupp ?

Do I need to remove the original map on Fenix (gmapbmap.img) ?

Thanks
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as4tik
I may be mistaken, but it seems other names will not be seen.

Remove the original basemap is not necessary.
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A
I tried gmapsup2.img and did not recognize it.
I have not tried gmapprom.img, but I imagine it will work, since it appeared as a flag in the device.xml file when I looked to it, together with the gmapbmap and the gmapsupp

maxgraves said:
This file keeps the Time Zone Map
where the Time Zone changes etc..

In general on Garmin handheld devices you can add more maps with those specific filenames:

gmapbmap.img
gmapprom.img
gmapsupp.img
gmapsup2.img

it may apply to Fenix as well...
Click to expand...
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mvyrmnd
as4tik said:
You do not need to use the export to their main website. Card directly from there can not be picked up for Fenix.
But you can use a different server, which is able to convert maps from OSM to "img"-format for Fenix.
For example here is the server: Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap

Choose no more than one sector. Then the map will not much about 5MB. After converting the wait for you will receive an email with a choice that can be used. From there you have to download "osm_generic_gmapsupp.zip" This is your card in the format of "img" to easily copy the memory Fenix.
Click to expand...
Mate, I could kiss you! that site is awesome.

I got 3 tiles custom assembled as a single map - about 11MB worth. Installed it as gmapsupp.img. If I zoom to above 50KM, I see the basemap, closer than 50KM I get the OSM.

Awesome stuff.
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as4tik
You are welcome!
For me it is the most useful source too.
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K
I visited Switchbacks.com > GPS Maps

Downloaded his trail maps now and used BaseCamp to select Washington State. Now I have all of the hiking trails in my area in my watch and it took up I think 3Meg.

Heck I noticed I could even search for POI's and it brings up some in my area.
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kizer said:
I visited Switchbacks.com > GPS Maps

Downloaded his trail maps now and used BaseCamp to select Washington State. Now I have all of the hiking trails in my area in my watch and it took up I think 3Meg.

Heck I noticed I could even search for POI's and it brings up some in my area.
Click to expand...
Awesome. IMO for any hiker in our area with a fenix, this is THE way to go. Super duper uber practical. Can you tell I'm a fan too?
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kizer said:
I visited Switchbacks.com > GPS Maps

Downloaded his trail maps now and used BaseCamp to select Washington State. Now I have all of the hiking trails in my area in my watch and it took up I think 3Meg.

Heck I noticed I could even search for POI's and it brings up some in my area.
Click to expand...
I miss we don't have the same maps for France :(
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as4tik
We don't have the same maps for Ukraine too :(
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mvyrmnd
There are a few topo maps for Australia, but no good trail maps like those :(
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B
Thanks for getting the ball rolling on this. I did find an easier way that seems to work great so far without the risk of turning the wach into a christmas tree decoration. Just use Garmin MapSource, (I am running V6.16.3) and was able to just select the maps that I wanted to upload and then transfered them to the Fenix like you would normally do for a standard Garmin GPS. Once I ejected it from the system and started the GPS, my new maps were there. (if not try resetting the watch)

I have uploaded the Canada TOPO V2 maps, as well as the Canada Enhanced Basemap with good results on both map sets. (you may note that the road contrast is very low and will need to adjust watch settings to see streets)

FYI if you want to get into the diagnotics page, power the Fenix off, press and hold the orange button as you power it on. when finished just power down and reboot like normal.

Hope this helps someone out there!
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M
Here in Czech Republic Garmin sells Fenix with map of the country in additional to the basemap. I got TOPO Czech 2012 (for use in BaseCamp) which is like 200 MB and I also have an option to send 17 MB large map (gmapsupp) to the device for the whole country. It doesn't have any buildings or POIs (except for cities) but there are rivers, roads, streets etc. Real nice.
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moneytoo said:
Here in Czech Republic Garmin sells Fenix with map of the country in additional to the basemap. I got TOPO Czech 2012 (for use in BaseCamp) which is like 200 MB and I also have an option to send 17 MB large map (gmapsupp) to the device for the whole country. It doesn't have any buildings or POIs (except for cities) but there are rivers, roads, streets etc. Real nice.
Click to expand...
The whole country in 17 MB !! I am using openstreet maps and just PAris ant its suburbs is 10 MB (I removed all waypoints and buildings)

Garmin topo maps are too expensive for paying again some fees to Garmin. Installing GArmin topo maps are always very difficult !! I will stay on Openstreet mpas from NL evenif there are not topo information and maps are a little heavy.
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F
Do you know if putting a map on the Fenix (5MB or more) can have an impact on the battery draining ?

Another question, I asked GArmin but thez couldn't answer me, do you know a way to switch off the MAP when you want to see clearly you navigation path ?
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Falconeye75 said:
Do you know if putting a map on the Fenix (5MB or more) can have an impact on the battery draining ?

Another question, I asked GArmin but thez couldn't answer me, do you know a way to switch off the MAP when you want to see clearly you navigation path ?
Click to expand...
I haven't really noticed any battery drain with a 3meg file, but I have noticed my Fenix seems to operate a bit slower. As for turning off Maps I haven't seen a setting anywhere.
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as4tik
kizer said:
I haven't really noticed any battery drain with a 3meg file, but I have noticed my Fenix seems to operate a bit slower. As for turning off Maps I haven't seen a setting anywhere.
Click to expand...
There are no Settings. Since the maps is not officially supported.
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