OSI Online Maps

paulocon

Hi,

Anyone know what the story is with the osi maps online (www.osi.ie)?

Previously, you could view maps at 1:50000 and see the same details as the printed maps (contour lines, townlands etc). Now when you zoon in, it is all image based only.

Old system used to be great for plotting routes etc. and I usually ended up purchasing printed maps on the back of that.

Paul.

cruizer101

Just had a look, yeah thats a bit annoying.

I'm guessing they didn't want people just downloading and not paying for the maps, Hope they introduce some sort of paid service where you can, I know i'd be happyt o pay a bit to be able to view and print OS maps

paulocon

cruizer101 wrote: »

Just had a look, yeah thats a bit annoying.

I'm guessing they didn't want people just downloading and not paying for the maps, Hope they introduce some sort of paid service where you can, I know i'd be happyt o pay a bit to be able to view and print OS maps

Very annoying! That site has been my lifeblood to date. Very handy if you are going to an area and you want to see what hills/mountains are closeby...

Like I said, if I plan walking a mountain, I've always ended up buying the printed map anyway so seems a bit small-minded to me to remove this altogether - I agree with you re. a small fee or a subscription service..

micawber

If you go to geolives.com you'll get what you are looking for.
Its a joint venture between several European mapping agencies including OSI that for an annual fee of €15 and a small fee of €1 for each 10km x 10km maptile allows you to download the actual map to your computer.
You also download software that allows you to import gpx tracks, view satellite imagery, do a virtual version of your planned walk etc. Software is a bit fiddly,bit you can print pretty decent maps.
have used Irish and french maps and while not as good quality as commercially printed maps do the job well enough.

BargainHunter

The 1:20,000 maps are still the same. Hillwalkers can still plan routes with the same level of detail, using that zoom level. I always planned walking routes with the 1:20,000 level.

I agree the 1:50,000 zoom level has lost its clarity. Im hoping that theyre not going to do the same thing with 1:20,000 maps. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the days of free online OSI maps are coming to an end.

paulocon

BargainHunter wrote: »

The 1:20,000 maps are still the same. Hillwalkers can still plan routes with the same level of detail, using that zoom level. I always planned walking routes with the 1:20,000 level.

I agree the 1:50,000 zoom level has lost its clarity. Im hoping that theyre not going to do the same thing with 1:20,000 maps. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the days of free online OSI maps are coming to an end.

Was on yesterday and 1:20,000 maps have been re-instated which is great news. It's an excellent resource as regards planning routes and I end up buying the paper maps when I know what I need. Hopefully, it'll be left as is!

patspost

Guys,
Any chance you could post a link please to the online maps mentioned, I can't find them from teh OSI website

Takeshi_Kovacs

http://ims0.osiemaps.ie/website/publicviewer/main.aspx?id=&utype=&ecom=S1&user=

Is that the one you are looking for?

patspost

Thanks for that Takeshi_Kovacs, it looks good allright, handy thing to have a link for.

Pat

Mickeroo

about the geolives stuff, does anyone know of a way you can get the maps to work on another computer apart from my own one?

micawber

Mickeroo wrote: »

about the geolives stuff, does anyone know of a way you can get the maps to work on another computer apart from my own one?

Don't think it is possible to see same maps on different computers. They allow you to register a second computer but I think each registered computer can only see whichever tiles were downloaded to it.
If you have a route on one computer you can upload the gpx data to the web site and use the online version of geolives to work with it from any comuter with access to internet.

Takeshi_Kovacs

This geolives thing, is it that you can use the maps on a smartphone or similar, and not use them on a dedicated gps from garmin, other than being able to upload track data, routes etc to your gps>?

micawber

Takeshi_Kovacs wrote: »

This geolives thing, is it that you can use the maps on a smartphone or similar, and not use them on a dedicated gps from garmin, other than being able to upload track data, routes etc to your gps>?

Think that's it - you can use them on a computer, smartphone, and access it also through the internet.
This site http://emerald-island.eu/wikka/GpsMapIreland shows a way of putting topographical data on a garmin unit.
Not perfect but worth looking at.

Outdoor_Freak

While on the subject of maps, I was thinking of getting a hand held Garmin Dakota 20 mapping GPS unit.

Has anybody got any experience with these?

Thanks

Glenalla

Outdoor_Freak wrote: »

While on the subject of maps, I was thinking of getting a hand held Garmin Dakota 20 mapping GPS unit.

Has anybody got any experience with these?

Thanks

Have a Garmin Oregon 400 and have finally got using it. Good as gps goes. There are no official maps available for Ireland however there is one available at http://emerald-island.eu/wikka/GpsMapIreland . You will need Garmin Mapsource software or sendmap to install it on the gps though. Mapsource is available as an extra from Garmin but sendmap can be downloaded free and the map from emerald-island.eu is free. Garmin are bringing out maps for Ireland in November but they cost a small fortune. If you need any further info pm me.

Alun

The main advantage of the newer (and much more expensive) Garmin models like the Oregon and Dakota, apart from some unnecessary crap like games and such, is the ability to display raster mapping, which Garmin and OSi are at long last going to bring out "real soon now", but as Glenalla rightly pointed out, at some remarkably silly prices.

If you're not wanting to go down that route, and you're happy with either the Emerald Isle offering or the SMC contour maps (which are vector "maps"), then one of the newer high-sensitivity etrex models like the Vista or Legend HCx is a cheaper alternative that does everything you need for outdoor navigation.

Takeshi_Kovacs

Is there any indication that Garmin will be bringing topographic maps covering Ireland. Any idea how much they will cost? Going by TOPO Great Britain maps on Garmin site, would it be safe to assume that it will be similar price of 179 euro

Alun

Takeshi_Kovacs wrote: »

Is there any indication that Garmin will be bringing topographic maps covering Ireland. Any idea how much they will cost? Going by TOPO Great Britain maps on Garmin site, would it be safe to assume that it will be similar price of 179 euro

They have announced it, yes, see here http://garmin.blogs.com/uk/2009/09/complete-coverage-of-the-republic-of-ireland-available-with-garmin-eire-discoverer.html Note the prices though €160 per region x 4 = €640 for the whole country! Don't think I'll be bothering somehow.

It won't be like Topo GB which is a vector map that will work on all Garmin GPS's though, but more like their raster based GB Discoverer maps (only not as good ) that will only work on the newer Oregon, Colorado and Dakota models, see http://www.garmingbdiscoverer.co.uk/

Takeshi_Kovacs

Thanks for the link, that is interesting, but yeh look at that price !! Kinda shocking tbh, but then again this is Ireland.
While looking around web last night, i found you can get free online version of all USA topo maps from USGS and you can get printed copies for just 6 dollars!
http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/usgs/maplocator/%28xcm=r3standardpitrex_prd&layout=6_1_61_48&uiarea=2&ctype=areaDetails&carea=%24ROOT%29/.do;jsessionid=%28J2EE8933300%29ID0010656050DB01321482294889197461End;saplb_*=%28J2EE8933300%298933350