African maps for laptop
 

Hi,

I've got a Garmin GPS V and although I can see the atlantic basemap on the gps unit, I can't see the african area when I use the PC software mapsource. I can input gps coordinates for africa and they just come up in this grid. Only Europe is visible.

Any idea where I can get the african map from, to enable me to plot stuff on my laptop? Garmin didn't seem to be able, or want, to help.

Thanks

B

Depending on where you bought Map Source from it might no contain Africa data. However I wouldn’t bother with Map Source in the first place when it comes to Africa and other underdeveloped areas. The maps are scares with few and often inaccurate details. I played around with the maps of Egypt and there where few roads represented and strangely enough some very difficult desert tracks were represented just like highways.

I would take off the coordinates out of a regular map and forget the mapping feature while in Africa.

------------------
A.B.

OasisPhoto.com – Images from the Magical Sahara.
ShortWheelbase.com – Jeep preparations.

Guys:

You are confusing apples and oranges here.

"MapSource" is the name of the PC computer application that is used to both view Garmin cartographic products on a computer screen, and to upload segments of these cartographic products to a Garmin GPSR.

MapSource, by itself, has no mapping data.

You will get a copy of MapSource from Garmin free of charge when you buy any cartographic product. You also get a copy of MapSource, and a cartographic product, included with the purchase of just about every GPSR they sell, the only exceptions being the $100 handheld units intended for children's use.

If you want to see African cartographic data, you need to get a copy of the Garmin product called "WorldMap". This product, though rather old, is still sold by Garmin. It contains a fair amount of data - about the same level of detail as a Michelin map - for Africa. The data dates from about 1998 or so.

You then view the WorldMap data using the application called MapSource, and if you wish, download segments of it to your GPSR.

Once you have one copy of MapSource, you can obtain free upgrades to future releases of the MapSource program (note carefully: the PROGRAM, not updated map data) from the Garmin website. The URL for the free updates is: http://www.garmin.com/support/download.jsp

Regards,

PanEuropean