Useful free Garmin maps
 

I list here all the free Garmin GPS maps I have found. Most, if not all of them are community projects, meaning they are free because people contribute their time, track logs and local knowledge to them. So, if you do use one please do contribute towards the project. It only costs you time.

Indonesia: [navigasi.net] Download Peta GPS Indonesia
Very good in Sumatra, Java and Bali. Further East the coverage gets thin. The link above goes directly to the download page. The rest of the site is in Bahasa Indonesia, so most people won't be able to navigate the site or post contributions. I suggest you contribute to OSM instead.

Malaysia:

• Malsingmaps.com - GPS Portal of Malaysia and Singapore. It's so good that Garmin are now bundling it with their GPS units sold there. NT version with Lane Assist and limited Junction View. All the roads travellers are likely to take are there, along with lots of POIs. Updated frequently.
• Malfreemaps.com - Mappers split from Malsingmaps to start their own project. Non-NT version, coverage is similar.

NZ: NZ Open GPS Project
Contains every road, street and alleyway, many with house numbers, lots of useful POIs. Updated weekly.

Thailand:
[KC Loh & others have produced an excellent map of the North.] <== mapcenter2 hosting this map is down. Try getting it here instead.

Rest of the world: OpenStreetMap
A wiki map project. Just zoom in on a place, click edit and change. Changes appear on the map almost immediately. Worldwide routable Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap is updated from this weekly.

If you know of any other good free Garmin maps please contribute your knowledge here.

Argentina: Proyecto Mapear

Thanks
 

Good thread Peter

here some more:

- Brazil
- Peru
- Venezuela
- Colombia

Adventurous greetings,
Coen

Thank you for your contribution, Coen.

Installing ProyectoMapear on top of OSM?
 

Hi beddhist,

I have the osm-maps for the lower half of South America installed on my Garmin Zumo 660. Maps are not bad, routing works fine most of the time. Alas, for many medium towns street maps are not yet available.

You recommend Proyecto Mapear for the Southern Cone, and I hear that these are the best free maps for Argentina/Chile.

:helpsmilie:Can I install these maps on my Garmin through MapQuest on top of of the OSM maps already installed or might that cause problems?

Cheers,
Frank

I assume you mean MapSource, not MapQuest.

I think it should be possible. One of 3 things should happen:

1. Mapear covers OSM, so you need to switch it off to see OSM, or
2. Vice-versa, or
3. Both display at the same time. Routing could get very interesting in that case.

You should look at MS before setting off and turn off the map you don't want to use, if you want to use routing.

All this is guesswork on my part. I've only ever have had this with other, non-routable maps.

Please contribute your tracks to OSM, if you ride roads not on the map.

OSM-Mapear on Garmin
 

Thanks for your quick reply Peter. Of course I ment MapSource. In that case I'd rather not install Mapear on top of OSM. OSM works for me. Just that I thought Mapear might be a bit better. I'd like to contribute to OSM, alas, I need to find a few hours (maybe a couple of days) with nothing else to do to read about the technical details. I only bought my first GPS half a year ago. I can use it (and extremely useful it is!), but I still have no idea about the technical side of mapping software.
Cheers, Frank

Update 10 Nov 2011: There was no problem intalling OSM in the device memory and ProjectoMapear on the micro-SD card of the Zumo. However, if you install a 2nd map in the same memory type, the first map might be thrown out. Happened to me when I put Bolivia maps into the SD card. Suddenly ProjectoMapear was gone, I had to reinstall it. After that the Bolivia Maps were gone.

Don't worry about the mapping at this stage. Even if you just collect GPX tracks and upload them to OSM, that will be very useful. You find them when you connect the zumo to your PC in the folder \Garmin\GPX and \Garmin\Archive\GPX. You can open the files directly in Mapsource.

There really is no problem about having two maps in the GPS. After loading both maps go to Tools > Settings > Map > Map Info. You can now enable or disable any maps.

for the lower half of South America, stick with Mapear! This is done very professional! Use OSM as a back up if you have nothing els then the basic world map.

Adventurous greetings,
Coen

ProyectoMapear on top of OSM installed
 

Thanks for your input Beddhist and Mailking!

I managed to install ProyectoMapear on top of OSM and it seems to work fine without having turned off any of my installed maps. A few test routes seemed to have been calculated without a glitch. I'll let you know in case I should run into problems later.

Beddhist,
I uploaded a file to OSM
OpenStreetMap
These are my last 15 tracks (Zumo660 doesn't store more and I never saved them before), joined together with Mapsource.
Could you tell me if I should do anything else, like which tags are useful in that case. I'll keep uploading my tracks, but I don't know if I'll ever find the time to do much else with them.

That's great. Yes, you should add some tags. Country name, for starters, road numbers or names of towns, anything else you may think can be searched.

Oh yes, it does: check in \Garmin\Archive

Thanks for contributing. Your tracks will be useful when people map in that area, even without tags.

can anyone point me in the right direction to learn how to use these maps. I have a garmin 660 but when I open mapsource It doesn't seem to have any world routable map on it. Also how does one get the OSM information onto ones computer then onto the garmin. I just don't seem to be able to figure it out or make it work. would love to find some decent reading material on all this

Simon

Most maps are Windows programs that you need to run (double-click) and they in turn then install the maps onto your PC. You can then choose the map in MS. Here are some tutorials:

GPS for Beginners - Motorcycle-Navigation.net

Thanks kindly for that. I wonder if I have a problem with my Mapsource program as it will not open / recognize the OSM maps.

Simon