Satmap in Mallorca

[gregmarshall]

I'm confused. Can I use my Satmap in Mallorca?

I am a complete novice at GPS. I bought the Satmap as I understand OS maps and the British Grid datum, and as a graphic designer I am used to visual communication systems.

However I am off to Mallorca in Sept to go walking for a week to celebrate our Silver Wedding!).

I wanted to input waypoints given in Charles Davis's 'Walk Mallorca' book, which are given as for example 39 54.3138 (N) and 3.04.6446 (E). The book says that you have to "set your gps to WGS84 datum" (which the Satmap doesnt have - or does it????).

I have seen a site that suggests that you can use the 'UTM UPS' for the Editorial Alpina maps of Mallorca (which I have) - is that the same as UTS on the Satmap?.

Can anyone advise me. Thank you. (I'm loathe to buy a Garmin)

I have the latest Satmap OS 1.2 (which as a Mac user I had to ring them several times to hassle for an SD update - but thats another posting!).

[gregmarshall]

sorry I mistyped... it should say

"is that the same as UTM on the Satmap"

[PloddinPedro]

The Active 10 presently uses only Satmap proprietary maps on SD cards. So far as I am aware, there are no mapcards yet available for anywhere other than GB (i.e. the OS ones) although I believe Satmap have plans to expand abroad in due course. If I'm right, this means you can't as yet get any overseas maps into your A10.

However, I don't think that stops you using the A10 as a simple GPS tracking unit. It will still track its position via satellites and record a Trail which you can convert to a Track and save. You just won't have any on screen map detail to tell you where you've been - towns , villages, etc. This could still be useful to get you back to the start of your walk, etc.

The A10 doesn't have many different position formats yet but it can use degrees/minutes/seconds (see page 17 of the User Manual). I haven't done this but the implication is that you could manually enter a series of POIs using co-ordinates supplied in your route book; you could then route between these POI on an as-the-crow-flies basis, although this would not of course show you where the actual trail was. How much use you think this would be is up to you. Personally I suspect it would be of limited use because you would still be dependent upon waymarkers or an obvious path. But it could be an additional comfort to be able to see on the A10 whether you were going in the correct general direction.

If no one more knowledgeable responds to this thread, I suggest you ring Satmap and get the gen from the horse's mouth. We'd all be interested to learn of any tricks or techniques that might expand the usability of the A10.

[jbak]

I use to my full satisfaction a SatMap Active 10, using the available maps for The Netherlands which are splendid. This summer I will have holidays in Umbria/Italy for which no maps are available. Since SatMap does not yet have an extended collection of electronic maps to offer, other than English, Dutch (and ??), I think it would ad to the attractiveness of Active 10 to offer the facility for the use of scanned paper maps. The use of scanned maps will contribute to wide applicability, as far as electronic maps are not available.

To my opinion self-scanned maps will never reach the quality of officially provided electronic maps. Apart from the skills that are needed for proper scan and calibration. So, at the time that they will be available, electronic maps will always keep their extra attractiveness.

I asked SatMap Systems last week to provide a facility for use of scanned maps. As yet the response was: (1) the use of scanned maps is pointless without proper georeferencing and (2) the A10 unit will only accept factory formatted files.

I would wish that more A10 users are interested in using non-OS maps, so that SMS can be convinced to offer facilities for it. Please ask them!

[gregmarshall]

I've come to the conclusion that whilst I can use the Active10 to track my position in Mallorca using Degrees, minutes, decimal it is really not much use, when what I want to do is to create a route using waypoints - which is not that easy when there is not vector map data...

[6ordon9]

Greg,

I'm new to this forum, and relatively new to the Satmap Active 10, however I can confirm that i've used the SA10 on the islands of La Palma and Tenerife and conveniently was also using one of the Charles Davis's books of walks for each island.

I was able to create several routes with waypoints taken from CD's books which I then followed quite accurately using the SA10. However there are some limitations, ie you have to accept that the SA10 shows a grey screen for the land when it is not being used in the UK or other places like the Netherlands where you can have OS style maps to overlay the land.

This is how I create my routes when going to the likes of Mallorca, Tenerife etc etc. As Charles Davis states in his books most GPS use the WGS84 datum and as far as i'm aware this is ok to use within the SA10.

The co-ordinates printed in the boook are in a form of hours, degs, mins and so long as you put the SA10 into the same co-ordinate format you are able to then use the co-ords in the book.

To create a route full of waypoints that you can then edit I simply move the planning cursor on the SA10 out into land/water not covered by the UK basemap of the SA10 and create a route as normal by just clicking anywhere within the screen until I have the same amount of waypoints as the desired route requires. I save the route which at this moment is just in the sea somewhere off the coast of the uk!! Saving the route with a file name similar to the one in the mallorca book etc etc.

Then I go into EDIT the route and I carefully edit each waypoint of this route to the co-ordinates as published in the Mallorca book. You must make absolutely sure you get these co-ords the same as the book because when you then look at the finished route it will take some time to find it on the SA10 map because all waypoints have now moved and re-located themselves somewhere over Mallorca. Once I scroll around and find the route I zoom into it to do a rough check that the route and waypoints look the same as the visual given in the book.

You need to be careful when you first start to walk these routes and pay particular attention to accuracy whilst over on the island just incase you've entered anything incorrectly hence why I always carry the books whilst on walks along with the GPS.

Apologies if this reply is rambling but I hope i've given you a good engough reply for you to understand how I get around creating these routes outside the UK and OS mapping.

Gordon.

[gregmarshall]

6ordon9 - many many thanks

I tried to enter waypoints over the weekend using GoTo's and realised this wasnt working - but the method you describe is the clear workaround.

Presumably when you used the Charles Davis waypoints you missed the last decimal digit off (as he gives them to four points in the Mallorca book and the Active10 only goes to 3)?

As you state, it's not wise go anywhere just using a GPS of any sort - I will have the Charles Davis book and his map and an Editorial Alpina map, and compass... and heres' why...

I purchased the Active10 after a bad incident last August on Crinkle Crags in the Lakes District - a route I have walked several times in thick mist/heavy rain/ sunshine with a compass and OS map (and without as well)... but on that occasion it all went pear-shaped... and we ended up totally unsure of our position with thick black freezing mist swirling, visibility of about 5 -10m, heavy rain and then we bumped into two others (equally experienced) - one of whom was suffering hypothermia and they had already called Mountain Rescue... so we stayed with them... suddenly I was a GPS convert...

[djhpk]

I was faced with a similar problem ahead of a trip to Switzerland earlier in the year.

I don't recall the exact steps that I followed but I followed two major steps, both using Google Earth:-

Firstly, I put a number of placemarks on significant landmarks, saved the resulting kmz file and used GPSBabel to convert this to gpx. Importing this file via SatSync, then gave me a new, unnamed, POI category and hence the framework for a crude map of the area of interest.

The second step involved creating paths on Google Earth for the routes of interest and then following the steps above to get these routes on the A10.

As a side issue, if SatMap have made maps of the Netherlands available, as is apparently the case, why on earth do they not advertise this on www.satmap.com?

[6ordon9]

Greg,

re the 4 digits in CD's book and only 3 on A10 all I do is round to 3 digits (not sure if this is totally correct as i'm no GPS, co-ords expert) but if say the 4 digits are 6353 I enter 635 and if the 4 digits are 6355 or higher I enter 636.

As for Crinkle Crags I've been in exactly the same position. In great daylight the view across CC to Bowfell looks pretty straight forward however on the occassion I got caught in thick fog no matter how well I thought I knew the crags it was a seriously tense period of time. I could see looking on the 1:25000 map I was using that on my right hand side (that is if you're going toward Bowfell on the crags) that there is a serious drop off to oblivion!

Luckily my partner and I somehow managed to locate the path which leads down to The Band and all was well, and we laughed about it all half way down when out of nowhere come a dozen squaddies in training running down the band like nothing was a miss!

[miket1]

I assume it is the Walk Mallorca produced by Discovery Walking Guides. I used one of their other guides for southern Spain along with the A10 and it was excellent. The trick is to get the Discovery Walking Guides Personal Navigation Files. This is a CD that has all the routes for their guides. Phone them up if you want it in a hurry.

I uploaded it to the A10 using the GPS Utilty conversation software. ( it is free to download and is mentioned in several other postings on this forum). The waymarks appear as POI, so it will not appear on your routes area on the A10. What you see is a number of POIs against the blue/grey screen, as there is obviously no map. If you then compare this to the Route and Map in the Walk Mallorca book you will see the "shape" of the route as outlined by the POIs on the A10. Once you start to walk the route is created with the usual A10 red dots joining the the POIs. If you cross refernce to the map in the guidebook it becomes quite obvious if you stray of the route. It is great for getting the exact start of the route as the A10, using as a normal GPS, will tell you if you are on top of the first waypoint.

I might to be too late for your September trip to Mallorca, if not let me know and I will try and provide more detail.

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