Moagu brings USGS maps to your Garmin handheld

Last month, Leszek Pawlowicz of Free Geography Tools hinted at a new project code-named MOAGU. He may ascribe a different meaning to the acronym for legal reasons, but let’s call it what it is — MOAGU is the mother of all Garmin utilities. What Leszek has created is a utility that will place a USGS topo map on your Garmin GPS. Actually, it will put any scanned, georeferenced map on your Garmin. It won’t work on just any Garmin mapping handheld yet; I haven’t been able to get the maps on my Colorado 300, though I’m hoping some of our more technically inclined readers can figure that one out.

I have used it on my Garmin 60CSx and I have to say that Moagu rocks! This really is revolutionary. Handheld users have been asking for 1:24,000 scale USGS maps for their GPS units for years. The DeLorme PN-20 and Magellan Triton series have implemented this, more or less successfully (respectively), but we haven’t had an easy solution for Garmin devices until now.

Let’s start out by taking a look at the process and limitations.

Installing Moagu

The installation process is very straightforward, though you will need to have the free version of cGPSmapper installed first.

Creating a map with Moagu

Moagu includes step-by-step instructions for the process that are very easy to follow. This is the simplest map creation method I have seen using cGPSmapper . The final stage of the process, compiling the map, does take some time and eats up your CPU power.  I decided to compile the map at bedtime and let it run overnight, an option suggested by the developer.

Real USGS quad maps

These are not your typical cGPSmapper 1:24,000 scale vector maps. Moagu generated maps actually look just like a USGS quad map, complete with all the standard USGS symbols, place names, etc.

Accuracy

Map registration (accuracy) was spot on. In other words, when I was on a road, the display showed me on the road. Too bad Garmin Topo U.S. 2008 isn't as good at this!

Imagine the possibilities

You should be able to convert any map you can scan and georeference — PDF’s, aerial photos, etc. Be forewarned though, aerial photos will likely only work at hiking speeds (see below).

Caveats

There are several things to be aware of here (of course, they are all balanced by the fact that you have a real USGS topo map on your GPS!). The main one is that map redraws can be slow. The initial map draw will look like it’s taking forever, but once it's loaded and you move around, the redraws keep up pretty well. The maps work great at hiking speeds and even on a bike. The first time I tested Moagu maps on a mountain bike, I noticed some map redraws at 5–10 MPH, though they were not problematic at that speed. On a 25 MPH downhill run however, I saw the screen go blank momentarily. There are less problems with this the further out you zoom. The second time I generated a map of a large area and selected the medium map tile size. Map redraws were a little more noticeable. After discussing this with Leszek, he did some additional testing and indicated that the small tile size is the way to go for biking speeds.  He has already incorporated some changes that should improve map redraw performance, and has more on the list for future builds.

Color slows down the map redraws, so the green vegetation shown on USGS maps is converted to white by Moagu.

Don’t expect a wide range of zoom levels, though you can specify 0.2/0.3 mile, 800 ft and 500 ft (I understand that Leszek will be adding one or two more). I included the latter two in the maps I created, and used the 500 ft level on the trail, since it gave the best balance of detail and legibility.

Occasionally you’ll get a row of blank pixels, which can be seen upon close examination of the image at left.

I mentioned that Moagu works on my 60CSx, but not on my Colorado. According to the developer, it works best on the Garmin 60 / 76 / Astro family units; the response on a Venture HC has been slow.

Since the maps are based on raster imagery, they will eat up much more memory than a vector map for the same area.

Getting Moagu

Moagu is being offered at an introductory price of $19.95. A demo version will allow you try it out and make a map of a small area for free. You can get it at Moagu.com. (Disclosure: Though I do earn some revenue from GPS Tracklog, I have no financial relationship with Moagu or its developer.)

I highly recommend trying this out, if you have any interest at all in 1:24,000 scale maps. Leszek has a long list of planned future improvements and I expect that Moagu will only improve with time.

Comments

[g.o.cashers]

Rich,

What did you see on the Colorado? When I download to mine I see the area where the map is supposed to be, the cGPSMapper banner but the map area is a dark gray color. Is this what you've observed?

-Scott

[Rich Owings]

Scott,

All I could see was background shading that looked like it might have been the underlying DEM. I did not see a dark grey box where the map was supposed to be, and I don't recall seeing the cGPSmapper banner.

I don't understand why other cGPSmapper maps would work on the Colorado but these don't.

[g.o.cashers]

I've tried a 1.0m B/W ortho and a 100k Topo (for some reason the 24k Topos aren't available in my area).

In both cases if I have the Topo2008 maps enabled I can see the map tile for the Moagu map but in the case of the ortho image I see a dark gray box in the case of the 100k Topo I see a white box. In both cases I see the cGPSmapper banner along one side.

If I look closely the boxes don't appear to be 100% solid color but as you say that could be the Topo2008 DEM showing through.

Unfortunately I don't have a 60csx to try it on to make sure my maps are good.

GO$Rs

[Mark Perkins]

Is there any chance this would work on a GPS V with it severely limited (~20MB) internal map memory?

This statement, "Since the maps are based on raster imagery, they will eat up much more memory than a vector map for the same area." led me to believe there might be an issue.

Thanks,
Mark

[David]

It appears - at first glance - that he is pulling this off utilizing custom area types - breaking the image into n x n chunks and creating a custom type for each chunk. If true it is surely stretching the capability and limits of that feature... Very cool though - will definitely download and check it out.

[Leszek Pawlowicz]

Hi Mark,

As the author of Moagu, I can answer your question - there's no way to make these maps work on a GPS V. It's not the memory that's the issue - you can fit about 1/2 a USGS 7.5' quad in 20 MB. The firmware has to support custom color types, which limits it to Garmin color GPS units made after 2005 or so. And even with those, lower-end units like the Venture HC will display the maps so slowly that it's really not practical. Don't know about the Legend series - I'm hoping to get some feedback on that.

Leszek

[Mark Perkins]

Hi Leszek,

Thanks for the quick and informative reply.

Maybe its time for me to get a modern GPS :)

Thanks,
Mark

PS Moagu sounds like an excellent project.

[rock-licker]

Has anyone tried it out on a Vista CSx? I was just about to buy one, but if Moagu will not work on it, then I'll go for the 60 CSx.

thanks

rock-licker

[Carphunter]

Interested to hear if this works with the Vista HCX or Rhino 530 HCX too.

[bmap2mp]

Hi All,

You may be interested in similar free utility:
http://bmap2mp.webhop.org/bmap2mp.rar

No tutorial, no GUI, no web support - but it works in some way :)

Below I give you a couple of links to pages in Russian language but actually you may be interested in links you can find on these pages.

Here you can find a link to example of the program work (Moscow region map):
http://w.bookwar.org.ru/

Here you can find links to some screenshots of program work results in Mapsource compared to source screenshots in OziExplorer:
http://www.gps-forum.ru/cgi-bin/forum/showpost.pl?Board=gpsgeneral&Number=100188

Thanks,
bmap2mp

[bsieb]

I've had good success with the Vista HCx.

[Rich Owings]

Good to hear. Thanks for sharing.