Notices

Is it possible to just load two or three zoom levels of Google Street Maps of the whole USA onto a single external SD card to be used when you want to use Maemo Mapper? If so, how would I go about this. That is, how would I define the download perameters in Maemo Mapper to aquire all the maps needed? Maemo Mapper is great but it would be nice to be abloe to pre load all the maps you need by installing one map specific SD card when needed. Like with a Garmin GPS or similar device, the maps are already there and can be zoomed in or out. Having to download needed maps while the program is in use is a drag and impossible if you don't have an internet connection. I don't quite understand using the longitude and latitude to define the area to download. It would be nice if a user could just go somepace and say, download zoom levels 6 and 2 of the entire US. Then you wuld always have the maps you need as you travel. Any suggestions?

You just go to a view you'd like to dl. Then go to Menu/maps/Manage Maps.

Click on zoom tab. Select zoom levels and click ok. That's it.

For you Us use case, zoom out so that US fills the screen, choose zoom levels 10, 9, 8, 7

You're in luck. Maemo Mapper was designed from the start to run without a constant internet connection, mostly because I don't even have a cell phone, let alone a cellular data plan. To support this, Maemo Mapper allows you to download maps "in bulk," meaning downloading wide swaths of the earth's surface in a single go.

There are two ways to download maps in bulk. One way is to download maps along your currently downloaded route, which is useful if you are planning a trip and want to make sure that you have all of the maps required along your route. Just download and/or open your route(s) and use the "Manage Maps" dialog to download maps "Along Route" within a certain radius of the route. You can choose the zoom levels you want to download, and Maemo Mapper will download all of those zoom levels along the route. I personally like to download just the even zoom levels (0, 2, 4, etc.), since that saves disk space and is sufficient detail for me. Other people might download just the odds (1, 3, 5, etc.), which actually saves about 50-75% in disk space, at the expense of the super-detailed zoom level 0.

The second way to download maps, the one you're probably more interested in, is "by area." In this case, you define the latitudes and longitudes of the corners of a bounding box, and Maemo Mapper will download all of the maps in that area at whichever zoom levels you specify. My strategy in the past has been to use Google Earth to find the latitudes and longitudes of the bounding box. Pick two corners that surround the United States. Or, pick a bunch of different bounding boxes to account for the irregular shape of the U.S. You can use the "Manage Maps" dialog box even while it's download other maps - the downloads will queue up, and all of them will be completed eventually.

Depending on the size of your memory card (and how it's formatted), you'll have to experiment to find a happy medium between detail and repository size. For example, someone living in New York City might download their neighborhood at Level 0, their burrough at Level 2, all of New York City at Level 4, all of New England at Level 6, east-of-the-mississippi at Level 8, and all of U.S. at Level 10. That might equate to about 500-800 MB of maps (wild guess).

Just remember that each zoom level requires 4 times as many maps as the lesser-detailed zoom level. That is, downloading an area of the map at zoom level 0 requires 4 times as many maps as that same area at zoom level 1. Now, the number of maps doesn't necessarily map directly to the byte size of the maps - many level-0 maps (especially in the country) compress to really small files, while leve-4 maps of the city are full of data (and thus harder to compress). So, like I said, experimentation is the key.

One easy way to experiment is to use winmapper (in Windows) or Maemo-Mapper-on-the-Maemo-SDK (in Linux) to do the downloading on a desktop machine (with a fast network connection). Once you get the sizes right (taking into account internal fragmentation, which might be different between your desktop's and Nokia device's file systems), you can then simply transfer the maps to your memory card and use them as-is in Maemo Mapper.

Thanks to you both. I think I'm getting the hang of this gradually. I picked up a cheap GPS receiver and once I get the map situation down pat, this will make a great GPS device not to mention all the other internet tablet features. Take that Garmin! Thanks again.

These are great explanations. I wish someone was putting this stuff into "N800 (and 770) for Dummies. " I don't know about others, but I would buy such a book in a flash.

Sorry about the ME TO post but needs must

I live in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) and it took me 3 Days to Download 3.5 Megs of Maps below...

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4GB SD CARD = format e: /a:1024
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World (15,14,13,12,11,10,9)
North America (15,14,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6)
Ontario, Quebec (15,14,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3)
Ontario, Montreal, Detroit, Buffalo, New York (15,14,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2)
Hamilton, GTA, Toronto, Newmarket, Oshawa (15,14,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1)
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Hamilton, GTA, Toronto, Newmarket, Oshawa (Sattellite 6,5,4,3,2,1,0)
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Zoom 15 (15,14,13,12,11,10,9)
World x4

Zoom 13 (13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6) Iwoa, US
North Amercia
Zoom 12 (12,11,10,9,8,7,6) Salem, OR
Vancouver, Sanfranciso
Zoom 12 (12,11,10,9,8,7,6) Newfoundland, CA
PEI, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland
Zoom 10 (10,9,8,7,6) Kingsville, TX
Miami
Zoom 10 (10,9,8,7,6) Sarasota, FL
Miami

Zoom 10 (10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3) Shawinigan, QC
Quebec
Zoom 10 (10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3) Hastings Highlands
Ontario
Zoom 10 (10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3) Beeton, ON
South Ontario, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse
Zoom 9 (9,8,7,6,5,4,3) Blind River, ON
North Ontario
Zoom 9 (9,8,7,6,5,4,3) Merlin, ON
South Ontario, Detroit

Zoom 9 (9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2) Mississauga, ON
London, Barrie, Peterborough
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) East End Park, ON
Detroit, Windsor
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) Moorhouse Ln, ON
Chatham, Sarnia
Zoom 7 (7,6,5,4,3,2) Bayham, ON
St Thomas
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) St Marys, ON
South Lake Huron
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) Clifford, ON
North Lake Huron
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) White Cloud Island, ON
Owen Sound
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) Port Sydney, ON
Lake of Bays
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) Crystal Lake, Canada
Lake Simcoe, North Kawartha
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) Oneil Dr, ON
Belleville, Kingston
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) Thunder Beach, ON
Wasaga, Orillia, Gravenhurst, Muskoka
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) Tahinca Rd, ON
Perry Sound, Huntsville
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) Lavigne, ON
Sudbury, North Bay

Zoom 5 (5,4,3,2) Espanola, ON
Espanola
Zoom 7 (7,6,5,4,3,2) Lake Panache, ON
Espanola, Sudbury
Zoom 7 (7,6,5,4,3,2) Crescent Park Rd, Sudbury
Sudbury
Zoom 7 (7,6,5,4,3,2) Callander, ON
North Bay
Zoom 6 (6,5,4,3,2) Brockville, ON
Brockville
Zoom 6 (6,5,4,3,2) Cornwall, ON
Cornwall
Zoom 7 (7,6,5,4,3,2) Lansdowne Park, ON
Ottawa
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) Laval, QC
Montreal
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) Lowbanks, ON
Buffalo
Zoom 8 (8,7,6,5,4,3,2) City Island, NY
New York

Zoom 7 (7,6,5,4,3,2,1) Don Mills, ON
Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Oshawa
Zoom 5 (5,4,3,2,1) Courtice, ON
Oshawa, Courtice
Zoom 5 (5,4,3,2,1) Garnet B Rickard, ON
Clarington, Newcastle
Zoom 6 (6,5,4,3,2,1) Mill Run Gate, ON
Uxbridge
Zoom 6 (6,5,4,3,2,1) Aurora, ON
Aurora, Newmarket
Zoom 6 (6,5,4,3,2,1) caledon Village, ON
Orangeville
Zoom 6 (6,5,4,3,2,1) Eldorado Park, Canada
Georgetown, Brampton
Zoom 6 (6,5,4,3,2,1) Bronte Rd, ON
Milton, Oakville, Burlington
Zoom 6 (6,5,4,3,2,1) Bayfront Park, ON
Hamilton
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Zoom 7 (Sattellite 6,5,4,3,2,1,0) Viewmount Park, ON
TO, Mississauga, Brampton, GTA, Ajax
Zoom 6 (Sattellite 6,5,4,3,2,1,0) Second Marsh, ON
Whitby, Oshawa, Courtice, Clarington, Newcastle
Zoom 6 (Sattellite 6,5,4,3,2,1,0) Mill Run Gate, ON
Uxbridge
Zoom 6 (Sattellite 6,5,4,3,2,1,0) Aurora, ON
Aurora, Newmarket
Zoom 6 (Sattellite 6,5,4,3,2,1,0) caledon Village, ON
Orangeville
Zoom 6 (Sattellite 6,5,4,3,2,1,0) Eldorado Park, Canada
Georgetown, Brampton
Zoom 6 (Sattellite 6,5,4,3,2,1,0) Bronte Rd, ON
Milton, Oakville, Burlington
Zoom 6 (Sattellite 6,5,4,3,2,1,0) Bayfront Park, ON
Hamilton
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I'm sure this is some setting issue but when I try to download maps "along route" I get an obscene number of maps/space (larger than my hard drive) when I want to download anything but level 20. My route is like 100 miles long at most. I reset the configurations in maps repository but that hasn't helped.

Has anyone else experienced this problem or any idea what's going on?

I used winmapper to download the maps and transfered them to the Nokia. But it doesn't create a .db file. It create a tree of files. How do I use this with maemo-mapper? Is it possible?

Regards,
JO

Never mind.
http://code.google.com/p/mmpcmapper/downloads/list
IEMapper should do the trick.