Australian software maps, for whole country

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Does anyone have any experience of Australian software maps? I've seen the Destinator 6 maps of Oz and they will apparently work on my Dell Axim X51V PDA, but can't find out much about the mapping - I suspect there's not much detail as it amounts to only 100 MB or so. I'm looking for maps of the whole of the country, at a modest scale of course ('cos it's a big country!!). Unfortunately I can't download a sample from Destinator.

I can't make head nor tail of the Maptrax available software on their website, they don't seem to have maps available for the whole of Oz, just certain areas and cities. I was hoping to find mapping software with a certain level of offroad detail - tracks across Cape York for example.

Any advice welcome....

Try OziExplorer (http://www.oziexplorer.com) my husband has this loaded on his Ipaq and is very happy with it. Check out the Australian page which has desert track maps and also maps of Cape York.

Thanks Matagi; it appears that this won't work with my Dell Axim PDA however....

What OS are you running?

Ok, looked up the relevant Dell website - unless you've loaded something else, your PDA is running Windows Mobile 5.0 which is supported.

Ok, looked up the relevant Dell website - unless you've loaded something else, your PDA is running Windows Mobile 5.0 which is supported.Thanks Matagi, I'll have another look at this, there's a lot of techie stuff that'll take a bit of examination, but looks promising.

Does anyone have any experience of Australian software maps? I've seen the Destinator 6 maps of Oz and they will apparently work on my Dell Axim X51V PDA, but can't find out much about the mapping - I suspect there's not much detail as it amounts to only 100 MB or so. I'm looking for maps of the whole of the country, at a modest scale of course ('cos it's a big country!!). Unfortunately I can't download a sample from Destinator.

I can't make head nor tail of the Maptrax available software on their website, they don't seem to have maps available for the whole of Oz, just certain areas and cities. I was hoping to find mapping software with a certain level of offroad detail - tracks across Cape York for example.

Any advice welcome....

We are using Garmins City Navigator v6 which seems ok. This is the full set of maps for Aus which are loaded onto a Vista Cx. seems to work OK. Where exactly are you after maps for and I could check to see what detail is included.

Cheers

Geoff

Hi Geoff - I'd like to use maps on my Dell Axim PDA as I already have this and a BT GPS receiver. I have considered selling this and buying a Garmin or similar but I'm just exploring options at the mo.
The Destinator 6 maps will work with the PDA I think but I felt that at 100 MB for the whole of Oz they would be on quite a small scale, and I was hoping to find a topographic map rather than a road-oriented one as this is. I suspect the outback maps are just a blank page LOL (yes I know there's nothing out there sometimes!!).
I want to be able to plot POI's prior to the start and during the ride, but hopefully plenty built in.
Are yr Garmin maps topographic, and do they stretch to the outback and top end? I'm riding around Oz so need everywhere really if poss (at not too high a cost if poss!)

Hi Geoff - I'd like to use maps on my Dell Axim PDA as I already have this and a BT GPS receiver. I have considered selling this and buying a Garmin or similar but I'm just exploring options at the mo.
The Destinator 6 maps will work with the PDA I think but I felt that at 100 MB for the whole of Oz they would be on quite a small scale, and I was hoping to find a topographic map rather than a road-oriented one as this is. I suspect the outback maps are just a blank page LOL (yes I know there's nothing out there sometimes!!).
I want to be able to plot POI's prior to the start and during the ride, but hopefully plenty built in.
Are yr Garmin maps topographic, and do they stretch to the outback and top end? I'm riding around Oz so need everywhere really if poss (at not too high a cost if poss!)

Well I just had a look on the Garmin site and saw that V7 has been released.
Australian City Navigator V7 requires around 138 MB of memory for a full installation
Features include:

* New! Now with coverage for the M7 Highway in Sydney
* New! Now with expanded coverage for Outback roads
* New! Updated coverage for all of Australia
* Trip and waypoint management functions**
* Contains detailed maps for all of Australia; with this purchase, you'll have access to the entire CD ROM coverage
* Includes detailed maps containing motorways, national and regional thoroughfares and local roads with attributes such as turn restrictions, one way streets and other navigation features
* Displays points of interest such as:
o food and drink
o lodging
o golf courses
o theatres and cinemas
o petrol stations
o hospitals and more
* Will automatically create point-to-point routes in MapSource and on compatible Garmin units.

Unfortunately the maps are not topographic.

You can check out the detail V6 has here
http://www.gme.net.au/garmin/cartography/map_viewer.php
What are you going to do for power to charge the PDA? Vista Cx runs on 2 AA batterys for 30+ hrs (we are still on the original set of lithiums)

Cheers

Geoff

Well I just had a look on the Garmin site and saw that V7 has been released.
Australian City Navigator V7 requires around 138 MB of memory for a full installation
Features include:

* New! Now with coverage for the M7 Highway in Sydney
* New! Now with expanded coverage for Outback roads
* New! Updated coverage for all of Australia
* Trip and waypoint management functions**
* Contains detailed maps for all of Australia; with this purchase, you'll have access to the entire CD ROM coverage
* Includes detailed maps containing motorways, national and regional thoroughfares and local roads with attributes such as turn restrictions, one way streets and other navigation features
* Displays points of interest such as:
o food and drink
o lodging
o golf courses
o theatres and cinemas
o petrol stations
o hospitals and more
* Will automatically create point-to-point routes in MapSource and on compatible Garmin units.

Unfortunately the maps are not topographic.

You can check out the detail V6 has here
http://www.gme.net.au/garmin/cartography/map_viewer.php
What are you going to do for power to charge the PDA? Vista Cx runs on 2 AA batterys for 30+ hrs (we are still on the original set of lithiums)

Cheers

GeoffOK, seems to have reasonable detail even if not topographic. I'll have a think.
Re power, I'll be mostly using AA batteries and taking something like this: http://www.selectsolar.co.uk/pics/pic01002SE01.php (http://www.selectsolar.co.uk/pics/pic01002SE01.php) which should charge around half a dozen batteries a day, more than enough to power my Axim (4 hrs use per charge), and a bluetooth keyboard, mobile phone, torch, GPS receiver and camera which all use much less power than the Ax. I'm also working on a circuit to charge batteries from my SON hub dynamo as a back up. And if all else fails AA's are reasonably easy to buy. I see that you can now buy Energizer lithium AA batteries, which might be a good option.

Thanks for the tips Geoff, appreciate your interest.

Well I just had a look on the Garmin site and saw that V7 has been released... Unfortunately the maps are not topographic.
Not a problem Geoff. Just install that free contour map Contour Australia (latest v1.21) and overlay them on your City Navigator maps in your Garmin unit.

http://www.gpsaustralia.net/forums/showthread.php?p=14141#post14141

Works very well on my eTrex Vista Cx.

Alternatively if you need greater topo resolution, there's OzTopo commercially.

http://www.gpsoz.com.au/oztopo/

The GPSOZ maps look good, but I'll persevere a bit longer to try and find something like this that will work with my PDA. I still have the option to sell the PDA and buy a Garmin or similar - thing is, I'm intending to type up notes of my Oz trip on the PDA and download into my blog whenever I can find the internet.