I'm in the UK July and August as well.

im not sure when i will be back in the uk but will be at some point later on this year. will post another message when i know

We are about any time except the end of June-very early July as we are in Portugal on an expedition

Have started on my split charge system, then that is all of the major stuff done ready. Then there is just fitting stuff and working out where everything goes.

james6546 said:

We are about any time except the end of June-very early July as we are in Portugal on an expedition

Have started on my split charge system, then that is all of the major stuff done ready. Then there is just fitting stuff and working out where everything goes.

Click to expand...

By the time you go to Morocco it will probably all need doing again.

So, for anyone interested in where we went in 2013, here's a map with some of the checkpoints i logged.

map on google.

Going to do similar for next years route. We have a few ideas/routes.

Cheers

3extruckers said:

So, for anyone interested in where we went in 2013, here's a map with some of the checkpoints i logged.

map on google.

Going to do similar for next years route. We have a few ideas/routes.

Cheers

Click to expand...

Hi Adam,
Well done, glad someone knew where the hell we were most of the time.
I'm still trying to get to grips with Garmin BaseCamp or Map source but not making much progress.
What mapping source/system do you plan on using for 2016? I would like to try and make some use of this Panasonic toughbook that I invested in. It has GPS.

Hi Sorry to but in .I am also wanting to understand the mystery of basecamp and found a company that does 1 and 2 day courses at a very reasonable price. Aimed at walkers mainly but when i spoke to them they said that it applys across all needs. Booked myself in for april. If you want contact details let me know

outlaw1 said:

Hi Sorry to but in .I am also wanting to understand the mystery of basecamp and found a company that does 1 and 2 day courses at a very reasonable price. Aimed at walkers mainly but when i spoke to them they said that it applys across all needs. Booked myself in for april. If you want contact details let me know

Click to expand...

Hi, Sounds interesting. Do you have the name or contact details and any idea of how much. I could be interested.

mikescuba said:

Hi, Sounds interesting. Do you have the name or contact details and any idea of how much. I could be interested.

Click to expand...

Just be careful what the course covers as I wouldn't think the walkers would use a pc as a navigation device whilst walking.



As far as I know with basecamp, you map the route, then put it onto a Garmin device, but I could be wrong.

james6546 said:

Just be careful what the course covers as I wouldn't think the walkers would use a pc as a navigation device whilst walking.



As far as I know with basecamp, you map the route, then put it onto a Garmin device, but I could be wrong.

Click to expand...

I have managed to plot a route onto BaseCamp which seemed very complicated, but I don't see how to use the PC's GPS to track your progress through the PC. I would ask them if they have a course more geared to this or if there is some devise I could get to make it work. Ken had a hand held GPS which we tried to follow last time, but I think they found the display too small for the desert. Which is probably why we got lost.

mikescuba said:

Hi, Sounds interesting. Do you have the name or contact details and any idea of how much. I could be interested.

Click to expand...

Hi Shepherds Walks - Walking Routes, Guided Walks and Holidays. Walk in Northumberland and Cumbria. *
James , Planning a route on pc/laptop , downloading to garmin device is exactly what they do teach. You have to take a laptop with you loaded with basecamp . They bring a selection of garmin devices for you to try and see what suits your needs. Sounds good to me and hoping it is everything they tell me it will be,i will let you know
Just noticed how website appears on forum ,but click on it and look at training courses

outlaw1 said:

Hi Shepherds Walks - Walking Routes, Guided Walks and Holidays. Walk in Northumberland and Cumbria. *
James , Planning a route on pc/laptop , downloading to garmin device is exactly what they do teach. You have to take a laptop with you loaded with basecamp . They bring a selection of garmin devices for you to try and see what suits your needs. Sounds good to me and hoping it is everything they tell me it will be,i will let you know
Just noticed how website appears on forum ,but click on it and look at training courses

Click to expand...

Many Thanks for the lead. I have sent them an email with a load of questions.

Hi All,
it all sounds simple enough. Can't understand why we got lost so many times on the last trip. LOL.
Thought I would share the info with you. What I am thinking of doing is perhaps incorporating one of these two day courses with our meet up. I will look into one of these Garmin Montana gps before hand to see if one of these courses is necessary. Unless anyone has a better suggestion.



Andy Ayre - Shepherds Walks Today at 10:57 AM
To
me
Hi Michael

Thank you for your email,
Garmin’s BaseCamp software is designed to be used in conjunction with one of their handheld GPS devices, the software is used for route planning and then sending the route via a USB cable to your GPS device, it is also used for retrieving any saved recorded tracks from your GPS device to review on your computer.
Hence you would not use the Software standalone you would need a GPS device as well.

For the activity that you want to use the GPS device for I would recommend a Garmin Montana with vehicle mount, more details on the Montana can be found by clicking on the link below:-

Garmin Montana 650t with full GB OS mapping - Garmin Outdoor GPS Units - With OS mapping - GPS Units - Online store
Montana Auto Mount with Speakers - GPS Accessories - Accessories and Mapping - Online store

We have some OSM (Open Sourced Mapping) for Morocco that I could load on to a unit bought from us, I would load it on to the internal memory and there would be no charge for doing this.

We run one and two day GPS training courses in various location around the country as per the link below:-
Training Courses - Courses & Events
The courses cost £70.00 for the day or £110.00 for both days, they are mainly geared towards the walker / cyclist although a lot of the principles are the same.
From our base in Northumberland we could do a 1 day 1:1 training but the cost of this would be around £180.00

But if you wanted some training on mainly using the BaseCamp software and simply following a route that you have created and sent to a Montana GPS, we could do some remote one to one training, this would involve me dialing into your computer and using something like Skype to talk to you, cost of this would be £60.00 for 2 hours.

I hope that the above helps.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Regards

Andy Ayre
GPS Training part of Shepherds Walks
Coquetdale Centre
Church Street
Rothbury
Northumberland
NE65 7UP
Tel: 01669 621044
Fax: 0870 1398967
E-mail: andy.ayre@gpstraining.co.u

mikescuba said:

Hi All,
it all sounds simple enough. Can't understand why we got lost so many times on the last trip. LOL.
Thought I would share the info with you. What I am thinking of doing is perhaps incorporating one of these two day courses with our meet up. I will look into one of these Garmin Montana gps before hand to see if one of these courses is necessary. Unless anyone has a better suggestion.

Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

I don't think you are looking at this quite right. If I was going to use a laptop I would be looking to use a gps module with the laptop and then some kind of mapping software on the laptop, rather than buying another device and just transferring the routes to that.

I will try to have a look later, but there should be some decent mapping software for laptops out there, maybe we could start another thread on it? Something like this looks ok, though I think you would have to buy maps (EDIT: actually they look to be free), but that is expected MapSphere: Free Mapping Software with GPS Support, Online Tracking, Trips, and Photos

If you do want to go down the other route I would buy something like this https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/on-the-road/in-car-sat-navs/latest-range/nuvi-2799lmt-d/prod154721.html, rather than spending a lot of money on the very expensive one that they linked you to.

I talked to my friend Ian who does trips to Morocco as a job, and he just uses a normal Garmin sat nav and designs the routes on basecamp. But it seems a shame not to use the Toughbook you bought

james6546 said:

Hi Mike,

I don't think you are looking at this quite right. If I was going to use a laptop I would be looking to use a gps module with the laptop and then some kind of mapping software on the laptop, rather than buying another device and just transferring the routes to that.

I will try to have a look later, but there should be some decent mapping software for laptops out there, maybe we could start another thread on it? Something like this looks ok, though I think you would have to buy maps (EDIT: actually they look to be free), but that is expected MapSphere: Free Mapping Software with GPS Support, Online Tracking, Trips, and Photos

If you do want to go down the other route I would buy something like this https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/on-the-road/in-car-sat-navs/latest-range/nuvi-2799lmt-d/prod154721.html, rather than spending a lot of money on the very expensive one that they linked you to.

I talked to my friend Ian who does trips to Morocco as a job, and he just uses a normal Garmin sat nav and designs the routes on basecamp. But it seems a shame not to use the Toughbook you bought

Click to expand...

Hi James,
I would prefer to use the Toughbook with some sort of mapping but I have't been able to find any mapping that works with windows. I will look into the link you have attached. The problem with these hand held devices is the screens are too small which was the problem last time. I'm sure Adam will be interested also. Any info you can come up with would be great. Problem for me is I have no one I can talk to over here.

mikescuba said:

Hi James,
I would prefer to use the Toughbook with some sort of mapping but I have't been able to find any mapping that works with windows. I will look into the link you have attached. The problem with these hand held devices is the screens are too small which was the problem last time. I'm sure Adam will be interested also. Any info you can come up with would be great. Problem for me is I have no one I can talk to over here.

Click to expand...

Ok, I have been reading a few things and apparently Microsoft Autoroute is supposed to be good, but they stopped making it last year, so I am trying to get my hands on a copy. I will let you know if I find one.

I was thinking that that 7" satnav I linked to might be ok, but I get that the desert is pretty massive!

I have a 13" touch screen laptop that folds flat into a tablet, so if we can get this working I will probably bring that with me for navigation once I work out where it will fit!

You can always drop me an email with any questions, I'm ok with computers

James,
When my mad brother-in-law and I done Morocco back in 2010, I got the route from an excellent book called 'Sahara overland' by Chris Scot.
These routes also contain GPS way points which I then painstakingly manually entered into my Garmin Geko handheld GPS.
This simple set up worked a treat taking us from the Erg Chebbi to Zagora with no issues and it took us straight to the campsite in Marakech.
I've now bought myself a better GPS for the Portugal trip but still have the old one with all the Morrocan routes in it so if you would like to borrow it for your trip that's no problem.

james6546 said:

Ok, I have been reading a few things and apparently Microsoft Autoroute is supposed to be good, but they stopped making it last year, so I am trying to get my hands on a copy. I will let you know if I find one.

I was thinking that that 7" satnav I linked to might be ok, but I get that the desert is pretty massive!

I have a 13" touch screen laptop that folds flat into a tablet, so if we can get this working I will probably bring that with me for navigation once I work out where it will fit!

You can always drop me an email with any questions, I'm ok with computers

Click to expand...

I think it would be quick if I just sent you the f---ing computer. I'm lucky its indestructible otherwise it would be in thousands of pieces by now.

Just buy a piece of sand paper, that's as good as a map there.

The mapping will only give you an approx. route anyway.

Hi guys,
Last trip out i used osmand on my android phone, piddly little screen, but got us out of the crap a couple of times. You download maps from openstreet map which is user contributed mapping site. I downloaded the latest morocco map on the friday morning before setting off, so had newest version.
The map had the tracks on through the mountains, over the tops for probably the best days drive, which lead us past Akka Goldmine.
One thing i didn't get chance to use was osmtracker to actually save our routes for viewing later, something i will be doing next time.

With regard to the toughbook i have, same as Mike, i use linux on mine, not windoze, so i'll be using navit this time. You can use this on windows too and it's FREE!!!!!

I'll also be using track logging too so i can replay later to see where we went in a bit better detail than the spot tracker.

i'll post more when i've got it up and running, Mike, don't bin the lappy yet

Cheers