Author Topic: DeLorme PN-20 and TopoFusion (Read 4674 times)

BnC Msr · « **on:** December 15, 2006, 04:48:41 AM »

DeLorme recently announced a new GPS, the PN-20 coming out early January. The beauty of this new GPS is that, for an affordable price, 199.00, you have a Color Mapping/Sat Imagery GPS. My question is that can we have the ability to save map imagery, Quadrangles and Sat views on our PC Hard drive and then upload these to the new GPS? Or just upload direrctly from TopoFusion to PN-20?
DeLorme's Topo USA and 3D, IMO, not as good as TopoFusion Quads and the ability to access Sat Views.
I believe the new PN-20 will have a SD Card slot, so 4 BG could hold alot of data.
This would be a HUGE jump in technology.

Krein · « **Reply #1 on:** December 15, 2006, 09:16:35 AM »

Hi,

Thanks for the info on the new GPS. It sounds promising. To have something like TF running on a handheld unit would be pretty incredible -- especially with 4 GB of map storage.

To answer your question, I have no idea what the format of the maps will be. I will have to check out the unit itself and see if adding upload support within TF is 1) possible, 2) worthwhile.

BnC Msr · « **Reply #2 on:** December 15, 2006, 09:21:12 AM »

Thanks for the info. If you do a google search on PN-20. it will take you to some info. I think they are supporting 2 GB SD Card right now. But if we could use your program inside of PN-20, you may be laying on a golden egg.

Krein · « **Reply #3 on:** December 15, 2006, 09:35:09 AM »

I did a little reading and it appears it can only read "data packets from XMap" as raster images.

Quote

Regarding the Aerial Data Packets, and the USGS topo quads which they contain, bear in mind that these are purchased as separate downloads from the DeLorme site. It's true, however, that $50 worth of them come included with Topo USA 5.0 (i.e., you can download up to $50 worth from DL before you need to provide some means of paying for any more).

In other words, it's not going to be easy for a 3rd party app (like TF) to get any old map onto the units. Possible, yes, but would require reverse engineering the protocol and data format.

Might be worth the effort, might not be legal, and I'd have to see (and "like") the unit first. Even if you only display TopoUSA's maps, it'll still be an improvement over Mapsource.

If you purchase one, please let us know what you think.