I use a Garmin GPSmap 62S for mountain biking. I’ve downloaded the latest OpenMtbMap, created an IMG (of type ‘thin’) and put in the device. In a mountainous area like the Lake District in the UK, when I zoom in to a certain level the high elevation shading kicks in and the screen goes quite dark. This makes the screen less readable. How to get around this issue ?
There is a data-chain, using a toolchain (of software) that gets OSM data to bubble up through parsers and such to produce the .img that goes into your Garmin device, crucial steps include arguments (and other “before you start to make a Garmin map image” aspects) to “mkgmap.”
You omitted a lot of how you “created an IMG (of type ‘thin’)” so I don’t know the specifics of your toolchain. Effectively, you are asking to reverse-engineer how the routes were specified to be displayed by mkgmap, including their background layer (along with rules about what map features to turn on and off at certain zoom levels). I’m not saying you couldn’t edit (hack, in a sense, unless you build your own) the existing tools and tweak final displays to your liking, technically you can. But specifics of exactly how to do so get technically deep pretty fast. I’d start with that wiki link and see where it takes you.
Also, try turning on the screen illumination. I keep my 60CSx at 70% and then to dim after 15 seconds (I think) and it helps with darker screen content (without draining too much battery).
Stevea, thanks for your response. Here’s what I did:
- Downloaded OpenMTBMap for Great Britain from openmtbmap.org
- Following the advice, ran the script: create_gmapsupp_img_with_mkgmap.bat
- Answering the prompts, chose to include contours and typ ‘thin’ recommended for GPSmap 62S
I usually don’t use the backlighting as I find daylight is normally sufficient but I’ll try it next time.
Accessing the very same IMG file in Basecamp and zooming in doesn’t darken (same IMG file on USB Basecamp finds and offers as a map choice.)
You are welcome to the reply. The openmtbmap.org site specifies that you can (should, really, for a 60/62/64/65) choose “thin.” But you’ll notice that (for mountainous areas like the Lake District) “wide” has “high contrast” for topo areas. The drawback is that your small roads/trails/tracks (including mtbs) will be 4 pixels wide instead of 2 (which I’d consider ideal on a 60/62/64/65). As you DO have the (relatively easy) choice of between [thin, medium width, wide or extra wide], I’d choose “wide” for your next “build” with mkgmap. Then, squirrel away a copy of the “thin” that is on the device now (so you can restore it if you prefer it after trying “wide”) and take a look at “wide” for the area in question. You might like it, you might not. If not, put the “thin” back into / onto the device.
Also, you could try to build “thin” again, but this time without contours. This might or might not help, only your taste can decide.
Failing that, you’ll need to get pretty technical with specifics in the .typ file, where this stuff actually IS tweaked, and for that, you’re best off contacting the author of the openmtbmap site. Though, there may be others here who are tuned into this topic and can offer specific help. When you get right down to it, because of the way the data are available (Open is OSM’s first name) and so are the tools / toolchain, you really CAN tweak things to your very particular tastes and selections. But you’d be directly editing .typ files and that can get hairy, as they are quite one-line-at-a-time detail-oriented, and it isn’t always clear what does what. With some self-tutoring (the earlier wiki, perhaps?) and some trial-and-error, you actually could achieve your perfect blend of tweaks to “not darken” as you see fit. But it is difficult to do this using this medium (Discourse); it is a journey for you and the openmtbmap site, perhaps. Or maybe one you take on your own, if you want to get technical, a bit in the weeds and you have the time for some learning and experimentation. Good luck!