OSM Map On Garmin with Postcode search?

General talk
1

I am following this hack (steps 1-5) to enable UK poscode search on Garmin devices when using open street map:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Postcode_Search_On_Garmin

I have not had to do the conversion to latitude / longitude as I found a version which has already been converted here:

https://www.freemaptools.com/download-uk-postcode-lat-lng.htm

I download the Full UK Postcode Latitude Longitude in CSV format. which is se tout like this:

postcode	latitude	longitude
AB10 1XG	57.14416516	-2.114847768
AB10 6RN	57.13787976	-2.121486688
AB10 7JB	57.12427377	-2.127189644
AB11 5QN	57.14270109	-2.093295
AB11 6UL	57.13754663	-2.112233
AB11 8RQ	57.13597762	-2.072114784
AB12 3FJ	57.0980029	-2.077438
AB12 4NA	57.06427275	-2.130018015
AB12 5GL	57.08193792	-2.246567389
AB12 9SP	57.14870708	-2.097806027
AB14 0TQ	57.10155692	-2.268485752
AB15 5HB	57.147428	-2.1472662
AB15 6NA	57.151797	-2.185398
AB15 8UF	57.15400596	-2.22440188
AB15 9SE	57.11864762	-2.174250607
AB16 5ST	57.16346588	-2.15933343
AB16 6SZ	57.15875117	-2.165214861

In step 3 of the instructions it says “use GPSBabel or similar software to convert your desired postcode coverage files to .GPI format” The problem is when I load the CSV file into GPSBabel and try and convert to GPI format, conversion fails with the following error:

“No valid waypoints/routes/tracks translation specified”

here is a screenshot of the error:

Does anyone know how I can convert my CSV postcode data into gpi, so that it works with OSM on my garmin?

2

You can try http://www.javawa.nl/rtwtool_en.html

3

Thank you, but I don’t see how that link helps, as it says postcodes are not supported.

Looking at the following it seems that the CSV format I have used may not be compatible with GPSbabel:

https://www.gpsbabel.org/htmldoc-1.6.0/fmt_csv.html

In light of this I have tried formatting the CSV according to the 2 examples below, however I still get the same error:

“No valid waypoints/routes/tracks translation specified”

These are examples from the CSV formats I have tried:

Example 1

latitude,longitude,post
57.149606000000000,-2.096916000000000,AB10 1AB
57.148707080000000,-2.097806027000000,AB10 1AF
57.148231880000000,-2.096647896000000,AB10 1AG
57.148080680000000,-2.094664297000000,AB10 1AH
57.149616270000000,-2.095329325000000,AB10 1AL
57.149700000000000,-2.094742000000000,AB10 1AN
57.148978000000000,-2.095691000000000,AB10 1AP
57.148080680000000,-2.094664297000000,AB10 1AQ
57.148080680000000,-2.094664297000000,AB10 1AR
57.148321040000000,-2.097507523000000,AB10 1AS
57.147774010000000,-2.096432000000000,AB10 1AU
57.147387160000000,-2.097058848000000,AB10 1AW
57.148707080000000,-2.097806027000000,AB10 1AX
57.148832140000000,-2.098451000000000,AB10 1BA

Example 2

57.149606000000000,-2.096916000000000,AB10 1AB
57.148707080000000,-2.097806027000000,AB10 1AF
57.148231880000000,-2.096647896000000,AB10 1AG
57.148080680000000,-2.094664297000000,AB10 1AH
57.149616270000000,-2.095329325000000,AB10 1AL
57.149700000000000,-2.094742000000000,AB10 1AN
57.148978000000000,-2.095691000000000,AB10 1AP
57.148080680000000,-2.094664297000000,AB10 1AQ
57.148080680000000,-2.094664297000000,AB10 1AR
57.148321040000000,-2.097507523000000,AB10 1AS
57.147774010000000,-2.096432000000000,AB10 1AU
57.147387160000000,-2.097058848000000,AB10 1AW
57.148707080000000,-2.097806027000000,AB10 1AX
57.148832140000000,-2.098451000000000,AB10 1BA

Any ideas how to get this working, as I have spent a lot of time on this with no luck.

4

Rather than trying to feed a .csv to gpsbabel, create a .gpx with the data in it and use that. I’ve used that method successfully in the past (see https://github.com/SomeoneElseOSM/Notes01/blob/master/README_gpi.md for an example command line).

5

So you suggest to make a GPX and then use the commandline of GpsBabel to convert to gpi?

I can’t understand why Babel won’t just accept the CSV that I have formatted? I can’t see what is wrong?

6

Nor can I (to be clear, I’ve no idea whether what you’re trying to do is supposed to work) - I’m just suggesting something that worked for me in the past.

7

Can’t you use Garmin’s poi loader to convert gpx into gpi format?
Javawa’s tool could also convert csv into gpx or even gpi format but I have no idea if your CSV postcode data is suitable for garmin’s pois.
https://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=999-99999-12

8

I manged to do it in the end using the Garmin program (all other programs kept crashing for such large data sets). Also I could not get GPSBabel to work at all.

I now have all the postcodes loaded as POI on my Garmin 64s, but postcodes are so slow to search. It takes about 3 minutes to search for 1 postcode. I know I have nearly 2 million postcodes loaded, but things should not be that slow. Even my old Tom Tom is much quicker to search for postcodes, and the 64S has much better hardware specs. So I don’t understand why it is so slow? I found that splitting postcodes up into smaller geographical regions, and having multiple files loaded to the Garmin rather than 1 large file made things quicker, however it is still unacceptably slow. Are there any workarounds for this? As I say my old Tom Tom is much quicker to search for postcodes and it’s hardware is much less than my 64s. Any ideas?