BRMB GPS Maps manual

Requirements

Garmin Basecamp

Contents:

Garmin License & Unlock Codes

Backroadmapbooks uses Garmin License technology to unlock and display the maps on your unit. The license files are used to unlock the maps on your device and can also be used to unlock the maps you have installed in Garmin Basecamp.

The .gma file is used to authenticate the maps on a GPSr when loaded from a microSD card.

Garmin Basecamp requires you import this file to authenticate the installed maps before they will display a fully detailed map.

The .unl file is the unlock key file and consists of your 25 digit key.

License files are located in the Garmin folder on the microSD card and are unique to each card.

Warning

Copying data from the original microSD card to another card will display an error message:“Cannot unlock maps.” The “Cannot unlock maps” error is displayed when the license file does not match the card it was generated for.

Register SD

Note

There are NO files on the SD card that can be opened or run on your computer. During the registration process, you will simply be selecting two files from the SD card.

  1. We recommend that you insert your SD card directly into the SD card slot on your computer, if available. If you don’t have an SD card slot, you’ll have to insert the microSD card into your GPS unit and then connect the GPS unit to your computer via a USB cable.
  2. Go to our website at http://backroadmapbooks.com
  3. Log into your account on our website, create a new account if you don’t have one.
_images/login_create.png
  1. From the menu on the left hand side, click on MY BRMB GPS ACCOUNT.
http://backroads-manual.readthedocs.io/en/latest/_images/mybrmbgpsaccount.png
  1. Under the heading REGISTER PRODUCT, click on the first Choose File button.
_images/choose.png
  1. A new window will appear. In the folder list on the left hand side, navigate to the location of the SD card (usually within My Computer or This PC).

Usually, it will be labeled BRMB, although on some computers, it might appear as “Removable Disk” or “NO NAME”. The SD card contains a folder named Garmin.

Open the Garmin folder by double clicking on it.

  1. In the Garmin folder, single click on the file named gmapsupp.unl to select it and then click the Open button.
_images/unl_select.png
  1. Click on the second Choose File button, and click on the file that ends in .gma (or labeled as a GMA file). The file usually starts with a 201x representing the year or gmapsupp.gma.
_images/gma_select.png

Click the Submit button to complete registration. If successful, a “Registration Success” confirmation message will be displayed.

Your product will now be displayed

Windows GPS map setup

Warning

To view the computer maps, you must have Garmin’s free mapping program, called BaseCamp, installed on your computer. If you do NOT yet have Garmin BaseCamp installed on your computer, then follow these steps to install it.

  1. Click Here to download Garmin BaseCamp for Windows PC.

  2. Navigate to the location of the downloaded installer file (BaseCamp_###.exe). The default location is the Downloads folder.

  3. Double click on the file to open and run the BaseCamp installer. Follow the prompts to complete the installation

  4. Please exit BaseCamp before installing the computer maps.

Installation

A.) Download Computer Maps Installer

  1. Log into your account on our website, create a new account if you don’t have one.
_images/login_create.png
  1. From the menu on the left hand side, click on MY GPS ACCOUNT.
_images/mybrmbgpsaccount.png
  1. Scroll down to below where it asks you to register product, and find the name of your product (“Province Name - SD [V#]”).
  2. Click on the OPEN/DOWNLOAD text, to the right of your product’s name.
_images/open-down.png

OR

_images/updates-avail.png
  1. Under the heading FREE COMPUTER MAPS, click on the button Download for Mac or Download for PC.
_images/download_pc.png
  1. Save the file to a known location on your computer, like Desktop or Downloads.

B.) Install Computer Maps

1. Insert your MicroSD into your computer or plug in your GPS unit with the card inserted using a USB cable. This will give you a drive called BRMB_##v6, if your using your GPS unit it will also display your Garmin as a drive letter.

  1. After the download is finished, navigate to the location of the downloaded ZIP file. The default location is the Downloads folder.
  2. Right click on the zip file and select “extract all” to extract the files.
_images/extractall.png
  1. Double click on the Application file named BRMB####_v6.exe (#### represents your province)
  2. You will get a window with a welcome screen to start your installation.
  3. Follow the prompts until you get to the following window.
_images/unlock_screen.png
  1. Select your Drive from the dropdown menu, this will copy your unlock file on the SD card into basecamp to unlock the maps when you click Next. If you do not see your Drive letter in the list you can use the browse button to navigate to the MicroSD cards Garmin folder Select your .gma file and click Next to copy it to basecamp and unlock your maps.
_images/dropdown.png

Unlock your Maps

Note

If you dint use the installer to unlock your maps you can do it manually by importing the .gma file into Garmin Basecamp.

  1. To Unlock your maps in basecamp you will need your .GMA file, this file is located on your SD card inside the Garmin folder or can be downloaded from your user acount.
_images/download_pc.png
  1. Open Garmin BaseCamp. If you get the message “Locked maps detected”, you can click the Unlock Maps button and then skip directly to step 4.
_images/locked.png
  1. Otherwise, go to the Maps Menu and click on Manage Map Products...
_images/manage_maps.png
  1. Click on the tab labeled “Unlock Regions”.
_images/unlock_regions.png
  1. On the far right hand side, click on the Import button.
_images/import.png
  1. A new Window will appear. In the bottom right corner, click on the file type drop-down menu labeled “Unlock Code Files (.ucx)” and change it to “Unlock Code Files (.gma)”
_images/import_gma.png
  1. Navigate to the location of the SD card and double click on the Garmin folder to open it, if you downloaded your .gma file navigate to the directory it was saved to. (downloads folder is the default)
  2. Click on the file that ends in .gma.
  3. Click the Open button. If successful, a line will be added with text “Region unlock code from” which indicates that your maps are now unlocked.
_images/region_unlock.png
  1. You can also click the Map Product Information tab to see the maps will now show as unlocked
_images/maps_unlocked.png
  1. Close the Map Product Manager window.
  2. Close BaseCamp and restart it.
  3. Click on the “Maps” menu. If there is no check mark next to the latest version of “Backroad Mapbooks v#.0” then click on it to select it and display our maps. If the latest version appears twice, please click on the one that ends with (INSTALLED).

Video Walkthrough

Mac GPS map setup

Warning

To view the computer maps, you must have Garmin’s free mapping program, called BaseCamp, installed on your computer. If you do NOT yet have Garmin BaseCamp installed on your computer, then follow these steps to install it.

  1. Click Here to download Garmin BaseCamp for Mac

  2. Navigate to the location of the downloaded installer file (BaseCamp_###.dmg). The default location is the Downloads folder.

  3. Double click on the file to open and run the BaseCamp installer. Follow the prompts to complete the installation

  4. Please exit BaseCamp before installing the computer maps.

Installation

Download Computer Maps Installer

  1. Log into your account on our website, create a new account if you don’t have one.
_images/login_create.png
  1. From the menu on the left hand side, click on MY GPS ACCOUNT.
http://www.backroadmapbooks.com/media/wysiwyg/parent-pages/GPS/brmbaccount.png
  1. Scroll down and find the name of your product (“Province Name - SD [V#]”).
  2. Click on the OPEN/DOWNLOAD text, to the right of your product’s name.
_images/open-down.png

OR

_images/updates-avail.png
  1. Under FREE COMPUTER MAPS, click on the DOWNLOAD FOR MAC button. By default, it will be saved into your Downloads folder. The download can take up to a few hours depending on the speed & quality of your internet connection.

Install Maps

  1. Navigate to the location of the computer maps installer file that you downloaded. The default location is the Downloads folder.

2. The download will consist of a compressed .zip file or a folder, if using safari the files will be extracted to a folder when completed. If you have Garmin MapManager installed and it has been run at least once, the icon for the .gmap installer should look like the following image.

_images/mac_install.png

If it doesn’t, that could mean that you still need to run or install Garmin MapManager. If the .gmap file appears as a folder even though you have installed and run Garmin MapManager, try restarting the computer.

  1. Double click the .gmap file to open it in Garmin MapManager.
  2. Click the INSTALL button to install the maps.
_images/install_mac.png

Unlock

Warning

After Downloading and installing your computer maps into BaseCamp, you will need to unlock them to see the detail.

  1. To Unlock your maps in basecamp you will need your .GMA file, this file is located on your SD card inside the Garmin folder or can be downloaded from your user acount.
_images/download_pc.png
  1. Navigate to the location of your .gma file.
  2. Double click the .gma file to open it in Garmin MapManager (The file name is typically all numbers starting with 201).
  3. Click the button to install the unlock code. If successful, your maps will now be unlocked.

Video Walkthrough

Updating Maps

Purchasing a new map update

Warning

Our update program has changed if you do not have an active update subscription you can purchase a new SD card for 50% or 70% off retail price http://www.backroadmapbooks.com/gps-map-updates

_images/50percentupdate.png _images/70percentupdate.png

Users with an active update subscription or within the 60 day free update period can follow the steps below to update their existing SD card.

Updating online

Note

To generate an updated unlock code and computer maps download link, follow the steps below.

1.) Log into your account on our website, create a new account if you don’t have one.

_images/login_create.png

2.) From the menu on the left hand side, click on MY GPS ACCOUNT.

_images/brmbaccount.png

3.) Scroll down and find the name of your product (“Province Name - SD [V#]”).

4.) Click on the Updates Available Text, to the right of your product’s name.

_images/updates.png

5.) Click on the PC Updates or Mac Updates button to download your new gmapsupp.img file

6.) Click the Generate Button to update to the latest version.

7.) If successful, you will get the message “Registration Success, your unlock code is [.....]”

_images/update_success.png

8.) Click Open / Download next to your new Product name

9.) Click the link to download your new .gma file

(We recommend using Firefox or Chrome to download the .gma file).

10.) Copy the 25 digit unlock code and paste it into a text file, save the file as gmapsupp.unl and make sure there is no .txt extension.

Inserting your microSD card

When you plug in your gps with the SD card inserted, it will display 2 drive letters 1 for the Unit and 1 for the microSD

_images/insert-SD.png

If your unit is older or not finding the SD card you may need to put it into Mass Storage Mode

On your GPS Unit go to the Setup Menu, Click Interface.

On the Interface screen you will see a Mass Storage button, Click it to enable your GPS as a storage device.

_images/60_3.gif

When your Unit is in Mass Storage mode the screen will show an icon on it.

_images/usb.jpg

Updating your MicroSD Card

Warning

When updating you need to remove the existing .unl and .gma files from your Garmin folder. When old license files (.unl or .gma) are present on the card it may show a cannot authenticate maps error.

1.)Open the existing SD card and backup the Garmin folder to your desktop.

_images/garmin-copy.png
2.)Remove the files inside the Garmin folder:
  • gmapsupp.unl
  • .gma file
  • gmapsupp.img file.
_images/garmin-delete.png

3.)Your Garmin folder should now be empty

4.)Copy the gmapsupp.img file you downloaded into the Garmin folder on the card.

_images/garmin-img.png

5.)Copy the new .gma file you downloaded into the Garmin folder.

7.)Copy the gmapsupp.unl file into the garmin folder.

8.)Your card should now have the updated map data and license file.

Note

on a mac when you delete the existing .img file you will need to empty the trash to free up the space on the card or it will complain about not enough space.

Transfer POI file

Note

when you download the computer map .zip archive it will also contain your new .gpi file for POI’s

1.)On your SD Card navigate to the Garmin folder.

2.)Copy the .gpi file into the POI folder on the SD card.

3.)You can delete the old .gpi file.

The Garmin folder should look similar to the following image

_images/map_structure.png

Troubleshooting

Registration

1.)I am not sure how to register my GPS maps in my backroadmapbooks.com account?

To register your maps on our website you will need to create an account or login to your existing account. You will need access to the license files located on your microSD inside the Garmin folder.

Map Setup

1.)Maps show up as unauthenticated or locked in basecamp?

Unauthenticated means the license file has not been imported into Garmin basecamp, you will need to import the .gma file found in your account or on your microSD card’s Garmin folder. Locked maps mean there is no license file found for the mapset loaded in basecamp, importing your .gma license file will allow you to unlock the maps fully.

2.)Garmin Basecamp doesnt show any detail even after unlocking the maps?

Once the map has been loaded and unlocked in basecamp you will need to adjust the detail level settings.

Windows In basecamp go to View –> Toolbars and in the fly out window make sure detail level has a checkmark beside it. Once detail level is enabled you can see a dropdown menu with detail level settings. Choose highest for best results.

Mac Use the slider on the control panel at the bottom of the basecamp screen.

Note

You may need to restart basecamp to allow changes to take effect.

3.)Mapinstall can’t find my SD card or device?

Mapinstall will not transfer your maps to the card or device unless it has a matching license code. If you have an SD card you will need to insert the card directly into your card reader and NOT in the GPS unit. If you have the DVD version you will need to make sure your UnitID is correct and the maps have been unlocked correctly.

GPS Map Troubleshooting

Here are some additional steps to make sure your maps are working correctly:

1- Does your unit take the big or the small card?

If it takes the big card, make sure you have inserted the small card in the big card first (the big card is just an adapter). Restart your unit and see if you see the maps now.

2- Is your SD card inserted properly?

SD CARD: Make sure you have pushed it firmly in the slot. Micro-SD Card: Align the notch on the chip with the notch in the bay. Flip the cage down and slide it towards you to lock. Restart your unit and see if you see the maps now.

3- What scale are you currently zoomed to?

Zoom in and see if you see the black symbols. If you see the black symbols you are seeing our maps.

4- Is the unit reading the SD card?

Go to Map Setup>Map Information and confirm that our maps are being read by the unit and that they are enabled. Different GPS units will have different settings so you may need to consult the manual to find the correct option to view the installed maps.

5- Did you send “anything” (like way points or tracks) to your SD card?

If you did, you might have overwritten the card with “no maps”, by having the “maps” box selected in MapSource/BaseCamp. No fear, if you have your SD card registered, you can rebuild the card.

Note

If your unit is not recognizing the SD card still do the following:

1- Soft boot: Remove SD > Replace Batteries > Hold for 5 secs to Power Off > Power Back Up Fully > Power Back Down > Insert SD > Replace Batteries > Power Back Up

2- Firmware Update: Google “Garmin Express” and install the freshest Firmware for your Unit. Firmware is what makes the Unit work. So it is important to have the latest software for your unit at all times. Make sure you take the SD card out of your unit before updating your GPS device.

3- Overwritten SD Card: Did you send anything to your unit? if yes you might have overwritten the SD Card with NO Maps. Confirm by checking the size of the gmapsupp.img file on your Unit.

4- Defective Adapter: If your Unit requires the bigger card and if you have a faulty adapter, the SD Card won’t be read by the unit. Try a different Adapter if one is handy. Otherwise purchase a new one at any Superstore, Walmart, Futureshop, Best Buy.

Rebuilding your MicroSD card

Note

If your Maps have become corrupted or accidentally deleted from the card you can rebuild the map data. SD Card must be registered in your account.

If you are transferring the maps to the SD card, you MUST insert the microSD card into the SD card adapter and then insert the adapter into your computer’s SD card slot. If you do not have a microSD slot on your computer you may have to send us your card to have it recoded.

1.) Open Garmin MapInstall 2.) Select the SD card or GPS unit from the Device drop down box and click the Continue button

_images/mapinstall_device.png

3.) Find the drop down box at the bottom of the window. If not already selected, select the updated version listing for the desired Province / Region.

4.) Select the map tiles that you wish to transfer.

If you want to select the entire province / region, you can do so by clicking and dragging from above and to the left of the top corner to below and to the right of the bottom right corner.

Zoom out, if necessary, to see the whole province / region. Once you’ve selected the desired map tiles, click the Send Maps button.

_images/mapinstall_selected.png

5.) Click the Continue button to start the installation.

_images/mapinstall_install.png

6.)When the transfer is complete you will have a new map image file called “gmapsupp.img”

7.)Download the new .gma file you generated from your account.

(We recommend using Firefox or Chrome to download the .gma file).

8.)Copy the .gma file into the Garmin folder.

9.)Copy the 25 digit code from your user account and paste it into a text file, save the file as gmapsupp.unl and make sure there is no .txt extension.

10.)Copy the gmapsupp.unl file into the garmin folder.

11.)Your card should now have the updated map data and license file.

Note

on a mac when you delete the existing .img file you will need to empty the trash to free up the space on the card or it will complain about not enough space.

Transfer POI file

Note

when you download the computer map .zip archive it will also contain your new .gpi file for POI’s

1.)On your SD Card navigate to the Garmin folder.

2.)Copy the .gpi file into the POI folder on the SD card.

3.)You can delete the old .gpi file.

The Garmin folder should look similar to the following image

_images/map_structure.png

Routing with backroadmapbooks

Note

Some of our map products have direct address routing which allows you to search for an address similar to city navigator.

Routable Products

  • BC: Searchable by Province > City > Street Name
  • VIBC: Searchable by Province > City > Street Name
  • AB: Direct Address Routing Supported
  • SK: Searchable by Province > City > Street Name
  • MB: Direct Address Routing Supported
  • ON: Direct Address Routing Supported
  • NS: Direct Address Routing Supported
  • NB: Direct Address Routing Supported
  • NL: Direct Address Routing Supported
  • AC: Direct Address Routing Supported
  • ABBC: AB: Direct Address Routing Supported, BC: Searchable by Province > City > Street Name
  • Western Canada: Direct Address Routing Supported, BC and SK Searchable by Province > City > Street Name
  • Eastern Canada: Direct Address Routing Supported
  • YK: Direct Address Routing Supported

When creating a route you should always adjust your routing settings on the unit.

Routes created using an alternate map may cause routing errors when using the route on our map.

Searching for LSD or Township Ranges

To search for an LSD point within our GPS maps you must know the Quarter section of the Legal Subdivision.

LSD values are read as:

11-27-74-25-W5

  • 11 = Quarter of legal subdivisions (LSD)
  • 27 = Section
  • 74 = Township
  • 25 = RGE
  • W5 = West of the 5th Meridian
  1. Searching On the GPS for LSD locations.

Where to > [Default] Cities

_images/lsd_cities.png
  1. Enter in the QuarterSection - Section - TWP - RGE

11-27-74-25

_images/lsd_search1.png
  1. You should see Results for the Section Searched.
_images/lsd_search2.png
  1. Select the LSD area you are searching for.
_images/lsd_search3.png

GPS Unit Setup

Note

Turn up detail level on your unit:

Note

Turn On Shaded Relief:

Note

Searching POI adventure categories:

Note

Viewing POI additional information:

Note

Configure GPS unit for driving instructions:

Note

Saving waypoints:

Note

Creating a track 1:

Note

Creating a track 2:

Note

Renaming a track:

Note

10.Search for Sections, Grid Sections, and LSD Grid:

Contact Us

Note

Toll Free: 1-877-520-5670 ext 206

P: 604-521-6277 ext 206

F: 604-521-6260