Although it seems that nobody cares about this subject, I keep working on it. I assume people just don't know what they're missing. Who was it again that said something like: "You cannot measure the need for a bridge by counting the people swimming across the river."? Similar with this subject: I saw for myself how useful this can be and trust that others will discover the same thing one day.

Right, to business:

You can now download all info from the Playak map on your GPS. Excluded from this are gauges, users, galleries and graffiti (execption: when you're logged in and download the GPS, your own map graffiti is included). This leaves some 20.000 GPS points worldwide. I programmed 2 new features today:

1. Download either as a CSV file, which can be used by Garmin devices and some others, or as an ov2 file, which is the POI format used by TomTom, or by numerous applications that support the GPX format.
2. You can now download separate files for each continent. The worldwide file is 1MB large, and most of the points are in North America and Europe, so if you are only interested in an other continent, you can save some space on your GPS flash card this way.

So here are the links:

Garmin:
Worldwide: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=csv
Americas: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=csv&continent=americas
Europe: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=csv&continent=europe
Asia: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=csv&continent=asia
Africa: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=csv&continent=africa
Oceania: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=csv&continent=oceania

TomTom:
Worldwide: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=ov2
Americas: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=ov2&continent=americas
Europe: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=ov2&continent=europe
Asia: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=ov2&continent=asia
Africa: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=ov2&continent=africa
Oceania: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=ov2&continent=oceania

GPX:
Worldwide: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=gpx
Americas: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=gpx&continent=americas
Europe: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=gpx&continent=europe
Asia: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=gpx&continent=asia
Africa: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=gpx&continent=africa
Oceania: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=gpx&continent=oceania

Thumbnail (works on Tomtom - haven't tested on other devices):
playak.com/map.csv.php?func=bmp

To add spots to the GPS download, just add them to playak.com/map.php ....

I'd be happy to hear about if and how this works for non-Tomtom devices, as I cannot test those myself (out of my budget )

Enjoy,
Jeroen

Very cool, I just installed it on my TomTom.

great, at least one person appreciates it. that makes it worth the effort

now please help spread the word guys. i'm sure there must be loads of people that would really like this, if only they knew about it.

I have Igo installed at the moment. It's sort of like TomTom. But I might switch back to TomTom. This would be a really cool feature to use then. Makes roadtrips even more fun.

i don't know igo at all (except the zelezny igo ). if you could tell me where to find a specification of the file format it requires for 'Points of Interest', I may be able to make it available for that device as well.

I think the playak map for Gps is awesome, its is what I have been looking for. I downloaded the file and find it great except it doesnt order them under river names or w.e its all under american whitewater etc. it would be much more helpful if I could order them by rivers is it possible to get rid of that column in the excel sheet?

i could write 'american whitewater' after the river name, would that help?

That'd work a lot better. As it stands now on my TomTom, all I see is American Whitewa, and I have to either get the search exactly right, or select each one and cancel just to see the full name.

ok, i changed that for you. on my own tomtom (one xl) i see the complete names, so i didn't run into that problem.

please try again and let us know if it works better for you now.

cheers,
jeroen

Just tried it on my Garmin, looks great thanks alot.

Cool!

I'll try it asap.
Thanks for the great job you made.
By the way in Italy we use a site called
www.ckfiumi.net

with the on line guide of most of the italian rivers plus something from other countries
Everybody could be the editor, and when you add a river report you can add put in and take out coordinates...
It would be great to have something like the one you did even for ckfiumi

Ciao

what's the direct link to the gps or map services on ckfiumi? sorry, my italian is
too lousy to find it....

There is no global map

basically you choose a nation, then a region, then you have the river list

on the report (if the editor typed the coordinates) you get a google map window
For instans in Switzerland see the Hinterrein

www.ckfiumi.net/consulta.phtml/251/257

Don't worry about your lousy italian, but please don't ask to translate in german ckfiumi

hmm, in that case the editor should send me a list of the coordinates etc, and then i can maybe bulk upload all his spots to the playak database, with links back to ckfiumi of course.

Interesting to note how many views this thread has had, compared to the replies. So quite a few people are interested..

Jeroen,
I know the webmaster, I can try to talk directly with her and perhaps arrange a better way.

Many italians are not familiar with english and they probably wouldn't send you t coordinates.

Thought I'd show you a little screenshot from my GPS:

Jeroen, you really made a good job.
Unfortunately I'm too busy in this period
[...]

so i cannot follow up with ckfiumi.net at the moment.

I'll try to contact Daniela (ckfiumi webmaster) as soon as possible

Ciao

Finally had some time to add GPX support:

GPX:
Worldwide: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=gpx
Americas: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=gpx&continent=americas
Europe: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=gpx&continent=europe
Asia: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=gpx&continent=asia
Africa: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=gpx&continent=africa
Oceania: playak.com/map.csv.php?mode=gpx&continent=oceania

What is GPX I hear you ask? Here's what the official GPX site says about it:
"GPX, the GPS Exchange Format, is supported by hundreds of software applications and Web sites, making it the standard format for interchanging GPS data between GPS receivers, desktop and mobile software, and Web-based services."

More info:
www.topografix.com/gpx_resources.asp

Feedback welcome as always.

Enjoy,
Jeroen

Hi Jeroen,

Great idea and the .gpx file works great on my Garmin Mapsource software. I'd like to load the POI's into my Panasonic Sat Nav but the landmarks file is a *.sfs file. Do you have any experience of this?

I've tracked it down to a company called Navigon. I've emailed them to ask if any of the file formats provided here will work with my sat nav or if they can recommend some software that will convert your files to *.sfs format.

By the way, just joined Playak and just taken up kayaking at age 50. Loving every minute of it so far. Great website and resource.

Keep up the good work, Tony

I am interested in getting a waterproof handheld GPS for marking put ins and takeouts, rapid sections and playwaves ect. for white water kayaking in Canada and probably other countries (for instance our club is doing a kenya trip next year!)

Any recommendations for a good waterproof GPS that isn't to complicated to work and get maps for? Probably don't want to spend more than a couple hundred.

Thanks
Krista

i've got a little waterproof gps tracker here and it became redundantt for me because i've got gps in my cell phone as well now (which is not waterproof of course, but still). anyway, this gadget (i-gotu) does nothing but track your gps position eevry couple of minutes. then when you come home and plug it into the pc and upload your photos, it can automatically attach a position to each photo.

if you're willing to use it for writing playak descriptions of the waves and rivers you visit, i'll send it to you for free.... sounds like a fair deal?

Sure that would be cool. I am all the way in Canada though. (and I wouldn't be adding info to the site until the spring, -30 is too cold for me to paddle

But if you're willing to pay to ship it to me then I will definitely share my info with the playak community. It's up to you!
Do you have an email address where I can send my mailing address?

thanks,
krista

Hi,

Just installed on my Tom Tom
Jeroen, you did such a great job!

Now anytime I try to download the files using any of the links I get a "Restricted Access" page. Is that intentional, or is there a problem?

gmiller wrote:

Now anytime I try to download the files using any of the links I get a "Restricted Access" page. Is that intentional, or is there a problem?

oops, that was a side effect of the system upgrade. please try again now.

The GPS files are always generated from the Playak database on the fly, so they are always up to date. I just thought I would add that information, as this forum topic has been around for a while - just to reassure you that you'll always be downloading fresh GPS files

Jeroen, would this stuff be able to be shown on Google Earth?

I haven't tried this, but there are several tools to convert a GPX file to KMZ or KML, which can be opened by Google Earth. E.g. www.mcrenox.com.ar/gpx2ge/

Hmmmm, thanks. But after seeing the 15 Euro price tag I checked out a few more. Then I found this site:
www.gpsvisualizer.com/map?form=googleearth

I downloaded the GPX file for Africa, converted it using that website, saved the file, then double clicked and voila. Works on Google Earth. Stoked Thanks Jeroen!