OSi Maps now on Quo
Published on 26th November 2009 
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutesLast week, Mapyx finally made good their promise to bring out Ordnance Survey Ireland 1:50000 Discovery mapping data for Quo. Pricing is £1.99 per tile, more comparable with £1.95 per tile for OS Explorer maps than 99p per tile for OS Landranger.
Even with the (little) extra outlay, that's not so bad, and I purchased tiles for the area covering the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains for less than £20, hardly a king's ransom. OSNI maps are also promised, but we'll just have to be patient and see when they come on the scene. When they do, that part of the world will be opened up for electronic surveying. It has its share of delights too; the Mourne Mountains are just one to mention.
So far, my examination of those purchased OSi maps has been a brief one, with route planning and other such operations left for later. Reassuringly, downloading and installation of the actual tiles was the same as for any other Quo map, and the displayed tiles were as clear (and as recognisable to the likes of me) as those you'd find on Trail Master DVD's or in Geolives.
However, Quo needs to shut down any OS maps that you have open in order to open up their OSi equivalents because of differences in coordinate systems. That can be a little inconvenient if you start to wander between the British mainland and Éire quite a lot. Most likely will not do such a thing that often.
That's the only difference that I have seen up to now, and I'd be surprised if I were to notice anything of note while in the process of planning a route. If I do, my observations may find their way on here in due course. After all, my one sortie to Wicklow's does deserve to followed by another, and there is plenty more of Ireland to sample after that. It is an ever glaring omission on my part.
