Posted: 1/6/2009 10:37:30 AM EDT
| I santa got me GPS for xmas (Garmin GPSMAP60CSX) and I'm a bit confused about what maps to get for it. I will mainly use it for trail use and highway nav. I know what to get for the roads but what about off-road? From what I've read the most detailed standard scale looks to be 24K. I am in the northeast and do most of my backwoods trips the the Adirondack/Catskill mtns of NY and southern Vermont. What should I be looking for to get as much detail as possible from this unit? I researched the unit extensively and I think I got the best multipurpose unit out there (road,water,trail) but this mapping thing has me dizzy... |
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Nothing wrong with 24K. It's pretty much standard for topo maps. I use one of the micro SD cards with the NE area topos already burned on it. Map scales explained |
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Hey Waldo - I didn't see the 24K SD cards for the NE. Did I NOT look hard enough or does it it made by another brand?? Thanks Sorry to have misled you. Mine is the older 100K. https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=10517 They should have the 24K NE ones out soon. I'll probably sell my 100K card when they have the new one available. Having said that, I've never had a problem using the 100K in unmarked wilderness area. |
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They only have a small handful of 24K maps available at the moment.
I use Topo 2008 right now but it leaves a lot to be desired. My biggest beef is that you can't import. Say you're got your map all set up and then find a track or waypoints that you want to add. There's no import feature. If you open a gpx file it wants to create a new file. I downloaded TopoFusion last night but their demo crap pisses me off. Almost enough that I don't even want to look at it anymore. They get their maps from Terraserver so you have to be online to use it. No internet connection = no worky. It seems real clunky. I opened a track of the AT and tried zooming in to where I want to hike but it jumps way across the map and I have to scroll back. Not sure if there are really any viable options out there. At least the 60CSx is a great little unit. |
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They only have a small handful of 24K maps available at the moment. I use Topo 2008 right now but it leaves a lot to be desired. My biggest beef is that you can't import. Say you're got your map all set up and then find a track or waypoints that you want to add. There's no import feature. If you open a gpx file it wants to create a new file. I downloaded TopoFusion last night but their demo crap pisses me off. Almost enough that I don't even want to look at it anymore. They get their maps from Terraserver so you have to be online to use it. No internet connection = no worky. It seems real clunky. I opened a track of the AT and tried zooming in to where I want to hike but it jumps way across the map and I have to scroll back. Not sure if there are really any viable options out there. At least the 60CSx is a great little unit. The NAT GEO Topo imports/exports tracks and waypoints just fine into my 60. Bit of a learning curve with it though. |
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The NAT GEO Topo imports/exports tracks and waypoints just fine into my 60. Bit of a learning curve with it though. Well, I'm speaking more of setting things up on the PC first. For example, when I got the software I bought 3 2GB SD cards. I created maps for western, central, and eastern US. My issue, for example, is that I can't open the Eastern map and import the track for the AT. As best I can tell I have to open the track, and then re-create the map. I don't understand why it would work that way but I haven't figured out any other way. It does seem that I can copy maps to the unit and then copy tracks/waypoints without affecting the maps that are already there. So I think my solution will be to have my map files separate from my tracks/waypoints files. However, the problem is still there for other tracks/waypoints. Let's say I have my AT track but I want to add the hikes I've done on the Florida Trail. I still can't open one and import the other. The only thing working for me is that I'm comfortable working with XML files so I can manually create the GPX data files. It's just a royal and time-consuming pain in the ass. I need to look at the Natl Geo software to see what it's capabilities are. I really think this is a huge oversight on the part of Garmin's software developers. |
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I use Topo 2008 right now but it leaves a lot to be desired. My biggest beef is that you can't import. Say you're got your map all set up and then find a track or waypoints that you want to add. There's no import feature. If you open a gpx file it wants to create a new file. 
I'm using it on my eTrex and it imports/exports just fine. Maybe I'm not understanding you. I can set up a route on the handheld or the laptop and get it to the other just fine. The other advantage of 24K Vs. 100k besides the obvious detail, is that 24k correlates to USGS quad maps. It's very nice to be able to have a visual reference when using a map & GPS together that lines up in the same scale. You can also order maps from sites such as my topo, which uses USGS platform and match the map to your GPS settings of your liking. (Magnetic, Grid, True) etc. This way your map and GPS are speaking the same language, but more importantly, the one you prefer so you don't have to adjust. |
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I'm using it on my eTrex and it imports/exports just fine. Maybe I'm not understanding you. I can set up a route on the handheld or the laptop and get it to the other just fine. This. Let me try again. I'm not talking about going to/from the GPS. Here's a real problem I've had. I have all of the GPS data for the Florida Trail. However, it's broken into multiple gpx files: trailheads, services, water, and campsites. Assume I open the trailheads file and decide I want to merge the water locations. I can't. All I can do is open the water file which will replace the trailhead file. There's no way to import one file into another. If I want to see the data from these multiple files together, I have to manually merge them. This is further complicated when I actually have maps defined within Topo2008 instead of just waypoints and tracks. Hopefully it makes sense now. |
Placed the order but realized that only the CDs are available at this point. I suppose I just download the maps from the disks on my PC to a blank SDcard? If so why the F wouldn't they automatically offer the SDs as well? ( I'm not the most IT savvy guy around.... )
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I have used the instructions listed in the link below to create topo maps for my Garmin 0CSX. A little complicated, and can take a while, but I like free.
http://home.roadrunner.com/~creek/garmin.htm |
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GPS File Depot is a good place to get Garmin compatible maps for free! These aren't Garmin's maps, but custom maps that others have made from topos. I use the Montana topos and they are pretty good! Garmin's routable road maps are what you need for driving though.
Hope this helps! http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/ |
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Before you spend money on a map - see if you can download one for your GPS here. The Arizona and New Mexico topo maps I have downloaded are pretty darn good. http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/ |
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Before you spend money on a map - see if you can download one for your GPS here. The Arizona and New Mexico topo maps I have downloaded are pretty darn good. http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/ Hey, umm azsavage, look at the post above yours....just sayin' 
I understand, it's getting late! |
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Quoted: <Homer Simpson> DOH! </Homer Simpson>Quoted: Before you spend money on a map - see if you can download one for your GPS here. The Arizona and New Mexico topo maps I have downloaded are pretty darn good. http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/ Hey, umm azsavage, look at the post above yours....just sayin' I understand, it's getting late!  |
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Quoted:
<Homer Simpson> DOH! </Homer Simpson>Quoted:
Before you spend money on a map - see if you can download one for your GPS here. The Arizona and New Mexico topo maps I have downloaded are pretty darn good. http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/ Hey, umm azsavage, look at the post above yours....just sayin'
I understand, it's getting late!
They are pretty good maps though aren't they? |
| i just got a magellan triton 400 and i have been making my own maps using gMapMaker(and triton RMP to create the raster maps) to download google/yahoo/msn driving/satillate images. the 100k/24k topo's that came with the unit(NG topo explorer deluxe) dont even come close to the ones i made. |
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I have used the instructions listed in the link below to create topo maps for my Garmin 0CSX. A little complicated, and can take a while, but I like free. http://home.roadrunner.com/~creek/garmin.htm Can you make the IDL download available? I've been trying since yesterday and the download keeps stalling. I'm done trying. I started again tonight and I've been stuck at 41% forever. |
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Quoted: Yep and they get updates more frequently too.Quoted: Quoted: <Homer Simpson> DOH! </Homer Simpson>Quoted: Before you spend money on a map - see if you can download one for your GPS here. The Arizona and New Mexico topo maps I have downloaded are pretty darn good. http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/ Hey, umm azsavage, look at the post above yours....just sayin' I understand, it's getting late! They are pretty good maps though aren't they? |