Posted: 9/11/2008 8:42:29 AM EDT
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I'm looking to buy a Garmin eTrex Vist HCx soon and had some questions about maps. -Some disks talk about unlocking the maps. After spending $100 for a disk of maps, do I have to pay more to "unlock" maps? Why are they locked to begin with? -I'm also curious as to how much of a map I can load onto a given size of microSD card and can I mix & match (i.e. US Topo maps on the same card as some Navigator)? -What's the difference between City Navigator and City Navigator NT? Can you tell this is my first GPS? Thanks. |
1) Unlock question answered by poster above 2) NT versus regular navigator is unit dependent. Check Garmin's website to see if they recommend the NT maps for the Vista. I have a Colorado and Navigator NT. The NT version uses a special compression that is allegedly more space-efficient. Judging from Garmin's site, the NT maps work with the Vista Hcx. 3) They are locked so that they can only be used with a single GPS unit 4) Depends on the size of your card and the amount of map data/number of map segments you load. I have the entire City Navigator NT on a single 2GB card with the better part of a gig remaining. You can select only certain segments of the Navigator maps to load if you like. I loaded them all 5) If you load maps to a card, you might want a card reader. I could not get ANY maps to load to my card through my Colorado 400i. I bought a $13 card reader and they all loaded smooth as silk. Insert card and problem solved. Hope this helps. |
You might want to look at the Garmin Colorado or Oregon 400t instead, they come with the topo maps for the whole US built in. Buying a Vista HCx + topo maps costs almost as much as a Colorado with preloaded maps. If you do buy the topo maps, be sure to get the latest 2008 version, not the ancient 2002 version. |