GPS help needed

turbodog

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As some of you know, I have a nice looooong mtn bike trip coming in a few weeks. The trip goes through the backcountry of the san juan mountain range. As such, I have been comtemplating buying a gps for this trip.

I'm educating myself on these things. What I have found is that most come with varying levels of basemap which usually include highways and interstates. If you want other maps you have to buy and load them into the unit.

Please correct me if I am wrong on these points.

The question I have is in the maps. I have determined that since we a traveling through the mountain ranges we really need a topo map. These are supposed to show elevations, bodies of water, and other topo features.

However, we will at least cross over some rural dirt roads every now and then. A few water crossings are planned also. Would the topo maps include these features?

Also, I figure I'm right when I assume that you have to load specific areas into the gps memory. I don't think the unit will hold the entire USA.

Question is, how much topo data will the unit hold? And how do I know how much data the map/route will take BEFORE I buy the gps and additional topo map?

I figure I can return the gps hardware if I make an error, but the s/w is keyed and unreturnable.

If someone here was willing to help me.... The trip planner has provided me with some HUGE paper maps of the route. There is enough detail in them that someone here could figure out which lat/long they encompass. This person could then tell me how big the maps are so I would know what gps I need to buy to hold them all.

Basically I need to know if I need to spend $200 for a unit and map or $500, or whatever.
 

gadget_lover

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There is no one answer. Each GPS model may have different memory configurations. Each map maker may have different ways of encodeing the info.

I can tell you the Garmin street pilot III with a 256K memory card holds all the roads in the 8 western states as well as many, many businesses. That includes ruting information too.

I've not used topo maps, so I can't advise there. I'd assume that a read would be a feature within the map. YOu can find a link on the GARMIN website that lets you preview the maps they sell. See http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/topo.jsp# for a sample on the right side of the page. It does show roads with the topo info.

Daniel
 

Coop

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- Magellan Mapsend topo 3D USA $139 m.s.r.p.
- Magellan Explorist 210/400/500/600/XL, Meridian Color/Platinum/Gold/Marine, SporTrak Pro/Color/Marine $130 and up...

I've seen the Meridian units on clearance sale at a few online vendors at really good prices... just can't remember which vendors it were :(
iirc handlebar mounts are available for most of these units.

I prefer the Magellan units over Garmin as they keep their fix/accuracy better under leaf cover... But the Garmin units are generally easier to operate.
 

turbodog

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I took a look at the demo map on their web site. It looked pretty much like my paper map.

Speaking of the paper map. I would bet money that it's a usgs map. So in theory, the garmin topo map should match up pretty close.
 

jtice

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I have both the topo and city streets loaded to my 60csX (EXCELLENT unit BTW)

I have found that the topo is showing a surprising amount of old logging roads, and back woods trials that are not accessable by truck anymore.
I ride ATVs, so that has been very very handy.
It should show you a good bit of the small roads like that.
But city Select will show you ALL the roads, back allies, city streets, etc.

Only drawback is, you can NOT display both on the unit at the same time.
You have to tell it not to display the City Select (which overwrites topo) so that the topo shows up.
Think of it as having a street map laying over a topo map, you have to look under the street map to see the topo.

For mainly biking in the woods, the topo might be enough for you.
But if you want to do any other traveling, or use hte auto routing (very cool) you will need city select.

How much you can store depends on the unit.
Mine has a micro SD card, so I can expand the memory.
Right now, it has a 56MB card in it, and I have all of WV on it, topo and city select.
That pretty much fills it up.

~John
 

ktronik

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Where I ride their are NO GPS maps aval...So in built map not an option...

I take topo's & use the GPS to confirm where I am on the map...I also dump my whole planned trip (in track log) into my Bike ready, Garmin Fortrex 101 (its tiny w a bike computer inside)...that way I can follow where I am going as I go along...the NEW garmin bike GPS is even better...3D onboard mapping of elevation... :grin2:

With a little trick, you can dump a whole city map (in track log) in to a NON mapping garmin GPS... :)

I would not gamble my life on electronic data...REAL paper maps are for me...

Enjoy the trip

Ktronik
 

MikeF

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I agree with jTice about the Garmin GPSMap 60CSx. It is a great GPS for multiple uses with the appropriate maps installed with great sensitivity, fast operating speed. The 60CSx comes with a 64mb SD-Mini, and I upgraded to a 1Gb card for $80. 1Gb is probably overkill, but I have all of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, Southern Illinois, Washington DC, and many maps adjacent to DC. I don't have the topos installed but there is plenty of room if I decide to install them later.

I got both GPS unit and maps from www.GPSNOW.com and they offer great prices and service.

I purchased a Garmin iQue 3600 Palm-PDA/GPS from GPSNOW a couple of years ago, and despite having some problems with it Garmin has stood behind it 110%. They just sent me at no charge a complete new Automotive Nagigation Kit when a two year old kit broke at the end of the cigarette power plug. Because of the quality of their support I will not buy another brand!
 

cobra-ak

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The new Garmin Etrex Vista Cx has a micro SD card and you can store a crapload of topo maps, I don't do a lot of off-road but when you have to you got it all, elevations, trails, rivers, lakes, etc. I got the Etrex Vista C but am limited to 24 megs internal memory.
 

Chronos

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I'm with jTice and Mikef on the Garmin 60csx. I've had one for almost 6 mos and love it. I have city and topo maps (Garmin). I'm amazed at the good detail on the topo map, and have used it on numerous hikes and geocaches. With the SIRFIII chip it is great under heavy leaf cover too.

I also have an iPAQ hx4700 that I sometimes use on hikes and caches. I bought Back Country Navigator (www.backcountrynavigator.com) for it. It has hi-res topo maps as well as b&w aerial photos (hi-res) too. I have a cable to connect both my 60csx and old venture to it so I can get amazing detail as to my location and my target(s).
 

turbodog

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Well, after much wasted time, gas, and energy I have returned the gps to the store.

I post this here to help others that may travel this road.

My original problem was that I didn't know how much gps memory was needed to download a certain size topo map. Nobody seemed to be able to tell me.

I bought a lowrance gps and their 6 cd map set. The map set came with a usb sd card reader, a 64mb sd card, and 6 cdroms of data.

First, after loading the program you still have to have the cd in the drive to run the program. This sucked, but I was willing to overlook it, as I was just using it for a short term one shot project.

I defined my map area I wanted. I found that I could get about 2/3 of the state of CO into about 16mb of memory. This number tripled if you added contour elevations, but otherwise you could get roads, airports, lakes, rivers, businesses, etc.

I go to write the map to the gps card. It doesn't work. Pc won't recognize it properly. I tried another pc. Same problem. I checked the cdrom for the right drivers, no luck. I checked their web site, same drivers as the cdrom.

Crap.

I checked google. Apparently this is a problem. Some lowrance card readers simply are bad.

Double crap.

Since the store is a long way but best buy is close, I buy a sandisk 10 in 1 card reader and a nifty 256mb sd card also.

Plug it in. The drivers load, the card inserted. All is good with the world.

I try to upload the map again.

No luck.

*&$##*( ARGH!

I check google and the help file. Both tell me that the lowrance reader is REQUIRED for the software to work correctly.

I package it all up and return it. I am done with this gps crap.

I will depart on my trip without a gps. And should I not return I will die happy knowing that death from starvation is better that screwing around with such a crappy piece of equipment. And no, I don't think garmin/magellan are any better either with their equally stupid serial numbers.
 

jtice

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Sorry for your bad experience. :(

If Lowrance makes you use thier card reader, thats a bunch of BS.
I dont have much experience with Lowrance, but I dont think their maps are as good either.

yes, Garmins installation, with all its serial numbers is very frustrating, and may take some users a bit of time to get setup,
but you only have to do it once, and I think its Well worth the trouble.

~John
 

Sigman

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turbodog said:
...First, after loading the program you still have to have the cd in the drive to run the program...
After reading your post, I'd have a hard time recommending Lowrance to anyone.

As John says Garmin can be frustrating as well, but the maps aren't too bad once they're loaded. There's an edit that can be done to your registry to tell your PC to look for the data on the hard drive instead of the CD - but can get one into trouble as well if not done EXACTLY. I prefer to stay away from registry edits if at all possible!

Very happy with my 60CS (thanks John!) and Etrex Color Legend as well. However the newer models (like John bought - "CSX") that allow SD cards would be nice...my wallet is happy where I'm at (well after I finish finding things around here to sell & recycle funds - it's a never-ending war! :D ).
 
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greenLED

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Make sure that you know what the battery drainage on your GPS unit will be. On the unit I used for field work, we had to replace batteries too often (every couple of days). I thought I'd mention it because of where you're headed and potential weight limitations.
 

turbodog

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turbodog said:
...
I will depart on my trip without a gps. And should I not return I will die happy knowing that death from starvation is better that screwing around with such a crappy piece of equipment. And no, I don't think garmin/magellan are any better either with their equally stupid serial numbers.


There's a thin line between tough and stupid. I'm right on that line.
 

Chronos

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My GGarmin isn't perfect, but I've had no issues at all loading Mapsource Topo maps nor city maps. I know the serial number thing can be silly, but if I exhaust my two unit limit by purchasing a third unit I understand that with a call to Garmin I can get two new numbers.
 
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