myotis

I've been GPSing trails for a long time now and my 650 is the best GPS I've ever had for GTPSing trails. I have been very impressed with its accuracy. I've had it for about 3 months and have yet to have ANY accuracy issues with it. I used it out in CO earlier in the month in the mountians, canyons and tree cover. No problem at all. GPSed several trails and got great tracks that matched right up with GoogleEarth. When I am GPSing something, I set it to glnoss and WAAS. I thing glnoss is a huge help in challenging circustances (well it did not help in the I70 tunnels). On the other hand, I had a really bad experience with Garmin today. I bought a new subscription to nuMaps for my 650 and it is not working. I called support. The guy told me since I bought it from Amazon, he could not help me. Said I would have to buy a new subscription. He refused to transfer me to a manager and hung up on me when I kept insisting I wanted to talk to a manager.

I got the Yosemite data from the NPS. This is what the NPS says about the data I used for My Trails: abstract>This is the master file shapefile for the hiking/stock trails for Yosemite National Park. The trail network was derived from the USGS 7.5 minute digital line graphs and supplemented by GPS data collection where the DLG data is incorrect, or where there are new trails or trail alignments. The data were originally digitized in GRASS in 1995 from the DLGs. It has undergone edits in 2006, 2007, and 2008 to correct for inaccuracies using the LIDAR data where available or the NAIP imagery where trails can be recognized.</abstract><purpose>To reflect the current state of the trail system of Yosemite National Park</purpose>

That's a bit off. A typ file will change the way something is dsplayed from its default. There is a default way the GPS will draw a feature. It will draw all maps that way unless there is a typ file that tells the GPS to draw certian features differently.

Read #22 for the fix. Apparently this has happened before. sorry but that is not a fix. Garmin broke it and needs to fix it.

I upgraded and wish I did not. Why cannot Garmin use common sense? They need to fix te straight line problem. To see if I had the problem, I powered off my 550T and then turned it back on. I got the straight line, but it was worse than that. It connected from where I turned the GPS back on with a straight line to about 1/2 mile before I turned off the GPS!!!!!

OR 550T Works great canoeing. Its got a built in waterproof camera that takes pretty good pictures.

I think there needs to be a FAQ on the difference between the T and regular models. People ask this all the time and usually get misleading advice. Certainly you can get free better topo maps on gpsfiledepot.com. However, the T models also come with 100K DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data which some features require. You can only get DEM data from a T model or Garmin 100K topo or Garmin's 24K topo (which have 24K DEM). Us map-makers have not been able to figure out how to make DEM data to load on your GPS, so you cannot get DEM data from gpsfiledepot.com. While one may still decide the DEM data is not worth the extra money, it needs to be weighed in the decision. I thought it was worth the extra money when I bought my 550T. DEM: To show shaded relief, the GPS requires DEM data. If you have DEM data on your GPS, it will show shaded relief on any map (including the ones from gpsfiledepot.com). However, shaded relief makes the GPS significantly harder to read. However, sometimes it can be nice when looking at a map to see if the trail goes uphill or downhill. You can turn it on if you need it. Without it, usually you can tell which way is up, but sometimes you have to click on topo lines to figure it out. The 3d viewer requires DEM data With DEM data, the GPS will add elevation data to a track you load and follow on track manager. This allows you to view the elevation profile of your trip. However, I use http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/elevation to obtain the elevation profile as the DEM data there is more accurate than the built in 100K. But it is nice to have it just in case. These are the two things I like (and use) the most: With DEM data, the GPS will add elevation data to a car route. So you can see the elevation profile of the route you are driving. With DEM data, you can click anywhere on the map and one of the pieces of information about the site that will be provided is the elevation. While it is based on 100K DEM, it is reasonablely accurate.

Get a garmin. www.gpsfiledepot.com has free (donations are appriciated) topo maps that cover everywhere in the US including the boundary waters. My Trails also on ww.gpsfiledepot.com (there is a link on the main page under most popular downloads). It has all the campsites and portages. Multiple people have told me the campsites and potages are extremely accurate.

Garmin GPSs with cameras do

I noticed a drop in quality of tracks. You get many mnore extra points when you are not moving than you used to.

I sometimes have to rotate but do not conider it a problem

You wanted to move it to the card to make room for PQs on the device. However, you should place your PQs on the card, not internal memory. So you really don't have a problem with the map on the card. PQs work the same if they are on the device or the card. However, if they are on the card and there is an issue with them, you can pull the card and start up the GPS. There can be problems with PQs stopping the GPS from starting up. This is much easier to deal with if they are on the car. Remove the card and GPS starts up. If there is a problem with the PQs not loading correctly and you are away from your computer, you can pull the card, start the GPS, shut down the GPS reinsert the card, and then restart the GPS. There are no advantages to having the PQs on the GPS instead of the card.

You cannot update My Trails yourself. But you can send me corrections or additions and it gets in the next version of My Trails. That way everyone benefits from the updates.

It beeps, it does not talk, I agree the t maps are not worth it, I bought the T model to get the DEM Data. I would get City Navigator. My Trails have entensive coverage in PA. If something is missing, you can GPS the trail and I will add it to the map. My Trails is transparent and displays on top of other maps. For a topo map, get the state map by maps4gps

Back in the day, Garmins came with exit services in the base map. They don't anymore. CityNavigator does not have them either. I wish they did. Tide POIs are built into most basemaps.

Nope, the lock on road is not fixed yet. I updated it yesterday and this evening it was back to lock on road.

Has anyone had the lock on road issue since the new update? You would think they would fix this before adding new features I note the bug that ETA in a different time zone shows the wrong time zone is not fixed either

Another example of why you should never load your caches on the GPS. Use a card. The most recent firmware makes the cache loading problem much better. You may be able to keep plugging it in and it might work one of the times.

We've never used the SD card. We just pull the batteries and everything is fine. Not sure what you are refering to, but that does NOT fix the problem they are asking about. The problem is the caches are corrupted in the GPS memory. In order to fix the problem you have to force the GPS to clear the memory and then relad the caches. The GPS only clears the memory is if the time stamp is changed on the file or the file is no longer there. So if you remove the card and reboot, memory is clear since the cache file is no longer there. Then when you put the card back in, it will reload the caches. Pulling the batteries does not clear the memory or force a reload of the caches.

This has been around a while, Garmin knows about it. Sometime lock on road gets turned on all by itself. It happens about once a week for me. Has anyone ever figured out a patern of when it changes the setting? Everyone should complain to Garmin about this. They should have fixed it long ago.

What you are describing is EXACTLY what happens when the PQ is not loaded correctly. It used to happen all the time, but with the new firmware it rarely happens. If it happens and you are at home, just relaod your PQs and then the GPS will reload them. You should ALWAYS load your caches on a card and not internal memory. If you discover the problem in the field and they are in internal memory, you are SOL. If you discover this when you are in the field and you have the caches loaded on your card: Turn off GPS, remove card, start up GPS, shut down GPS, replace card and reboot. That will fix the problem-the caches are cleared from memory and reloaded.

I just updated Eastern Land Ownership. Here is a screen shot of how it works as an overlay (Besides showing the boundaries, if you click on the map, it will identify who owns the track): Its got all the public and semipublic land in MN. So all you would need to do is download it, run the installer, and send it to your GPS (since you have a 60CSX, you have to combine all your maps together and send them to the GPS.

That's the way it is supposed to work. Even if it worked like you want, it would not speed anything up. Load all of CN as a single file. Sounds like you are used to an older GPS!

Eastern Land Ownership is a transparnet overlay that shows boundaries on top of other maps (Actually it shades in the ownership so you can see boundaires and who who owns the land). It covers MN very well. Your state has very good GIS data on all public and semipublic landownership so it should have the boundaries you are looking for. You can download it at: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/180 The current installer has some POI maps in it by mistake. Tonight I plan to upload a new installer so I would wait until the map page indicate the installer has been updated. My Trails also has extensive coverage of MN and there will also be a new version tonight.

I hope you did not pay more than $5 for it!