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also add a 1gig transflash card and a power cord. 1) Ram Mount 2) city navigator 8 3) transflash card 1Gig 4) 12v power adapter The only map that will route (navigate on road turn by turn) is Garmin's City Select or now City Navigator. You do not need an ext. antenna is my experience with the GPS60CSx. As for mounts, Garmin or RAM mount.

On my gpsV you have to tell it to NEVER recalculate the route if it gets off route (which is always is if you made the route in mapsource). I'll check my 60csx later and see what it does for me.

Is there and aviation version of the 60x series? Used to be the 176 had the fasted processor and had all the functions of the gpsV PLUS aircraft related stuff. That was a few years ago...I wonder if there's an 60 series air version for us X flyers.

Humm, yeah, are you sure the GPS is wrong and not what your referencing?

I have no experience with your hardware but have you attempted to load USB drivers from both microsoft and delorme? Seems like most gps's require a special USB driver for the connection.

Yep, beaten to death already. Cidty select is discontinued and the only difference is it has much smaller map sections for upload. city navigator has larger sections and is not suitable for older units with limited memory. Of course the newer verstion has updated maps.

There is something going on with the trip computer...I'm not convinced its always wrong but I've seen enough discrepenies to wonder now. My car odometer, in 25 miles, is 1/2 mile higher than the trip computer consistently....probably the car odometer is wrong. I checked the trip computer to the track is it was within a 10th of a mile. Trouble is, its hard to know if the track was complete or not since I had a few stops during the track I was measuring.

the SIRFIII chipset is a "must have" as far as I'm concerned. The barometer/altitude profiles are a must have for a biker or hiker. The magetic compass is the only iffy one but I love it that I can get mine to pint the right way when I'm stopped (only works in horizontal position and must be recalibrated frequently). Also, If you ever think you want to use this in your car then autorouting is nice to have and I have found from previous "limited memory" GPS's than you really need to have every map loaded for your entire route. If you want to go from the east coast to Florida or Texas then you need every map that holds a reasonalbe route for the gps to work with. That adds up to lots of memory needed. The 60csx fixed 100% of the complaints I had with my old GPSV.

One thing I find very handy to have around the house is a handheld multimeter. These can tell you voltage for AC and DC and can be set for resistance as well. They can be had for about 15 bucks but I would spend about 50 or more. Anyway, you can use the resistance mode to find what wires are connected to what. In that way you can see how your exsisting Garmin cable is made (instead of relying on a drawing which sometimes may be wrong). If you need to know the pinouts of yoru garmin then check out this page: http://www.pfranc.com/ If you need to know which wire is positive in your vehical then you need the multimeter (but its always the cneter pin on all modern cars).

Yep, Garmin screwed this up I think, in 2.5 I think. It gave longer warning before that revision. I want more warning too. At some meeting someone must have said they thought it was too long so they shortened it./?? Agreed. I've been caught out a few times when the warning has come to late for me to change lanes.

Get a 76csx before the 100 dollar rebate expires on the 9th. Thats what i would do.. At the same time, get yourselve city navigator 8 and a RAM suction cup mount for the car, and a cig lighter adapter for car power. Also, get a 1 gig transflash card. That should do you and is what I would do if you have the moola.

I've very surprised it routed you on a dotted line road!!! Dotted lines mean gravel I think to the gps. there is no way to put in a via point (as there was in the gps v I had). Hope they add this at some time as I do miss it also.

I think its the POI's that cause the occasional slow downs.. The slow downs do exsist with the larger card but its always on the find key and I blame it on the POI's it has to run through.

On my 5 mile run I was off by 0.1 miles (short) on the trip computer. The next day it was spot on. My only difference (coninsedental maybe) was that I forced my track log to 1 second breadcrumbs (turned off automatic). I also made sure lock on road was off (I was running on a road and the map is not accurate enough so you really have to turn off lock on road for this). Also, to get good elevation data I HAD to turn off "autocalibration" of the altimeter. My run was 2.5 out and the same 2.5mi back showed about a 30 to 40 ft offset between the run out and the run back with autocalibrate on. With it off my two legs were identical. My discrepency from last weekend's hike was with ver 2.90 of the firmware. GeoBC

I never had any problems with the buttons on my airmap 100 from lowrance in the 3 yrs I owned it. (I did have the lithium backup battery go bad after 1.5 yrs and lowrance left me high and dry on that problem)

Picked this up off the internet: An altimeter is a device designed to estimate altitude above mean sea level (MSL). It does so solely on the basis of atmospheric pressure. In fact, all altimeters have TWO dials--one for altitude and one for pressure. An altimeter is basically a mechanical calculator which translates a change in atmospheric pressure into a change in altitude based on the idea of a 'standard' atmosphere. This hypothetical atmosphere starts at 'mean sea level' with a temperature of 15 C and 29.92 inches of mercury (inHg). It decreases in pressure at a rate of about 1 inHg per 1000 ft elevation and decreases in temperature at a rate of about 2 C per 1000 ft elevation. Due to the unequal heating of the earth's surface by the sun, however, the real atmosphere is far from 'standard', and if an altimeter were not adjustable, its reading would be dangerously inaccurate. To account for the natural variation in barometric pressure around the world, the aviation community arrived at the idea of an 'altimeter setting'. All altimeters have a small knob at the bottom left which allows the altimeter to be set based on the local atmospheric conditions. A pilot can adjust this knob while on the ground at an airport until the altimeter reads the airport's known elevation. In addition, thousands of airports around the world have automated stations which determine and broadcast over the radio the exact 'altimeter setting' (in inHg) which should be used at their location to have an altimeter on the runway read the correct airport elevation. Pilots flying below 18,000 ft MSL listen to these broadcasts and every 100 miles or so readjust their altimeters in flight so that they read appropriately for the local atmospheric conditions. At 18,000 ft MSL and above, pilots simply ignore local conditions and set their altimeter to 29.92 inHg. This action ensures both a high probability of being at the indicated altitude when landing and a low probability of two aircrafts colliding due to non-standard atmospheric conditions when cruising at high altitude. The idea behind using an altimeter as a barometer is this: When adjusted to read true altitude, altimeters display in their altimeter setting window the hypothetical barometric pressure at mean sea level assuming a standard atmosphere. On the other hand, when adjusted to read 0 ft altitude, they display in their altimeter setting window the true barometric pressure. As the true barometric pressure drops, they indicate a rising altitude, as though in a climbing aircraft. At the same time, the pressure read in the altimeter setting window remains constant, as though based at an airport below. However, if they are readjusted to read 0 ft altitude, the pressure they display will drop to reflect the true drop in atmospheric pressure. Thus, to use an altimeter as a barometer, simply adjust it to read 0 ft altitude and read the true pressure in inches of mercury in the altimeter setting window.

I guess the question is, then, why would you even have to tell it, its at a fixed location? I'm mean, when you put it in barometer mode all it knows is that the pressure has gone up or down. Elevation data from the gps should make no difference and there should not even be an option on there to tell it its in a fixed location. I mean, theres an elevation screen that plots vs time or distance and then theres a barometer screen. Why would the barometer care what evelation you are at and why would it need to be told you are at a fixed elevation since it shouldnt' care anyway. Only the altimeter functions of the GPS should care about that.....

When geocaching I use the magnetic compass

Good question, I've never tried that configuration and I agree with you that it "fixed elevation" should do that... I'll try mine out later and see what it does. So, what happens if you turn ON the GPS and fix the elevation? Any difference?

Sounds suspiciously like a corrupt memory card or bad contacts on the memory card. When I put in my memory card I was worried about how good it connected.

Well Said!!!

Certainly seems to be the opinion of many who buy the "S" version. I would just like to add that any barometric altimeter needs to be set to the current pressure conditions. This is true for the altimeter in airplanes as well. Every time I got ready to fly the altimeter was always something other than the correct altitude and needed to be set. This is the case with your handheld gps altimeter. Where the confusion comes in is that the gps tries to let your get around this 'setting" of the local pressure by using GPS elevation to try and do it for you. If your gps knows your altitude then it can tell you your current barometric pressure. Unfortunately the elevation data from the gps is very bad and so as a result the "autocalibration" mode of the gps altimeter is very bad as well (but better than nothing). The bottom line is the barometric altimeter in your gps is a tool that has its shortcomings. If you understand the shortcomings then you might be able to make use of the tool. If you don’t then you may be tempted to dismiss it as not reliable. As far as the magnetic compass goes, now that one is a mystery to me and I would never rely on it (but maybe its because I don’t understand its shortcomings). I have a unit with both. I use neither. Ever. I regularly go places that can mean a very long walk back if you go the wrong way. The compass is useless as the proverbial appendages on a squeegee handle because it cannot be trusted as much as even a cheap magnetic compass. I regularly check my GPS against the known elevation of surveyed benchmarks. The barometric altimiter is never as accurate as the GPS. For my money they're both candidates for the lamest add ons available.

Well, if you hope to have any accuracy at all in elevation then you will need the barometer sensor. So, if you bike ride, hike or fly then the barometer is worthwhile. The magnetic compass is OK but it needs constant recalibration. I like the unit knowing the way its pointing though and would use it when hiking/geocaching. I'm glad I got the sensors and would miss the accurate altitude readings (albiet, this accuracy is only short term due to atmospheric pressure changes at any location). For me, I only opted for the electronic compass because I wanted the convience of using a magnetic compass w/o the hassle of carrying a separate one. When in the bush, I bring a separate compass as a back-up, but for Geocaching, knowing the direction you're facing w/o having to be moving is very useful. Calibration isn't an issue since it takes 10 sec. Of course, having experienced the 60's compass, I'm not sure if it was a worthwhile purchase. It's very picky about how level you hold it. It sounds like the Magellan 3-axis compass would be worthwhile, though. As far as the barometric altimeter goes, I could do w/o it, although I do like the elevation graph. I can't remember if my non-sensor 76C had that elevation graph page or not. GeoBC

Yes, if this is true its a major bug. When I had a lower number than usual on my trip counter I attribuited it to my tracklog having not enough breadcrumbs. The next day I turned it to log track points every second and it seemed to fix the problem for me. (but I've not done it enough to be sure). Actually what I found out is that accuracy has very little to do with the problem and, assuming I do not have a defective unit, I consider this a major problem. All you need to do is go on a hike and you’ll see the problem. This weekend while hiking I did some “experiments” and here is what I found out: While hiking to a destination the Garmin GPS60CSx tallied up the following information upon my arrival (accuracy was between 15 – 45 feet during the trip). Track Log – 9.28 miles Odometer (from Trip Computer Page) – 8.08 miles The green trails map and hiking description specify a length of - 8.8 miles If I had to take a guess I would say that the Track Log was the most accurate due to washout and blowdown detours we had to take. I decided to measure the return trip and the GPSr gave me the following information: Track Log – 9.31 miles Odometer – 7.45 miles Interesting that the Track Logs were almost identical and the odometer was significantly different from both its first measurement and reality. The next day I hiked up to a different destination and got the following data: Track Log – 2.7 miles Odometer (from Trip Computer Page) – 1.73 miles The green trails map and hiking description specify a length of - 2.7 miles The return trip gave the following info: Track Log – 2.65 miles Odometer (from Trip Computer Page) – 2.08 miles Once again - Interesting that the Track Logs were almost identical and the odometer was significantly different from both its first measurement and reality While driving home from the hike I decided to do the same experiment in the car and noticed that if you‘re traveling at a relatively constant speed the odometer is fairly accurate. Once you start doing a lot of stop, go, accelerating and decelerating the odometer’s error becomes larger and larger. Here is what I think is happening. The odometer has nothing to do with your position being tracked across a “map”. I believe it (the algorithm) uses speed and the time traveled to determine a distance traveled (i.e. D=RXT). In the world of hiking, where you are typically traveling between 0-4mph, going up switchbacks, taking a break, looking at the scenery, etc, these speed errors (which at these slow rates are already full of errors) translates into an even worse odometer reading. So if this is the case, what else is bogus info on this GPSr? How else do you determine an accurate distance traveled at a quick glance? I mean this is a $450 GPSr, shouldn’t I be able to determine how far I’ve travel without going through the steps of saving a track log???

With the csx units they are identical now in function and software maps and all. The only difference is the form factor and the size of memory card that comes with it. The 76 floats and the 60 almost floats... I think the 76 might come with a 100 rebate now....thats what I would get if true.