astronerd

Thanks. That's exactly the info I was hoping for. At least this looks like a solution for not having to babysit the process, assuming that the building of the map sets from the uploaded information goes smoothly.

I just uploaded maps to my Vista HCx for the first time yesterday. What a painfully slow process. I have a 2gb Sandisk microSD card and a very capable PC, but it took HOURS to upload 1.83gb of map data to the card. I did a test and uploaded 1.9gb of jpeg data to another 2gb Sandisk microSD card using a card reader and that took only 7 minutes, so I don't think the speed issue is with my computer or microSD card. Does anyone have any experience loading the map data directly to the card inserted into a R/W device rather than through the GPSr? I do not see this as an option in the MapSource application.

What are you using now? If you have something that meets your needs then I don't see a problem with waiting. Even with the WAAS issue, which I think only involves being disabled "automatically", this is easily remedied by going into set-up and enabling this feature. Not that big of a deal IMO. But the improvements in speed and sensitivity are so much better than its predecessors really should make you want to go out and get one ASAP. I am totally happy with mine, even with the minor bugs.

Thanks to all of you who have posted to this thread because it has helped me in deciding if the Vista HCx was something I really wanted to purchase so soon after product introduction by Garmin. I decided to buy now and hope that my unit wasn't a problem child. I received my unit yesterday and have not had any problems with the power on. The WAAS disable is wierdly intermittent. Sometimes it resets to disable when I power down and back up, and other times it stays enabled. I turned it on this morning after being off for about 7 hours and it came up with WAAS enabled. When I turned it on again later today after about 7 hours of being off it was disabled. This isn't that big of a problem for me because I was getting +/- 13 feet inside my house locked on to 11 satellites. I don't mind checking the set-up to see if WAAS is enabled, but it would be nice to have Garmin present a firmware fix for this. The Vista HCX blows away anything I've used before, and I started with a GPS 12XL, then got an iQue 3600 (for my vehicle), and then got the Garmin Mobile 10. All for different reasons. But the Vista HCx is definitely the best one so far in terms of sensitivity and speed. The only real complaints I have is how skimpy the user manual is (seems more like a fat quick start guide) and the packaging so that carboard dust is all over the unit. I wound up using the sticky side of the LCD screen protector to remove the carboard dust. Software Version 2.20 GPS SW Version 2.10