mike909

Agreed, I've actually used this one as well. connect.garmin.com seems like a good interface as well, but falls short on trails (at least in my area). It's been years since my original post, so I'm betting some of those sites are now better, some worse.

I would like to add that one to the 'honorable mention' list, but I don't think I can edit the original post anymore. I like what people are doing with google's custom search. Also, I believe we will see some creative uses of google's ability now to save your own maps directly from the native gmap interface.

My 2 pence

Yep, that did it BaldEd. Thanks for your help. Would be nice if I could pull the built-in garmin icons off of it and use them...but anyway, works like a charm.

Well, setting a different zoom for POI's than for Waypoints pretty much achieves what I want, provided I have loaded all my custon poi's correctly. (except poi's don't include 'notes' so I don't get the cache description.) Is there any way to change the icon of certain custom POI databases? for example, have the cache custom poi's appear with different icons than the benchmark custon poi's.

Is there any way to display all the POI's from a poi database on the 60csx? Ultimately I would like to be able to view caches, benchmarks, and waypoints all seperately as their own layer. For example, the custom POI's don't appear unless I click on one and select 'map'. I would like to have the ability to display all of them at once, or not display any of them (default). A good example of the real implication of being able to do this is....I load up 50 caches for an area I will be traveling to, but don't want them as waypoints, because they clutter up the map, so I make them POI's...or disable waypoints rite? well the problem there is...it hides 'all' the waypoints, not just caches, or benchmarks, or whatever. I would like to be able to show all the caches in the area, then be able to easily not show all the caches in that area. Does that make any sense?

would anyone here benefit from me using a 'refferal code'? figured i'd ask...

whoa...thanks man. eek...6.78 shipping brings it to 16.76 for a shield...anyone know of any B&M stores that sell these things?

Is this one what you purchased? Sais 60 'series', so just making sure.

Since I knew I was going to purchase a GPS (60Csx) I began looking for a website to help me locate trails for hiking/mtn. biking. I immediately found a number of sources for such information, and began seeking the best. Below are my findings. Note: I consider a "trail" to be a path in which you can walk/run/hike/mountain bike. Admittedly, my primary concern is Hiking & Mtn. Biking. I live in the US (Nevada), but tried not to let that sway my ratings. Here are my findings: Winner for best interface: http://www.gpsies.com Features include: Easily upload .gpx and a host of other formats. Also converts/outputs many different formats. Or you can plot out your course over the maps (based on google-maps api). Course includes elevation, distance, starting coordinates. Email course to friend. Integrate trail into your Blog. Searchable trails. Sample Extremely closeRunner Up: http://www.sanoodi.com This is basically the same as gpsies. One of the main differences is, the sidebar has direct integration with Flickr, so you can see geo-coded pics that other people have taken in the area. I flip back & forth between these 2 websites, but over-all I think gpsies has a cleaner interface. Sample Winner for best source of information: http://www.localhikes.com Granted, this will probably change greatly depending on your specific area, but for me this website had the most trails. Nothing fancy like the other websites, but if the ultimate goal is to find a new trail to hike on...this is the resource I have been using most. Displays info from TOPO! and allows you to download the TOPO! (which would be cool if GPS Babel could convert, but it can't..see my thread) This is probably a good time to mention, that all the websites I looked at (with the exception of 1 or 2) are user-driven...meaning that exposure and user input really dictate how well of a resource it is. Hopefully, over time, one of the 2 winning websites will become more and more popular here in the US. Honorable Mentions Below are the websites that I looked at which I think are worth noting. I italisized the most important things to note about each site: TrailRegistry.com Also based on the Google Maps API. Decent interface, just not as complete as the others. Decent exposure.(exposure=amount of trails in USA) http://wikiwalki.com Also based on the Google Maps API. Decent interface, bad exposure. http://www.travelbygps.com/index.php Decent source of info with .gpx downloads including waypoints & tracks. http://www.gpxchange.com/ Easy way to get a bunch of way-points into gps, but bad exposure. TOPO! Exchange Looks like it has good exposure, but since .tpo files are 100% useless without the software...doesn't do anything for me. http://forum.delorme.com/viewforum.php?f=34 Forum for TOPO! exchanges, could prove useful to someone (not me though, as discussed earlier...can't do anything with .tpo files) http://www.gpsxchange.com/ Could be usefull information source if you don't mind searching forums. http://www.topozone.com Could be a useful source of information, if you really want to search for something interesting in your area. http://www.everytrail.com/ Another rendition of the Gmaps api that falls short of the winning 2. Would be nice if all of the gmap renditions were consolidated (maybe that's what someone should take a day off to do) http://www.mtbguru.com/ Ditto Other sites I searched, but don't have really anything to say about (meaning...I didn't like them for one reason or another) http://garminmapsearch.com/ http://magnalox.net/index.php http://www.wikiloc.com/ ...and some more that I can not remember. Hope this info helps someone.

I got 60Csx about two weeks ago and already scrachted the screen. Obviously I should have put one of them screen protectors on as well. Kenk, care to share the link where you purchased yours? Better to have 1 scratch, than many I suppose. Anyone know of a magical way to 'fill-in' a scratched screen to make it appear fixed? I think I saw something on discovery channel once, which explained it.

it was in a list of sites I tested out for trail-sharing. I'm actually going to open a new thread with my findings. Probably do that either today or tommorow.

grasscatcher, I appreciate the offer...it would be nice to get a couple ones from my area converted. I'l post back with the links and pm you my e-mail.

But won't a lot of the accuracy be lost, when converting from track to 'route' as you said?

Yea, I'm most interested in converting 'tracks'. That seems to be what most of localhikes.com and mapxchange are formatted for.

Everything you said makes sense, but how did you convert old tpo to gpx and how many different versions of topo are there? 1, 2 & 3? old being 1 and new being 3? All the ones I'm trying to convert are from LocalHiles.com and TopoXchange

UPDATE: Cypherman has confirmed the issue and contacted gpsbabel folks: quote]This appears to be an older (pre-3.0) file containing waypoints. We never successfully reverse engineered that format. That's unfortunate, because localhikes.com uses the .tpo format too and they are a great resource for hikes. Thanks for tryinig Cypherman...I appreciate your effort. Maybe I'l try to get my hands on an older version of TOPO! Mike

Cypher, Just emailed you one, but in case your wondering where I'm getting them from...it's from this website: http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/topo/search.cfm I happen to be trying to convert the ones that list when search for 'Nevada' state. Thanks for the help. Mike

Maybe natl. geographic changed their .tpo format or something. Tried tpo3 as well.

The Hoff, I just bought one last week and mine also crashes and fades when routing (using topo) every single time but ONLY when the gps function is off (routing in 'demo' mode). Are you performing the routing while the gps function is 'on'?

I'm trying to convert .tpo files (such as those found on mapxchange ) to .gpx? I tried gpsbabel and it errors out saying this article speaks about it being possible, but with the assistance of another program (ozi explorer).

Just realised that by not being able to 'go to' the map, your not just talking about navigating to it...you actually can't select it and have the map centre on it either. That kind of sucks...can't review what it looks like without panning around to find it manually.

Timpat, Thank you for that very clear and detailed response. It makes perfect sense and I will give it a try a little later. I can live with not being able to 'go to' the tracks. (though honestly, it seems silly for Garmin to not allow for tracks to be sent to the SD card with full functionality...I mean that's one of the main advantages to the expandable memory imo). Red90, Custom POI trick...was hoping that wasn't necessary, but if waypoint notes are limited to 30, then that's what I will need to do. Thanks all for suggestions.

Yes, and yes. When I recieved it a couple days ago, that's the first thing I did...update everything. I guess I will try loading a waypoint with a different program (like gsak or something) thanks for the suggestions though. Will post back with my results.

Almost got all my questions answered for my new 60Csx (thanks to this forum) and the unit is great so far...just a couple more quick ones: 1. When I add tracks from mapsource to my Gps, it adds them to internal memory (which is limited to 20 total tracks). My plan was to load up a bunch of tracks for a natl. park before I go camping (don't plan to bring laptop). Is there any way to store tracks to the SD card from mapsource? (i tried to search on this, as I thought I saw a thread relating to it before, but I couldn't find anything) 2. This should be an easy one...My waypoints 'notes' field is getting cut off in the gps. It seems like it's only displaying about 20 characters or so, then truncating it. When I view the waypoint in mapsource it has the full notes. (ie. a waypoint sais "great view of the valley to the west from here" in mapsource, but on the gps it just says "great view of the".