peter

If you start by copying the CDs into a folder on your hard drive then you can run the installation directly from there and you won't need the CDs again. Otherwise use the method of editing the Registry given in the link by mncanoeist. Garmin's TopoUS CDs do not have any copy protection and you can make a backup copy.

On the toolbar should be a drop-down menu that specifies the mapset being used. Presumably that currently is set to Topo and therefore MapSource thinks you want to display the Topo map data. Set it to another product or to "No map" and it should stop asking for the Topo CD. I don't know why your Google Earth is crashing. Does it work ok if you run it on its own rather than calling it via MapSource?

I agree with the other posters - get a model that has a computer connection. And the reason goes well beyond the inconvenience of entering geocache coordinates by hand. There are a whole host of possible applications of GPS receivers besides geocaching and many of them need a computer connection: recording your hikes, mapping local trails, plotting where you went on Google Earth or other aerial photo/mapping databases, using it with a laptop to give you a voice-based navigation system when traveling, determining where digital photos were taken using shareware that coordinates the GPS tracklog with the photo timestamp, recording and analyzing exercise/training sessions of running/cycling/water sports to monitor and improve performance, and many more.

The current version (v4) of MG-Canada does. We eventually determined that kengeroo has a much older version which comes from a different source and doesn't support any type of auto-routing.

There's the key: version 2. That was the earlier version which has no routing support for either the PC or the GPS unit. So yes, to get auto-routing you will need to get one of the more current mapping products. If you're strictly interested in Canada then look over the chart from GPSCentral that I linked before. If you want both Canada and the US then either CitySelect-NA or CityNavigator-NA will work about equally well for a 60CSx. Probably easier to find CityNavigator-NA.

Odd, it does seem to think that no routing product is present. When you click on the Help Menu and select "About MapSource" and then "Product Info," what shows up in the "Map Product Info" box?

When you select Preferences under the Edit menu, do you get another window opening that's labeled "Preferences" in the red bar on top? It should have various tabs that can be selected: Time, Find, Routing, Units, Display, etc. Select the Routing one and then check whether Auto-routing is enabled.

It was probably located somewhere else in a previous version of MapSource. Good to upgrade that anyway. You can download the latest version free from Garmin's site: http://www.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=209 Note: this won't upgrade any map data, just the program itself.

That should definitely provide auto-routing (although sometimes of slightly lower quality than the CitySelect/Navigator routing). Check your routing preference settings. Look under the Edit menu for Preferences and then select the Routing tab. Under Route Style there should be the option to select either auto-routing or direct routes. Make sure the auto-routing option is selected.

As Oz indicated, no one but maybe some people at Garmin knows the real date. In general Garmin has been updating CityNavigator-NA annually each summer. They have an official announcement date and a later actual shipping date. Anyone who unlocks the previous version on or after the announcement date is entitled to a free upgrade. Last summer the announcement date was June 1st and the actual shipments started in early August. So anyone who had version 6 and didn't unlock it until June 1st or later could get a free upgrade to version 7 when that became available. You might buy version 7 now but hold off on unlocking it until you have some real need for the maps such as an extended trip.

Interesting since I'd usually seen reviews that were more favorable about the DMTI-based MG-Ca, v4 than abou the NavTeq-based CS/CN-NA, v7. CS/CN does seem to favor urban areas more than MG-Ca does, so that may account for some of the different perceptions. GPSCentral has a comparison chart of the different Garmin map products covering Canada at: http://www.gpscentral.ca/accessories/mapso...differences.htm

As I wrote above, you may or may not have auto-routing depending on exactly what you mean by "MetroGuide for Canada". Could you indicate exactly which product you have (MetroGuide-NorthAmerica or MetroGuide-Canada) and which version? Then we could better determine if the problem is with the product you have or something with how it's configured.

The details of exactly which version and map product are important in knowing what routing capabilities they have. There has only been one version of WorldMap and it doesn't support any auto-routing. But "MetroGuide for Canada" can mean a couple different things. There's MetroGuide-NorthAmerica which has had versions 5, 6, and 7. These cover both the US and Canada (but despite the name, *not* Mexico) and all support auto-routing on your PC but are not designed to do so directly on the GPS unit. There's also MetroGuide-Canada which is currently version 4 and which *does* support auto-routing both on the PC and on suitable GPS models (earlier versions did not).

I've found that calling right when they open (I think it's 8am Central time) works well.

I don't use GSAK so I'll let others comment on the issues related to its use. Some comments on your other issues. 1) Using a voltmeter with no load is not a good way to test batteries. They can show a properly high voltage when not loaded yet drop immediately when a load is connected. 2) Sounds like when you saved the tracklog on the unit that you also initiated the 'TrackBack' function where it guides you back along that same path (either in the original or reverse direction). That would explain the message about an upcoming turn. 3) There's no need to export a file from MapSource to view the tracklog in Google Earth. Update your MapSource to the latest version from the Garmin website and then under the View menu one of the items will be to view the track in GoogleEarth (provided you've installed that on your PC).

Excellent news. The slightly stripped down version makes lots of sense for anyone who would immediately replace the small microSD card from the Legend anyway and has no need of the other included accessories. Good to know that Garmin didn't throw in any artificial limitations.

It can be a nasty 'Gotcha' while geocaching, but once you realize the possibility it should be easy to avoid. Even if you click on the waypoint and accidentally move the cursor you can still get out by hitting Quit or Esc and the coordinates won't be changed. I have found the capability handy for some non-geocaching situations. One is that I've entered our local subway/rail system stations into my GPS as waypoints since they're not on the MetroGuide maps. I initially put them in based on the published addresses of each station, but that's sometimes off a bit on the maps. So when I get to a station entrance I use the 'Move' feature to reposition it. If I'm entering the south entrance I may estimate that the station center is about 100' north of my current position so that's where I position the waypoint.

This type of marketing is not limited to electronics and software. I had a car where the base model had front seats with only a limited recline mehanism whereas the next trim level up provided fully reclining seats. Examining the seat construction showed that the two were the same except that there was an extra pin welded into the mechanism on the cheaper model that prevented the seat from going back farther. A little application of a power drill removed the pin and allowed the seats to go all the way back.

This would be true if a linear regulator were to be used. These do waste much of the energy as heat and get very hot if higher input voltages are used. However, there are more energy-efficient methods of converting voltages, such as switching regulators, which reduce the current draw as the voltage increases. A very simplified description is given at: http://www.rason.org/Projects/swregdes/swregdes.htm Measurements that I've made on my Garmin GPS receivers has shown them to be very close to constant power devices. As the battery voltage decreases, the current draw grows correspondingly. Note that this is the opposite of what's seen in passive devices like flashlights where the current decreases with decreasing voltage (and the light gets rapidly dimmer).

That will work fine in your new 76CSx and is very nice for hiking since it shows the elevation details. But the road information is very dated, many road names are not included, and it won't support auto-routing, i.e. figuring out the best way to get you from point A to point B. Either CitySelect-NA or CityNavigator-NA provide much more up-to-date street/road information and support the auto-routing feature. These maps will also let you search for specific street addresses and many business locations are listed. I'd highly recommend that you get one of those programs in addition to the TopoUS you already have. While not absolutely necessary for geocaching, it'll make your GPS much more useful for travel and driving. You may well want to load a combination of the two map types. I frequently use CitySelect while getting to a trailhead and then switch to TopoUS when hiking.

The problem is that while battery capacities are expressed in terms of the current (mA) they can supply for an amount of time (mA-hrs), the more relevant question is how much power (mW) they can supply for an amount of time (mW-hrs). The wattage is given by current times voltage (W = I x V). A GPS receiver takes a certain amount of power to operate and will therefore draw less current if supplied with a higher voltage (of course only up to the limits of acceptable input voltages for a particular model). So if we're going to compare batteries that have different voltages we can't just look at the capacity number for each but also need to consider the voltage. That's why Red90 and I referred to "equivalent" capacities, i.e. after making an adjustment to account for the voltage difference. In particular, the amount of energy available from two NiMH 2500 mA-hr cells is 2 x 1.2V x 2500 mA-hr = 6000 mW-hr. In comparison, the energy available from the RCR-V3 cell listed by NZ would be 3V x 2500mA-hr = 7500 mW-hr. So one would expect that cell to run a GPS 25% longer than using NiMH 2500 mA-hr cells. Or, the way Red90 and I used "equivalent" capacities before, the 3V, 2500 mA-hr cell is "equivalent" to a pair of 1.2V NiMH cells with a capacity of 3 x 2500 / (2 x 1.2) = 3125 mA-hr. I.e. the single 3V 2500mA-hr cell has the same energy content as would a pair of 1.2V 3125 mA-hr cells.

As others have mentioned, this effect is due to the "Road Lock" feature that Garmin has. I have the same problem when riding on bicycle paths that sometimes pass near roads and the cursor jumps over to the nearby roadway. When this feature is turned on the unit assumes that anyone traveling above a threshold speed (10 mph in my model) must be on a road and therefore moves the cursor over to any nearby roads. Of course people on trains or on bike paths don't match the assumption. Fortunately the feature can be turned off in most Garmins, including your LegendCx. Go into the Map Setup menus and look for "Lock to Roads" under the Road options. Toggle it to "Off."

Don't have a VistaCx, but on my Garmins if I click on a waypoint from the regular map page then I get the waypoint information page. But if I had previously chosen 'Map' from a waypoint information page and then select a waypoint on the resulting map, I'll get the 'move' prompt and can modify the waypoint location.

I'm not sure what discrepancy you're concerned about. The 'total ascent' will generally be higher than the simple difference between the initial elevaton and the highest since you also have several ups and downs along the way and you're determining the sum of all the rises. I.e. if you start at 100', climb to 300', drop to 200', climb to 250', drop to 50', and climb back to 100', then your total ascent would be 200+50+50 = 300'. Some fluctuation in measured altitude is normal so it's not surprising that over time you get an ever increasing value for your total ascent. Frankly I'd be much more concerned about the fact that the profile chart shows the horizontal movement as about 0.6 miles although you said the unit was stationary. That's a discrepancy of thousands of feet, not just a hundred or two that you're seeing in false vertical movement. Was automatic recalibration turned on or off during these walks? Even though the weather remained fair there could still have been significant changes in normalized barometric pressure.

Dropping voltage a little is easily done by inserting a diode in series. Typical forward voltage drop is 0.3 volts for a germanium diode and 0.7 volts for a silicon one. But it's not clear to me what you have in mind. USB and RS-232 are both forms of serial interface, but they are very different protocols. Conversion between the two therefore requires some active electronics to process the signals from one format and convert them to the other. The Rino 110 only understands RS-232 type signals so having the "silly crap" that converts those signals to/from USB is essential if you want to connect to a USB port on a PC. And jaspel does need to have three wires to connect his Rino to a serial port on his PC: DATA IN, DATA OUT, and Signal Ground. Hopefully the diagram will be sufficient for him to connect it correctly.