GeoidPS

O.K. Boy scouts...... I am totally surprised that no one pointed the inability of the units using the 24K maps to plot profiles of routes. This is clearly a stated feature (O.K., I'm cheating, I'm using the CS). It states in the manual" To create a verticle profile of the route:...." The route created displays as straight line from point A to B. Only when it is in the navigation mode will it route like it does with City Select/Navigator (and as shown route created in mapsource and transferred to the unit). In otherwords, when not in the navigation mode, to view the route, you will only see line from point A to B. Now my point!!!! When a profile is created of the route in the unit, IT'S NOT A PROFILE OF THE ROUTE, IT'S A PROFILE OF THE LINE A TO B!!!!!!! I find this completely unacceptable and hope that you x users hammer Garmin with this! When they say something can be done and it isn't so, that is badddddddd.... Unless I'm wrong, this problem has not been corrected with the X'es.

Custom POIs are stored on the unit, not on the SD card.

Once the ship date is anounced, that could happen. It happened for the CS V7 release for c320.

I don't know what unit you have, but I noticed a major flaw in the 60CS (this also may be applicable to the other C's,CSx's,76's. With 24K, you should be able to view a profile along the route in the unit. The 24K is routable and you can view the complete auto-route in the unit only in the navigation mode. The route can be created in the unit or transferred from Mapsource. You can only view the profile when not navigating. Unfortunantly, when not in the navigation mode, the route in the unit appears as a straight line from point A to B. And also, unfortunantly, the profile is along this line and not the actual route. When transferring the route back to Mapsource, it transfers not as the original route, but as the staight line from point A to B. I find this unacceptable.

V7 will update the mapping and database about a year or two, so it will still be about 3 years behind. It works fine for me in the c320, been using it for at least 3 months now. Don't expect that the ship date will be anytime soon after the release date. V7 started shipping about 3-4 months after the release date. And you can expect another 2-3 weeks to get it after the ship date (once it starts shipping). So the question is how long do you want to wait, and if the year in updates is worth the wait?

All well and good if you haven't already installed your maps, or if you want to uninstall and the re-install. For those of us foolish enough to RTFM and install the software per the instructions, NeoGeo's Registry Edit Technique has been a real help. What is RTFM?

This may be a topic of interest. BUMP

Best way to tell with Mapsource, toggle on the map you are interested in (I have City Select for the c320, and USAtopo and 24K East for my c60cs). If it doesn't auto-route in the particular map, it won't auto-route in the gps (you can't create a route in City Select in Mapsource and transfer it to the unit if it only has UStopo, ie the route will only be a straight line from point A to B, for instance). Also, obviously the same is true for the auto-routable 24K. You can't create an auto-route trail route in the 24K and transfer it to unit with City Select only, it will only interpret the route which City Select recognizes. You may be able to auto-route with Metro Guide, but you may not be able to navigate like you can with City Select/Navigator, 24K. Also, for instance, with both 24K and UStopo in my 60cs, I can auto-route outside the 24K coverage which is the UStopo area I have, but can't do that without the 24K loaded also.

It seems that I had the same problem with my 60cs. When I took it home and set it on a table next to an army compass, it was right on. It may be that you need to be still and not moving? I'm curious as to your conclusion?

Fastest way to tell is go to a waypoint, highlight, press menu, it should be listed there if you have it.

I am encouraged by Delorme's entry. I think the key to the industry is who can come out with the best digital maps. The raster maps of Delorme and others are O.K. for general use, but not for GPS. The key is the integration of auto-routing of roads and trails with digital topo with navigation abilities of City Select/Navigator. For auto navigation, this would give true 3D views. For the hiker, the currently limited areas 24K topos are good, don't cover the rest of the areas but navigate trails well, but not roads outside the coverage.

I copied each disk to my external hard drive under the directory Garmin topo, then edited the registry like this: Under HKey Local Machine: Software: Garmin: Mapsource: Products: 6,7,8,9 are keys to East, West, Hawaii, Alaska, respectively Under each changed the pointer: Loc: J:\Garmin topo\East, etc.

O.K., I've only had the 24K East a few hours, but here are my observations. The main positive that I was not aware of is that not able to do with USTopo, I can now do actual routing beyond the area of the 24K coverage (as long as the route includes a point within the coverage) . Obviously, this would be inferior to City Select/Navigator, but it gives turn by turn instructions. Funny thing, you would think that it would perform the same route in Mapsource, but it doesn't route it. 24K gives the option of obtaining tracking elevation profiles with either barometric readings, or actual DEM (map) elevations, in addition, it adds route profiles using DEM data. As with tracks, a particular point of the profile can be mapped. This has many of the trails you would find on club maps and routes them quite well. Like was said before, much better detail. Limitations....I would like to see more areas covered like Nat. Forests, Wilderness, and Recreation areas. Also, 24K is more memory intensive. If I find anything else, I will repost. _________________________________________ O.K., this is a re-post. I did find some issues with the 24K, and talking with a Garmin tech verified some problems with showing profiles of routes in the unit (60/76c/cs/csx). Originally, moving the crosshairs along the profile and pressing enter to show the location on the map, would show the point along the actual auto-route. Because the engineers needed to incorporate a route to the route (your location may be many miles from the actual route), they screwed up the show route feature on the unit map. The map displays a straight line from point A to B for the route, but will show the actual auto-route while navigating. The screw-up causes that when moving the crosshairs to a point along the profile will show the curser along the straight line and not the actual route on the unit map. Although it displays this way, the profile is the actual auto-route and not the straight line. I think Garmin will get back to me to see wether this issue is resolvable without having to blow out the memory to do this. I'll repost if I get an answer.

Yes, I'm aware of that, but its a bit repetitive to do this each time while drawing a route freehand style.

Well, at least mapsource brings down detail to 80 ft. NG zooms to about 1.5 mi. I'm not necessarily looking for detail, but I do want to route. Since Mapsource UStopo is not routable, at the 80ft. level, I can create a point to points route and at least follow the trails more closely. NG is like using Microsoft Paint to create routes. At the large scale, I decided this was useless. I did not like the see feature changes at each zoom level. It was merely substituting images. I was looking at park boundaries and at the best zoom level they dissappeared. I like the consistancy with Mapsource. Unfortunatnly, the best can be done is the 24K topo series which only has limited coverage. I'm hoping that Garmin will expand the 24K series to include more and more areas. This seems like the logical direction for Garmin to go. As far as locating waypoints, routes, and tracks on maps, Mapsource does this and you can toggle between City Select, UStopo, and 24K.

I'll be getting mine tommorow from Provantage. I have the USTopo, so I can also do a comparison. This is what I understand the difference between UStopo and 24K so far: 24K is 4.2 x better detail. You can perform routing on 24K, cannot on UStopo. Can produce corresponding profiles from routes on 24K, cannot on USTopo. I'll get back in a few days with a full report.

This usually happens when you move program files to a new directory or deleting program files without modifying the registry keys.

I am only guessing because I have a Garmin unit. Under map settings, did you chose "most" map detail. Also, you can choose a zoom level to display features?

Garmin has spies who post tidbits here to entice us with little Garmin goodies to purchase.

I'm using Mapsource 6.9.1. This is the latest non-beta version. Are you referring to needing Nroute for real-time tracking on the PC or laptop? In any case, I think Officer T's question was just plain getting communication through the serial port. I can transfer data to/from Mapsource with either interface and I don't have Nroute. BTW, the current Beta is 6.10.0.2

Well, what did Garmin say? Was the problem resolved?

You don't need Nroute. You just need a laptop that has a com port free. Also like CTDoger says, use the Garmin setting is a must. There should be no reason not to send via the 4 pin cable connection if your com port is not being used by someother device. Check your system information to make sure its not being used by some other device like a modem or something. I can send/receive data with either interface and I don't use Nroute.

Is anyone using the 24K Mapsource topo? Any opinions?

If you lost at least 2 bars on the battery indicator, it probably is the batteries.

Amazon.com has it for $140, but Garmin still sells it here: http://shop.garmin.com/accessories_for_pro...ku=010-00322-30