Michael Cook
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Posts posted by Michael Cook
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I recently bought a Garmin Oregon 600t: I'm very happy with it. Here are a few things I can tell you:
Is it really useful to have maps preloaded??I'd say no. I'm regretting having bought the version with a preloaded map of Europe, since the map isn't detailed enough for hiking, nor is it routable. There are now several sites where you can download free ready-to-use maps made from the Open Street Map project. The quality of these maps depends on the area: where I live (Germany) they are excellent.
I want to know what is the difference between Oregon and Montana in the Garmin series?As Chief301 says, the main difference is the size. I find that the Oregon fits nicely in my hand: I wouldn't want a bigger model. I think the screen of the Oregon may be a bit brighter than that of the Montana. There may also be a difference in performance: in addition to the GPS system the Oregon can use the Russian GLONASS satellites (the Montana can't do this). This can speed up getting a fix and makes reception better in difficult situations.
I must specify that this is my first GPS but that adaptation does not really scares me. I seek strength (children, rain, etc.)Should be no problem. The touch screen is very solid. This video gives you an idea of what it can put up with:
(easy to read in bright sunlight (I'm really frustrated with my cell),No problem there:
very good receptionYes!
and like the camera it's seems to be more than very interesting. Using a car navigation could also be a must but not exclusively necesary.Car navigation works fine. The Montana can speak directions, whereas the Oregon will only bleep, but apart from that they both do the job.
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A few weeks ago I replaced my 60CSx (which I've happily used for about 8 years) with an Orgeon 600t. The Oregon gets a fix much quicker than the CSx, it keeps the fix in places where the CSx loses it, the map draws much faster and the touch screen is very good. I've tried using the screen with gloves, both thin leather ones and thinnish wool ones: it works fine.
I've used it for two car trips and several walking excursions without experiencing any software problems. I'm in the process of working out how best to customise it: the options are a bit overwhelming, but it's clear that with a bit of work I can create two or three profiles that will suit my needs perfectly.
My only complaint is about the quality of the Recreation Map of Europe. It's nowhere detailed enough for hiking (no footpaths or bicycle routes) and it's not routable, so it's pretty useless for car journeys too. But the unit itself is super. I don't know how the topo maps for other countries compare to the European one, but at least in Eurpoe I'd recommend avoiding the "t" models: get a 600 or a 650 and load one of the free maps made from the OpenStreetMap.
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I'd try this: while in another profile, delete the Geocaching one. Then create a new profile, rename it Geocaching and set it up as you wish.
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Note that each profile keeps the edits you make while using it. If you don't want the "hiking" profile to stick to the road when routing, do this:
- Make sure the "hiking" profile is active
- Choose System > Routing
- Set "Lock On Road" to "No"
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Many thanks for your reply. I tried first reflashing the firmware (no improvement), then a factory reset. Yeah! It looks like the reset has cured the problem.
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I have a problem with my Garmin GPSMap 60CSx. I've had this unit since 2006 and it's worked wonderfully: until two weeks ago. The last two times I've used it, it's taken ages to get a fix (first time 1/2 hour and next time 15 minutes). Even once it's got a fix, satellite reception stays weak, accuracy is low (the unit gives accuracy values around 30m) and it easily loses the fix again. The batteries are also drained very fast. This happens in a region where, a month ago, the unit was working perfectly. I haven't changed anything, the maps have been on the SD card for more than a year and the firmware is up to date.
Does anybody have an idea what might be going on, and what I could possibly do about it?
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A map of that size can easily take 12 hours or so. The best thing to do with large maps is to start it before you go to bed.
I either do it that way or load those for the area I am going to be in and some surrounding.
OK: it's good to know that I'm not the only one who has to wait that long. The whole process took about 18 hours this time.
On 12/1/09, Garmin posted an update for USB drivers. This will speed up data transfers between device and computer:
No go: those drivers are for Windows, not Mac OS. In any case, the longest part isn't the transfer between computer and unit: Mapinstall took about 15 hours to prepare the data before starting the transfer.
Which GPS unit? If MapInstall can write to a card reader as well the unit, you may save significant time by having it install the maps to the mSD card. I don't own a Mac, but transferring all of CityNav NT to my 60CSX takes about 2 1/2 hours if I write to the GPSr (USB 1.x), but only 1/2 hour if I write to the mSD in a USB2.0 card reader.I also have a 60csx. The annoying thing with the Mac software is that it will only transfer to a Garmin device: it doesn't recognise a card reader. Further annoyance is caused by the fact that the Garmin device must be connected all the time that MapInstall is preparing the data to be transferred
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On Macintosh, as far as I know, the only way to load maps onto the GPS unit is with the Garmin Mapinstall program. I've used it a few times and already been annoyed by its slowness, but today it is slower than ever. I started the map installing process about nine hours ago and it's still on the "Preparing Map Data" stage. I know it's not frozen, since the progress bar is moving, even if at much less than a snail's pace. At the moment it's telling me that it needs 4 hours and 36 minutes to finish, but since it told me two hours ago that it needed 4 hours and 22 minutes to finish, I'm not inclined to believe it. I'm going to have to leave it running overnight.
Why is it taking so long this time? Maybe I chose more tiles than last time (Mapinstall doesn't say how many tiles have been chosen: it just gives an indication of the total size, a bit less than 2GB in this case). Or maybe it has something to do with City Navigator Europe 2010.
Does anybody else have this problem with Mapinstall?
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It surprises me that no one mentioned another setting..... Variable Elev / Fixed Elev
As mentioned above, calibrate to a / your Known elevation or pressure.
Travel with the unit set on Auto Calibration. (GPS corrects for pressure changes)and another setting...Variable Elevation
At the end of the day (camp/motel,etc) change your unit setting to Fixed Elevation. That way, weather/pressure changes don't affect elevation displayed. The pressure can change but the reported elevation should stay the same overnight.
Yes, that's how it logically ought to work: the reported elevation should stay the same when the unit is set to "Fixed Elevation". But it doesn't. I set my unit to Fixed Elevation and see the elevation display changing.
This happens even if GPS reception is turned off, so it seems that the barometer reading is still affecting the elevation reading, even though the idea of "Fixed Elevation" is to pin down the elevation reading so that pressure changes are only seen in the barometer display. I've never been able to find out why this is: Garmin tech support was unable to tell me, and nobody else has come up with an explanation.
So I've given up using Fixed Elevation. I keep the Variable Elevation setting and I usually leave auto-calibration on: in areas with good satellite reception I find it gives results very close to known altitude values.
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On my 60csx, I was attempting to use tracks to document a trail that is not on my topo map (from gpsfiledepot).
Are tracks recorded automatically? Or, do I have to start and stop track recording, to capture them?
(I don't have the unit here at work to refer to it)
Seems like when I did start and stop recording tracks, it had still recorded before and after.
My ultimate aim is to take the tracks into ExpertGPS.
If anyone has some tips specific to the Garmin 60csx as far as recording tracks, I would appreciate hearing them.
Thanks.
Steve.
I turn on the option to record the tracks to the data card. The 60csx creates one gpx file per day, each named by date (for instance, the file 20090830 contains all the tracks recorded on 30th August of this year), which makes it easy to sort through them. I usually leave the track recording function on all the time and edit the tracks once they have been transferred to the computer.
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If you happen to know the exact elevation of your location, it's worth calibrating the altimeter. This will give you very accurate elevation data for the next few minutes, or hours, if the barometric pressure doesn't change. If the pressure changes, accuracy will decrease.
Most of the time the auto-calibration feature works fine. Over a certain time, the software averages the elevation readings from GPS data. The altimeter is good for plotting small changes of elevation over a short period, whereas the GPS data will give you better absolute elevation date averaged over a longer period. Working with just an altimeter, you might be very accurate at the beginning of the day, just after calibrating it, but way off at the end of the day because the weather has changed. Using only GPS data, you might see the elevation reading jump up and down in the space of a few minutes, depending on satellite reception, but it will have more or less the same accuracy at the beginning and at the end of the day. The auto-calibration feature puts both techniques together to give both short-term and long-term accuracy: it seems to do the job well.
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Not sure about adding several segments to a mapping product already installed like you are doing, but the Colorados already alow you to just add extra maps. Out where I live we have the NW trail mapping project that gets updated every few weeks or so and on a Colorado you can just update the one file and do not need to update your city select or topo maps.
Thanks, I didn't know that. That would be a good reason for buying a Colorado. But apart from this annoyance I'm happy with the 60csx, and I don't have the money for a new GPS.
Another option is to use something like GMapTool. You can use it split and join maps into an existing image w/o having to rebuild every time.
Too bad: I'm on Mac. It would be great is somebody made Mac versions of tools such as this.
You can compile a map to your 2 g SD copy that map to the computer rename the gmapsupp.img map with the right name of that segment, so you know what's what.
Compile the next map you might need and so on until you have all the maps you need.
By the time you need another map just copy the map to the sd or gps and rename it gmapsupp.img
That's a partial solution that I have indeed used. I already have a few different versions of gmapsupp.img that I keep in different folders. But if, like today, I need to add a few segments I've never used before, I'm stuck with loading the maps with MapInstall.
Thanks for the ideas. I might buy a couple more SD cards.
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I'm sitting here waiting for my Mac to finish loading maps onto my 60csx and musing on why I have to reload all the maps when I'm just adding two new segments.
Once upon a time, Garmin GPS units didn't have much room to store maps on. When you needed maps for a particular place you were going to visit, you loaded just those maps. When you made a trip somewhere else, you would load the maps for the new trip, automatically replacing the previous ones.
And that was OK, because you didn't have much room on the unit. It meant you had to reload maps pretty often, but it didn't take long so that wasn't too bad.
Since those ancient days, things have changed. Now you can have a card in the unit that can hold lots and lots and lots of maps. So that's nice: you load all your maps onto the unit and you don't have to bother with loading new maps for each trip.
At least, that's nice as long as the card on the unit can hold all the maps you've got. But what happens when the card doesn't have room for all your maps? Let's look at my situation: I have a large portion of City Navigator Europe loaded onto the 2 GB card in my 60csx. I also have maps from Topo Germany covering just the Rhein-Neckar region, where I live. There's not enough space left on the card to put all the Topo Germany maps.
What happens when I decide to take a trip to another part of Germany and need to load a few Topo map segments for that region? In order to add those few segments to the maps already on the card, I have to reload all the maps that were on the card, together with the few new segments. This is what I'm doing at the moment. The process has been going on for more than 4 hours on my Mac and Mapinstall tells me that there's still 1 hour and 52 minutes to go.
It's time Garmin changed the way map segments are handled on the device. Now that we can have so many maps on it, we need to be able to add or remove a few map segments without having to reload all the maps.
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Windows-based maps have to be converted to Mac format on a Windows PC before you can use them on a Mac. The maps must be installed in MapSource on the PC. Then use the free Mapconverter program from http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3898 to convert the maps to Mac format.
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I've had my 60csx more than two years and I'm very happy with it. I don't feel any need to "upgrade": if I lost it or broke it, I'd buy the same model again.
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I'll second the recommendation to check out OpenStreetMap. I have just started contributing, and I find the whole project fascinating. Depending on where you are, you might find that your area already has quite a detailed map, or on the contrary it might not be mapped at all. In either case it doesn't matter: if some data already exists, you can use your GPS tracks to correct it or add to it. If there's no data in your area, you have the excitement of being the first person to map that area in OpenStreetMap.
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I also wonder why moving maps from PC to Mac should be so complicated. In all of the map files I've looked at on PC and MAC, the TDB and MDX files seem to be identical: I don't think the ones on the Mac are new versions. The LBL, RGN and TRE files (and maybe others such as NOD and NET) that are visible inside the GMAP package are also to be found embedded in the IMG files. At Sourceforge you can find some info about the Garmin IMG file format.
I'm guessing that a competent hacker could quite easily devise a program that does what the Garmin converter programs do.
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Once you have installed the maps onto the Mac, you will be able to view them in RoadTrip and load them to the GPSr with MapInstall. That's it: no intermediate steps, no extra conversion.
There's certainly room for improvement, though. MapInstall works fine, but it lacks a couple of features that are found in MapSource:
1. You select map tiles visually, as you do in MapSource, but you don't see a list of the maps you have chosen to upload.
2. You can't save a selection of map tiles to be uploaded.
I hope Garmin will add these features soon.
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1. It's time consuming. On my Mac, loading about 1.5 GBs of maps took more than three hours.
2. It's really annoying not to be able to add a map to those already loaded. Instead, you must load them all again together with the new map. I have most of City Nav Europe loaded into a 2 GB card. If I want to add a few topo maps (that only take up 4 or 5 MB), it's going to take three hours, instead of a few minutes.
This system made sense when GPS receivers had very little memory: you only loaded the bits you needed for a particular trip, and relied on the basemap for the rest. Now that we can load so many detailed maps onto a card, isn't it about time that Garmin changed the system? It would be so convenient to have maps arranged in folders on the card, with the possibility of adding a new folder of map files without having to reload the maps that are already there.
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I was wondering what you mean by "get the right disk" those titles say they are for pc only. I am also kind of lost as to what software i need for what. Will bobcat have it's own maps and I use another program to figure out the route and then download the route to the gps with the map from bobcat? How does it all work? Any light you could shed would be amazing!!
Scroll down on this page and this page and you'll see details of the "right disks": the Mac versions of these two maps. As far as I know, these are the only Mac maps from Garmin for the moment.
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It would also be nice if Garmin made their Mac page a bit easier to find. I have a bookmark to it, but can somebody explain how to navigate to it from the Garmin home page?
It's http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/, but if you forget the "8", no problem, as it's aliased from "www.garmin.com/macosx". Or search for "Mac" on their website; their Mac OS X page is the third result. (At present, anyway.) Of course, a Google search also works.
Patty
Yes, I know the address. As I said, I have a bookmark to it. I'm thinking of people who come to the Garmin site and look for information on Mac compatibility. It seems stupid that there is (as far as I can tell) no link to the Mac page from the site's menu bar, nor is it listed in the site map.
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It would be nice if Garmin would update their Mac OS X page with this information instead of making people look through all their product pages for Mac compatibility!
Patty
Right. It would also be nice if Garmin made their Mac page a bit easier to find. I have a bookmark to it, but can somebody explain how to navigate to it from the Garmin home page?
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There are no Mac programs that will transfer these maps directly to your Colorado. You'll need Windows.
Install the maps on a Windows PC using the instructions on the page you linked to. Now you can use MapSource on the PC to transfer the maps to your Colorado.
If you want to have the maps available on the Mac, first convert the maps to Mac format using Garmin's MapConverter on the PC, put the converted files on the Mac and then use MapManager to transfer them to the Colorado (see http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/MapSource_M...acComputers.pdf )
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www.gpsnow.com had CN Mac in stock last night.
Yes, they're selling City Navigator North America for Mac. Does anybody have news on City Navigator Europe for Mac?
Oregon No Topo maps
in GPS technology and devices
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It can backup everything. You can choose to backup the whole device, or just the maps.