[Noob looking for help buying a GPS]

How big of a micro SD card will this thing take? I'm hoping for 1GB

 

I know people who have used a 1 gig card in the 60X units so I see no reason the Venture CX won't be able to use it. Call Garmin's TS if in doubt.

 

Sorry....double post

[Noob looking for help buying a GPS]

How big of a micro SD card will this thing take? I'm hoping for 1GB

 

I know people who have used a 1 gig card in the 60X units so I see no reason the Venture CX won't be able to use it. Call Garmin's TS if in doubt.

 

I have a 1GB microSD card in my Venture cx. Works like a charm.

[Which should I buy]

 

First, it appears that the Venture does not come with any software, are there any other programs that can upload maps, routes, waypoints to the Venture? I really don't want to buy the unit and then spend the same amount to get a copy of MapSource. I watched the videos rws posted on creating custom maps and I think I would rather try my hand at it before shelling out the extra cash for street and topo maps. I know you can get MapSource Trips and Waypoint manager for $30, but if I really need that then I might as well get the Legend cx for $40 more on Amazon.

 

I also want to use my unit for tracking atv trails and saving the maps for future reference. As I understand the 500 is limited to 2000 points per track log. Is this correct or can more points be stored if using an sd card? Also, in your experience, how much distance can be covered with 2000 track points?

 

I know this is alot to answer but before spending the money I want to make sure I am going to be happy with my purchase. I don't want to end up saying "I should have got the other one" a few weeks later. Thanks in advance.

 

PS. Great thread by Jamie Z on the explorist 500

 

I'm a noob as well and I just bought a Venture cx two weeks ago and I love it. I don't know what is involved in creating your own maps, but for the money, I am hugely impressed by the maps I purchased as it even has new roads in my city that don't have houses on them yet. I live in Canada and I purchased the Metroguide Canada product.

 

I would recommend you get the Venture instead of the Legend if you want waypoint/map software as it is cheaper and the hardware is identical other than the colour and the included microSD (tiny) on the Legend. I used the money I saved and purchased a 1 GB memory card for less than the difference in price. All of Canada fits into under 400MB so I still have 600 MB to store other maps and track logs. On page 27 of the manual (you can download it from Garmin) it clearly states that in the TRACK setup, it is possible to configure the unit to record track logs to the microSD card and dump them to a computer as GPX files. You will still have a few bucks left over and that can go towards buying one of the Mapsource street or topo maps. All of these map products have the same waypoint management capabilities as the waypoint software that comes with the Legend, plus the actual maps so they are a decent deal. I use this software to import waypoints and view everything on the maps on my laptop. I also manage geocaching waypoints using GPS Swiss Army Knife ($20.00) which is capable of dumping waypoints to the unit, but not maps.