Vlad

In Fred's case a garmin tech made an error and that's why they're helping him in this way. Garmin will not migrate an unlock from one gps to another without a very good reason to do so - and customer satisfaction doesn't seem to be a good enough reason. Bluechart is worse than City Select or Navigator. You get two unlocks for an extremely small segment of planet earth and if you buy your third chartplotter, yup, you're buying it again and it's not cheap - same or higher than CS or CN. This is not to say that Garmin is worse than anyone else - they are not, and in my opinion are better than most. If the raw data for CS/CN and Bluechart were actually Garmin's, and if they weren't publicly-traded and accordingly driven to show ever-increasing revenues I'm sure they would be much more accomodating to us. But they are - so I guess we have to "deal with it". Flame - suit - on...?

sure - buy one of Garmin's gps for pocket pc solutions - their cfque 1620 for compact flash slots or their gps 10 bluetooth receiver - both will let you use your array of garmin maps on your pocket pc. city select and bluechart would need to be unlocked for those specific device serial numbers if you're migrating either of those products.

usually what they do in these cases is give you an additional unlock code for free. that's probably why your gps18 still works.

ok, just my opinion on this... Mr. Hammerhead - I appreciate the info you have provided. You have structured the info in a way that does indeed respond to the OP's question and does not blatantly serve to promote and sell your products. I was intrigued by your products/solution and hope that maps for many other poi's around the world become available for my garmin gps in future.

They are discontinued... Regardless of what Garmin's website says effective January 6th of this year a marketing memo from Garmin announced that as of that date the units were discontinued.

that's funny - i didn't know the legend had an ecompass lol did you load vista software on your legend?

Please send to me - thanks in advance!

hardware-wise all the units are quite similar from a capability point of view - so to help make your decision: look into the accessory products a bit - what map software can you get - will it cover all the places you're like to visit? check out some of the geocaching software applications - do they support your brand? are you going to mount the unit in a car or on a bike - what do the mounts look like; what about the power cable options? look into customer feedback on manufacturer service and support - is one better than the other? who are you likely to buy from - what's their policy for returns/exchanges?

uhhh, don't mistake micro sd for mini sd - they are different. in order of size they go first SD, then miniSD, then microSD (aka transflash) - which is the one an "x" series uses.

interestingly a couple of my buddies are getting sub 3m accuracy with their 60csx's with waas turned off - hopefully the forerunner 305 will get similar performance since they use the same sirf chip.

nope, you're right sputnik - one of the unlocks is already allocated to the 18

sure it would work - just be careful using trackback if you've been on any one-way streets...

i have called garmin many times and your description of their support people is accurate. that is definately their position when it comes to features, suggestions or comments/negatives on how well or poorly something works. on the plus side they are extremely good when it comes to a defective or non-functional unit - they are quick to respond and very supportive. i have no email addresses for you other than: support@garmin.com sales@garmin.com cartography@garmin.com if you send to all maybe someone in a higher position will be made aware of this.

hmm not sure but if you are needing a new phone you get a 512 mb microSD (this is supposedly the new, proper terminology for transflash) with motorola's v635i from rogers/cantel.

the ultimate case is a good one if you're interested in carrying extra batts and more. i use the 60 series case (neoprene/clear vinyl from garmin as well as their more traditional rectangular case if i need more protection.

make sure your memory card is fully inserted. did you install trip and waypoint manager that came with your gps to get the proper drivers loaded? i assume you have unlocked cn for this specific gps and it's specific serial number? if so then it sounds like time to give garmin a call.

garmin makes a "y" or combo cable with on one end the 4 pin round connector that your 60 uses and on the other end both a 12v cigarette adapter plug as well as a serial db9 style connector. you can run nmea and provide power to your gps simultaneously with this cable.

Well i'm not a pirate - i already own the software. If i continue to SUPPORT Garmin by buying new versions of their hardware why do I have to buy the software again to use it on their new hardware? When i sell that old piece of hardware the software licence i purchased becomes useless and invalid. it's interesting because when i purchased that software I (in capitals) was given the right to use the software - no one else. Then when i upgrade my hardware that point is conveniently forgotten. And it's a little different than paint don't you think? We're talking about a series of digital bits that could easily be redeployed...

like i said, my issue is not with city select and city navigator - it's with bluechart and other programs like that (fishing hot spots, etc) where you just don't use them that often - and they're expensive to upgrade. i live in canada but yet last january i purchased an unlock code for the southeast caribbean so i could "follow along" on the cruise ship. a one-time use, and maybe i'll use it again in future, or maybe not (in 10 years how many new units might i purchase?). i also own bluechart for lake of the woods where i fish maybe 6-10 times per year. bluechart is pricey, basically the same price as city select ($75/upgrade) but the coverage is minute in comparison to that of CS or CN. garmin continues to enhance their chartplotter offering (prompting me to continually upgrade) and the navigation charts change somewhat often with buoy placements and hazards that come and go with changing water levels (particularly on freshwater lakes). if i buy on a datacard well then that's one solution - then i can move my purchase from unit to unit easily. but that hasn't been an option on all units previously which is why i own the cd version and have my 2 unlocks. the other downside to datacards is that you can't do any trip/route planning on your pc - you've got to do everything on your gps - the smaller screensize and lack of a keyboard doesn't make that the most ideal way to go about things. maybe garmin should just start bundling bluechart into every chartplotter purchase just like cs and cn on every automotive unit?

well keep your eyes peeled then, JohnnyV - my source is rock-solid. i imagine the website will get updated just as soon as the x models begin to ship.

You know, I just have to vent here, yes a little R&R. I knew the answer to my question before I emailed Garmin but I thought maybe, just maybe, somehow, someway, that things had changed... As a longtime supporter of Garmin and someone that has owned (and upgraded) 6 high-end Garmin units (from handhelds to streetpilots to chartplotters) now, oh and yes I think I'd like to purchase a Nuvi 350, a 60CSX, and a Forerunner 305 just as a START for the new year. Hmm as I consult my crystal ball, I wonder what else is yet to come (note, none of this is factual in any way - just dreaming...): * maybe a RINO 520/530 with expandable memory - the "x" gen model? * uh, isn't everything going color - maybe my Forerunner 305 will be available with a color display in 3-4 months or less * obviously the gpsmap476 (successor to the 276/376) with CF, SD or microSD memory must be right around the corner * wait maybe a Nuvi 360 or is it the 400 that supports WMA music files and gives you Su Doku too! * maybe garmin will finally bring out that astronomy product i suggested to them about 4 years ago - give me the night sky in my choice of color or red screen, integrate it with an electronic compass, automatically use my global position and the ecompass to determine exactly what's viewable overhead and present it as i look at the heavens my "starmap" shows me the names, the constellations, etc and even incorporate some degree of integration to modern telescopes... I appreciate Garmin for their technical expertise and the obvious significant amount of money they spend on R&D but do they have to make such dadgum nice products????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So as I continue to support Garmin (because using their products makes me happy - "no I don't want that product... I need that product") with my hard-earned $$$ I sure would appreciate some flexibility in their software licensing. I know that there is little they can do since it's companies like Navteq and others that define the licensing model but Garmin, if you're listening... please push back on behalf of your customers...! If I'm willing to send my GPS unit to you for 2-3 weeks so that you can ensure that that unit can never again run the "software" (then return it to me so I can sell it at a loss - of course, it's an electronics product!) why can't it be possible for you to migrate my licenses to that great new hardware that I just purchased from you? It's not City Select or City Navigator so much that are the issue - I'm probably going to be re-purchasing that type of product with the new unit anyway. It's all those other locked products that you really only want to have to purchase once, not every year... I'm probably the only person that feels this way... Ranting and raving over. Now I need to rest. Have a nice day.

I started a thread no so long ago that announced the demise of City Select. This info is from the same source. Since Garmin is discontinuing these models now, I wonder if the "x" generation models might not be out very soon...? Sorry, I don't have any info on the map segment sizes and if Garmin will deliver on their recent promises but historically-speaking, their word is pretty good.

As of Jan 6 the 60c and cs, 76c and cs, legend c and vista c are all discontinued by Garmin. Bluechart is also going to be made available pre-loaded on microSD for the new "x" units.

another consideration - have you changed the way you hold the gps? maybe you're resting your thumb over the antenna?

i dont' have my yellow on me today but if i recall correctly by pressing up or down on the compass screen you will cycle through all the different field types and odometer is one of them (if i recall correctly)