Free Gps Maps

[chadblack]

Pardon my green... I'm a complete newbie to the GPS scene. I just purchased a Garmin GPS 60CSx and am slowly making my way through the Bible size manual.

 

The stock maps are pretty vague, and lack detail. Is there a site I can go to to upload FREE maps into my GPS that will display more detail (preferably topography and/or water and streams) ??

 

Im not a freeloader, and am a strong supporter of payware software, however after just spending $$ on this unit, I'm obligated to find a cheaper alternative.

[+rambeaux]

I just got the same unit for my birffday!!

 

...and I had the same question. I'm assuming you gotta drop the $75 bones for the maps.

 

....which raises another question: what's the best maps to download, and what's the cheapest/bang-for-buck?

[+Team Neos]

You can go to this site to learn about the Garmin maps that are available for your gps. Some of the links show preview shots, which I like.

 

City Navigator is way to go if you unit has auto-routing (like the Garmin GPS 60CSx units) and you want more information on both city and rural features. There is also City Select--but that series is being discontinued so you may not want to buy that. In City Select you can pick a smaller region to upload into your gps--future versions of City Navigator may offer that feature but right now you have to upload largish chunks of maps. Not a real problem with your expandable memory.

 

TOPO is the map set you'll want if you need more detailed information about the geography of the places you'll be caching. If you know that you plan to spend a lot of time time in some of the US parks, there is also U.S. TOPO 24K. It has more detail on many of the parks.

 

We use Garmin GPS 60CS & Garmin GPS 76CS and have TOPO east and City Select. On a recent trip to Myrtle Beach from Indiana, I loaded detail maps from both map products into my 76, and didn't put a real dent in the memory. It was great having all that information at my fingertips.

 

Interestingly enough, before that we used eTrex Legends, and we never did load additional maps into the units and cached that way just fine for 300 caches or so. We only felt the need for the maps to take advantage of the auto-routing.

[+Teach2Learn]

I just got the same unit for my birffday!!

 

...and I had the same question. I'm assuming you gotta drop the $75 bones for the maps.

 

....which raises another question: what's the best maps to download, and what's the cheapest/bang-for-buck?

 

If you can find City Navigator 8.0 for $75, go for it. It'll probably run you more in the $100-$120 range. The U.S. Topo maps are cheaper. but lack some of the street detail helpful for autorouting. However, they're great for trails and mountain areas.

 

Team Neos provided you with a good link and overview of map software capabilities for the 60csx. I currently have City Navigator 8.0, but will probably add the U.S. Topo eventually.

[+H2OBob]

US Topo works great for me. It has roads, city streets, and jeep trails. The only thing it won't do is autorouting, but you can set up a route in Topo in just a few minutes. Most of the caches around here are in the woods, and it's nice to know where the swamps, streams, and cliffs are. Without it, you could get almost to a cache, and find out there is a stream blocking your way, and no bridge.

[Hillbilly-Rockstar]

Some of the links show preview shots, which I like.

 

This is a funny topic, I was just looking for some today, and was at the same site. Of course you have to use Internet Explorer . I just use Google Maps on GC.com. Then study it. Maybe you could borrow a copy from a friend, or use a File sharing program like Limewire. A little extreme though, and most likely againts Garmins TOS.

 

-Eric

[+briansnat]

There is a way to load non Garmin maps into your unit, but it takes some techincal know how. The book, Make Your Own Maps details the steps. You need to be pretty computer savvy to do it.

 

Even if you succeed the maps won't have the functionality of the Garmin maps. Mapsource Navigator (and City Select) is a really nifty piece of software and is worth every penny.

[+Team Neos]

Some of the links show preview shots, which I like.

 

This is a funny topic, I was just looking for some today, and was at the same site. Of course you have to use Internet Explorer . I just use Google Maps on GC.com. Then study it. Maybe you could borrow a copy from a friend, or use a File sharing program like Limewire. A little extreme though, and most likely againts Garmins TOS.

 

-Eric

These maps are made to load into your GPS--so you carry them along with you on the gps. Of course, you load the program into the computer at home as well, to use for pre-planning trips and creating routes and for putting only the maps you want into the gps. And no, it isn't appropriate to share them (if it is even possible) by copying them for someone else.

 

The nice thing about the maps is having them with you---so you can decide on the spur of the moment to go do all the caches in one part of town and not have to pull up the maps on gc and study them, or print off reams of paper.

[+Prime Suspect]

City Navigator is way to go if you unit has auto-routing (like the Garmin GPS 60CSx units) and you want more information on both city and rural features. There is also City Select--but that series is being discontinued so you may not want to buy that. In City Select you can pick a smaller region to upload into your gps--future versions of City Navigator may offer that feature but right now you have to upload largish chunks of maps. Not a real problem with your expandable memory.

If you only have the 60CSx, get City Navigator NT, rather then the non-NT version. The cost should be the same. The NT versions can save more map data in the removable memory than the non-NT versions do, but it only works with the x-series GPSs. Since you can unlock the maps for up to 2 units (without additional charge), if you've got both an x and non-x GPS and want to use City Navigator with both, get the non-NT version.

[Bible reader]

I just bought a legend cx and am trying to find which topo is the best. I don't really wan't to spend a lot of money either, This thing wasn't cheap! My question is, does u.s. topo 8.0 have the entire united states, or just unlock codes.

Also, mine has a 64mb card, how much can I load without upgrading the card? All I wan't for now is western CO, but sometimes we travel to texas, or moab UT and I would like to know how much it will hold.

Thankyou! I hope I was cear enough!

[+Kabuthunk]

Another quick question on this subject, as in a month when I get my GPS, I'll be in the same boat. Now, I have no problem with buying said TOPO and the City Select (I've already decided those would be what I'd want), however, I'm noticing that there's version numbers for these.

 

Which begs the question. When you spend 1/5 of your GPS price on a map... are you for all intents and purposes required to buy said map AGAIN when the next version comes out, or since you bought it, are you given a "subscription" for X number of years to get updates? Or how does the updating it work?

[+Trucker Lee]

 

The nice thing about the maps is having them with you---so you can decide on the spur of the moment to go do all the caches in one part of town and not have to pull up the maps on gc and study them, or print off reams of paper.

 

To save paper, weight, and space, I like to copy and paste into notepad the cache id, name, waypoints, and any information I wish to take with me. Have put as many as 7 caches on one side of a page, leaving a space between them for me to write notes as I find them. This keeps the paper inside my cache bag to a minimum, making sure there is ample room for GPSr, camera, camera cable, spare batteries, pen and pencil, and swap items. All this in a 6x6x5 camera bag.

[+El Diablo]

I just bought a legend cx and am trying to find which topo is the best. I don't really wan't to spend a lot of money either, This thing wasn't cheap! My question is, does u.s. topo 8.0 have the entire united states, or just unlock codes.

Also, mine has a 64mb card, how much can I load without upgrading the card? All I wan't for now is western CO, but sometimes we travel to texas, or moab UT and I would like to know how much it will hold.

Thankyou! I hope I was cear enough!

 

I'm not sure about topo maps, but with City Select which I believe is a larger file than topos, you can put the entire state of Colorado, Utah, and 3/4's of Texas on a 64mb card.

 

El Diablo

[+Team Laxson]

I just bought a legend cx and am trying to find which topo is the best. I don't really wan't to spend a lot of money either, This thing wasn't cheap! My question is, does u.s. topo 8.0 have the entire united states, or just unlock codes.

Also, mine has a 64mb card, how much can I load without upgrading the card? All I wan't for now is western CO, but sometimes we travel to texas, or moab UT and I would like to know how much it will hold.

Thankyou! I hope I was cear enough!

 

I'm not sure about topo maps, but with City Select which I believe is a larger file than topos, you can put the entire state of Colorado, Utah, and 3/4's of Texas on a 64mb card.

 

El Diablo

I have both Topo and City Navigator 8, and a 60CS.

City Navigator 8 will get you all of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and part of New Mexico. this includes the auto-routing data as well.

Topo for Colorado is 19mb. 64mb is plenty

[canozzie]

Edited August 18, 2006 by canozzie

[+norsehawk]

I haven't done enough travelling to need to buy the software for the usa yet, however, early next year, I should be over in Tokyo, and reading about the difficult street setups they have there, I am pretty sure that I am going to need maps for Japan for my gps, however, by the garmin site, there are no maps as of yet available for purchase.

 

Using some Googlefu, I found:

http://rwsmaps.griffel.se/

http://www011.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mametaro/index-e.html

http://www.travelbygps.com/z_links/garmin.php

 

I have not yet tried to put these into my gps (60cs) so not sure how it will work or not, anyone used anything like this yet?

[+Munin]

I just bought a legend cx and am trying to find which topo is the best. I don't really wan't to spend a lot of money either, This thing wasn't cheap! My question is, does u.s. topo 8.0 have the entire united states, or just unlock codes.

U.S. Topo covers the entire United States ("lower 48" plus Alaska and Hawaii). There aren't any lock codes needed for U.S. Topo - it's 100% unlocked right out of the box.

Also, mine has a 64mb card, how much can I load without upgrading the card? All I wan't for now is western CO, but sometimes we travel to texas, or moab UT and I would like to know how much it will hold.

If you're looking for just U.S. Topo alone (no street maps like City Nav/City Select) then you can fit everything from Denver westwards, plus a little slop into neighboring states just to be safe, in 30.6 MB. I happened to have a screenshot of the coverage that'd provide from some previous question regarding the same area, so here's what that 30.6MB would contain:

 

 

Taking a quick look at my copy of U.S. Topo, the entire state of CO (with a bit of "safety slop" around the borders) only uses 43.4 MB, so you can fit the entire state on your 64MB card without a problem. Also, it only takes a few minutes to transfer a new set of maps to your GPSr (at least when you're talking relatively small areas like this - doing a gigabyte of maps ain't so quick ) - so for trips to TX/UT/etc you can just download a new set of maps covering the areas you'd be traveling to, and then restore your CO map set once you get back home again.

[+Munin]

Which begs the question. When you spend 1/5 of your GPS price on a map... are you for all intents and purposes required to buy said map AGAIN when the next version comes out, or since you bought it, are you given a "subscription" for X number of years to get updates? Or how does the updating it work?

In a nutshell, yes - if you want the next generation of maps you'd have to buy them. (Minor updates - basically bugfixes - are sometimes issued for specific versions of maps, and those are free if you own that version.) There's a reduced price for upgrading to a new version if you own an older version (for City Nav v8, an upgrade is 75 USD versus around 120 USD for the full retail version).

 

Garmin doesn't run around collecting road data for things like City Nav on their own - they license the street and POI data from other sources such as NavTeq - and NavTeq doesn't give their data away for free. Someone's got to pay the piper (or the fleet of NavTeq drivers and cars in this case). From there, you get into everyday business decisions - Garmin could do a subscription service by charging a higher fee for the maps in the first place (and using part of that money to amortize the cost of the next "x" upgrades worth of data that they'll be licensing for future releases), or they could take their current approach and charge a lower fee based on the cost to get just one particular version of the maps but have to charge for each future release to cover the cost of licensing the new map data. TANSTAAFL

 

It's not all that different from, say, Microsoft releasing bugfixes on existing software for free, but charging all over again for each release - 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, etc - and providing a somewhat discounted option for people owning older versions of their OS. To stretch the analogy a bit further, just like you don't necessarily have to upgrade to each new version of Windows, you don't have to buy each new map version. (And stretching a little further - if you don't upgrade, maybe you'll find some new games that don't run on your computer, or new roads/restaurants that aren't in your GPSr - but if what you've got is mostly "good 'nuff", you just keep using it.)