+thorlin Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 (edited) Hello all. My family is new to the Geocaching world. After some research and talking with a few friends, we recently purchased a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx. I've had it only a day or two, and am still getting used to it. However, I'm wondering about the mapping software, and items needed for geocaching. I'm a technogeek, so I assumed there was some open-source (freeware) software that I could use, but I'm having a tough time finding it on the web. Is there someone willing to help me out getting things setup for my first cache? I'm struggling with the idea of spending another $100 for maps from Garmin. Particularly when there are products like Google Earth. What options do I have? Please let me know. Keep in mind, I'm looking for Mac software if possible. Edited February 10, 2007 by thorlin Quote Link to comment
+TeamBarstool Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 (edited) I bought the TOPO card for my region. I use GPSBabel to export to my 60cx. I run cachemate on a palm zire21 and use macCMConvert to load the palm. this Link might help you as well as these linky linky linky edit to add a few more links Edited February 10, 2007 by TeamBarstool Quote Link to comment
+T F T C Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 (edited) Routebuddy won't get maps on your GPSr; it just uses a GPS to do live updating of your position on a map on your mac (for car PCs and laptops). LoadMyTracks just moves .gpx files from your Mac to your GPS as geocache files, and that's it. Easy to use but limited. I've never seen Geocaching Menu 1.2... very interesting... TeamBarstool, tell us more about this TOPO card you use. Thanks! Edited February 10, 2007 by chimbisimo Quote Link to comment
+TeamBarstool Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Since the promised Mac support has not arrived from Garmin, I purchased one of their preprogrammed data cards. The TOPO works great for the caching I like to do. It also covers most of the roads in town but will not auto route. I haven't messed with Loadmytracks at all. I think you can create routes that you can then can load in with GPSBabel. I imagine that you can do the same with a Google .KML file. I don't load routes into my GPSr, but I'll probably play with it this weekend. I'm always looking for suggestions on how to make the Mac / GPSr combo easier to use. The set up I've been using has been working well for me Just don't ask me to put windoze on a perfectly good computer . Quote Link to comment
+T F T C Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 lol Thanks for the info about the TOPO. I've found that the people who make SimpleGPS and Terrabrowser don't like Magellan - my eXplorist doesn't work with their stuff. But the dude in the first post has a Garmin, so he should be stoked. Quote Link to comment
+Mercury Direct Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 I'm struggling with the idea of spending another $100 for maps from Garmin. Particularly when there are products like Google Earth. What options do I have? Please let me know. Keep in mind, I'm looking for Mac software if possible. I'm a Mac user and just ordered a Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx to use with it. So obviously I have no real life experience. But I have spent probably 20 hours researching Mac/GPS solutions and there are a couple things that come to mind that nobody else has mentioned yet that might help. The first is that the maps from Garmin and something like Google Earth are different animals. The MapSource maps from Garmin are VECTOR based and can only be used on the GPSr. Something like National Geographic Topo! or MacGPS Pro are RASTER based and are used on your Mac to research routes before you go and to display track data from your GPS after an outing. So you really need to have both the Garmin MapSource for your GPS and another program for your Mac if you want to get the most out of your setup. I happen to already have the National Geographic Topo! for Montana where I live and from my research it apparently works very well with Mac/GPSr. Since I don't want to purchase any more $80 state maps I also chose to try MacGPS Pro which allows you to use free USGS and other topo maps available online. It has a LOT of great reviews from casual and professional GPSr users. As far as the MapSource maps for your GPSr, I found the USA version for $72 and change at The Nerds.net. Even though I have to use a friend's PC to load it on my 2GB microSD card it beats shelling out over and over again for different sections of the US on preloaded microSD cards IMHO. As I said, this is all information I've put together from lots of research and no practical experience so I won't be offended if anyone contradicts me or modifies this info. Just thought I'd jump in as a well-researched Mac user Quote Link to comment
+oeichler Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 I am not a Mac user at all, however I suffered the same problems as you on my Linux box. I started to write my own MapSource replacement. Sofar it went well and it reached a quite usable state. If any one of you is skilled in programing C++ it should be possible to port my software to Macs based on Intel architecture. Mototrola architectures will be quite a pain because of the big endian address unit. The *.img files are stored little endian. The program depends on: Proj4 - a projection library libusb - USB access Qt4.2.x - for the GUI My program is called QLandkarte and can be found here. As I said am not a Mac user at all thus I don't really know if a port is feasible. Give it a try. Oliver Quote Link to comment
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