Maps for my vista

[pippin65]

hi, amazon has sent me my Garmin vista (any links to hints on how to use it) and now I'd like to purchase some maps. I have a few questions

 

does the city nt map overlay the topo map if both are installed?

 

do you select one or the other

 

I've read that the Garmin Mapsource US CD-Rom Topo maps DO NOT have unlock codes, so is this truly a safe buy used/ebay/

 

thanks?

one last thing, I see these "geocoins" -- if we find them at a cache can we take them???? and is there a way to comment as a cache finder anywhere???thx and happy hunting

[+briansnat]

Correct in that Topo does not use unlock codes. If you buy City Navigator NT you need to load them the same time as Topo otherwise it will overwrite Topo. It's easy enough to load them both at once though.

 

One important thing to consider is that your Vista only has 24 megs of map memory. You will get pretty good map coverage with Topo only, but if you try to throw City Navigator on top of it you will get very limited map coverage. It's probably not worth buying City Navigator for a Vista because of the memory limitation and because the Vista doesn't autoroute, so you are wasting money.

 

Geocoins should normally be taken from a cache and moved to another if its a registerd, trackable coin. If its not a trackable coin it's yours to keep or move on.

Edited May 7, 2007 by briansnat

[+admo1972]

hi, amazon has sent me my Garmin vista (any links to hints on how to use it)

 

One tip is to learn the shortcuts to frequently used things (just got my Vista a few weeks ago and love it). Pressing the zoom in / out buttons on the satellite screen changes contrast. This is good since the satellite screen is the first one to come up, and you will want to change the contrast for the lighting you are currently in.

 

On the compass screen (called Navigate IIRC), pressing and holding the page button will toggle the electonic compass on and off. It's nice to leave off while you are able to move at a good clip (thereby saving batteries), and turning it on when getting closer to the cache, so it will point towards the cache even while you stop and check out the surroundings.

 

And very important, something I just figured out today when I was sure there must be a way to do it: press and hold the joystick switch to mark your current location. Until today (about 3 weeks or so), I've been going to the main menu, then selecting mark. This is a lot easier.

[pippin65]

Correct in that Topo does not use unlock codes. If you buy City Navigator NT you need to load them the same time as Topo otherwise it will overwrite Topo. It's easy enough to load them both at once though.

 

One important thing to consider is that your Vista only has 24 megs of map memory. You will get pretty good map coverage with Topo only, but if you try to throw City Navigator on top of it you will get very limited map coverage. It's probably not worth buying City Navigator for a Vista because of the memory limitation and because the Vista doesn't autoroute, so you are wasting money.

 

Geocoins should normally be taken from a cache and moved to another if its a registerd, trackable coin. If its not a trackable coin it's yours to keep or move on.

wait a second, I could swear I saw the the vista cx is autoroute capable!!! that was one of the reasons I purchased it. i also bought a 2 gb microsd card for it

[pippin65]

hi, amazon has sent me my Garmin vista (any links to hints on how to use it)

 

One tip is to learn the shortcuts to frequently used things (just got my Vista a few weeks ago and love it). Pressing the zoom in / out buttons on the satellite screen changes contrast. This is good since the satellite screen is the first one to come up, and you will want to change the contrast for the lighting you are currently in.

 

On the compass screen (called Navigate IIRC), pressing and holding the page button will toggle the electonic compass on and off. It's nice to leave off while you are able to move at a good clip (thereby saving batteries), and turning it on when getting closer to the cache, so it will point towards the cache even while you stop and check out the surroundings.

 

And very important, something I just figured out today when I was sure there must be a way to do it: press and hold the joystick switch to mark your current location. Until today (about 3 weeks or so), I've been going to the main menu, then selecting mark. This is a lot easier.

thanks fo all the good tips!

[Donald, Daisy and Kids]

hi, amazon has sent me my Garmin vista (any links to hints on how to use it)

 

And very important, something I just figured out today when I was sure there must be a way to do it: press and hold the joystick switch to mark your current location. Until today (about 3 weeks or so), I've been going to the main menu, then selecting mark. This is a lot easier.

 

The best thing I can say is to read the manual, absorb what you can, and then just play around, dont be scared to try things out, you cont break it (if I cant break it then Im sure its pretty safe)

 

The owners manual tells you how to mark your current location (press and hold Joystick down for a few secs)

 

Anyway, just try it out, there is some pretty cool features!

[Donald, Daisy and Kids]

does the city nt map overlay the topo map if both are installed?

 

do you select one or the other

 

You will need to ensure that all maps you want installed are uploaded at the same time.

 

I found out the hard way because I didnt read the manual...... and then wondered why when I had just uploaded OZtopo, and discovered that it was wiped out when I uploaded T4Apro.

 

A few weeks later I was reading the manual (read: READING THE MANUAL) and discovered that all map databases must be uploaded at the same time.

 

So now I have them both selectable (or de-selectable) and I can also have both working at the same time.

 

I did actually run 3 map databases for a while and they were done the same way (Uploading all at the same time).

 

Enjoy!~

[+Miragee]

Correct in that Topo does not use unlock codes. If you buy City Navigator NT you need to load them the same time as Topo otherwise it will overwrite Topo. It's easy enough to load them both at once though.

 

One important thing to consider is that your Vista only has 24 megs of map memory. You will get pretty good map coverage with Topo only, but if you try to throw City Navigator on top of it you will get very limited map coverage. It's probably not worth buying City Navigator for a Vista because of the memory limitation and because the Vista doesn't autoroute, so you are wasting money.

 

Geocoins should normally be taken from a cache and moved to another if its a registerd, trackable coin. If its not a trackable coin it's yours to keep or move on.

wait a second, I could swear I saw the the vista cx is autoroute capable!!! that was one of the reasons I purchased it. i also bought a 2 gb microsd card for it

The Vista Cx does autoroute, the Vista doesn't. The Vista is still available for purchase, so that is the unit briansnat thought you purchased.

 

I have CN on my Vista C and also have Topo. Because the Topo maps do not have Unlock codes, I purchased those maps on eBay for a reasonable price. I got CN in a combo package with the auto beanbag mount and cigarette-lighter adapter.

[+admo1972]

Here's one more tip I thought of to make multi's a bit more streamlined. If you know ho wmany stages there are, create waypoints before youhead out. For example, I am going to do a multi soon, so I created a waypoint called BS One, which is the first stage, with all the Long / Lat info I got from the cache page. I also greated a waypoing BS Two, which will have the coordinates for the final stage. Since I don't know what they are yet, I change the long / lat numbers to all zeros.

 

This way, if/when I find stage 1, I doin't have to go through the trouble of marking/naming/changing the coordinates, I jsut find BS Two and change the coordinates. If you aren't anal like me and don't mind generic waypoint symbol and generic waypont names (005, for example), then this doesn't really save time. But I like to give each cache the geocache symbol, and a name I come up with that I like.