Garmin 60Cx SD card usage

[Now at Zero Gravity]

I have the older 60C which I'm very happy with, but I would be much happier with the 24K Topo maps so I'm thinking about trading up to a 60Cx. I'm not too familiar with the cards, other than in my camera, but I'm sure I would install a 2Gig SD card as it seems to offer plenty of space...

 

My question concerns using the 24K Topo card. Since all my waypoints, routes, etc, can be stored on my 2gig card, what happens to all that data when I remove that card and install the 24K card? Does the 24K card need to be installed all the time I'm using it, or can I load the maps internally and switch back to the 2gig card?

 

Say I'm going on a long trip, do I need to take both cards with me, one for the maps and one to store my data?

 

Thanks in advance!

[+Klatch]

I have the older 60C which I'm very happy with, but I would be much happier with the 24K Topo maps so I'm thinking about trading up to a 60Cx. I'm not too familiar with the cards, other than in my camera, but I'm sure I would install a 2Gig SD card as it seems to offer plenty of space...

 

My question concerns using the 24K Topo card. Since all my waypoints, routes, etc, can be stored on my 2gig card, what happens to all that data when I remove that card and install the 24K card? Does the 24K card need to be installed all the time I'm using it, or can I load the maps internally and switch back to the 2gig card?

 

Say I'm going on a long trip, do I need to take both cards with me, one for the maps and one to store my data?

 

Thanks in advance!

First, you will be using microSD cards. Waypoints and routes are stored in internal memory. The microSD card will store additional maps and custom POI's (points of interest). In addtion, you can set up the unit to store track logs on the card each day. If you must have the 24K Topos, then two cards may be your only option if you want custom POI's and other types of maps available. If you could settle for Topo 2008 (100K) on DVD, you could get by with one card.

[+coggins]

Since all my waypoints, routes, etc, can be stored on my 2gig card, what happens to all that data when I remove that card and install the 24K card? Does the 24K card need to be installed all the time I'm using it, or can I load the maps internally and switch back to the 2gig card?

All your waypoints tracks and routes will be stored in the units internal memory, not on the card. Map data and POI's go on the card. You can autosave tracks to a card, but you don't want to do that with a preprogrammed map card.

[Now at Zero Gravity]

I have the older 60C which I'm very happy with, but I would be much happier with the 24K Topo maps so I'm thinking about trading up to a 60Cx. I'm not too familiar with the cards, other than in my camera, but I'm sure I would install a 2Gig SD card as it seems to offer plenty of space...

 

My question concerns using the 24K Topo card. Since all my waypoints, routes, etc, can be stored on my 2gig card, what happens to all that data when I remove that card and install the 24K card? Does the 24K card need to be installed all the time I'm using it, or can I load the maps internally and switch back to the 2gig card?

 

Say I'm going on a long trip, do I need to take both cards with me, one for the maps and one to store my data?

 

Thanks in advance!

First, you will be using microSD cards. Waypoints and routes are stored in internal memory. The microSD card will store additional maps and custom POI's (points of interest). In addtion, you can set up the unit to store track logs on the card each day. If you must have the 24K Topos, then two cards may be your only option if you want custom POI's and other types of maps available. If you could settle for Topo 2008 (100K) on DVD, you could get by with one card.

 

But you wouldn't want to store track logs on your preloaded card, right? How much space is available on the card for that data? Using USB Mass Storage Device with a preloaded card seems like a MUIF (assive User Intelligence Failure) to me....

[Now at Zero Gravity]

Since all my waypoints, routes, etc, can be stored on my 2gig card, what happens to all that data when I remove that card and install the 24K card? Does the 24K card need to be installed all the time I'm using it, or can I load the maps internally and switch back to the 2gig card?

All your waypoints tracks and routes will be stored in the units internal memory, not on the card. Map data and POI's go on the card. You can autosave tracks to a card, but you don't want to do that with a preprogrammed map card.

 

Exactly.

 

Let's say I'm doing The Thousand Mile Summer. In order to permanently save my track, I'd have to switch cards at the end of the day, as I see it, to save my data. So next question:

 

How big is the internal memory on the GPSMap60Cx? I cannot find this information in the manual or on the Garmin website. --Seems-- like they reduced it considerably from the advertised 56meg on the 60C. Anyone know for sure?

[Hertzog]

How big is the internal memory on the GPSMap60Cx? I cannot find this information in the manual or on the Garmin website. --Seems-- like they reduced it considerably from the advertised 56meg on the 60C. Anyone know for sure?

The 56MB on the 60C models was only the memory for storing maps, so that "internal memory" went to 0: you need an SD card to store maps on the "x" models, but that can be up to 2GB, so that represents a tremendous inprovement over the non x models.

 

Garmin has never said what the internal memory for tracks/waypoints/routes is in MB; I believe people have made estimates of it in the past, but don't recall any specific numbers. To evaluate the internal memory capacity you need to look at the specs in terms of trackpoints, waypoints, saved tracks and routes that can be held in internal memory. Basically that didn't change from the "non-x" to "x' models (could be wrong about the number of waypoints, but I don't believe so). As I recall, the ability to add custon POI's came with the "x" models, but could be wrong about that, as I haven't made use of those on either model (I have both the 60CS and 60CSx).

 

Personally, I don't think the 24K SD cards are going to be very useful on the 60Cx/CSx models. For one thing, if I were doing the "1000 Mile Summer" I wouldn't want to be switching those tiny cards along the way; I damned near lost one on the carpet in my bedroom! I would just load the main card with all the 24K national park maps and the 100K topos that I could load in for the trip; on a 2GB card that should still leave you with plenty of space to log your tracks to the card as well (if not, go to a 4GB card; I haven't tried it, but those who have say the extra space is useable for the tracks even though the maps are limited to 2GB).

Edited September 17, 2008 by Hertzog

[Now at Zero Gravity]

How big is the internal memory on the GPSMap60Cx? I cannot find this information in the manual or on the Garmin website. --Seems-- like they reduced it considerably from the advertised 56meg on the 60C. Anyone know for sure?

The 56MB on the 60C models was only the memory for storing maps, so that "internal memory" went to 0: you need an SD card to store maps on the "x" models, but that can be up to 2GB, so that represents a tremendous inprovement over the non x models.

 

Garmin has never said what the internal memory for tracks/waypoints/routes is in MB; I believe people have made estimates of it in the past, but don't recall any specific numbers. To evaluate the internal memory capacity you need to look at the specs in terms of trackpoints, waypoints, saved tracks and routes that can be held in internal memory. Basically that didn't change from the "non-x" to "x' models (could be wrong about the number of waypoints, but I don't believe so). As I recall, the ability to add custon POI's came with the "x" models, but could be wrong about that, as I haven't made use of those on either model (I have both the 60CS and 60CSx).

 

Personally, I don't think the 24K SD cards are going to be very useful on the 60Cx/CSx models. For one thing, if I were doing the "1000 Mile Summer" I wouldn't want to be switching those tiny cards along the way; I damned near lost one on the carpet in my bedroom! I would just load the main card with all the 24K national park maps and the 100K topos that I could load in for the trip; on a 2GB card that should still leave you with plenty of space to log your tracks to the card as well (if not, go to a 4GB card; I haven't tried it, but those who have say the extra space is useable for the tracks even though the maps are limited to 2GB).

 

Well, that's what I would sure like to do but it seems that the new 24K entire country topos must be used as is; and can't be transferred to a 2GB card, period. Anyone know of a way to do it?

[+Red90]

Let's say I'm doing The Thousand Mile Summer. In order to permanently save my track, I'd have to switch cards at the end of the day, as I see it, to save my data. So next question:

 

That would not work as the saved tracks are only 500 points, which is pretty much useless for a day's use. You need to have a card in there with the a copy of the active track being saved to it continuously.....or get a CO/OR...

[+zanzarista]

Let's say I'm doing The Thousand Mile Summer. In order to permanently save my track, I'd have to switch cards at the end of the day, as I see it, to save my data. So next question:

 

That would not work as the saved tracks are only 500 points, which is pretty much useless for a day's use. You need to have a card in there with the a copy of the active track being saved to it continuously.....or get a CO/OR...

 

Just for reference, I bought a 1 GB micro sd particularly for use on a trip I took from Idaho to the Grand canyon. I loaded both topo and the highway maps for Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Arizona as well as eastern Oregon and waypoints / geocache sites to boot. The 60CSX was very very slow to react to changes. When I tried to look up and address, it took minutes instead of seconds. Needless to say that I reloaded the trip with topo and city maps more selectively before taking the trip.

 

I met a (reliable?) source in Cabelas months after the trip that informed me that I should beware of loading more than 64MB of data onto the SD card at a time. I couldn't find a similar statement on the Garmin site though. The 60CSX reads and allows you to store right up to the limit of the card, but getting it back out or processing what's there is slow I'm presuming the processor on-board the device just can't deal with all of the data at once or the read write interface to the accessory card is very slow.

 

I learned that just because you can, doesn't mean you should when it comes to storing a CD's worth of maps.

Hope this helps in some way.

Zanarista

[roybassist]

I met a (reliable?) source in Cabelas months after the trip that informed me that I should beware of loading more than 64MB of data onto the SD card at a time. I couldn't find a similar statement on the Garmin site though.

That’s because it isn’t true.

 

The 60CSX reads and allows you to store right up to the limit of the card, but getting it back out or processing what's there is slow I'm presuming the processor on-board the device just can't deal with all of the data at once or the read write interface to the accessory card is very slow.

I have all of City Navigator North America NT and custom topo maps for Colorado loaded (1221.9 MB) and I don’t have the kind of problems you described.

 

I learned that just because you can, doesn't mean you should when it comes to storing a CD's worth of maps.

You should look for some other cause for the problems.

[Ken in Regina]

I support roybassist. My experience is similar. On a recent trip in western Canada I had a bunch of Topo Canada and Ibycus Topos loaded. A total of just over 1.5GB. I did not experience the slowdown being described. I currently have a combination of Metroguide Canada and some of City Navigator North America 2009 loaded for a total of about 1GB with no performance issues.

 

This is with an eTrex Legend HCx. I can't believe it's a whole lot different than the 60CSx in that respect.

 

I have occasionally had that sort of thing happen, mostly on my Garmin iQue 3600 (integrated PDA/GPS). It has invariably been cured by simply reloading the maps from MapSource. MapSource occasionally messes up when it compiles the maps, especially if you are creating very large mapsets.

 

...ken...

[+Night Stalker]

I have Idaho from an older version of topo loaded on my 60CX and all of City Navigator West of the Mississippi loaded. I use these maps daily and have never had such a slow down. Now if I do a search of POI by all containing I can take nap while I wait since it has such a large database to search.