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Is it Possible to Put the Entire TOPO 2008 on an Oregon 300?


Melack

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Finally got my Oregon - decided to go with a 300, as I thought I needed to get the U.S. TOPO 2008 software anyhow, but didn't realize the 400t version was more compressed. Is it possible to get all of the maps onto a microSD card at once? I have a 2GB card, and have heard larger cards aren't as stable? I'd also like to put CityNav (?) on at some point, so just wondering what others do/have done?

 

Additionally, I was out caching tonight (first time out caching on my own :) ) and had the 300 lockup on two caches in a row right after the approaching alert came on. Had to turn off and on the receiver in order to un-freeze it. Anyone else with this experience? - I didn't see that noted in the wiki.

 

Otherwise, the Oregon was awesome and ended up within 0-1 feet on two caches! I'm officially addicted.

 

I appreciate any thoughts! Thanks.

Edited by Melack
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Finally got my Oregon - decided to go with a 300, as I thought I needed to get the U.S. TOPO 2008 software anyhow, but didn't realize the 400t version was more compressed. Is it possible to get all of the maps onto a microSD card at once? I have a 2GB card, and have heard larger cards aren't as stable? I'd also like to put CityNav (?) on at some point, so just wondering what otuers do/have done?

 

Additionally, I was out caching tonight (first time out caching on my own :) ) and had the 300 lockup on two caches in a row right after the approaching alert came on. Had to turn off and on the receiver in order to un-freeze it. Anyone else with this experience? - I didn't see that noted in the wiki.

 

Otherwise, the Oregon was awesome and ended up within 0-1 feet on two caches! I'm officially addicted.

 

I appreciate any thoughts! Thanks.

 

I don't think you'll have any problem there. I have an Oregon 400t with a Transcend (Cheapo) 4 GB Micro SD card in it. Since the unit already had Topo installed, I've now loaded the entire City Nav NT disc, the entire Inland Lakes disc, and the entire Eastern 1:24,000 National Parks disc onto this card, and, by the way, it has functioned flawlessly. This card cost me all of $24.10 delivered to my door!

I think the whole Topo 2008 program only sits on about 1 GB.

Edited by Didjerrydo
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Finally got my Oregon - decided to go with a 300, as I thought I needed to get the U.S. TOPO 2008 software anyhow, but didn't realize the 400t version was more compressed. Is it possible to get all of the maps onto a microSD card at once? I have a 2GB card, and have heard larger cards aren't as stable? I'd also like to put CityNav (?) on at some point, so just wondering what otuers do/have done?

 

Additionally, I was out caching tonight (first time out caching on my own :) ) and had the 300 lockup on two caches in a row right after the approaching alert came on. Had to turn off and on the receiver in order to un-freeze it. Anyone else with this experience? - I didn't see that noted in the wiki.

 

Otherwise, the Oregon was awesome and ended up within 0-1 feet on two caches! I'm officially addicted.

 

I appreciate any thoughts! Thanks.

 

I don't think you'll have any problem there. I have an Oregon 400t with a Transcend (Cheapo) 4 GB Micro SD card in it. Since the unit already had Topo installed, I've now loaded the entire City Nav NT disc, the entire Inland Lakes disc, and the entire Eastern 1:24,000 National Parks disc onto this card, and, by the way, it has functioned flawlessly. This card cost me all of $24.10 delivered to my door!

I think the whole Topo 2008 program only sits on about 1 GB.

 

That's what I thought, however, when I try to transfer the TOPO 2008 map to the Oregon (even just CONUS) the file far exceeds 1GB and the space on the card. Perhaps I should give a 4GB card a look. Thanks.

Edited by Melack
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Finally got my Oregon - decided to go with a 300, as I thought I needed to get the U.S. TOPO 2008 software anyhow, but didn't realize the 400t version was more compressed. Is it possible to get all of the maps onto a microSD card at once? I have a 2GB card, and have heard larger cards aren't as stable? I'd also like to put CityNav (?) on at some point, so just wondering what others do/have done?

 

I have recently gone through similar with my Colorado 300 and I can tell you this much...

 

The Topo maps include on the Colorado 400t are about 2.6 GB in size.

The City Nav 2009 NT maps for the Continental US are about 960 MB in size

The Topo maps from the Topo 2008 (US) DVD for the continental US are a little over 3 GB (3129MB)

The Topo maps from the Topo 2008 (US) DVD for the entire US is over 4GB.

 

To keep the map sizes under the 4GB limit, I have exported a set of Street and Topo maps for my local 5 state region (where I am most likely to travel) and placed that on the internal memory of my GPSr (using most of the 348 MB free space) and then I have placed a set of maps for most of the continental US on the SD card being careful to keep the total size below the 4GB limit. This includes streets and topos. This combined set is about 3.3GB in size.

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Finally got my Oregon - decided to go with a 300, as I thought I needed to get the U.S. TOPO 2008 software anyhow, but didn't realize the 400t version was more compressed. Is it possible to get all of the maps onto a microSD card at once? I have a 2GB card, and have heard larger cards aren't as stable? I'd also like to put CityNav (?) on at some point, so just wondering what others do/have done?

 

Additionally, I was out caching tonight (first time out caching on my own :huh: ) and had the 300 lockup on two caches in a row right after the approaching alert came on. Had to turn off and on the receiver in order to un-freeze it. Anyone else with this experience? - I didn't see that noted in the wiki.

 

Otherwise, the Oregon was awesome and ended up within 0-1 feet on two caches! I'm officially addicted.

 

I appreciate any thoughts! Thanks.

 

I have had the same unit for about 2 months, haven't experienced the locking issue. So far so good.

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Thanks GeekBoy and grof. Looks like I'll try a larger card in that case. I went out and hit 6 more caches today, and had the lock-up issue occur on all six - each time I got close to the cache, the alert would signal and then the blue map direction arrow and compass would lock up. The distance to the cache/waypoint would continue to measure, but would be off. Almost as if the compass lost calibration and the GPSr suddenly was unable to orient itself - so, not a total freeze, but a functional freeze.

 

From what you're saying, grof, sounds like the problem isn't repeatable for other 300s... Anyone else with experience one way or another? Is it possible for me to turn off the alert in order to test whether the failure will occur regardless?

 

Thanks for reading and any thoughts!

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kinda sounds like a memory issue...just really slowing down. Has a hard reset solved the problem in field?

 

I'm a bit of a newb, so I'm not sure what hard reset means. Turning off and on the unit has been effective each time in getting the receiver active again until the next time. I haven't tried using the 'Restore Defaults' feature in the Setup>Reset>Restore Defaults if that's a hard reset? Thanks!

 

ETA: Ok, I figured out how to do a master reset - I also posted this issue/question in g-o-cacher's Oregon Wiki thread. I'm going to try adjusting a few settings and test it on a few caches today. Thanks for the replies so far!

Edited by Melack
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Finally got my Oregon - decided to go with a 300, as I thought I needed to get the U.S. TOPO 2008 software anyhow, but didn't realize the 400t version was more compressed. Is it possible to get all of the maps onto a microSD card at once? I have a 2GB card, and have heard larger cards aren't as stable? I'd also like to put CityNav (?) on at some point, so just wondering what others do/have done?

 

Additionally, I was out caching tonight (first time out caching on my own :o ) and had the 300 lockup on two caches in a row right after the approaching alert came on. Had to turn off and on the receiver in order to un-freeze it. Anyone else with this experience? - I didn't see that noted in the wiki.

 

Otherwise, the Oregon was awesome and ended up within 0-1 feet on two caches! I'm officially addicted.

 

I appreciate any thoughts! Thanks.

 

Keep in mind with Topo2008 even if you have enough storage space you'll run into 2 other limitations (I don't remember which you'll hit first, but I think its the later):

 

- Mapsource won't produce files larger than 4GB (probably because of the 4GB FAT file size limits)

- The Oregon has a map segment limit which is probably similar to the Colorado (4k-5k).

 

Topo 2008 has around 6600 segments so you'll need to decide which 2600 you don't want to load.

 

As for the freeze issue, can you reproduce it? My OR has always felt sluggish when moving slow near a cache -- and I've seen the distance decrement and the map not update, but I've never had to reset the unit, its just a matter of moving faster or getting a better view of the sky.

 

GO$Rs

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Finally got my Oregon - decided to go with a 300, as I thought I needed to get the U.S. TOPO 2008 software anyhow, but didn't realize the 400t version was more compressed. Is it possible to get all of the maps onto a microSD card at once? I have a 2GB card, and have heard larger cards aren't as stable? I'd also like to put CityNav (?) on at some point, so just wondering what others do/have done?

 

Additionally, I was out caching tonight (first time out caching on my own :o ) and had the 300 lockup on two caches in a row right after the approaching alert came on. Had to turn off and on the receiver in order to un-freeze it. Anyone else with this experience? - I didn't see that noted in the wiki.

 

Otherwise, the Oregon was awesome and ended up within 0-1 feet on two caches! I'm officially addicted.

 

I appreciate any thoughts! Thanks.

 

Keep in mind with Topo2008 even if you have enough storage space you'll run into 2 other limitations (I don't remember which you'll hit first, but I think its the later):

 

- Mapsource won't produce files larger than 4GB (probably because of the 4GB FAT file size limits)

- The Oregon has a map segment limit which is probably similar to the Colorado (4k-5k).

 

Topo 2008 has around 6600 segments so you'll need to decide which 2600 you don't want to load.

 

As for the freeze issue, can you reproduce it? My OR has always felt sluggish when moving slow near a cache -- and I've seen the distance decrement and the map not update, but I've never had to reset the unit, its just a matter of moving faster or getting a better view of the sky.

 

GO$Rs

 

Thanks for the replies everyone!

 

g-o-cashers,

 

I saw the discussion on the segment limitations and 4GB (3.8?) limits in your Wiki thread or another recent thread. Sounds like there might be a work-around if one gives up some DEM (not sure what that stands for, but I get the gist), so I might try that, or just be selective on what to store at once. I was hoping to install City Navigator, as well - perhaps I should have started with the 400t, but I wanted the DVD to sync with my Mac, thought the compression was the same, and thought I'd be wasting $$$ ... Seems as though I can run a partial TOPO 2008 and CityNav on a 4-8GB microSD (?), so I may experiment, but now I'm a bit emotionally attached to the 300 after 20 fun caches in two days:P

 

As for the freeze issue, I repeated the freeze on all 10 of my first 10 caches (7 of which were in wide open spaces), so on Sunday I tried a different approach: I adjusted the Geocaching profile's tracking to off-road and tracking at 10 or 30 seconds instead of auto. After doing that, ran 10 other caches and didn't experience any freezes, though did experience a short lag period (~30 seconds) on one cache. Of the second 10, several were in fairly/heavily dense cover areas. For the most part, I'm getting 3-7 foot readings at GZ, with an occasional <1ft! Had one fluke cache with 25' foot best, and that's been the worst I've seen so far!

 

This Oregon is a tack driver, and I'm loving it. Wish I could get the entire map system on it, but as long as the freezes stay gone (knock on wood), or limit themselves to short lag periods, I'm extremely happy. Beats the heck out of my old 1st gen Vista (that was loyal until it died[RIP]). I've read and re-read the wiki (thanks!), but will gladly take any additional tips or thoughts on this issue or any other. I will update if I run into the problem requiring power off/on again.

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Though it would be nice to have all the maps on your GPS at one time you probably wont be visiting the entire US at one time, so think about loading a smaller segment of just the area you wish to visit in the near future. You can always load different maps later.

 

I travel extensively in the western US so I have City Navigator loaded for all the states west of the Missisippi. Since I live in Idaho I have Topo loaded for my home state. I only have a 1 Gb card and this pretty much fills it up.

 

When I have to travel in areas outside my standard loaded maps I create additional maps and save them so I can load them anytime I need them. It does take a while to do the load, but I just go off and mow the lawn or do some other honey do while I am waiting.

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... I was hoping to install City Navigator, as well - perhaps I should have started with the 400t, but I wanted the DVD to sync with my Mac, thought the compression was the same, and thought I'd be wasting $$$ ...

 

Well, I have not tried this myself, but I have read that it might be possible to copy the Topo 2008 (v2) maps off a 400t to your PC, then use the tools GMapTool and CGPSMAPPER to create a map set that you can load on your PC (for use in MapSource)... It looks like a rainy weekend project for someone... :ph34r:

Edited by GeekBoy.from.Illinois
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Hmm. Interesting. I don't know anyone with an Oregon 400t, but I can kind of see how that works. I would still prefer a licensed copy, so perhaps I'll wait to see if a v.2 gets released for sales.

 

I tried to edit my post last night, but the site wouldn't load: I meant to add that part of the reason I would like all of the maps is that I am an applied anthropologist and I travel frequently (cross-country and internationally) with very little to no notice. In this sense, it is very difficult for me to pick and choose what areas I should have pre-loaded, or to take the time to load additional maps on the fly.

 

This has me thinking that I should exchange REI my 300 for a 400t; however, seems as though the segment issue will come into play? Since I have some more fieldwork in Europe coming up, as well, I was hoping to set up one 4-8GB card for US with TOPO and CityNav, and another similar card for Europe. Would like one setup for Central America, as well, if there's software to support it. In this case, having pre-loaded US maps will not always be an advantage for me - though, capacity afforded by deleted sections may.

 

So to be sure I understand correctly from Cacheoholic's other thread and g-o-cachers' response above, when I install City Navigator, I need to install it at the same time as TOPO 2008, and when I do, they are entered together in a way that the segments are added and count further against the segment limit? In other words, there is not a segment limit for the maps individually, but it is instead applied to them together?

 

Thanks for your time! Sorry for being so dense!

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I wouldn't expect to Garmin to release the preinstalled maps any time soon. The best thing for you to do is buy a couple of SD cards and preload a few with the areas of the world that you think you might need. That way you don't have to build such huge map sets to cover every case an it sounds like swapping SD cards wouldn't be a big deal (need something to do during those long flights!)

 

To answer you questions on the segment limit: the segment limit is a total across all map files. If you install City Nav and Topo on the SD card they will have to be installed together because the Oregon will only load one map file (gmapsupp.img) from the the SD card. Keep in mind if you have a computer (or some device that can manage files on an SD card) you can load different map files from the same SD card. Only the one named gmappsupp.img will get loaded but you can change map sets by renaming files if you have a PC. I have an 8GB SD card in my Colorado which has 3 large img files: gmapsupp.img, gmapsupp.1 and gmapsupp.2. I just rename .img to .3 and rename .1 or .2 to .img when I want to swap.

 

GO$Rs

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I would recommend exchanging the 300 for a 400t if that is an economical option. The 400t has about 1 gig free internal memory in addition to all Topo US 2008 preinstalled. The 1 gig will accommodate almost all City Navigator North America NT. Then you can install Europe maps on a SD card and Central America on another SD card and swap cards as you travel abroad. One down fall to this is if you geocache there will be no internal memory left to store gpx files. You can store them on the SD memory but the unit must parse the gpx file every startup causing it to take a minute or so to boot up.

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