Can't send maps to eTrex Vista hcx?

[stevensj2]

Hi,

 

My girlfriends dad was having some trouble sending his Topo maps to his eTrex, so I told him I'd take a look at it.

 

After bringing his eTrex + CDs (MapSource and Topo08) home with me, I now see what he's talking about.

 

When I connect it to my PC, I get a notification that it is connected, but MapSource will not recognize that a device is plugged in. When I manually change the interface in the eTrex settings, it then says a hardware device is found, but does not have the necessary features.

 

If I use 'My Computer' to browse which drives are connected, I can see the eTrex (drive G:). Any exploration of this drive is denied with the "Please insert a disk" error.

 

I've had no trouble at all sending maps, routes, waypoints etc to my Colorado, but I'm unable to make any progress with the eTrex.

 

This unit is older, but it's been unused in the box until now, and I'd like to figure this out for him so it doesn't have to stay that way.

 

Thanks for any help / advice!

[+coggins]

does the unit have a microSD card installed?

[stevensj2]

does the unit have a microSD card installed?

No, and that was my first guess at the problem. But the manual states that it has ~ 24mb (tiny) on-board space to transfer maps to, which should hold a small county or two, and thats really all he needs.

 

I thought the eTrex might operate similarly to the Colorado and allow its on-board space to work like a mass-storage device, and allow me to transfer data to it.

[+luckybobb]

Garmin's website states that the Etrex Vista Hcx does not have any internal memory at all, which means that the maps would be stored on the memory card (I beleive this is the case with all the x series models).

 

If you pu a micro SD card in it it should work fine.

[+coggins]

does the unit have a microSD card installed?

No, and that was my first guess at the problem. But the manual states that it has ~ 24mb (tiny) on-board space to transfer maps to, which should hold a small county or two, and thats really all he needs.

 

I thought the eTrex might operate similarly to the Colorado and allow its on-board space to work like a mass-storage device, and allow me to transfer data to it.

You need to check the model, if it says "eTrex Vista HCx" above the screen then it doesn't have any internal map memory, I have one and wasn't able to store any map without first picking up a card. The original Vista, as well as the newest Vista H has 24Mb of internal memory for maps.

[stevensj2]

does the unit have a microSD card installed?

No, and that was my first guess at the problem. But the manual states that it has ~ 24mb (tiny) on-board space to transfer maps to, which should hold a small county or two, and thats really all he needs.

 

I thought the eTrex might operate similarly to the Colorado and allow its on-board space to work like a mass-storage device, and allow me to transfer data to it.

You need to check the model, if it says "eTrex Vista HCx" above the screen then it doesn't have any internal map memory, I have one and wasn't able to store any map without first picking up a card. The original Vista, as well as the newest Vista H has 24Mb of internal memory for maps.

 

Correct indeed! Thanks, everyone.

 

I had read the manual, and saw 24 mb for storage. Upon rechecking it this evening, I realized that was model-specific. Drats.

 

Thanks to all who helped out, I appreciate it!

 

- Josh