New Vista HCx owner

[IanNMissy]

Ok - so after my 2nd Triton 300 crapped out in 2 weeks, I broke down and upgraded to the Garmin Vista HCx. I got the US topo 2008 on great deal to go with it, and Life was good. Stopped at Best Buy, and got a 4Gb Micro SD card. Now, life is great.

 

Everything installs fine, and I want to load the topo data to the unit - But I get a message saying I'm x number of map units over the unit capacity? Do I need to break up the entire U.S. into sections, then load all the data? 4Gb will get you pretty much everything but Alaska... I know GPX and .loc data doesn't take much room.

 

Or does the device have a hard cap on the number of map units it can process? (It's a little over 2000 if I have it figured right.)

 

I'd like to try to get as much data on as I can, and I don't forsee getting too may 24k topo maps at $100 a pop. And, if the need arises, I can always get a bigger card. BTW - what IS the Garmin limit to external storage capability? Could I get a 16Gb card? (Go big or go home.. I prefer to have too much storage than not enough.)

 

Thanks!

[Rocketsteve]

Ok - so after my 2nd Triton 300 crapped out in 2 weeks, I broke down and upgraded to the Garmin Vista HCx. I got the US topo 2008 on great deal to go with it, and Life was good. Stopped at Best Buy, and got a 4Gb Micro SD card. Now, life is great.

 

Everything installs fine, and I want to load the topo data to the unit - But I get a message saying I'm x number of map units over the unit capacity? Do I need to break up the entire U.S. into sections, then load all the data? 4Gb will get you pretty much everything but Alaska... I know GPX and .loc data doesn't take much room.

 

Or does the device have a hard cap on the number of map units it can process? (It's a little over 2000 if I have it figured right.)

 

I'd like to try to get as much data on as I can, and I don't forsee getting too may 24k topo maps at $100 a pop. And, if the need arises, I can always get a bigger card. BTW - what IS the Garmin limit to external storage capability? Could I get a 16Gb card? (Go big or go home.. I prefer to have too much storage than not enough.)

 

Thanks!

 

If you look in the lower left corner of the window that lists all the map segments you have highlighted on Topo 2008, it will tell you how many maps are in the list and how much storage space will be required to download the entire list to your GPSr. It is possible that loading all the Conus maps could put your 4gb card very close to it's maximum storage capacity, and if that happens, your GPSr will cancel the download. I know this because my Garmin Venture HC claims to have 24mb of internal memory, but if I try to load more than 22mb of maps, I also get the "over memory capacity" message and the download cancels. Try removing maps from your list (approximately 10% of the memory card's capacity which is about 400mb) and see if it will download. If it does, then the only way you'll be able to download all the CONUS maps will be to get a bigger cacpacity memory card.

 

I hope this helps and good luck with the download.

[Motorcycle_Mama]

And you can't load more than 2025 map segments in one mapset.

[+briansnat]

Or does the device have a hard cap on the number of map units it can process? (It's a little over 2000 if I have it figured right.)

 

That is your problem, as MM said above there is a cap on map segments. I found that a bit annoying until I realized that I'll probably have no realistic opportunity within the next few years to visit Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska or a number of other states, so I just eliminated them from the download.

 

A few other states that I might be more likely to visit, but unlikely to venture far from one of several metropolitan areas I just loaded map data from those metro areas.

 

If it happens that I do visit one of the areas that I didn't load it's just a matter of a few minute to load them, or you can load them to a second card and keep it handy.

 

Right now I have City Navigator loaded for all states east of the Mississipi, except Mississipi and Arkansas, the west coast states and the Rocky Mountain states and I have topo data for the entire northeast and the Rocky Mountain states and came in under the segment limit. All this on a 2 gig card.

 

That said, I think I read of a way that you can fool your unit into accepting more map segments than the limit. Perhaps someone else here can assist you with that. I never bothered with it because reasons mentioned above.

[jmundinger]

Once you get your map selection down to the size that will fit on your card, be prepared to take on another project for awhile because 4 gb is going to take a long time to load.

[Orion84]

Apart from the segment limit, isn't the Vista HCx also limited to 2GB, somehow?

[IanNMissy]

The HCx recognized the 4Gb card right away. The 2025 map segment limit is a little disconcerting.. I guess the next question, is can I load more than 1 mapset on the same card? i.e one set for east and west of the Mississippi? Because the mapset I created is less than 1Gb. I could take the card from my cell phone and take the Garmin (PNY) card and swap them. (100k topo doesn't take up too much data per segment.)

 

On a different note - I don't know if this a a GPSr or map issue: I was using the unit going to work this morning, and the unit would not lock on to roads. I had that setting turned on, and it was consistently showing me off the road by 30-40 feet both ways. WAAS is enabled, and my satellite lock was excellent, along with a very nice day.

 

All in all, I think I like the unit a lot, and the Altimeter and Compass are really cool. Just trying to figure out the ins and outs, and how the maps work. With the Magellan, all the maps I created and such worked out great, and put my position right on top of the roads. hell, it was getting pretty close to which lane I was in, and these were not navigable maps as far as road data goes.

 

Sorry for the wall o text.

[+kentwoodkrew]

"On a different note - I don't know if this a a GPSr or map issue: I was using the unit going to work this morning, and the unit would not lock on to roads. I had that setting turned on, and it was consistently showing me off the road by 30-40 feet both ways. WAAS is enabled, and my satellite lock was excellent, along with a very nice day. "

 

Hi. I have a venture hc with topo 2008 maps. On the way to work I see myself doing some intense 4 wheeling

a good 100 or 200 feet off the highway. I must have a hell of a suspension system. If I take the back way I am tearing up a lot of peoples yards and smashing into apartment buildings. I end up parked in the woods about 1/2 a mile from work. The GPSr doesn't lie does it? Topo 2008 ain't great.

[+Chi-Town Cacher]

The HCx recognized the 4Gb card right away. The 2025 map segment limit is a little disconcerting.. I guess the next question, is can I load more than 1 mapset on the same card? i.e one set for east and west of the Mississippi? Because the mapset I created is less than 1Gb. I could take the card from my cell phone and take the Garmin (PNY) card and swap them. (100k topo doesn't take up too much data per segment.)

 

On a different note - I don't know if this a a GPSr or map issue: I was using the unit going to work this morning, and the unit would not lock on to roads. I had that setting turned on, and it was consistently showing me off the road by 30-40 feet both ways. WAAS is enabled, and my satellite lock was excellent, along with a very nice day.

 

All in all, I think I like the unit a lot, and the Altimeter and Compass are really cool. Just trying to figure out the ins and outs, and how the maps work. With the Magellan, all the maps I created and such worked out great, and put my position right on top of the roads. hell, it was getting pretty close to which lane I was in, and these were not navigable maps as far as road data goes.

 

Sorry for the wall o text.

 

A couple months ago in the GPS and Technology forum thread I'd asked about using a 4 GB SD card in my Vista HCX and was told the following. Yes, you can use a 4 GB card but regardless of how large of a card you use the Vista HCX will only use 2 GB so the extra space is pretty much useless. Yes, you can put more than 1 mapset on an SD card and that's what I ended up doing.

 

I've got 3 of the mini SD cards loaded with topo maps. One section is for everything east of the Mississippi River. One for the middle part of the country. Finally the last SD card has everthing from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific.

 

You may want to check out the GPS and Technology section for much more advanced information than I can provide since I'm not a tech savvy person. Good luck!