+ewarz Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 Im new to this great hobby and after some geocaching with my iphone, I decided to buy an etrex legend HCx. I got a great deal on one, found it on sale for $148. The first thing I noticed is that the maps are very... plain. After reading until my eyes hurt, I'm still not 100% clear on whether or not it is possible to get my maps to look more like the GeoCaching.com iphone app: (This image is a screen capture of my own iphone. I just want to make my etrex look similar.) Out the box, the etrex doesn't show terrain and streets. It only shows major highways. If I understand correctly, if I want streets I need to buy them from Garmin for $99? And if I want terrain maps, I have to pay yet another $99? After making a short story long (sorry), my question is, Is this the only way? I'm not willing to spend $200+ on maps for a $150 GPS... Quote Link to comment
+burtsbodgers Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 Hi You can buy Garmin Topo maps for your HCX or download FREE maps via OPEN STREET MAPS These are not as good generally as the ones you buy but are free. I believe that in the states they are available from "gpsfile.depot" or something like that. Down load then to a SD card having changed the file name as per instructions and you should be away. Detail will vary depending on the contributers from you area. Hope this helps Quote Link to comment
+splashy Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 OSM and gpsfiledepot are 2 totally different things, gpsfiledepot maps are often better then garmin maps. Osm is a project where everybody can add to a total world map, thus making it sometimes unreliable. Quote Link to comment
+ewarz Posted November 15, 2009 Author Share Posted November 15, 2009 So I can download maps from gpsfiledepot and install them onto a memory card that my etrex can use? Quote Link to comment
+ras_oscar Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Yes. I just finished doing int on my Etrex Vista, which is the same processor. Quote Link to comment
gitarmac Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 The gpsdepot maps are pretty awesome. I have the se, the ga, and the nc one but the se one seems to be the most useful, with the streets and all. Quote Link to comment
snowfleurys Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 I have the se, the ga, and the nc one but the se one seems to be the most useful, with the streets and all. The info on streets came from Census files. Could you explain 'most useful' and 'all'? Quote Link to comment
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