Garmin Dakota 20 - UK maps

[+Jacksters]

I'm eagerly awaiting delivery of a Garmin Dakota 20 and I wonder if anyone could advise me on the available UK maps for it. I am aware of the Garmin Discoverer maps but they may well be more than I require and I don't feel I can justify the expense at the moment. I believe there are 'opensource' maps available? However where you find them and how useful they are etc. I'm unclear about. I'm a real newbie to geocaching and GPS. I discovered geocaching through the iphone app but have decided to treat myself to a dedicated GPS unit as I'd like to do more geocaching and the iphone doesn't take kindly to being rained on and dropped in the mud :-) Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jacksters

[Pajaholic]

Talkytoaster's OSM-based maps are what I use with my Dakota 20. Free of charge and routable: http://www.talkytoaster.info/

 

HTH,

 

Geoff

[+Jacksters]

Thanks they look great. Do you update them frequently or do you find it isn't really necessary?

 

Jackie

[Pajaholic]

Talkytoaster updates the maps approximately monthly. Since I've added a few ways to the project, and since the filesize grows each time, I'm fairly confident that there's new stuff each month and so it's worthwhile updating.

 

Just track this thread to find out when updates are available.]

 

Edited to add the following note: "Just in case" it's probably a good idea to load the map onto an SD card rather than onto the D20's internal memory. That way all you have to do in the very unlikely event that the maps crash the device is pull the SD card to get it working again.

 

HTH,

 

Geoff

Edited August 2, 2010 by Pajaholic