Montana 600

[+SA Georiders]

WOW...I was so excited. My brand new 600 arrived and I was ready to start learning all the new stuff on it. I have read several topics here and knew there were updates already. Well, now Im reading that there is even a newer update (2.6) but there are tons of problems. I dont know what to do...Help!!!! Please

My next question is about the maps. Im not sure what to put on it . My 600 will be used for geocaching exclusivly. It looks like birdeye may be the best. My problem with my old gps (etrax) was that I would be caching and walking over hills, up hills, through neighborhoods and finally find the cache is located right off another road. This happened several times since all it did was point in the direction..urrghh couldve saved a ton of time and found others instead of hiking for an hour. So, what is everyone else using?? What is suggested? I am not a computer geek and it is going to take awhile to get used to this. Half the stuff Im reading doesnt even make sense to me... reload, reboot,basecamp do this and that, WHAT????Like I said, it will be used for caching only... but I sure dont want to get out with my new equipment and my kids and have them be disappointed because "Moms new high tech expensive toy didnt work"

Thanks for any suggestions

Edited July 16, 2011 by SA Georiders

[+michaelnel]

WOW...I was so excited. My brand new 600 arrived and I was ready to start learning all the new stuff on it. I have read several topics here and knew there were updates already. Well, now Im reading that there is even a newer update (2.6) but there are tons of problems. I dont know what to do...Help!!!! Please

 

I would say that if your 600 isn't exhibiting problems you want to fix, then don't update the firmware at this time. In any case, v2.60 is a stinker and if you are going to upgrade at all, do 2.40 or 2.50, but my advice would be to wait for 2.70 (or whatever they come up with to fix the hot mess that is 2.60).

 

My next question is about the maps. Im not sure what to put on it . My 600 will be used for geocaching exclusivly.

 

When routing is working properly, I would recommend Garmin's City Navigator 2012. Unfortunately, routing in CN is badly broken in both 2.50 and 2.60. I don't know if the routing is also broken in the Garmin Topo 24K stuff, maybe someone here can check that. Topo 2008 and the free maps from gpsfiledepot.com don't do routing nor do they have the DEM elevation data necessary to get elevation plots on basecamp.

 

That said, I would definitely go to gpsfiledepot.com and download some of their maps for your areas of interest. The ones I have seen there are VERY high quality, and they're free.

 

You might also try this as a free map resource:

 

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download

 

> It looks like birdeye may be the best.

 

Birdseye sucks, IMO. The highest resolution is still not that high, and the very fuzzy and indistinct images can be helpful somewhat, but I would sure hate to rely on them for navigation.

 

My problem with my old gps (etrax) was that I would be caching and walking over hills, up hills, through neighborhoods and finally find the cache is located right off another road. This happened several times since all it did was point in the direction..urrghh couldve saved a ton of time and found others instead of hiking for an hour.

 

When City Navigator is working, the routing should take care of that for you. Problem is, the routing doesn't work right now. Garmin claims to be working on a fix, and there is a lot of heat on them about it so I would think it would be fixed pretty soon. I would also advise buying City Navigator 2012 on DVD, not downloaded or on a microSD card so you can use it in basecamp (downlaod free at http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/us/onthetrail/basecamp).