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Really complete Noob needs help with Maps


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My apologies in advance for what is likely a REALLY stupid question. Last week I bought a Garmin eTrex 20 to aid me in my new adventures as a mighty geocacher. I have an iPhone4 with the $10 app and have successfully used it but don't want to continue to do so. I very happily opened my new eTrex 20 and have played with it for awhile. No matter what I do, though, the only map I see is of the entire eastern US with much of the Atlantic Ocean (a 500-800 mile radius around where I live). How am I supposed to find a cache in my own backyard when the only map I see has an arrow pointed to the general vicinity of south Florida?!? Help! How do I get it to show a very specific map of my immediate area?

 

Thanks in advance for any help you experts provide!

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You need a more zoned in TOPO map for your area. If your GPS came with a map disc then you can select what area you want from that. If it did not you can get good TOPO maps for any area from www.gpsfiledepot.com. I havent dealt with the Etrex 20 specifically, but most units arent hard to put maps on and instructions can be found online. Since the Etrex 20 has an SD card slot you can also buy mapsource maps preloaded on a card, then all you have to do is plug and play. I would recommend to get the TOPO from the net and then buy Garmin City Navigator NA on a card. Then your GPS will do turn by turn to get you to the cache location and then compass to find the cache.

My apologies in advance for what is likely a REALLY stupid question. Last week I bought a Garmin eTrex 20 to aid me in my new adventures as a mighty geocacher. I have an iPhone4 with the $10 app and have successfully used it but don't want to continue to do so. I very happily opened my new eTrex 20 and have played with it for awhile. No matter what I do, though, the only map I see is of the entire eastern US with much of the Atlantic Ocean (a 500-800 mile radius around where I live). How am I supposed to find a cache in my own backyard when the only map I see has an arrow pointed to the general vicinity of south Florida?!? Help! How do I get it to show a very specific map of my immediate area?

 

Thanks in advance for any help you experts provide!

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My apologies in advance for what is likely a REALLY stupid question. Last week I bought a Garmin eTrex 20 to aid me in my new adventures as a mighty geocacher. I have an iPhone4 with the $10 app and have successfully used it but don't want to continue to do so. I very happily opened my new eTrex 20 and have played with it for awhile. No matter what I do, though, the only map I see is of the entire eastern US with much of the Atlantic Ocean (a 500-800 mile radius around where I live). How am I supposed to find a cache in my own backyard when the only map I see has an arrow pointed to the general vicinity of south Florida?!? Help! How do I get it to show a very specific map of my immediate area?

 

Thanks in advance for any help you experts provide!

 

I disagree with the first answer: I would not consider buying a map until you have tried the free stuff first. Most of the OSM free maps are routable and are available from garmin.OpenStreetMap.nl. With the eTrex 20 they will give you onscreen turn indications and alerting beeps, more that enough to get you close to the cache. In my area (San Diego) the OSM maps also display most of the trails so they are quite good off road too. The trails are not routable.

 

If you are going to do suburban and rural caching you do not need a TOPO and I would not suggest that for your first map. If you are going to do a lot wilderness caching the TOPO will be valuable if you know how to read and use one.

 

In any case, both OSM and TOPO maps are readily available free so try both to see which you like. Only if neither works for you should you consider buying maps.

 

Just my 2 cents worth, and probably over priced at that! :rolleyes:

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My apologies in advance for what is likely a REALLY stupid question. Last week I bought a Garmin eTrex 20 to aid me in my new adventures as a mighty geocacher. I have an iPhone4 with the $10 app and have successfully used it but don't want to continue to do so. I very happily opened my new eTrex 20 and have played with it for awhile. No matter what I do, though, the only map I see is of the entire eastern US with much of the Atlantic Ocean (a 500-800 mile radius around where I live). How am I supposed to find a cache in my own backyard when the only map I see has an arrow pointed to the general vicinity of south Florida?!? Help! How do I get it to show a very specific map of my immediate area?

 

Thanks in advance for any help you experts provide!

Have you tried using the 'zoom' on the GPSr and zooming-in on your current location? Most GPS units default to a specific zoom level when you first turn them on & acquire the satellites. Although I don't own an eTrex 20 and I'm not really familiar with it, based on the photos I see on Garmin's website, I would guess that the zoom buttons are located on the left side, near the top, like they are on the eTrex (Yellow) and the eTrex Legend H & HCx.

Edited by AeroMechAZ
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Hi, Jaz. As others have mentioned, GPS File Depot and Open Street Maps are good places to find free maps for your eTrex. I would suggest either the planimetric (not topographic) maps from GFD or the street maps from OSM for starters. As GeoTrekker mentioned, you won't need topos if you're mostly doing urban caching.

 

But first, we need to figure out why you're only seeing part of the East Coast of the U.S. on your eTrex. The built-in basemap, although it's so basic as to be almost useless, does cover the entire world. What happens when you zoom out?

 

Also, where is this arrow appearing? At the top of the screen, or on it? If the latter, that's showing the direction you're currently heading, and will change as you move!

 

Patty

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