Garmin 62s need a map sad card?

[Thursoman]

Hi

 

I am looking to buy the garmin 62s, is the baseman good enough to use for geocaching or do I have to buy like a discoverer map package for it to be any good?

 

Look forward to your response.

 

Thurso man

 

**sorry for typo's. I'm on a iphone**

Edited December 22, 2013 by Thursoman

[yogazoo]

The basemap that comes on the GPS is next to worthless. So yes, get a "sad" card and cheer it up a bit with some free maps from Open Street Map (OSM) or GPSfileDepot. =>

Edited December 22, 2013 by yogazoo

[Thursoman]

The basemap that comes on the GPS is next to worthless. So yes, get a "sad" card and cheer it up a bit with some free maps from Open Street Map (OSM) or GPSfileDepot. =>

 

Thanks for your response.

 

How difficult is it to put some maps onto a SD card from the open streetcar or gpsfiledepot. Can you only put on localised areas or could I put on like the whole of Great Britain?

 

Thanks

[+ecanderson]

With the right size of card, you can hold all of GB.

 

It's a bit dated, but here is one option: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/133/

or perhaps a better choice

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ and under "Choose a predefined country", go for Europe, then United Kingdom.

 

Create a folder on your SD card called Garmin (yes, upper/lower case counts!) and place the resulting *.img map file in that folder.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

Something like this :

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Full-Map-2013-2014-Garmin-City-Navigator-Latest-Europe-NT-Map-Card-MicroSD-/141147412326?pt=GPS_Maps_Software&hash=item20dd0a9766

 

I bought 2 for North America.

 

As said, the base map is useless....the 62S is a great unit, my wife and I both use one.

[+Calypso62]

I used the free Open Street Maps on my Garmin 62s when I went travelling through Great Britain and Ireland back in 2010. I was travelling through Canada and the USA last year and used them again. They are fabulous!

[+Lil Devil]

I have Garmin's City Navigator 2011 maps on my 62s. A few months ago I bought my wife a 62s, and not wanting to spend another $100 on maps, I installed Open Street Maps for all of the US on her device. At the same time, I installed the same OSM maps on my device so I could compare. Turns out the OSM maps are more complete and I now prefer them over the Garmin maps.

[Thursoman]

Thanks for your help, has given me some guidance without having to spend money on the garmin packs not really knowing what quality they are.

 

Thanks again.

 

Thursoman

[+BAMBOOZLE]

With the right size of card, you can hold all of GB.

 

It's a bit dated, but here is one option: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/133/

or perhaps a better choice

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ and under "Choose a predefined country", go for Europe, then United Kingdom.

 

Create a folder on your SD card called Garmin (yes, upper/lower case counts!) and place the resulting *.img map file in that folder.

 

I can't see how to get the whole U.S. , just individual states.

[+Mineral2]

Some people geocache without a map. All you really need to know is the direction and distance to your destination, and so a many people geocache from the compass page rather than the map page.

 

But, I like maps, and I have to say that the free maps provided at the links in previous posts are much better than Garmin's maps, at least for hand-held activities.

 

I've heard that OpenStreetMap is much more mature in Europe than it is over here in the States, with a better spread of local POI's and address routing support. Thus in the US, City Navigator maps are better than OSM for driving, but that's really the only exception IF you're going to use your hand-held as an auto navigation unit as well.

[snowfleurys]

Many consider the best GB maps are from http://talkytoaster.co.uk/ukmaps.htm

[+JohnCNA]

...

 

But, I like maps, and I have to say that the free maps provided at the links in previous posts are much better than Garmin's maps, at least for hand-held activities.

This does not match my experience. I really like the maps from GPSFileDepot.com and openstreetmaps but the quality of the 24k Topo map I purchased from Garmin is better (mostly). I like the shaded terrain on the device and the street detail and routing is a little cleaner. On occasion the location of a stream has been more accurately placed on a GPSFileDepot.com map. Most of the time there is no appreciable difference in Map accuracy, though. I just like the shaded 3D display better. I have no experience with the 100K maps.

 

When I travel outside my purchased regional map, I only use the GPSFileDepot.com maps. You certainly can't go wrong with free maps, that's for sure.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

With the right size of card, you can hold all of GB.

 

It's a bit dated, but here is one option: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/133/

or perhaps a better choice

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ and under "Choose a predefined country", go for Europe, then United Kingdom.

 

Create a folder on your SD card called Garmin (yes, upper/lower case counts!) and place the resulting *.img map file in that folder.

 

I can't see how to get the whole U.S. , just individual states.

 

On these free maps can you download the whole U.S. as one map or do you have to do individual states ?

[+ecanderson]

If you select "Enable manual tile selection:" you can select a point with left mouse, select all of tiles you want, and release left mouse. You'll probably get a few that you don't want, but you can click those to remove them. Then tell OSM to build you whatever was within the tiles you have selected.

[Grasscatcher]

@ECA,

You'll know better than I..... I just went through this same exercise and was unsuccessful the first couple of times. Seems the reason was that the file size for the tiles selected was too big and the installer for Windows wouldn't work.

File size limit for FAT32 ????

 

May have to split US into E & W and consider as separate maps ?....at least to install into Mapsource/Basecamp.

 

I fould a single file of the entire USA that someone had already done(can't remember what site)but it was just the ".img" file (Without the Windows installer) that could be placed directly on the GPS card.

[+ecanderson]

Side note: It does make for a whopping big map, though. You won't get a Windows installer for the results since a Windows installer is limited to 2GB, so if you want the map in Basecamp or Mapsource, you'll have to do it in pieces.

If you pick up each nook and cranny of the contiguous USA, it picks up a bit of Mexico and Canada as well, and the resulting *.img file is about 2.5G in size. That's a lot of map.

[+ecanderson]

Just read you subsequent post (problem leaving windows open and not refreshing them!). Yes, as noted above, you are correct. In order to do the Basecamp/Mapsource thing, you'd need to split it into two pieces. That said, there's nothing wrong with having 2 *.img files on the handheld, either, and is probably a sensible way to approach the problem. So you don't have to 'select states' per se, but you do have to use the mouse to select two separate swaths of them for the results to be useful situations.

[+JBnW]

One other thing about the 62s, and higher, units; they have quite a bit of onboard memory for maps. I've got all of CityNav North America loaded on our 62s, and have our topos and other maps on an SD card. Just FYI...

[+ecanderson]

Cross post from the 'other' thread:

 

If you split the country vertically somewhere between the Missouri and Mississippi, you'll wind up with two OSM *.img files with west at about 1.4G, and east at about 1.9G.