+Dub. Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 Lemme tell you how mad I am.... I had a Magellan GPS Tracker. It was big, clunky, and pretty accurate. After I introduced my friend to Geocaching he went out and bought a SporTrak Pro...then realized he didn't need that much power. He offered me to trade GPS's if I'd give him $100 in addition to my GPS. I couldn't pass up the deal. Well, I just got Mapsend not to long ago and I uploaded a couple regions and loved the detail. I just got done planning a trip south to several different cities and parks... Much to my surprise, when I tried to upload 6 new regions, it rejected them!. So I thought, "oh, only four at at time." WRONG. It only lets you upload 4 regions period. It overwrites the regions on the GPS and they can't be renamed with the SporTrak. So, to my knowledge, there is no way around the 4 region limit. I am utterly pissed off. I needed to upload several different cities and parks. By selecting huge regions I got most of them, however, I have to leave out part of my destinations due to lack of memory and I get a lot of useless junk in with my regions. My question:...With a Garmin unit (and the Mapsource software), would I be restricted to 4, 5, 6, etc. regions? Or can I upload as many regions as my heart desires so long as my GPS memory can hold them all? As a backpacker I often go several weeks without seeing a computer. So uploading four regions makes the unit pretty much useless to me. I need a unit that can accept more than 4 regions. Most of the regions I need are small, but require me to upload 6-10 regions. Instead I am forced to upload 1 huge region containing a lot of data I don't need. Are the Garmin's like this? Does Magellan plan to fix this problem? I am a very unsatisfied customer right now. The SporTrak series was supposed to be designed with the outdoorsman in mind, however, if you are outdoors more than you are indoors, and don't have access to a computer to upload new regions, Mapsend software is useless. I have been, up to this point, very satisfied with the unit. It is very accurate, easy to use, and can get a signal in dense forest. However, this Mapsend problem almost makes the unit useless for my purposes. If I can upload more with Mapsource to a Garmin then this unit will probably find itself on eBay really soon.... ________________________ I'm not saying we should kill all the stupid people in the world. I'm just saying that we should remove all the warning labels from everything and let the problem take care of itself. Quote Link to comment
+GOT GPS? Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 Each time you load maps into a Garmin, you are starting over. However many Sections of map that will fit in a garmin's memory, depending on what mapsource product you buy. These are predefined Map Sections. Garmin: GPS V: 19 megs Vista & Map76S: 24 megs Legend & Map76: 8 megs In my GPS V i can get a hundred map sections of Streets & Rec, but I can only fit about 3 to 7 map sections of City Select Deluxe in the GPS V. The thing about Garmin, is that the Regions amount to about 11 for the USA and Canada, but there is a free All Region Unlock for the Deluxe GPS V. -------------------------------------------------- My Old posts as Geoffrey My Current Post as GOT GPS? My profile My Home Page about what is GPS Quote Link to comment
+pizzachef Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 Well, the Meridian may not be the backpacker's dream, but with teh SD card slot, you can put as many map files (1-4 regions apiece) as you want on the card. When you're moving to the edge of one map, load the next one (it't done through the GPS menu) from the card and you're good to go. Limited only by the card size. -pizzachef Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 Some clarificatin. On Garmins GPS V. (GPS V Deluxe may come with all regions unlocked) Mine came with City selct I had to "Unlock" my region. In the unocked region of my mapping software I can download any area (what you are calling regions) at all into the GPS until I've run out of memory. As was said everytime I upload maps I'm starting over. However Mapsource topo doesn't have regions to unlock. Any area I want to download nationwide can be loaded into the GPS. As for as I know all Mapsource software works like this as do all the GPS's. When you talk about larger regions vs. smaller ones doesn't seem to have a direct comparison on the garmin side. All I can select are areas. They have one set size (size of each area can vary) and that's what I select to download into the GPS. ===================== Wherever you go there you are. Quote Link to comment
+Dub. Posted June 25, 2003 Author Share Posted June 25, 2003 So let me get this straight and clarify something. When I say "region" I mean an area, a square that I select from the nationwide map. Each square you select is called a region. The size doesn't matter as long as it doesn't go over 23mb. With the Magellan, I can upload 4 areas that are 4 megs a piece, 4 areas that 5 a piece, 3 areas that are 7mb a piece, or 1 area that is 23mb, etc...so long as I don't upload more than 4 areas or more than 23mb. The size of the regions doesn't matter, so long as I don't select more than 4. I'm assuming from what you have said, that with a garmin I can define several "areas". Say I want to upload detailed topos for Yellowstone, GSMNP, the Grand Canyon, the Badlands, and the Ozakrs....each would be in different regions, or areas....I can upload all of them so long as they don't take up more memory than the unit I am using has. With a SporTrak, I would be limited to uploading just 4 of the above areas...I couldn't download all six at once or ever. ________________________ I'm not saying we should kill all the stupid people in the world. I'm just saying that we should remove all the warning labels from everything and let the problem take care of itself. Quote Link to comment
+Dub. Posted June 25, 2003 Author Share Posted June 25, 2003 Allow me to illustrate. In the picture below I have selected six "regions" that I will be visiting soon. They are Columbus, OH, Charleston, WV, Glady, WV, GSNP, NC, TN, Charlotte, NC, and Myrtle Beach, SC. If you look to the right hand side of the picture you will notice that I have all six regions selected and at the bottom of the box you see "upload limit." The six selected regions take up only 4910kb, which leaves me with 17506kb. However, notice the -2 rgns. I can only upload four of the regions I need. If I upload four, and then upload the other two--the previous four get overwritten. So there is no way to get all six regions I need into the GPS even though I have 17mb available. So here's what I did next.... I combined several of the regions. I put all the Ohio and WV regions together. Both NC locations together. Then I needed to add Saluda, SC with Myrtle Beach, SC so I combined them. Then I needed a small area above that region. I now have four regions that take up 22178kb, leaving me with 238kb--238kb that I could use for maps, however, I'd have to increase the size of one of the current regions to utilize it. Fortuneately most of the areas I will be visiting on this trip are close together, so I can group the regions. However, when I go out on my next trip I will be unable to group all the regions I'll be visiting, Yosemite, CA, Yellowstone, WY, Grand Canyon, AZ, GSMNP, TN, and Everglades, Fla. I can only upload topos for four of those areas. Do the Garmin's work the same way or could I upload all of those regions/areas? I hope this makes better sense. ________________________ I'm not saying we should kill all the stupid people in the world. I'm just saying that we should remove all the warning labels from everything and let the problem take care of itself. Quote Link to comment
+Dub. Posted June 25, 2003 Author Share Posted June 25, 2003 Here is an example of what I want to do. Can a Garmin unit do this? I have Yosemite, CA, Yellowstone, WY, Badlands, SD, Grand Canyon, AZ, GSMNP, TN, and Everglades, FL selected. I need to upload all six areas. You are limited to only four user defined areas with the Magellan SporTrak series. As you can see the areas only take up 8mb leaving the GPS with 14mb free memory. The "regions" are too far from each other to combine. So I'm screwed. I can only upload four of the places I'll be visiting making the GPS useless for what I need it to do. If I had a Garmin, could I upload all of the regions in the picture above or is there a limit to the number of regions? ________________________ I'm not saying we should kill all the stupid people in the world. I'm just saying that we should remove all the warning labels from everything and let the problem take care of itself. Quote Link to comment
+montythemule Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 It appears that someone has moved Yosemite to the south in the image above. I thought I would have felt that.. Actually, I am trying to figure out how much map data I can upload, this is new to me. ***************************************** This Space Intentionally Left Blank Quote Link to comment
+Dub. Posted June 25, 2003 Author Share Posted June 25, 2003 Yeah, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon are probably in the wrong spots. I just drew some boxes with the program quickly for illustration purposes. I called Garmin...they do not have this problem. I also called Magellan Technical support. They were quite rude. I believe the woman that answered was having lunch while she was talking to me. So much for Magellan. Anyone want to buy a lightly used SporTrak Pro? Make me an offer. ________________________ I'm not saying we should kill all the stupid people in the world. I'm just saying that we should remove all the warning labels from everything and let the problem take care of itself. Quote Link to comment
stutzismydog Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 wvabackpacker~ Why cant you just purchase a second 24Mb SD card and load your 5th, 6th 7th & 8th region on to it then just change SD cards as needed ????? Quote Link to comment
+Lil Devil Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 Here's an example of what the western part of the US looks like when selecting the regions you're talking about with Garmin's MapSource Topo. MapSource Topo is delivered on 3 CDs and I don't carry the Eastern CD with me, but if I did I would be able to select all 6 regions like you are refering. In the past I have selected and downloaded regions in California, Washington, and Alaska (AK and HI are on a separate CD) so I know it works. Note the light grey squares all over the map. These are individually selectable map sections (150-350 KB each). See how the the total areas selected are not square in themselves. Total of the 39 selected map sections is 9.8 MB, but includes outlying parts of each area that are probably not needed. Knowing your plans better, you would probably select smaller areas. I wouldn't trade my Garmin for anything. Lil Devil Quote Link to comment
+Dub. Posted June 25, 2003 Author Share Posted June 25, 2003 quote:Originally posted by stutzismydog:wvabackpacker~ Why cant you just purchase a second 24Mb SD card and load your 5th, 6th 7th & 8th region on to it then just change SD cards as needed ????? Because I have the SporTrak Pro which doesn't take SD cards. It has built in memory only. This is the official response from Magellan: quote:Our program is written to allow 4 regions of up to 16MB each to be loaded within the limits of the memory capacity of the unit. This is a limitation our engineering group has placed on the software. This is not a problem. It is a restriction placed on the program by the software engineer. Best regards. Brian Oliver Service Support Supervisor Pretty crappy. They actually built it in to do that, even though the unit could easily handle more than 4 regions. I spoke with Garmin today on the issue as well. They don't have the "problem." I will be selling my unit and purchasing an eTrex Vista. I liked this unit and I really like Magellan, but if they are going to "build in" problems intentionally then I'm not going to buy their products. I assume they did it this way so people with Meridian's and units that accept memory cards would be forced to buy more memory cards. Down with Magellan! ________________________ I'm not saying we should kill all the stupid people in the world. I'm just saying that we should remove all the warning labels from everything and let the problem take care of itself. Quote Link to comment
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