Mapsend Software - Accuracy?

[+Green Bay Paddlers]

Amy and I own a Meridian Gold which we just love. The mapping data included in the receiver is pretty good (except the Des Plaines River in the suburbs of Chicago is off by about a half mile). I'm looking to invest in the TOPO Mapsend software. However, I'm looking on Amazon.com and reading that people hate it. It's outdated, not very accurate, etc.. I'm just wondering if anyone out there in Geocaching land has invested in the MapSend Streets or Topo software and what your thoughts are?

 

Any help would be welcome! THANKS!!!!

 

Jeff

[+Quoddy]

Yes it's true that there are minor inaccuracies in both, but not enough to warrant not getting them. I would HIGHLY recommend Topo above Streets. Topo has exactly the same info as Streets, plus the addition of all the topo features which are invaluable for Geocaching. I use it for both Geocaching and travel in my Mericolor.

Edited November 23, 2003 by Quoddy

[+Fathergoose]

I have both, topo and streets the accuracy at times is off a bit but often it is right on. I haven’t figured out why. At the park near my house there is a lake when we walk around the lake the GPS shows us walking on water but most other places it real close. Using a 256 card on my Platinum I have plenty of room so I usually load the same area for both maps. I have found with the streets it shows city parks more than the topo does. This comes in handy especially in unfamiliar cities.

 

Fathergoose

[rockclimber_tx]

I have Mapsend TOPO and it seems to work ok. If you bought your Magellan product recently (this year), you can get a $50 rebate when you purchase any Mapsend product.

The maps are old (3-5 years old......most of my neighborhood isn't in it, yet the neighborhood is 5 years old), but for the most part are very helpful. I checked with Magellan about updates to the maps, but could not get a straight answer ("purchase Directroute" is what I was told.....but Directroute does not have TOPO, which is the main reason I want the SW......duh!). The Magellan customer care rep didn't have a clue.

[+embra]

I use MapSend Topo, and have found it to be pretty good in my area of the country. There are inaccuracies, but I think most of the user opinions at Amazon come from people with unrealistic expectations. Accuracy varies by geographic location; you may want to specify where you'll be using Topo to see if anyone can tell you to watch out or relax.

 

That being said, the new DirectRoute is reputed to be *very* accurate, but is limited to street information.

[+T & G's Adventures]

My wife and I use Magellan Sportraks and we also use the MapSend Topo software. Being in Nevada, the street information is of little use but we really LOVE the topo portion. It is invaluable for finding our way around out in the desert or in the mountains. When heading out to find an 'out-back' cache, we load the coordinates into the software and BINGO, it shows us where it is on the map. Finding it is a bit more 'friendly' this way.

 

The few times we've used the topo stuff in city situations, it hasn't been bad either. Like another poster said, "some people have unrealistic expectations". Maps, like computers, are out of date in short order.

[+DustyJacket]

What they said...(the people above)

Additionally, the maps cannot be totally accurate. They use fewer point to describe streets and things because of the space.

 

MapSend Topo uses one CD for the whole USA.

 

Detailed and accurate maps like National Geographic TOPO! uses 5 CDs just for the state of Missouri.

 

(I had Streets as well as Topo. I sold Streets for a loss and use only Topo now.)

[McKenzie Clan]

Do they have Topo for Canada??

 

I would like that option too for my ST Map. I use S&D now, and recently while caching a very large lake appeared in my path that was not shown on the map!

 

Thanks,

 

Scott

[+Team Cottengim]

Considering the cost of data and card space used, the Topo maps are great.

 

Using a Meridian Gold and a 128M card, I was able to load the following regions:

Washington, Oregon, No. California and Nevada (North of SF Bayarea), So. California and Nevada (South of SF Bayarea). There is about 50 miles of overlap in each of the regions.

[+Jamie Z]

I've been happy with the data on Topo. The handful of times it's been wrong (missing roads, or roads in the wrong place) have never caused me any problems. It's right on the vast majority of time.

 

Jamie

[Vacman]

Actually, I believe the map info that Mapsend uses is from 1993-1994......

[+Green Bay Paddlers]

Quick question for you guys - how large of an SD card would I need to JUST upload the TOPO map data for one state - like Wisconsin? 64MB?

 

What about a 5 state region like Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana?

[+E = Mc2]

What about a 5 state region like Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana?

For just Wisconsin, the Streets and Topo maps take up about 14 MB. Adding the Points Of Interest (POI) adds a couple 100K to it . Using the Mapsend software, I don't think there's any way to JUST upload Topo. Not that you'd want to do that anyway.

 

As far as the five state area you mentioned... That totals around 76 MB of data, all told. Of course, you can also store regions on more than one SD card and just transfer cards whenever you want. Would make a lot of sense if you came across a handful of free 16's. (If you do, send me some)

 

I'm still wondering if I can upload more than 4 8MB regions to my standard Meridian. I drive for a bus company (think long grey dogs) and I frequently carry my GPSr with me. The accuracy of the maps is sometimes way off, but frequently is eerily accurate. (say that five times fast).

[+embra]

I'm still wondering if I can upload more than 4 8MB regions to my standard Meridian.

You should be able to upload a mapfile containing up to 4 regions of up to 16 MB each safely...supposedly the 5.x firmwares have done away with these kinds of limitations. If you have a green or a yellow, I think you're stuck with 4.x.

 

You may have to edit the mapsend.ini file to allow larger regions and/or mapfiles. IIRC 4X8MB shouldn't be a problem. You been having problems?

 

There is more detailed information on modifications in the FAQ residing in the files section of the Yahoo Merdian Users' group.

[+DustyJacket]

I just received DirectRoute.

I did a track today, and compared how they fit to the Mapsend Topo map, National Geographc TOPO!, ExpertGPS/terraserver aerial photos, and now Mapsend DirectRoute.

 

See this UPDATE comparison I did:

http://www.dustyjacket.com/geocache/tracks.html