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What Software Do You Use With Your Etrex Legend?


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I use the Garmin MapSource Topo on my Legend. I live in the Hudson Valley of NY, and 8MB would be from the northern suburbs of NY City to Lake George including western Conn, western Mass., and Southern Vermont. An area of about 170 mi by 75mi or 12750 sq. mi. or about 1/4 of New York States total area.

Edited by Mark.B
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Michelle's Legend will hold the section of Houston, Texas 18 miles South, 47 miles West, 25 miles east, and 16 miles North. This area has A LOT of detail and is split into 5 regions on the software and makes up 7.83mb. In Cities where there is not as much detail, she can get much larger (square mile) areas. Last week on our road trip, she was able to get a very large section of Tennessee at one time that covered Knoxville and all of the areas NE, S, and SE. So you can see how the more populated areas with more streets will take up more room than other areas.

 

EDITED to add....

Missoula, Montana MetroGuide USA v5.0 1.65 MB

Kalispell, Montana MetroGuide USA v5.0 865 KB

Great Falls, Montana MetroGuide USA v5.0 605 KB

Lewistown, Montana MetroGuide USA v5.0 333 KB

Havre, Montana MetroGuide USA v5.0 368 KB

Jordan, Montana MetroGuide USA v5.0 332 KB

Miles City, Montana MetroGuide USA v5.0 340 KB

Glasgow, Montana MetroGuide USA v5.0 371 KB

Billings, Montana MetroGuide USA v5.0 930 KB

Bozeman, Montana MetroGuide USA v5.0 632 KB

 

These areas only took up 7.01mb. You should be able to get most, if not all, of Montana in the 8mb Legend.

Edited by Cherokeecacher
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Ok, so montana is mostly highways and towns that consist of a post office and a bar, so I will prob be able to get a fairly good chunk of montana compared to say the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Which Mapsource is the most usefull for Geocaching a light traveling? I would think some sort of topo? I just bought my Etrex Legend and am looking for the software now. And not to be too long winded, anyone know where to find the cheapest Mapsource products? I also have a Palm M105 with cables and cds and books to trade for a copy of one.

 

LOL you beat me to it!

Edited by XVampire
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how large of a surface area will 8 megs hold? like only a small city or what?

MetroGuide maps are more of a function of population density than surface area. The more people who live in an area, the less surface area of maps will fit into memory.

 

In your case (Great Falls, Montana) draw a square from the Canada, Idaho, Montana borders down to Yellowstone Regional Airport.

 

If you went to Seattle, you could fit the Eastern and Southern areas of the Puget Sound including Seattle, Tacoma, the major suburban towns and most of Olympia.

 

If you go to Los Angeles, then I'd have to ask, "What part?"

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i have software revision 3.5 in my eTrex Legend. :unsure:

i got MapSource version 3, for Europe (i leave in Romania), and this software contain all western countries of Europe. Not mine.

While going in Brussel several times, i loaded the Brussel map in my eTrex, i can't tell you now how much space require (about 7MB anyway) but it cover an area of 70km wide (east west) and 40km high (north south). Map vey well detailed for such a large city, including airport's runways (for example), points of interest and... more.

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We use NihM’s in the Legend and my meridian Gold. We have not really done a comparison between run times, but have been very happy, even with the CHEAP purple ones (2000mha) from Fry’s. pack-o-10 for $9.99. Just remember to change the setting from Alk. To NihM.

 

You can also get some good information from this user group or this group, and of coarse this forum. Heck, the more sources the better.

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Yes, you can recharge them thousands of times, provided you don't abuse them. Don't let them discharge completely, charge often, and they will work for a long time. NiMH batteries last longer than alkaline in heavy-draw applications, like cameras, with flash, where there is a large current draw over a relatively short duration. For low-current applications, like clocks, etc, alkalines will last longer. GPSrs are sort of in the middle, and the more you have turned on, the better the NiMH batteries will do. I seldom buy alkaline batteries any more - I use them in some clocks, where they last for years, but not much else.

Edited by NightPilot
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Savings is the obvious factor.

 

$3.00 a pack for 4 AA batteries x 500 = $1,500.00

 

$9.00 a pack for 4 NiMH AA batteries (good for atleast 500 recharges) = $9.00

 

cost savings: $1,491.00 

 

Finding 2000+ Geocaches with one set of batteries = PRICELESS!

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Can you use 2 mapsource products at once? IE use metroguide for city areas and load topos for the rurals?

You can use any number of different MapSource products at once - as long as you have enough memory for them all. You can load different maps for the same area too - like Topo AND MetroGuide for Great Falls, Montana! You can only view one of them at a time, and it takes a few steps on the GPSr to switch them. But it's nice to know that you don't have to upload different maps when you want to switch them.

 

Have you seen Garmin's FREE MapSource Tutorial Video?!?

Edited by Neo_Geo
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Any other neat things you can do with the mapsource or etrex legend?

The MetroGuide maps are great! You can look-up addresses, and have the GPSr show it on the map, or have it draw a line between you and the address to help you navigate to it.

 

If you don't know the address, but you just know you want some Mexican food, you can look-up "food & drink" and then categorize "Mexican" to find all of the nearest Mexican restaurants. It'll display the direction and distance of each from your location. You can also display the address and phone number so you can call ahead and have the order ready when you get there! - Okay - GPSr in one hand, cell phone in the other... someone else better be driving!!! :o

 

If you move the cursor with the click-stick to another location on the map, then you can do a look-up for the nearest to that location on the map. You can do it for gas, lodging, entertainment, shopping - the list goes on...

 

These things are great for more than just caching :blink:

Edited by Neo_Geo
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Savings is the obvious factor.

 

$3.00 a pack for 4 AA batteries x 500 = $1,500.00

 

$9.00 a pack for 4 NiMH AA batteries (good for atleast 500 recharges) = $9.00

 

cost savings: $1,491.00 

 

Finding 2000+ Geocaches with one set of batteries = PRICELESS!

Yeah well you also get the peace of mind of not worrying about trying to conserve battery power all the time. If they run out, oh well! Just pop them in the charger and pull out your spares. :blink:

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I noticed that the Garmin website has an unlock thing? What is this for?

SOME MapSource products require a special code be entered to get your GPSr to work properly with the product. City Select, City Navigator and Blue Charts are 3 examples of such products. MetroGuide and Topo do NOT require unlock codes.

 

The idea behind the unlock codes is that customers would be able to pay for and use only the regions of the maps that they need. They figure that someone living in NY city won't necessarily need maps for the West coast, Mid-West, South West and South East. So they could buy map product with a certain number of available regions, and then pay for and unlock additional regions if they need them.

 

That has proven to be very unpopular with Garmin customers, but it cuts down on piracy of their more expensive products.

Edited by Neo_Geo
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I'm still contemplating the purchase of a Legend and have a question about MetroGuide. I can pick up a new copy of either v4.02 or v5 for $55 each. My question is, which version should I get if I decide to get the Legend? I've heard conflicting reports about v5's so-called improvements.

 

Also, does Garmin offer free upgrades for either MetroGuide or Topo?

 

tm

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