Another 76c(s) V. 60c(s) Q

[+MeSteve]

I have read pretty much every thread obout the comparison, and it sounds like it comes down to one thing more than any other. Whether you like the buttons on the top or bottom of the unit. It sounds like the difference in memory and features is really quite negligable. Out of curiosity though, in the 76c(s), how much of a trip could you load from say Grand Forks, ND to Tampa, streets only, not topo, as this is the longest trip I can foresee using a unit on. Are there any features on the 76c(s) that once you started using really stood out compared to the 60c(s)?

[stevesisti]

I guess there are two important issues here...the bigger physical size of the 76 and the bigger memory it affords.

 

The memory...If you were going from grand forks to Tampa, and wanted to use autorouting, you would only need to load local maps for grand forks and for tampa. The whole way across country, your built in "base map" covers the major interstates. Someone here could confirm it, but I would be surprised if the "City Select" detail for the two cities is more than 15 MB. In practical terms, even the 56 MB limit of the 60C is overkill......you might even be able to load both city select and topo for both of those regions. You could easily generate an autoroute before you left to make sure the 60C base map covers your highway requirements.

 

Physical size/layout...purely a personal choice...I have small hands and the width of the 76 is just a fraction too big for me to get a comfortable and sure grip on. Normally we are much more accostomed to holding things from the bottom...books, sodas, hamburgers, etc. With the button layout on the 76, you reallly must hold it from the top to operate the buttons, leaving your palms somewhat blocking your view of the screen while also creating a "bottom" heavy holding situation. Can you adjust to that...most users say they can...I couldn't.

 

There was an example recently posted along these lines where someone gave the breakdown on loading both street and topo maps for a beginning and endpoint destination on the 60Crelying on the base map to do the major highway routing...it ended all my questions about the 60C being short on memory.

[+Team DEMP]

The memory...If you were going from grand forks to Tampa, and wanted to use autorouting, you would only need to load local maps for grand forks and for tampa.  The whole way across country, your built in "base map" covers the major interstates.  Someone here could confirm it, but I would be surprised if the "City Select" detail for the two cities is more than 15 MB.  In practical terms, even the 56 MB limit of the 60C  is overkill......you might even be able to load both city select and topo for both of those regions.  You could easily generate an autoroute before you left to make sure the 60C base map covers your highway requirements.

As someone with a GPS V (with 19MB of memory) I currently deal with what you describe below. About twice a year I travel between northern NJ and southern NC, a distance of 635 miles. I have no choice but to use the built-in basemap of the GPS.

 

What you won't have using this method is the ability to customize your own route. You can only download a specific route if you have all the detailed maps that they route will need. There's a trick to try and simulate the same thing by manually creating a route using waypoints but you need to be careful and not allow it to recalculate or (at least on the V) it won't use the waypoints in your route.

 

Another area that is much less useful is routing around major highway intersections. The basemap, though showing 2 highways connecting will typically show you making a left from highway one onto highway two, which isn't necessarily the case. Many times going from one highway to another involves making a right onto a clover leaf or exit ramp, etc. Also, if the ramps are too far away from where the highways intersect, your GPS might consider you "off route" while you are still "on route" and try to recalc, so turn off auto recalculating.

 

Also, the basemaps are not as detailed as the City Select map segments and many times your GPS will consider you to be off the highway while you are on it and have been for 10's or 100's of miles and instruct you to "make a left" in 2 miles to get back on.

 

Granted that you are considering the 56MB unit while I have the 19MB unit, but if you're going to do a lot of traveling with it, and if you have MapSource, highlight the areas to see how much the maps take. If you're spending the money, you might as well be happy vs wondering if you would have been happier spending a little bit more. I know I'll be getting the 76CS because the 60CS can't hold the entire detailed trip between start/finish points. If you don't have MapSource already, and you want to know how much memory you need for detailed maps between A and B, post the A and B and I (or others) can tell you the amount of memory it would take.

[kb9nvh]

The memory...If you were going from grand forks to Tampa, and wanted to use autorouting, you would only need to load local maps for grand forks and for tampa.  The whole way across country, your built in "base map" covers the major interstates.  Someone here could confirm it, but I would be surprised if the "City Select" detail for the two cities is more than 15 MB.  In practical terms, even the 56 MB limit of the 60C  is overkill......you might even be able to load both city select and topo for both of those regions.  You could easily generate an autoroute before you left to make sure the 60C base map covers your highway requirements.

As someone with a GPS V (with 19MB of memory) I currently deal with what you describe below. About twice a year I travel between northern NJ and southern NC, a distance of 635 miles. I have no choice but to use the built-in basemap of the GPS.

 

This is my pet peeve with the V. The basemap is pretty worthless for autorouting if you want "turn left, turn right" type of directions.

 

If you cant get every major city into your route then you you are back to paper maps between point A and point B. For me, I would like to have the capability to have my "ENTIRE" route in the GPS and also have TOPO maps in there for Non driving use.

 

Give me the extra memory of the 76CS. Or better yet, give me a removable CF card!!!

Edited July 4, 2004 by kb9nvh

[+MeSteve]

Hey Team DEMP,

 

Thats exactly the type of thing I wish to avoid. there are many complicated intersections along the way if memory serves correctly, and being told to turn left onto interstate so-and-so when it is in fact a right is unacceptable because the wife hasnt made the trip as many times as I have and isnt the slightest bit familiar with the route. I was wondering if there is are 76c(s) & 60c(s) owners who would be willing to load the trip when they get a free chance and let me know what percentage of the trip can be loaded in detail along the entire route. I dont expect it to be the entire route as there are quite a few "major" cities along the way to eat memory up, but I would like to know what kinda distance I can get with full coverage before I would have to reload the second half of the trip.

 

Thanks for the input so far

[+Team DEMP]

I can what you're asking without either unit. In MapSource, using City Select, I can create a route and then highlight the map segments needed to cover the route. It will show me the memory needed for those map segments.

 

Sort of what I did for someone when they wanted to know about how much of the LA area would fit into a GPS V. See http://www.levinecentral.com/images/la_map.jpg

 

So if you tell me about the starting point and about the ending point, I can tell you the route and the map segments (and memory) needed.

 

Edit: Oops - typo in the URL

Edited July 4, 2004 by Team DEMP

[stevesisti]

Are you saying the extra memory on the 76 will allow you to load continuous sections of city select from ND to Tampa....I would be surprised if that were possible, even with the larger memory of the 76 ....The point being that if you expect continuous "detailed" coverage of any and all possible exits along the route, you're probably in a position where you would have to re-load map sections along the way whether you had 56 MG of memory or 118 MG.

 

I would be curious to see someone load the "continuous" city select data from ND to Tampa and it's resultant memory requirement.

[+Team DEMP]

Using the center point for Grand Forks, ND and the center point for Tampa, FL the route in MapSource shows as 1936 miles:

 

1 GrandForks 0 ft

2 Get on Demers Ave and drive southwest 5 ft 5 ft

3 Keep left onto Demers Ave 0.792 mi 0.791 mi

4 Turn left onto I-29 S ramp 3.19 mi 2.39 mi

5 Take exit 4 to the right onto I-29 S 500 mi 496 mi

6 Take exit 3 to the left onto US 71 S 677 mi 178 mi

7 Keep right onto I-55 N ramp 926 mi 249 mi

8 Take exit 2 to the right onto I-64 E 929 mi 3.21 mi

9 Keep right onto I-57 S 1004 mi 75.1 mi

10 Take exit 44 to the right onto I-24 E 1052 mi 47.3 mi

11 Take exit 86 onto I-24 E 1231 mi 179 mi

12 Take exit 213A to the right onto I-24 E 1235 mi 4.81 mi

13 Take exit 185A to the right onto I-75 S 1369 mi 134 mi

14 Keep left onto I-75 S 1483 mi 114 mi

15 Take exit 177 to the right onto I-475 S 1548 mi 65.0 mi

16 Take exit 274 to the right onto I-275 S 1918 mi 370 mi

17 Take exit 44 to the right onto N Ashley Dr 1935 mi 16.8 mi

18 Keep left onto N Ashley Dr 1936 mi 0.548 mi

19 Tampa 1936 mi 0.503 mi

 

For the maps segments you're looking at about 54 map segments taking 82MB of memory. That's covering the specific segments along the 1936 mile route as well as a couple around Tampa.

 

Based on that, you'd either need the 76CS or if you use the 60CS, you'd need to reload the map data while while on the road for the 2nd half of the trip. If you are bringing a notebook, then it might not be an issue.

[+Team DEMP]

I would be curious to see someone load the "continuous" city select data from ND to Tampa and it's resultant memory requirement.

Look up

[+Team DEMP]

And here's the route/map segments associated with the route from ND to Tampa:

 

http://www.levinecentral.com/images/nd_tampa_map.jpg

[+MeSteve]

That is exactly the info I was trying to get. I appreciate the help, I didnt think it would be possible either, but apparently it is with plenty of room to spare if I go with the 76. OK, my next question, that was apparenty routed using MapSource, have you ever seeen any differences between the routes chosen on the computer as opposed to the ones chosen on the handheld unit?

[+MeSteve]

NM, I just saw the check box in the corner to include the route info with the download. I guess that prevents the handheld from choosing a different route? What if it recalculates though?

[kb9nvh]

OK, my next question, that was apparenty routed using MapSource, have you ever seeen any differences between the routes chosen on the computer as opposed to the ones chosen on the handheld unit?

I have seen my V give different route choice than the computer. also, since the computer always has all the map segments, if you try to upload a computer route and the gps doesn't have all the map sections it wont work as expected..in fact, it tells you that your route is no good since all map segments are not available.

 

Also, my V has chosen super poor routes before. dont just blindly follow your gps or you may spend hours extra on the road.

[+MeSteve]

So if the unit tries to send you a bad way, can you just add in some waypoints on the roads you want to take and have it recalced the way you want to go? I am figuring the closer waypoints are the better the odds that it will send you the way you want to go?

[+Team DEMP]

I can't say I've noticed my GPS V with City Select route me differently. I can't be 100% sure it never happened but I never noticed it.

 

What you can do if you have all the map segments loaded is get a route on MapSource the way you want it, save it as a route and then load the route to the GPS. It will follow that route.

 

David

[+Team DEMP]

I had a typo in the URL above for the LA Map if anyone was interested in looking at it. I corrected it, but only in the displayed text and not the hyperlink. It's http://www.levinecentral.com/images/la_map.jpg if you were interested in seeing what fit in a V around LA.

[stevesisti]

Very interesting info layout...thanks for taking the time to work it up. If one were to make routine trips of this length, and be mostly using the GPS as an autoroute guide..there is a definite advantage to the extra memory of the 76. While you can do basic autoroute with just the basemap, it wouldn't make much sense to not have the more detailed maps to guide you to locations just off of the highway....actually, that's why you want the routing in the first place...to help in case you have to get off the major freeways in an unknown area.

 

My main use would be for hiking, having used both the 60 and 76, I much prefer the layout of the 60. Would have been nice to stick the extra memory in the 60 and the 76.

 

Still am impressed with the amount of info you can load into 56 MB. It should easily cover my weekend trips to nearby states with both city Select and topo maps for the areas.

[+Fenix6372]

Hey Team DEMP, I have been struggling with the 60cs vs 76cs for about a month or two now, I went to the store and held a 60c and if I remember correctly a 72 because the guy said the 72 was the same size and they didn't have any 76. Anyway, for one handed operation the 72 seemed to be slightly too big, I liked the 60c in that department much more. However, the maximum amount of memory available is a major factor to me as I would rather overkill the memory than have not quite enough. I was wondering if you or anyone else could see how much of the Dallas/Ft.Worth area would fit in a 60c, I am mostly interested in the northeastern part of Tarrant county and northwestern part of Dallas county, but I really want to be able to fit all of Tarrant, Dallas, and Denton counties if possible. Also how much memory would be taken up by a route from, say, DFW airport to San Antonio, and also a route from DFW airport to something on the coast like Galveston or Corpus Christi or something. I only ask because there is an outside chance I would be making some trips similar to those and also because I want to get a feel for how much memory a route takes, how much memory a lightly populated county takes, how much memory a county with a major city takes, etc... Basically I want to look at just about every possible scenario before I cut my max memory in half or get a GPSr that is only SLIGHTLY uncomfortable in my hands. Any additional input is to help me make my decision is also welcome by anyone

[+Keykeeper]

Hey Team DEMP, I have been struggling with the 60cs vs 76cs for about a month or two now, I went to the store and held a 60c and if I remember correctly a 72 because the guy said the 72 was the same size and they didn't have any 76.  Anyway, for one handed operation the 72 seemed to be slightly too big, I liked the 60c in that department much more.  However, the maximum amount of memory available is a major factor to me as I would rather overkill the memory than have not quite enough.  I was wondering if you or anyone else could see how much of the Dallas/Ft.Worth area would fit in a 60c, I am mostly interested in the northeastern part of Tarrant county and northwestern part of Dallas county, but I really want to be able to fit all of Tarrant, Dallas, and Denton counties if possible.  Also how much memory would be taken up by a route from, say, DFW airport to San Antonio, and also a route from DFW airport to something on the coast like Galveston or Corpus Christi or something.  I only ask because there is an outside chance I would be making some trips similar to those and also because I want to get a feel for how much memory a route takes, how much memory a lightly populated county takes, how much memory a county with a major city takes, etc...  Basically I want to look at just about every possible scenario before I cut my max memory in half or get a GPSr that is only SLIGHTLY uncomfortable in my hands.  Any additional input is to help me make my decision is also welcome by anyone 

You can put this area in, draw a square:

Lawton, OK on the north, Abilene on the west, Shreveport, LA on the east, Austin on the south. This whole area will fit in the 60CS's memory.

Edited July 23, 2004 by Keykeeper

[+JeepCachr]

You all are obviously struggling with cramming your routes into your GPS's. Have any of you thought about using a PPC? A PPC with Mapopolis and a cable to your GPS can hold detailed maps of every road in the US. I just went to Virginia from Michigan and back with mine. None of the handheld GPS's can compare to what Mapopolis on a PPC can do. It gives you autorouting, voice directions, real time mileage left and estimated ETA. It knows where the off ramps are or if you have to go right to turn left.

 

Its not the same as doing it only with a GPS but most everyone in this thread seems to be asking for more than what their GPS can do.