Garmin Poi Or Maps For Free?

[+Prof_Fate]

I have a Garmin eTrex Legend and heard hat it should have or i can get for free a Points of Interest file / download for it fro free form Garmin. I cannot find it on their website. Does anyone know anything about this?

 

Also, besides Garmin's Mapsource, are any other maps (streets or topo) available for the legend?

[+Prime Suspect]

It's the Marine POI that comes pre-loaded with the unit. If you're not boating, it's of little use. When you upload new maps, this data gets overwritten. So they provide a download for anyone who wants to restore it.

 

You can download it from the Legend Software Updates page.

 

The only maps you can load into your unit are those from Garmin.

[peter]

The only maps you can load into your unit are those from Garmin.

True for most purposes, but there are quite a few maps that people have created that are Garmin-compatible. Some are available for downloading at:

http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/

I got some nice maps of Thailand there for my Garmin eMap.

 

And Garmin lists quite a few 3rd party devlopers of compatible map software on their website at:

http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mpc/ - primarily for countries not covered by Garmin's own map products.

[Neo_Geo]

The only maps you can load into your unit are those from Garmin.

True for most purposes, but there are quite a few maps that people have created that are Garmin-compatible. Some are available for downloading at:

http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/

I got some nice maps of Thailand there for my Garmin eMap.

 

And Garmin lists quite a few 3rd party devlopers of compatible map software on their website at:

http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mpc/ - primarily for countries not covered by Garmin's own map products.

I may be wrong - I'm not sure, but I think the maps available at http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/ do not come with the MapSource program.

 

I think you would still need to buy a MapSource product of some sort to get the actual MapSource program. You can get various used titles on eBay.

[peter]

Some are available for downloading at:

http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/

I got some nice maps of Thailand there for my Garmin eMap.

I may be wrong - I'm not sure, but I think the maps available at http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/ do not come with the MapSource program.

 

I think you would still need to buy a MapSource product of some sort to get the actual MapSource program.

Thanks for the comment. You are correct that you wouldn't get MapSource with the maps at MapCenter. But that's not necessary to download the map files to your Garmin GPS. The "sendmap" program which is available free at:

http://cgpsmapper.com/ will do so as well and the latest version is compatible with both RS-232 and USB serial interfaces so it should also work with the latest models that only have USB.

 

Although I have some MapSource products, I only used sendmap and the .img files from MapCenter to load the Thai maps to my eMap.

[Neo_Geo]

That's cool! I had always thought that one needed MapSource to load the maps into the GPSr.