Etrex Vista Troubles

[BlackBeard Pirate]

Well, I've had a plain Etrex for a few years, and I got myself a Vista for Christmas.

It has 24 Mb of storage. I checked the Vista's memory in its setup and it reported 2%. I have an old Mapquest cd (US roads & recreation) I got from a friend a few years back and I've been trying to fill up my new Vista with maps. I read that the Vista can hold about 20 maps (counties) on average, so I loaded my county and then a few surrounding counties.... I checked the memory on the vista and it was only 4% full (strange). So, I started loading more maps..... maybe 15 more and then memory in the Vista said 6%, hmmmm? I set it to load maybe 40 or 50 counties (Florida and Georgia areas) and it finally stopped in the middle of the transfer saying that there was an error with the connection. I turned off the gps and back on and my maps are gone but memory still reports 9% full! huh? i had to reboot the pc to get it to transfer maps again.

 

I have been through this scenario 3 times now.. loading fewer and fewer maps at a time.... (now paying attention to the total filesize of the maps reported by mapquest -- only 10-12 Mb at most). It eventually seems to have an error where it loses connection and i lose all map datum in the gps as well. I checked the gps memory status and it does not return to its original 3% but stays at 9% even though all map data is lost. I reset all logs, routes, waypoints, tracks, etc. but it still reports a growing memory.

 

I guess my questions really are... whats going on? how many Mb of maps can I load? how can I reset my gps to original configuration? How can I get my gps to report its original 2% memory usage? If i were to load lets say 10Mb of maps, why doesn't the gps report its 24 Mb of memory to be half full?

 

I know it's a lot of questions... but I am guessing that some others here with the Vista, and maybe those with the Legend, have had similar problems and figured out what is going on. Thanks in advance for any help or advice you all can supply!!

 

Rob, Florida

[Neo_Geo]

There is no way to tell how much MAP memory is used on the GPSr. That information is only displayed in the MapSource program on the computer (click on the "Maps" tab and look at the lower left area of the screen). You can "send" your maps from the GPSr to MapSource. Basically, the GPSr will send a list of the maps installed - it doesn't need to send all of the map data back to MapSource since MapSource is the source of the map data. Anyway, once the data is sent to MapSource, you can look at the maps tab and it'll tell you which maps are installed and how much of the mapping memory is used.

 

The % of memory used that is reported on your GPSr refers to the memory which stores tracks.

 

To reset the % of memory back to 0%, you have to delete your tracks. You can do this on the Trip Computer page. Menu - Reset - check "Tracks" ("Track Log" and "Saved Tracks").

Edited December 29, 2004 by Neo_Geo

[RustySocket]

Im not sure the above post is correct. I have two different memory values on my Legend. Not sure it the vista is the same or not.

 

If you go to main menu and select tracks, the track log will give you a value of memory used for the tracks.

 

If you go to main menu and select setup and then select system you get the memory used up by the maps you have downloaded.

 

Clearing the track memory only affects the track memory and resets it to zero.

 

Deleting all my mapsource maps resets the system page to zero.

 

Keep in mind that the preloaded POI database will take up some memory so you won't see the system value at zero on a new unit.

 

The basemaps are in a separate area altogether and can neither be deleted or view memory usage.

 

Scott

[+Alan2]

Neo Geo is right about totalling the map memory before you attempt to transfer. I have a Vista and I select the maps up to 23.8 meg on my PC to assure I don't exceed the 24 when I tranfer.

 

Rusty is right about POI but since you're running Roads and Recreation, you don't have to worry about it - R+R does not have POI's. Only Metroguide, CIty Select and some of the others have it.

[BlackBeard Pirate]

Thank you for your help Neo, Rusty, & Alan...

 

...at first i had not noticed the total map filesize in mapsourse.... i did by the second and third attempts but had crashes anyway. I just loaded 20 Mb of maps, and it worked, so the crashes must have been flukes, or maybe bad data on one of the maps -- I dunno, but for a while there i thought maybe i had some bad memory in my unit.

 

With the 20 Mb of maps in memory, my GPSr reports 13% memory used.... so I dont think that report includes the 24Mb of map memory, i think that bit of memory used must be what references the coordinates of the downloaded maps to the basemaps. I'm begining to understand! it helps to know what I am doing with MapSource also..... thanks again for your time and help fellas!

[BlackBeard Pirate]

 

 

Deleting all my mapsource maps resets the system page to zero.

 

Scott... to delete all maps in my unit, would I use Mapsource and transfer an "empty" map list?

[+Alan2]

All maps are deleted except the basemap whenever you load even one map. I don't see the point of trasnferring no maps to clear the memory even assuming the program will attempt to do it.

[RustySocket]

Blackbeard,

 

Yes, transferring a empty mapset will delete all user maps from the gpsr.

 

Scott

[mstandal]

I'm glad I found this post. I got a Vista in Dec and started loading Topo maps into my Vista. I could not understand why It would sit and transfer 16mb of maps and only report being 8% full. From what I am reading here, Garmin did not expose a display report of memory used for maps in the unit. Only tracks and waypoints are measured?

 

Mike

[+Texas Shadow]

Keep in mind what Alan2 stated above. When you load even one map it erases all the maps you have loaded before. You have to transfer all the maps you want to load at the same time. I did this early on, kept loading maps thinking I was adding to the maps I already loaded, then I learned .

[mstandal]

Texas Shadow, good point. I did notice that when I was selecting maps from Mapasource. I plan to make pre-defined sets so I can swap them out based on where I am going. I don't know if it is just me but the transfer seems to take a while to complete. Even 15 mb's. I did have a transfer error once right at 98% loaded, but all other times it worked without a transfer error.

 

I was considering using a USB conversion cable, but the unit itself is prob limited to serial speeds anyway, so it would not increase. Anyone know if this is the case or not?

 

Mike

[peter]

I was considering using a USB conversion cable, but the unit itself is prob limited to serial speeds anyway, so it would not increase. Anyone know if this is the case or not?

It is. Adding more links that the signals have to go through can never speed things up - only slow them down. In this case the transfer rate is limited to 115,200 bps.

[mstandal]

peter, I had a feeling it had a max communication speed well below USB speeds

[+Alan2]

I'm glad I found this post. I got a Vista in Dec and started loading Topo maps into my Vista. I could not understand why It would sit and transfer 16mb of maps and only report being 8% full. From what I am reading here, Garmin did not expose a display report of memory used for maps in the unit. Only tracks and waypoints are measured?

 

Mike

Mike: If you want to know what maps and how much memory, just upload to Mapsourse on the PC> It only take a few seconds to create the map set and the maps and total memory used will be listed on the left part of the screen.

 

Also, if you're finding that the transfer fails, as I have, start the transfer with a fresh set of batteries. I found that failures mostly occur when the bats are running out of electrons Getting decent or quick satelite locks and maitaining them sometimes occur with run down batteries too.