+rmgps Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 I have a Garmin 60CS and have been considering purchasing the Garmin MapSource Topo US. I found it very decently priced on Amazon.com but the reviews for the most part are not good. Does anyone have experience using this with the 60CS and what advise do you have? I plan to use this for geocaching and hiking in Colorado. Quote Link to comment
+rokclimber Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 ive been using topo since i got my garmin 12map several years ago... now that i have a 60C i find it even more useful as the topo lines/maps look much nicer... granted the streets & highways are a little dated (some newer additions probably won't be there since they no longer update this one)... however for your part of the country and what u wanna use it for it should be very useful... it is topo after all! Quote Link to comment
CenTexDodger Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 Yeah, I agree with what rokclimber said. I use Topo on my 60cs also. In the parts of New Mexico where I have hiked, it worked like a charm. It showed the trails we were on, and the colors allowed you to discern the topo lines from the roads. I would think for what you are wanting it for it would be great. What works pretty well is to overlay the City Select maps so you can use it as a road navigator to get you to the jumping off point, then as an off-road navigator on the trails. That being said, if you compare it to other topo programs for your computer (such as DeLorme) it pales in comparison. Those have a lot more features. But it was designed to have maps you could load into your Garmin GPS, which the others, of course, do not. Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment
peter Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 I'd suggest using the Mapviewer on Garmin's website: http://www.garmin.com/cartography to check a few areas with which you're familiar. Garmin's USTopo is a faithful representation of the USGS 1:100,000 series with the same pros and cons. The topography is shown accurately but with less detail than the common 1:24000 series. OTOH, the maps are very dated and many areas will show roads and other manmade features as they were 20 or more years ago and even the roads that are shown are frequently not named. Personally I've found it more useful to have good streetmaps (like CitySelect) on the GPS and to use PC-based detailed topo maps to create routes/tracklogs/waypoints that I upload to the GPS showing specific trails and other features of interest for a particular hike. USPhotomaps (jdmcox.com) works well for this. Quote Link to comment
+VisionQuest220 Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 I have both City Select AND Topo loaded on my Quest, (Thank you for the 115mb of memory Garmin), and I switch between the two depending on whether I'm caching or driving. That, my friends, is called "the best of both worlds"! Quote Link to comment
+lakedawgs Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 I also have City Select and TOPO maps loaded on my 60C and while the TOPO maps are only at 1:100,000 resolution, as opposed to NG TOPO series which are 1:24,000 maps, Mapsource TOPO does give you decent trail/topo info, it also has many POIs that are not in City Select. Regardless, unless you want to get into making your own maps for the GPSr (which looks like a real pain), Mapsource TOPO is the only choice you got. I also agree with Peter, go to the website and check it out thoroughly. good luck, Lakedawgs Quote Link to comment
Team Of Wheat Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 I've been trying to use the online map viewer over the past week or so to check out the Mapsource Topo maps and have noticed that it takes quite a long time to get an image when you zoom in/out or move around. Is anyone else having a similar problem? I also get quite a few errors where no page is ever displayed after trying to zoom in on an area. Very frustrating. A friend of mine has an older Mapsource Topo (it says version 2.00 under the Help-About menu) and I've been trying to compare it with the web site. What is the current version? So far, I've not really seen any difference from the Garmin Mapsource Topo online viewer and the version that he has. Anyone know how long has it been since the data has been updated? I imagine that the Topo information has not been updated since his version, but I was hoping that the POI's would have been. Anybody know? Thanks! BradW0807 Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 If you want topo maps on your GPS it's the only game in town. If you want to plan trips and hikes and have the best maps you can get, topo maps based on the USGS quad maps are as good as it gets. National Geographic Topo, Delorme Topo are both good. There are others that are good as well. Quote Link to comment
peter Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 (edited) Anyone know how long has it been since the data has been updated? I imagine that the Topo information has not been updated since his version, but I was hoping that the POI's would have been. Neither the topographic information nor the POIs of Garmin's US Topo have ever been upgraded. AIRC, there was a fix of some area where the wrong datum conversion had been made, and a patch for some other localized error, but no overall upgrade. The latest CDROMs won't have any POI or road information that's more current than what you see on your friend's version. PS. Careful about the recommendation above for DeLorme Topo. DeLorme makes at least two Topo map products. Their '3-D TopoQuads' maps are based on the 1:24000 series USGS maps and are quite good. But their 'Topo USA' maps are based on 1:100,000 data with additional contour lines added through interpolation and are far less detailed or reliable. Edited January 6, 2005 by peter Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 I have a Garmin 60CS and have been considering purchasing the Garmin MapSource Topo US. I found it very decently priced on Amazon.com but the reviews for the most part are not good. Does anyone have experience using this with the 60CS and what advise do you have? I plan to use this for geocaching and hiking in Colorado. I use Mapsource Topo on my Vista and 60CS. I generally like it and find it to be very useful. Of course it isn't as robust or as detailed as programs such as NG Topo, but it isn't meant to be. My cheif quarrel with it is that a lot of newer roads aren't on it. It seems to be about 10 years out of date, but since in my area most roads have been around longerr than 10 years, it isn't a major issue. Quote Link to comment
JackStraw_1969 Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 Just curious if anybody knows how to make the topo discs run from HD rather than having to always put the CD's in....... Quote Link to comment
CenTexDodger Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 Just curious if anybody knows how to make the topo discs run from HD rather than having to always put the CD's in....... I can' remeber exactly, but I think if you copy the info on the cds onto your HD and install from there that shoudl do the trick. Do a search, this has been covered fairly extensively in the past! Quote Link to comment
Ddogxxx Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 So, out of curiousity for those of you who have used both the National Geographic, and the Delorme, which to do you prefer for off the beaten path navigation and detail? And if Garmin is lurking, can it be that hard to partner with one or the other and make a version for your customers? A version that a Garmin GPS can digest? -- Think of the Market share -hint- -hint- Quote Link to comment
peter Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 Here are a couple ways: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...4&hl=hard+drive Quote Link to comment
JackStraw_1969 Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 Here are a couple ways:http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...4&hl=hard+drive Thanks! Quote Link to comment
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