Garmin (or other) - advice please

[antnee]

plus I've discovered that most people have a start CD with a map programme on it! I don't have one can I still load maps on to it? I've ordered a 4gb micro SDcard to put the maps of the UK on it

 

[benb]

I've got an Edge, and when I plug it in to my PC it shows up as a removable drive. Is that not the case with the Etrex?
If you can get hold of a microSD adaptor you can pop it into the PC and see what's on it that way.

I found the openstreetmap site really good, and you can download the maps already in the Garmin format. At least - it worked on my Edge.

 

[antnee]

Yes, I never thought about a micro SD card adaptor they are quite cheap too I see I exspect I would have got there in the end I am just going to try and load one of the openstreetmap tile of firstly the Bristol area as i can try that on this SDcard Ihave already because this area will fit on my 64mb micro card that I've got with the Vista when I bought it.
I am presuming it covers some of my area which will show up on the screen after I load it; if I zoom out?

 

[antnee]

I still am struggling to load a map on my GPS After being away from this forum and wizzing around a few others Its seems I am the odd one out I think I said I had no trouble putting a route on to the unit but not a lot of use over just a yellow base map. the route I plotted wasn't on roads the base map had on it.
So seeing that on other forums people seem to have just loaded bits of the uk straight on the the SD card thought I can do that but no the GPS still asks for me to insert disc via the monitor when the GPS is plugged in I mean whats that all about.
Any help would be really well helpful!

 

[heliphil]

when I plug my HCx in to my pc I have to go to the menu page and selected the usb connection ( on the HCx) it will then show up as an additional drive. I find the easy way is to use a micro sd card adapter ( cheap on ebay etc)

You can only have one map at a time on the HCx but I have several 1 gb Micro SD cards and load on maps of wherever I'm going in europe.

 

[Davidc]

I'm interested to see that people are still buying dedicated Garmin units.

I have an Android phone, and use software (app) called Bike Computer Pro from a German company which cost a few pounds. It lets me follow tracks (usually created on Bikely/ Bike Radar and transferred as GPX) There are a number of map options including offline openstreetmaps. The only issue is battery life with the screen locked on, which is about 3 hours, so I now have a small USB pack which takes it up to 15 hours.

It probably isn't everything the Garmin is, but even if I'd bought phone and software just for this it would have been £300 cheaper than buying a Garmin unit (which I was thinking of doing).

I'm amazed at what the smartphone can do. I'd concede that it's not quite as good as the Garmin SatNav I use in the car, but I certainly wouldn't replace the dedicated Satnav if it failed. Same goes for a load of other things including cameras, ebooks, and more.

 

[antnee]

I have had success in uploading all the Open Street map files to a folder I created in the GPS (it shows as Drive F on my pc But some reason when I go to see what is there in setup/map information no maps show? OSM says that if you have done it correctly the file will show up in the map set up page on the garmin but perhaps I need to spend more money and get another program to rea\d the OSM files though It can open some of them with a programme called mapedit On the PC (which I hasten to say was an unregisted version) this comes out not showing roads just like a google eath shot with some contour lines and hieght markings. its becoming a bit of a drag now. So much so that I may forget the whole Idea.

 

[antnee]

Oh I do have a 4gb micro card in the GPS now which I forgot to mention this is where the files of openstreetmap have loaded to in the Etrex Vista HCx. I will have to do yet more searching as to why the file thats on the Micro SD card are not showing up in the map set up page on the etrex unit what I need is just a programme that will be on the gps that can read the files. At first I thought it was a fault with the SDcard causing it not to be read but now I know that they are there on the unit but teh etrex just doesn't want to recogize them!
By the way thanks to all that have offered advice Regards Antnee

 

[benb]

The main advantage in using a dedicated Garmin unit is battery life. If I ran my phone as a GPS unit on the handlebars I'd probably only get 5 hours out of it. My Garmin lasts all day.

 

[antnee]

Still having problems at the moment though am exploring more aveues of hope for the up load of the OSM to the Garmin!

 

[antnee]

I though you all would chuffed to know that I eventully got the OSM to load on the Garmin Vista HCx I know I was pleased with my self and it was a really stupid mistake that anyone can make I faithfully copied the advice I found on several websites and after unzipping saved the map as GMAPSUPP.IMG when in fact all one MUST DO is save it as GMAPSUPP as it is already an .img file and the file name is too long. All I would like now is to be able to overlay it with the NCR and local cycle route numbers!
Anybody got any thoughts on this Please?
Many thanks Antnee

 

[heliphil]

I use bike hike to create tracks and then load them to my HCx via EasyGPS - glad you got the gmapsupp file on ok - Its easy when you know how,

 

[RiflemanSmith]

If you get a Garmin I can send you the City Navigator Europe NT so you can can get the basic model.

 

[antnee]

Hello Rifleman I do have the Garmin Etrex Vista HCx and as I say have managed to load the Openstreet map routeable with contours which I downloaded from talky toaster's rather good website.
Not quite sure about City Navigator Europe NT? can this be installed as an overlay on the same Micro SD card so it enhances it? I would be very pleased if you could send it perhaps you might PM me on my profile page
Any help with a GPS is most welcome, I have got a lot of infomation re my GPS from here http://www.aukadia.net/gps/lwg_0.htm
Which I found really useful But would welcome any advice.
many thanks for your offer
.

 

[RiflemanSmith]

Hi mate feel free to take it from my dropbox it's nearly 2 gb so make sure you have space on your card before you bother to download it.
Any one else is welcome to take it too.
You'll have to wait for a bit for it to upload.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lc3jwippb0rdmu7/2_LDDaO3HA
It's saying about two hours for it to upload to my Dropbox folder.