Garmin etrex info

[graphicsguy]

Hi all,

I shall be taking a trip to the USA soon and was thinking about taking advantage of the good exchange rate at the moment and possibly buying an etrex vista as a back up unit whilst there.

The unit will obviously have a US base map. What I need advice on is if I can download a UK/European base map. Do I need to buy additional maps to make it usable in the UK. Or do you think it's too much hassle trying to change a US bought unit for use here in the UK.

Thanks in advance for any advice and help.

Regards,

Tony

[humper]

Hi ive just returned from the USA and whilst there I purchased a Garmin GPS chartplotter. You will have to order a UK map but you can do it there it still works out cheaper than buying one in the UK (does`nt it always)? The map will take about 2 weeks to come to the supplier and he is going to post it on to me.Hope this helps
Regards

[codprawn]

How good are the maps anyway? Not very usable I bet - probably like trying to navigate with a road atlas!!!

[C2 RIBS]

I have a Garmin colour handheld as a reserve on board with c maps. They are great for a safety unit and held in a marine holder they are useful and can be taken off the boat in emergency

[humper]

The maps are ordered from the UK as far as I`m aware, it`s just still cheaper because we are all so used to being ripped off here. If you care to look most products are sold here pound for dollar so if you find something in the USA for $100 usd you will find it in the good old UK for 100 quid! and we just keep on being ripped off and worrying that the products might not work in the UK Why??? do we corner the market in quality? or have I missed something over the last 50 years?

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Cutlass

I have a Garmin colour handheld as a reserve on board with c maps. They are great for a safety unit and held in a marine holder they are useful and can be taken off the boat in emergency

Yes extra maps are great but with a limited amount of memory the basemaps are very low in detail.

[Rooster21]

Ive got a Garmin 60CS handheld. Its got about 55mb of useable memory, if my mine serves me correct.
I can put all the maps of UK, France and Spain and some Med. From Atlantic Bluechart v 9.5.

Thats way more than I need.

I had an etrex before. Screen way to small.

Biggest drawback with the 60cs is still the screen size. But as a portable/ back-up it works for me.

Yes extra maps are great but with a limited amount of memory the basemaps are very low in detail.

That makes no sense!!!!

If I was going to the States I'd the the new version (below). Plus a proper plotter.

http://www8.garmin.com/ces/colorado/index.html

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Rooster21

Ive got a Garmin 60CS handheld. Its got about 55mb of useable memory, if my mine serves me correct.
I can put all the maps of UK, France and Spain and some Med. From Atlantic Bluechart v 9.5.

Thats way more than I need.

I had an etrex before. Screen way to small.

Biggest drawback with the 60cs is still the screen size. But as a portable/ back-up it works for me.
That makes no sense!!!!

If I was going to the States I'd the the new version (below). Plus a proper plotter.

http://www8.garmin.com/ces/colorado/index.html

What makes no sense? Isn't it obvious that you can't squeeze a detailed map of the whole USA into a small amount of memory - it's a pretty big place!!! I have detailed maps of the Uk and they take up over 20gb!!!

[Rooster21]

Originally Posted by Cutlass

I have a Garmin colour handheld as a reserve on board with c maps. They are great for a safety unit and held in a marine holder they are useful and can be taken off the boat in emergency

Didnt think C-Map charts worked with Garmin stuff. Id be interested to know how thats done please.

@graphicsguy....... The base maps are what they are Base-ik. Not much use IMHO. So you would need to load more detailed maps on to it. Which would be Garmin BlueCharts if its for Marine Use.
Cant see there being problem with that.

There maybe a warranty issue with US bought Garmin stuff. Worth a call or email.

Ive Used UK Garmin Customer service/ warranty and theyve always been very good.

[C2 RIBS]

Yep Rooster your right looks like I have blue charts but still the handheld Garmin is great and use with fixed unit.

[Chris]

I bought all my UK unlock codes from a US company. You dont have to buy UK maps in the UK.

Originally Posted by humper

The maps are ordered from the UK as far as I`m aware, it`s just still cheaper because we are all so used to being ripped off here. If you care to look most products are sold here pound for dollar so if you find something in the USA for $100 usd you will find it in the good old UK for 100 quid! and we just keep on being ripped off and worrying that the products might not work in the UK Why??? do we corner the market in quality? or have I missed something over the last 50 years?

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by codprawn

What makes no sense? Isn't it obvious that you can't squeeze a detailed map of the whole USA into a small amount of memory - it's a pretty big place!!! I have detailed maps of the Uk and they take up over 20gb!!!

You're doing it again, Codders. Here is a pic of Bluechart coverage for the northern part of Britain and also a pic of the size of memory needed to accomodate the maps. If we guess that the southern half of Britain will need approximately the same amount of memory then that's a total of far less than 30meg. If the Etrex has 50meg of memory as has been mentioned there will be some to spare even if the whole of the UK Bluechart is loaded.

Whilst a base map of the US is of little use in the UK, a base map of your country without the Bluecharts is still pretty useful. Although the base map doesn't contain detailed information, if you have a paper chart it's possible to place waypoints and build routes in the plotter. You can then use the plotter for navigation in the usual way because the base map will be accurate to a half mile or so. Fine detail can be got from the paper chart. Bear in mind that electronic chart detail is not as fine nor as complete as paper chart detail.
This technique is particularly useful if you travel outwith your chart plotter chart coverage because you can usually source a paper chart of local and adjacent areas in a chandlery.

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by Chris

I bought all my UK unlock codes from a US company. You dont have to buy UK maps in the UK.

Yep, me too. It was a Garmin g2 cartridge of the whole of the UK and it was in stock in the US. They are well aware of the $/£ and clued up to making money from us UK folk.

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by jwalker

You're doing it again, Codders. Here is a pic of Bluechart coverage for the northern part of Britain and also a pic of the size of memory needed to accomodate the maps. If we guess that the southern half of Britain will need approximately the same amount of memory then that's a total of far less than 30meg. If the Etrex has 50meg of memory as has been mentioned there will be some to spare even if the whole of the UK Bluechart is loaded.

Who mentioned charts - I said MAP. I was trying to illustrate the point that the more detail present the more memory taken up. When I quoted 30gb I was on about OS maps - a base map of the Uk for land use is obviously going to be extremely limited compared to that.

I have a Garmin GPS12 and looked at the ones with built in base maps. Give me a basic gps and a paper map/chart any day over a basic base map. Obviously as hand helds get more powerful it's a different story - like my Ipaq for example.

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by codprawn

Who mentioned charts - I said MAP. I was trying to illustrate the point that the more detail present the more memory taken up. When I quoted 30gb I was on about OS maps - a base map of the Uk for land use is obviously going to be extremely limited compared to that.

Yes, I know, that was my point. It was spurious and not a valid comparison.

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by graphicsguy

The unit will obviously have a US base map.

Check on that, my last US Garmin purchase has a whole world base map.

What I need advice on is if I can download a UK/European base map.

I'm not sure Garmin supply a UK basemap as a download. Search their web site.

[graphicsguy]

Thanks for all the informative input.

JW. Which unit was it that you bought with the world base map installed?

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by graphicsguy

Thanks for all the informative input.

JW. Which unit was it that you bought with the world base map installed?

3010c

[Poly]

Originally Posted by graphicsguy

Thanks for all the informative input.

JW. Which unit was it that you bought with the world base map installed?

I am fairly sure my 76c came with a whole world base map.

Originally Posted by codders

Who mentioned charts - I said MAP. I was trying to illustrate the point that the more detail present the more memory taken up. When I quoted 30gb I was on about OS maps - a base map of the Uk for land use is obviously going to be extremely limited compared to that.

well as a boat related forum it is reasonable to assume that nautical cartography was the area of interest. I have the whole of western europe on a card (I am pretty sure it is 256 Mb card with atleast 10% free space) - so not sure what you are trying to say.

I have a Garmin GPS12 and looked at the ones with built in base maps. Give me a basic gps and a paper map/chart any day over a basic base map.

that suggests there is some sort of disadvantage to a base map - which is quite frankly nonsense. as JW suggest a base map offers a quick and easy way to orient your self on a paper map (and in physical space). A featureless screen gives little indication of scale, orientation or geography. I have tried both side by side (my brother has a no base map gps). With no base map the gps becomes an accessory to the traditional map/chart. With mapping even at low res. it becomes a basic plotter.

[Poly]

Originally Posted by graphicsguy

...The unit will obviously have a US base map. ...

Do you mean etrex? IIRC the etrex has NO mapping capability built in (even as an add on) - it is the really basic entry level system.