Question on Choice of GPS Map Media

[minuteman62-64]

OK, so I bit on the Garmin GPSMap 76Cx (handheld) on sale at West. I've been playing with it and am impressed so far. I also bought the 12 volt power cord and the marine mount. Now I want to add marine charts and maybe a North American street map. However, my ignorance level in this area is sky high.

The unit comes with a microSD digital card and can be connected to my computer. The add-on maps seem to be available by down-load, on CD and on a microSD card, all for the same price.

Is there a reason to prefer one media over another? If so, which and why?

If I down-load or buy maps on CD do they install on the microSD card that came with the unit? Is there a capacity issue if I wanted to install both a marine chart and a street map on this card? Can I buy a bigger (more capacity) micro-card at some place like Fry's?

The owner's manual is not real informative in this area. Appreciate any input from you veteran gps users out there.

 

[JB]

Re: Question on Choice of GPS Map Media

I am not sure how compatible your 76cx is like my 276c, but the numbers are similar.

I have several CDs and one extra microSD card. The card is a quick swap into the unit. I do not have the adapter to load the card directly from my 'puter, so I put it in the unit and download stuff to it while it is in the unit. I bought it as a blank off of ebay to get more capacity.

I have NA Recreational Lakes on CD and a series of City Select and City Navigator CDs. It is a simple matter to use these to "set up" the unit for a particular trip from my 'puter. The land nav maps become obsolete pretty quickly. I started with V5 and now have V6 and V8 and the V8 is obsolete but still useful in most places. The 276c needs an automotive "kit" to use street maps for nav.

If I were starting out with an up-to-date version like yours I think I would buy a card for specific marine needs and go with the CDs for anything else.

A few minutes on Garmin's website will tell you a lot more (and more up-to-date) info.

 

[minuteman62-64]

Re: Question on Choice of GPS Map Media

Appreciate the info. Although the young lady at West was trying to be helpful, the best technical support she could offer was that her boyfriend had one, and thought it was "really cool."

 

[minuteman62-64]

Re: Question on Choice of GPS Map Media

After reading the pdf that is on the CD that came with my 76 Cx, I found that if I buy the North American street map I can download portions of it to stay within the 128 kb capacity of the enclosed micro-SD card. I also found that my scheme of getting a bigger capacity card and downloading both the street map and a marine chart wouldn't work - when new data is downloaded the data previously on the card is erased.

Via a response from the Customer Support folks at Garmin I was informed that if I purchased a 4 GB card I could download the entire NA street map. So, I purchased a 4 GB card at Frye's (amazingly cheap - in the $10 range) and will use that for either the entire NA street map or portions thereof (thinking maybe that with less data I'll get faster response??). As suggested, I'll get the marine chart on the micro SD card media.

 

[fucawi]

Re: Question on Choice of GPS Map Media

Yoou wont get faster response as its only using the area of data you are looking at ....SD cards are not as reliable as you would like to think so a back up in your computer or on CD is a good idea ..even CDs deteriorate in about 5 years...not saying they stop working but they dont last for ever...

 

[minuteman62-64]

Re: Question on Choice of GPS Map Media

SD cards are not as reliable as you would like to think so a back up in your computer or on CD is a good idea ..even CDs deteriorate in about 5 years...not saying they stop working but they dont last for ever...

So, seems like it might make sense to get both the road map and marine chart on DVD's (I checked - they are DVD, not CD) and copy them to my hard drive and then install on the handheld unit from there (assuming I back up my hard drive so I don't lose the files in the event of a crash).