Posted by Koveh Tavakkol on January 15, 2011 at 10:09 AM
I finally broke down and purchased a Garmin 60csx GPS unit. I am pretty new to GPS units in general, so I am trying to figure everything out. My main question is what are you using for GPS topo maps and how do you like it? There are many good 24k but expensive options out there. I also read somewhere that some of them might not work on the Garmin? I know the natgeo 24k maps do work, but I am not sure if I want to spend the money on those quite yet. Any recommendations on good free topo maps? I found some online, but want to see if there are better ones? Thanks in advance for any info.
Posted by Doug Koepsel on January 15, 2011 at 10:41 AM
Supposedly you can download maps from gpsfiledepot onto a micro SD and put it into your Garmin 60csx, rather than buying a $100 microSD from Garmin.
Posted by Jim Casteel on January 15, 2011 at 11:44 AM
Koveh, I have Garmin's older software, it is 100k maps for all the US and then 24k maps for all the national parks in the country. If you would like you could get me an SD Card (at least 4gb if the 60csx can use sdhc cards) and I could load it for you with what I have. I know Garmin has just released 24k for the whole country but they sell each region (West, Southwest, North Central, South Central, Northeast, and Southeast) for $129 each on DVD or $99 each on microSD.
Posted by Koveh Tavakkol on January 15, 2011 at 12:54 PM
Doug, thanks for the link. I downloaded some free topo maps from there last night, but I have yet to try them out to see if they are worth anything. =)
Jim, that is awesome! Do you happen to have any way of dumping info onto a microSD card, as that is what the 60csx uses. If so I can pick up an 8gb card pretty cheap.
Posted by Jim Casteel on January 15, 2011 at 4:31 PM
I have a 60csx which I can put the card into and dump the data to it and then give you the card. I still need to make sure that the 60csx will take bigger than a 2gb card, but that will just be a few minutes of investigation. If it can't then you will just have several 2gb cards.
*edit
Just found out that the device will take up to 16gb cards but the files on the card can only be 4gb. I should be able to make 2 files which would encompass the entire US. If not I can surely give you almost everything west of the Mississippi shot.
Koveh, I use the Abovethetimber maps. This guy was the first to make the 24k about 5 years ago. I bought mine back then for my 60csx and never looked back. I'm not really sure how they compare to todays maps but I've never felt the need to research other maps because these sre so good. The best part? They're only $50.00!!!
Jim, I am putting in an order for an 8gb microSD card. I will either get it to you at the shindig if you are there or email you to set something up. Thanks again, I really appreciate this.
Posted by Mel Ladewig on January 17, 2011 at 9:23 AM
I've got the Southwest DVD Jim spoke about and it seems to allow me to make cards for multiple GPS devices. Unfortunately their streets maps forces registration to the individual GPS, so you get to buy it multiple times if you've got multiple GPS devices.
Anyways, the Garmin 24K maps are good and a huge improvement from the 100K maps.
Discussion
7 replieshttp://www.gpsfiledepot.com/
Jim, that is awesome! Do you happen to have any way of dumping info onto a microSD card, as that is what the 60csx uses. If so I can pick up an 8gb card pretty cheap.
*edit
Just found out that the device will take up to 16gb cards but the files on the card can only be 4gb. I should be able to make 2 files which would encompass the entire US. If not I can surely give you almost everything west of the Mississippi shot.
http://www.abovethetimber.com/ColoGPS.htm
Jim, I am putting in an order for an 8gb microSD card. I will either get it to you at the shindig if you are there or email you to set something up. Thanks again, I really appreciate this.
Anyways, the Garmin 24K maps are good and a huge improvement from the 100K maps.