Topics

Hi there,

Sit down and grab a jo, this may be a long question.

I have a Garmin 450 with an 8 Gbyte SD card (didn't find out about the 4 Gbyte restriction until after the purchase).

I have DVD versions of Canadian Topo V4, and City Navigator North America NT 2011.1

In my testing, I format the SD card between map loads.  Interestingly enough, if you load maps onto the SD card, drop it into the 450, power the 450 on and off, remove the SD card, power the 450 up, and look at the maps, the unit will show those map sets as enabled (but I digress).

The problem at hand, was how do I flip from Topo 4 to City Navigator.

While City Navigator shows as being enabled, I just didn't see it on the unit.  You might ask why I want to do this?  Good question.  I'm an avid Geocacher, living in the Lower Mainland of BC.  About twice a year, I head into Washington state for a day of caching there.  My Canadian Topo doesn't cover Washington, but my City Navigator does.

So finally, I decided to strip everything down.  I formatted the SD card, loaded only City Navigator, dropped it into the unit, and with my profile set to "Geocaching" on the 450, I was unable to see any sort of map.

I dropped a note to Garmin's help desk.  The response I received really intrigues me.  The fellow suggested I flip to the "Automotive" profile on the 450.  I tried this, and voila, the City Navigator maps were visible.  However, too bad so sad, the "Automotive" profile doesn't recognize geocaches as destinations.  The caches show up on the map, they just aren't available as destinations.

I reformatted the SD card, and dropped both Topo & City N. onto the card, and switched back to the Geocaching profile on the 450.  Both maps show as "enabled", but it's only the Topo which appears.  If I disable the Topo, I have no maps on the map view.

Is anyone aware of how to toggle back & forth between City N. and Topo, using the Geocaching profile?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers