i purchased a garmin vista hcx about 4 months ago. i have not even took it out of the box. i will be using it mostly for hunting purposes. our season does start until mid oct. i have had a ton of other stuff going on since i purchased it, so no time to fool with it. i have owned other handheld gps models for offshore fishing since the early '90s. i feel that i am not a gps neewbie, but green to downloading maps to handheld.
i am contemplating on buying a garmin topo 2008 dvd. is this the best topo map for this hendheld? i went to the garmin site and previewed my area and it did'nt seem too detailed. i see that there is a feller that created a s.e. topo map that is free to download from this site. can i just load this instead of buying the garmin topo map? has anyone used the s.e. download from this site? any info would be greatly appreciated.
The SE TOPO map from this site should be about 4 times the detail of the 100K Garmin TOPO 2008 DVD. You will need to purchase a blank microSD datacard to install either to that unit.
excellent! so, i just download s.e. map to my computer and then to the sd card?
download it to your computer and run the installer after doing the following:
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-to-install-mapsource-if-it-didnt-come-with-your-gps/
Then to install the maps to your gps, do the following:
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-to-load-maps-on-my-garmin-gps-unit/
I just put maps on my vista. You might want to get it out and start practicing with it if you are unfamiler with GPSr's. I know some folks that don't do any more than look at the map page.
I have been saving certain tracks and using gps visualizer to make "maps". They've been pretty helpful.
i have about 15 years using a handheld. i used them for offshore fishing. pretty basic. enter lat/lon. and run to waypoint. this model is a little more complex. i will be using this unit for navigating in the woods.
i have put batteries in the machine and installed a 4 gb sd card. the unit came with a trip and waypoint manager disk. Do i need ti install this to load topo maps from this site? does anyone know if the vista hcx has mapsource already installed? thanks. 8)
MapScource goes on your PC. From there you install maps, waypoints, GBX files (routes).
okay, here i go. i have downloaded the georgia topo to my computer. there is an icon on my desktop. when i click on the icon, it prompts me to install into a folder. i am a little confused. where should i install it? i think i need to install it to mapsource, right? thanks.
just install it into the default folder it decides on.
now my computer is saying it there is a problem with waypoint manager. it says to re install. tried reinstalling four times. no luck. any opinions? >:(
have you ever updated it? If not install the update from here:
http://www.gawisp.com/perry/msource/MapSource_6156.exe
it seems the program is loading onto my computer. when i go to add remove programs, it there. i just cant open it. i removed the bundle and reinstalled with the trips waypoint manager disk that came with my unit. once loaded, it asks if i wanted to launch mapsource. i clicked yes. window appeared unable to open. please reinstall. i then downloaded update. update went through process and it looked like mapsource was going to open, but it didnt. said error ocurred and to re install. i guess ill have to call garmin in the morning. oh wait, they are probably closed tommorrow. then tuesday, unless someone else has any ideas.
contacted garmin today. two hours later, no mapsource. it is downloading onto my computer, but i am unable to launch it. tried giving remote access to garmin tech. couldnt achieve that either. i am going to load mapsource to another computer and try. thanks for all the help i received here 8).