Messages

Thanks to all of you for the input.

What is the advantage to the shaded relief?   When I have viewed it, it seemed distracting rather than helpful, but I think I may be missing something.

Thanks, I did not know how to view them, but just now had a look.

Can someone describe the difference one would see between the Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K Southeast DVD, for example, vs. the downloadable topo maps on this site?  I have loaded the La and MS topo maps I got on this site to my 60 csx.  If I were to purchase the Garmin map, would it look the same?  If not, what differences might I notice?

If this has already been covered in another thread, please let me know.  I did a search and did not find anything to answer my question, (at least anything I understood!)

MichaelJ07,
Your tag line "The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act." fits my efforts to a T!      Ha ha

OK, I solved the problem through stubborn-ness, and now realize I was being dense.  For what it's worth, the problems were very simple and I explain below.

1. Mapsource:  When I clicked on "Receive from Device"  The pop-up box said to select the device from the list below, which said Device: Removable Disk (F:\).  Not knowing if that was the correct Letter Drive, I clicked on the drop down list, which also had G and H.  What I didn't know was that if I scrolled up, above the F, I could see GPSMAP 60...which this time I selected, and problem solved.

2.  In DNR Garmin, I went to the Help Search function and found out how to set the Port:  Click on GPS, Set Port, and choose USB.  This had apparently been set to Port 1 because my old cable was not a USB, it plugged in the back.  I set it to USB, and the unit and my PC are happily connected now.

Sorry for the false alarm, this stuff seems so easy and simple once I knew the secret.  As a teacher once said, "It's intuitive if you know what you're doing.

Thanks all

So far I have yet to successfully connect to the DNR Garmin program with this unit, although that is what I did for years with my Garmin GPS 12.  I keep getting the "Port 1 does not exist" etc.

That is on 2 different computers with a new unit and new cable.  I could try on my son's laptop, but shouldn't the 60 CSx be able to readily connect to DNR Garmin without these problems?

For some reason, though the transfer of waypoints and tracks went OK, the laptop did not show the device under My Computer, and after the first time, did not have a popup box saying my device, then driver was installed at the bottom right of the screen.  It still worked though, but it is troubling.

I could not Connect to DNR Garmin, and got the "Port 1 does not exist" and "Error 8012, device not opened" (as I remember it) when I tried.  Should the 60 CSx be able to connect to DNR Garmin?  I was hoping it would, so I could save as a shapefile.

Maybe I have a bad cable or defective unit, as I am having these problems when they are brand new (Xmas present).

Touchdown!

Installed MapSource on the laptop, and without changing the micro sd card, all worked as it is supposed to, and I downloaded waypoints and tracks.  So it must have been the USB ports on my PC?  Is there a way around that, such as uninstall, then reinstall the drivers, or MapSource on the PC?

One more question if I haven't exhausted your patience.  In Mapsource I saved the waypoints as a .gdb file.  I am used to working with shapefiles in ArcGIS.  Are gdb files compatible with ArcGIS or is there a way to convert them?

Thanks again,

BS'er

Thanks all.  That gives me a couple of things to try tonight.  By the way, yes it says Garmin for the protocol.

CanyonHiker, yes I suspected one of the USB ports since the kids and wife are constantly plugging in ipods or other devices, that is why I tried the laptop.  I will try as Boyd suggested and load MapSource on the laptop, then if that fails, give up and call Garmin.

I will only ask them to help me download waypoints to the computer.

You people are great.  Will post afterwards with results.

BS'er

Thanks for the tips.  Actually, I first tried to do this without going into USB Mass Storage, just turning the unit on.  WHen that failed to work, I thought maybe I had to go into that mode, which also failed.

Things I have tried:

Used several different USB ports on my PC, as well as the ports on a laptop (although on the laptop I did not have Mapsource loaded, tried it with DNR Garmin.

At this point I am unable to send maps to the GPS either, although I am not sure if I would have to delete the one file in the micro SD card to do so, but I get the same error message that I must not be connected, check the plug, etc.

I do have a spare card, and I will try to replace it into the unit and try again this PM after work.

ANy other hints are welcome, and should I try to copy the error messages verbatim on here?

Did that.  Seems like it would not show my file if it was not seated, but near as I can tell, it is fit perfectly into its space.

By the way, I got an error message that said "Port 1 does not exist" at one point, and an Error 8012 from DNR Garmin.

I have a new 60 CSx.  Using some maps from this site, and Mapsource, I was successful in loading some topos to the unit.  Now I want to download some tracks and waypoints to my PC.  I tried to do so in Mapsource.  I connected the cable from the unit to the USB port, turned it on, and following the owner's manual, I activated USB Mass storage.  I can see the device in My Computer, can even open a folder and see a file in there.  But when I try to recieve data from the device, or even send another map to the device, I get an error message that says I am not properly connected and should check that the unit is plugged in and the card is properly in place. 

I have checked these things and see no problems.  I have also tried to download data without activating USB Mass Storage.  Same result except that I cannot see the device on My Computer.  I tried to download the way I used to using DNR Garmin, same result.

Can anyone suggest what I can try to resolve this issue?

Thank you

In the MS map.  The Indian tribe is centered in the Houma area, and I had not heard of them owning land in the Lake Borgne area.

[off]

Wow.  Good to know.  Thanks for the tip.

On a separate note, I found an interesting problem which I have apparently solved, but as the saying goes, "I don't understand all I know about that."  So here goes:

After downloading and transferring much of the southeast portion of the Louisiana Topo, and much of the southern portion of the Mississippi topo, I was getting some anomalous maps showing when I ventured into the geographic area where the boundaries overlapped.  I went into the map setup, and clicked off the map block titled Mississippi Topo_J3, and the problem disappeared.  When I compared this block in Mapsource to the map block from the La topo titled MTI0893010, I noticed numerous discrepancies, including the words "United Houma Nation" in several places on the land bridge between lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne.  Not sure what that is about, and I'm from here.  I am willing to work with the mapmaker if I could be helpful somehow.

In any case, is this a common problem if two adjacent maps overlap?  What is the best remedy, or should I just do as I explained above?

Thanks in advance,

You folks have helped me get started, and I have succeeded in loading MS and LA topos on my 60, so many thanks.

What would you recommend if I wanted to load a map something like the NUVI's or TOM TOMs have, to help navigate on the roads?  I did not notice any maps like that on the download page.  Is that something I should buy?

The base map that came with the unit only has major roads.

Thanks again.

Bruce