SD Card for Garmin 60csx - how large?

[swimman]

I just purchased a Garmin 60csx as my first GPS and am getting used to its features.  It comes with only a 64mb SD card and I'm looking to purchase something larger.  Do you recommend buying a few smaller GB cards or could I for instance, buy a 16GB or larger card and put multiple maps on it?  Not sure how large the maps are (I'm sure they vary) and how I will ultimately use the GPS but would rather buy one card and cram everything on it if possible.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[Boyd]

See this: http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,1257.0.html

It is unlikely that you would ever need a card larger than 4GB on your GPS. You can't put more than one map file on the 60csx, but that one file can contain several maps. The largest map file that is supported is 4GB. But there's another limit which is more important - the number of segments in the map file. The maps consist of individual "tiles" that make up the whole image, and your model will only support 2025 tiles total.

The size of individual segments is controlled by the mapmaker and can vary widely. But, to give you some idea, Garmin's own 100k US Topo map has 6,600 segment but is a little under 3GB in size. So if you installed a portion of this map on your GPS, you could only load about 1/3 of the map which would be less than 1GB and you would be maxxed out on segments.

You could store unused maps on the card however, and you can also record your track to the card. But I think 4GB is a good size and they are pretty inexpensive.

BTW, did you 60csx really only have a 64MB card, or are you basing that on a spec that you read? My understanding is that they are shipping with larger cards these days (maybe 512MB?) in spite of what the specs say.

[swimman]

Boyd,
Thanks for the reply.  I just checked the card and it's actually 1GB!  I think I'll still go with something larger.

So, the 60csx has a limitation as a unit itself, but can I max out the unit with 2025 tiles (and this can be a combination of maps) and then if I decide I want to make a change, can I make them directly from the GPS unit or do I have to access my computer with the MapSource program and do everything from there, then upload to the card and finally on to the 60csx?  If this is the case, it sounds like having all the maps on the SD card is not the way to go as they cannot be accessed from the 60csx.

[maps4gps]

You would have to access the 60csx via a computer or some other device to change file names.

The only way to change the contents of the gmapsupp.img which MapSource creates is to use MapSource to create a new gmapsupp.img file.  You can not add or delete quads/tiles in an existing gmapsupp.img file.

After you select quads/tiles in the large map display window; they will be listed in the window on the left with a total file size selected.  To add quads/tiles from another mapset, open it and add to those already selected from the previous mapset(s). 

[Boyd]

You could also have a look at the free sendmap20 program towards the bottom of this page: http://cgpsmapper.com/buy.htm

It should allow you to add and subtract tiles from your mapset - but without any graphical display of the maps like mapsource.