Garmin GPSMap 76CSx

[Gary K]

Is anyone still using their Garmin GPSMap 76CSx?  I bought one many years ago in the US and have barely used it, but now I am wondering whether it could get me through a one week bikepacking tour in Spain, which would save me having to buy yet another piece of equipment.  I have US maps on it.  People seem to have liked this particular unit but no maps are available from Garmin anymore.

[Boyd]

The 76csx is the same hardware as the 60csx, which is one of Garmin's most popular models ever. The only difference is that the 76 floats and the antenna is located inside the case. I still have my 60csx, but don't use it anymore. I think the screen resolution is too low and processor too slow for a modern device, but others still seem to be happy with it.

Why do you think that Garmin doesn't make maps for it anymore? AFAIK, it will work with any of Garmin's maps as long as you have the newest firmware installed on it. Just about any of the maps on this site should also work on it - give it a try. It is not compatible with raster imagery however - such as Birdseye or "Custom Maps" (.kmz files).

So, I think it's really up to you as to whether ~20 year old technology is acceptable. Try loading some maps on it and using it before your trip.

[Gary K]

Thanks.  I'm going to play around with it now.

[Boyd]

BTW, since you're going to Spain... are you familiar with TwoNav? They are based in Spain and make some pretty cool dedicated GPS units and apps for all platforms. I am thinking about buying one of their handheld GPS units to replace my broken Garmin Montana. The map formats are not compatible with Garmin - which is fine with me, since I make my own maps anyway. But TwoNav supports several open-source formats and is not "locked down" in the same way as Garmin devices. There are lots of maps available for the EU, and openstreetmap and TomTom for the US. Their CompeGPS Land software for Mac/Windows is also very nice and lets you import/export maps in a variety of formats.

https://www.twonav.com/en/

They are having a Black Friday sale through the weekend, am trying to decide whether to pull the trigger on their Trail2 handheld. Anyway, you might check them out, as they should have excellent map options for Spain. If you look in the outlet section of their website, they have some older devices at very nice prices - even under $200.

[Gary K]

The only thing is that the TwoNav devices do not use AA batteries, something appealing in the 76CSx.  The other unit I was thinking about was the ETREX 30X, largely because of the AA batteries.

[BIZNAWICH]

Boyd...

I've recently taken my 76csx down off the shelf after a lengthy medical recovery...and accepting the fact that I can no longer hike in the mountains, however, my son and his girlfriend can. I was wondering what the latest firmware for this unit is and where do I download it?
Also, the last maps I downloaded where of the US for a cross country trip. The roads and streets have surely changed since 2010...can I get and updated version for my csx?

Thanks Boyd,
Bruce Jennings (New Mexico)

[Boyd]

I don't think there have been any updates for this device for many years. The way to update is with webupdater, not sure if that is compatible with newer versions of MacOS and Windows however.

https://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=999-99999-27

Updating maps, no idea, it depends on what you've got. If you purchased maps from Garmin, most likely you would need to purchase new ones. Garmin no longer sells individual maps that can be updated. A number of years ago, you could buy City Navigator on DVD and also buy lifetime updates for it. That is no longer available.

For any of the free maps, you would have to see if they've been update. If the maps came from here, there's a good chance there haven't been any changes since 2010. You could download openstreetmap, but that's more than I can explain.

For starters, you could just look at what maps are available for the states you want here and see if there are any newer ones.

https://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/

[BIZNAWICH]

Thanks Boyd.
   I've already downloaded a map of my area of New Mexico (Albuquerque/Santa Fe) and it's working fine.

I did have a disk of the US loaded on the 76csx but I figured it would get me in more trouble than it's worth what with all the likely road/freeway changes over the last 9 or 10 years so I deleted it.

I'm expecting a 128GB micro SD card in a day or so and I should be able to load quite a bit on it. As long the current Garmin maps function on it the unit shoul should work fine for my son.

Thanks for the response Boyd.

Bruce J

[Boyd]

That card will be too large to format as FAT32, which Garmin devices require. There is never any reason to use a card that large in your GPS. In fact, your old model is very limited as to the maps it can access. There is a limit of about 2000 map segments on these old devices. Segments are the small "tiles" that make up the map. If you exceed 2000 segments, things will not work correctly. This limit has nothing to do with the size of the memory card. In fact, I think you would hit the segment limit well before 16gb worth of maps. I would not use a card any larger than that.

Mapsource will show you all the segments in the current map. When you select them for transfer it will show the total number of segments you're sending. IIRC the actual limit you can use is 2025 segments.

[Red90]

Also individual map files can't be larger than 2 GB due to the way FAT32 is designed.

[Boyd]

Are you sure about that? Or is it perhaps a quirk of these older Garmin devices? Because I'm pretty sure that the maximum FAT32 file size is 4gb and not 2gb. This became an issue when Garmin's City Navigator EU file grew beyond 4gb, so Garmin now provides that map in two separate files.