Anyone know of a good free (or cheap) 24k topo for a Garmin GPS (60CSx)? I found a Michigan topo at http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/154/ and overall looks pretty good, except for the waters around the park--e.g. several islands are missing on the NE side. Since I paddle, that's kinda important, although I guess you can see them from a canoe (and I have)
Any alternative to paying Garmin $130? And if not, how good are the Garmin 24k maps for the island? I got the 100k topos and it's probably fine for whatever I do (heck, never had a GPS before), but if I could get more detail without opening up the wallet so much, that would be great.
The 24K maps are pretty good. I did not buy it but did get to see one in a product demo. I decided that since I always carry the TI map as a back-up, I really did not need the 24K version for my Garmin. $130 is a bit excessive.
At one time I looked into converting topo data to go into a Garmin format. The USGS gives away the data for free but it seemed to require several bits of software to convert it into Garmin's format. I now have ArcGIS, I might check if I can do it with that.
Unfortunately, when you buy a mapping GPS, you put yourself on the hook to buy the maps. Otherwise, you've spent a lot more on the GPS than you should have.
I've owned several Garmin mapping GPS's and none would accept anything other than Garmin's maps, e.g. City Navigator, G-Charts or Bluecharts.
You can buy a decent GPS for around $100.00 (even less for an older one) and use it with a good topo map, NOAA chart, etc. It's not hard plotting your position on a map or chart once you learn how.
Tampico, I've successfully loaded free maps from gpsfiledepot into Garmin's Basecamp software and supposedly they now load fine onto their GPS units. May need some firmware updates for older units. I haven't tried loading to the GPS yet--waiting for a new computer next week before I spend alot of time downloading/uploading huge files and messing with software. But I'll let you know how it goes.
Don, from what I've read it is a pain. I don't have the patience (or any real need) to try it myself.
(and I have)
