Get the most bang for the buck out of your 60/76 "CSx" GPS

[Crawdaddy 96]

Just posted this over at D37 in response to an inquiry on whether it was worthwhile to buy a GPS with a removable mini SD card.....it is worthwhile for the reasons stated below;

I think some of us need it spelled out .....

CSx .. Mini SD card with the new SiRF processing chip.

Must Have ?? Is it worth $50 extra bucks?? I'm Not sure.

Yes, the micro SD card is worth the investment for a couple of reasons:

(1) Once you purchase a unit with a mini sd card you should also invest in an aftermarket/2gb mini sd card like the one below (you may be able to use a card larger then 2gb…..I haven’t tried it)

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-SDSDM-2048-A10M-Mini-Retail-Package/dp/B000EEZEVC

The 2gb card will hold ALL of City Navigator North America 2009. And you’ll STILL have ample room to load supplemental Roads and Rec/Topo maps too. So once you initially load the maps you’re done…….from that point forward you’ll just upload/download tracks and routes…..how sweet is that?

Use the mini card adapter to load the map sets directly to your card rather than loading them through your hand held (this approach will save you A LOT of time when loading the entire map set). You’ll be “map limited” NOT space limited. I believe the 60/76 series can “only” process ~2200 maps ……This is a non issue for City Nav and Roads & Recs because the number of maps is limited/manageable on those software packages…….Topo has a lot of maps due to the detail (so I have some Topo maps loaded on my hand held but only in mountainous areas……the Topo stuff is only there for emergency use in case I need to hike out……I use City Nav or Roads and Rec while riding…..some people like it, but I find the Topo to be too messy on the screen while riding)

(2) The mini sd card gives you the ability you to save your “Track Log(s)” as a daily .gpx file when you’re out on multi day trips……nice feature

Your “Track Log” indicates a % full as you ride……and you’ll want/need to periodically “clear” it as you ride (in case you need to use it to retrace your steps)…….that being said, you can save the entire/daily “Track log/active track” as a .gpx file even though you’ve cleared the “Track log(s)”.....all you need to do is save the information to your 2gb micro SD card.

Steps to save your “Track Log” as .gpx file(s):

Go to “Tracks”

Go to “Set-up”

Go to “Data Card Set-up”

Check “Log Track to Data Card”

Notes:

(1) You must have your “Track log” set to “on” to record to the data card

(2) You can not view the daily .gpx file(s) on your handheld, that’s the purpose/function of the "Track log" which can be viewed…….you can only view the daily .gpx file(s) on a computer……

Steps to view the .gpx files once you have access to a computer and have the hand held connected to the computer:

Go to “Main Menu”

Go to “Set-up”

Go to “interface”

Highlight “USB Mass Storage” and press enter

The Mini SD card will appear on your computer screen as “removable Disk F”. When you view the folder you’ll see each .gpx file has a “daily” name assigned like “20081228” (AKA December 28th, 2008). When you open each daily file you’ll see a string of .gpx active tracks that you can piece together/clean-up/save to your library as/if desired…

To return to using your GPS while attached to the computer just click the GPS on/off switch again and the normal screen will reappear on the GPS....

To delete a particular .gpx file(s) you can delete it/them on your computer by highlighting the file and pressing delete (which will automatically delete them from your data card)……or, to remove them from your hand held manually, go to “tracks”, ”set-up”, “data card set-up”, and then you can highlight/delete a particular .gpx file or files on your handheld screen as/if desired

Admin - I suggest you make this post a "sticky" in the GPS stuff area

[bikeslut 1]

between figuring out the gps , thr spot and radios, I wonder if I'll ever have time to ride

[sandiegoland 0]

between figuring out the gps , thr spot and radios, I wonder if I'll ever have time to ride

Admittedly, it has to be at least moderately fun or interesting for someone to go through the "curve"... but once you have things set up the only thing you need to do is get in the habit of saving after a ride and clearing the active log for the next go around. I download and save my files with the date in the name and then I can go back to that file and edit it or forget about it until the need to reference that track arises (find out where a photo was taken or add a track to a future ride, etc.).

Chris, for X-mas I finally ordered a 2GB card and some navigation software for my 60Cx. Up to this point I've only planned routes with waypoints and tracks I've uploaded myself. The maps I've had loaded on were topographic (no on the fly navigation). It's hard to detour through a busy metropolis using maps made from 20-year old survey maps!

[boat440 0]

(2) You can not view the daily .gpx file(s) on your handheld, that’s the purpose/function of the "Track log" which can be viewed…….you can only view the daily .gpx file(s) on a computer……

Bullseye.

There is no UI to access the "Mass Storage Functionality" without a computer. This sort of defeats the purpose of a handheld... And it sure would be nice to use the mass storage to access gpx files "on-the- fly".

Garmin needs to work this.

Crawdaddy, Thanks for the excellent write-up. In the blogs that I have visited there is not much discussion on this topic. Your technical explaination is more descriptive yet easier to follow than the Garmin manual. Garmin are you listening???

Below is a link to 60 & 76 model product reviews:

http://gpsinformation.us/gps60c/g76Creview.html

Below is a general link to many gps topics, products & models

http://gpsinformation.net/

[Strega 0]

Nice write up Chris, very easy to understand.

The GPS and the Radio are probably the 2 best things I've purchased for the dual sport riding experience. Of course ALL the gear is mandatory, but the GPS and radio REALLY opened things up for me personally on the enjoyment end.

[zracing 0]

Thanks for the info!! My gps will be here soon and I need to figure how to work it.