GPS Novice

[Pavs]

Morning all.

I am still a GPS novice despite using my 2610 in the car around the UK quite successfully.

Just returned from a trip from Channel tunnel down through France to the South coast along up through the Pyrenees and out of Spain via Santander.

As always everything done in a rush, I plotted the route on the PC 11.00pm the night before we left, transferred the route and waypoints, and the GPS started telling me that there were errors recalculating the route, no time left, so packed and went.

So when out on the road in France and Spain, when the roads dropped to minor, or when we entered towns, we either disappeared off the roads shown on the GPS, or developed a blue ring around the pointer of "Uncertainty".

There was much mickey taking by the rest of the group!

Anyway when I got back I chatted to one of the chaps in the local BWm shop, who said that I needed to load the maps for the route.

Now here is where the novice bit becomes very obvious, one of the reasons I went for the 2610 over the quest was because I thought all the maps of Europe were all held on the card in the GPS, not just the base map.

The more I think of it the more I think this was incorrect.

Words of wisdom welcomed, along with advice on what size card is best to get as an upgrade, where is the best place to get them from.

A follow up question, when I bought the GPS it came with Navigator 7, i was told 8 was coming out shortly and if I waited to register I would get version 8 automatically, is this simply a case of logging onto the Garmin site?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers

Pavs

 

[Twotter]

I bought a 2Gb card from here .

I've uploaded all of Europe (City Navigator 8) onto it and it comes to about 1.8Gb so there is still a bit of room on there if I get really adventurous.

It sounds like you were using the basemap on your trip rather than the detail maps. Easy mistake to make, especially when you're rushed. You won't do it again though

 

[Greg Masters]

Pavs

The first thing I'd say is FTFM!

The 2610 comes with a European basemap (on which you can route) but this mapping only contains major road and motorways. To get full functionality you must load the detailed City Navigator maps from your PC to the CF memory card either by using a CF card reader/writer or by hooking up your 2610 to the PC's USB port.

If I were buying a new card expressly for the 2610, I'd buy a 2Gb onto which you can load all of Europe in one go. However, a trip like yours loading just Spain and parts of the UK could probably be done on a 256 or 512Mb CF card.

On the 2610, I don't usually bother loading routes, just waypoints. If there's a place that you particularly want to go to, load it as a waypoint and let the 2610 calculate the route.

CN v8 has been out for some time now. If your 2610 was new when you got it and if you haven't registered it, you should be eligible for a free upgrade (also explains why you haven't loaded the maps! ).

Talk to Garmin and get them to send you the free upgrade DVD. You'll need an unlock code too, but that comes from www.garmin.com

As I said, RTFM!!



Greg

 

[Pavs]

Cheers Twotter, card ordered.

Now to investigate the software update.

Thanks again

Pavs

 

[Pavs]

Manuals

Greg

Cheers, I am guessing what RTFM means and I think you may have hit on something. Tendancy to play with new toy without opening the book of words may have lead to this schoolby error.

When i bought the 2610 the guys told me that they had loaded the maps, and when I looked on the unit it sdaid that it had Europe on there, I didn't realise that it would just be base information.

Does this mean that it will only have base information for the UK on at this moment as well?

Cheers

Pavs

 

[Greg Masters]

Greg

Cheers, I am guessing what RTFM means and I think you may have hit on something. Tendancy to play with new toy without opening the book of words may have lead to this schoolby error.

When i bought the 2610 the guys told me that they had loaded the maps, and when I looked on the unit it sdaid that it had Europe on there, I didn't realise that it would just be base information.

Does this mean that it will only have base information for the UK on at this moment as well?

Yes, it sound like you have no detailed maps at all. The easiest way to check is to park up on a side road and zoom in. If you can't see the sideroad, you haven't got that detailed map loaded.

There is also a menu function to see which maps are loaded, but that'll need a few sessions of toilet-reading before you get to that!



Greg

 

[Taff]

... When i bought the 2610 the guys told me that they had loaded the maps...

They may have loaded some, but not the ones you needed. There are literally 100s of small "mapsets" which you can download to the unit, and you haven't got all the ones you needed.

If you zoom out far enough on the unit, you can see roughly what areas are covered as the country will be split into grids. There is a better way of checking, but my 2610 isn't to hand this minute.

 

[Brendan]

Hi Folks, when you switch on the 2610 a series of blue text windows appear with OK as an option in the bottom right corner. On one off these text screens details are shown telling you which maps are loaded

 

[Pavs]

Ah

Now I am learning, I think the manual will be dusted off tonight and studied.

Cheers

Pavs