jfoerch

Hello all.
I'm gonna sound a little cheap here, but with times being as they are, I hope you understand. I have a Garmin Etrex Legend that I won in a drawing and only use a couple of times a year. I'll be going to the Smoky Mountains this Spring and doing some hiking and I'l like to get some trail maps for that area that I can put in my gps. I can't justify purchasing the mapsource software for something that I use so infrequently, so I'm hoping to find a way to get some trail maps onto the unit by some alternative method. Is there any way to do this using free or demo software out there? I found a website that provides .gpx maps for download but I'm not sure if I can get them onto my gps and if they will align to the proper coordinates. I quite new at this and to this point have not used the cable that connects the gps to my computer at all, so if I'm speaking in too general of terms, please forgive me.
That same site that provides the .gpx files has an option to download landform waypoints directly to the gps, but I'm sure that getting trail or topo maps isn't quite so easy. Let me know if you have any good solutions.

Thanks!!!

iamasmith

If it is the HCx model then check out GPSFileDepot (GPSFileDepot - Custom Maps, Ximage hosting, tutorials, articles and more for your GPSr) there's plenty of free topo maps of the states there... unfortunately they are quite big so if you only have the regular legend with 8Mb storage you will be out of luck. There may be options but the only one that I know of is GPSFileDepot with it's whole region (and large) maps.

Regards,

-Andy

jfoerch

Thanks iamasmith for the info. I checked out the sight and it does indeed have a large map of Tennessee for download. Just to check it out, I downloaded the file and it turns out that entire map consists of many, many smaller .img files. So, I'm trying to find out which ones make up the Smoky Mountain area because I do only have the Legend with 8Mb of memory. The website states that it's files use Mapsource to upload them to the gps unit. But, I'm trying to avoid having to buy mapsource. Do you know of any other way that I can upload these files to my gps? I found a free map upload software for Garmin units at this location...

Mapwel - Download

Not sure if this will work or not, but do you know of any other programs that can be used to upload existing maps to gps units?

Thanks again.

Andy

Download and install Garmin's Training Center Software.
Garmin: Training Center For Windows Updates & Downloads

Then download the latest Update of Mapsource from Garmin. The Mapsource update will see the Training Center and install.
Garmin: MapSource Updates & Downloads

iamasmith

And.. yes I forgot, those maps DO have an installer to let you install them with MapSource. There are so many of these sites that just produce large gmapsup.img files that you need to copy onto a card that I forgot these maps had been done for MapSource.

They actually look pretty good too. I have a few of them running under RoadTrip.

Of course the data from these maps is from public domain sources.. which may be better or worse than many commercial sources

I actually carry commercial and non commercial maps on my units because some maps are better in some areas than others.

Regards,

-Andy

dav

Andy told you how to get MapSource, but did not go quite so far as to assure you it is FREE. Nothing to buy.

iamasmith

Actually, I'm not sure that Garmin would specifically call it free.. I have been wondering how cool telling people how to get MapSource for free is recently.

Basically you can't download a single product to automagically install it in one hit. The cheapest product containing MapSource is Trip and Waypoint Manager.

What you can say is that the Mac product 'RoadTrip' seems to be free without license obligation to get a full working product and for MapSource Garmin don't explicitly state on the download page that it isn't free.. they just say that you need a MapSource product installed to be able to run the update.

Training Centre (which I don't use because I have a Mac) has MapSource in it?, I guess it must. There don't seem to be restrictions on you downloading it and installing it stated other than it is going to be useless without a Garmin GPS.

So, how cool is it giving out this advice?... I guess on the whole it is. I'm sure Garmin would rather you did purchase a product but they don't ever explicitly state that you can't use these products without making a mapping purchase.

Regards,

-Andy

dav

I have to disagree with you, Andy. MapSource is free. Anyone with an Internet connection can download it without charge from Garmin.

But it won't work without Garmin maps. So, if you own a Garmin map that is in your GPS, are you saying you should not be allowed to use it? Not reasonable.

We are just showing how to get around a glitch that Garmin should fix. If you have a map in your GPS, MapSource should run. That is a bug that Garmin should fix.

Also, training center does NOT include MapSource. You download and install MapSource separately. All Training Center does is put a Garmin recognized map on your PC so MapSource will start. After that, MapSource uses your GPS map, as it should have all along.

iamasmith

Yeah, I was just 'putting it out there' really to show we are all considerate and only suggest the right thing

Regards,

-Andy

Andy

Mapsource use to be download-able from Garmin. It came with just a base map. Similar to the basemap you get in a device that doesn't have a mapping product installed.

Then the page and link with it was taken down. I don't see why they give away the training center software and not the "shell" that is Mapsource. Mapsource with just the basemap isn't very useful except for backing up your waypoints.

dav

Iamasmith Andy, true, we only suggest "the right thing"... in our opinion, of course!

Monterey Andy, the page is still there: Garmin: MapSource Updates & Downloads

It just doesn't start until you have a Garmin product. But still available on their site.

Andy

Yeah but their first note says,

"WARNING: This software will not work unless you already own a MapSource product."

They use to offer a version that worked without owning any of the mapsets. It didn't have anything but a basemap, but it was the full version of the program.

At any rate it's one of those loop holes. It should be included with every product they sell. At least the Trip and Waypoint version for backing up waypoints.