Sharps

First off HumVee thanks for the help you've already given. Your good tutorial :
Another New Guy With A Question.
pre-supposes I know some things I don't . Lets get real basic here. Is Mapsource a/the program I use to load all maps on my Garmin 76csx ? What then is the Trip & Waypoint Manager program that came with my Garmin? The reason I ask is that I bought the Garmin 100K topo map pre-loaded on a SD card and inserted in my Garmin and .........nothing. The only thing I see is what was already there. I've searched and searched for something on the unit (map set-up ??) I need to change and so far zip. Maybe it is just me but so far I am not impressed with the Garmin documentation.

Please two (ok three) other quick related guestions:

Do you know what is the biggest SD card I can use in my Garmin 76csx.

Related to the previous question:
Can I copy the Preloaded Garmin 100k topo to a bigger SD card
and then add Microsoft Streets & Trips 2008 so I have both on the same
card? Will S&T2008 work or will I need City Navigator. How do I "toggle" between the maps?
Thanks again
Sharps

HumVee

Sharps, it always feels good to help others, and I'm always thankful to the kind people I encounter that are willing to share what they know with me. I will answer your questions to the best of my ability:

MapSource is a program you can use to load entire map sets or selected subsets to your Garmin GPS device. However, that's not all that it's for. You can use it on your PC to view your map data, manage waypoints, routes, etc. and therefore plan trips using a larger display - and arguably better controls than your GPS unit. I say arguably because MapSource isn't the most intuitive product to use. I'm hoping that Garmin will eventually do a complete rewrite after looking at competing products.

Trip & Waypoint Manager is a limited subset of the full MapSource product. It's often incldued with GPS units that don't come with a full map CD/DVD (GPS units with preloaded maps only). My GPSMAP 76CSx came with Trip & Waypoint Manager (& a program called MapInstall, which itself might be a subset of Trip & Waypoint). My zūmo 660 came with City Navigator North America NT 2010, and that DVD included MapSource.

I believe that any of the three software that I've mentioned (MapSource, Trip & WayPoint Manager or MapInstall) can be used to load maps onto your devices main memory (if there's enough room) or flash memory data card (if there's an expansion slot on your device). I have used MapSource and MapInstall to load maps to my two Garmin devices, so I can definitely vouch for them.


I think that Topo Maps combine data, so it'd be hard to know straight away whether you were looking at topographical data that belonged to your 76's America's Recreational basemap or to the TOPO U.S. 100K map. The way you can test to see if your 76-series GPS unit is seeing the additional map data is by:

1. Power the device on.
2. Page to the map dispaly.
3. Press Menu & select Setup Map.
4. The display will show you what map tiles are currently loaded onto your device (there's likely hundreds), and scrolling through all of them is tedious. Rather than do that press Menu again.
5. You will see a screen where you can select which maps you want active. My 76CSx currently shows that I have the following mapsets loaded:
   • Basemap
   • Americas Marine Po...
   • CN North America (my City Navigator road map)
   • Topo U.S. 24K West
     That fact that your map is listed in this view should be proof enough - but you can keep following the steps below if you just have to make sure!
6. If you don't want to see a particular map (in your case, the basemap), scroll down to it and press Enter. The menu item actually states "Hide Basemap" - to restore it later, just repeat the process and select "Show Basemap." You can also select "Show All."
7. Press Quit twice to get back to the map view. Scroll & zoom around to your heart's content. If you see topographical data, then you're device is definitely seeing the additional map data!
8. If you don't see any topo data, and just streets, you may have to hide your City Navigator street map if you have one.

BTW...I thought the Topo US 100K map was only available as a DVD, not preloaded card...do you have a subset map (smaller region) or am I just wrong? The latter is the most likely answer!

I don't know what the highest capacity microSD card the 76-series can take is for sure (there's another poor Garmin documentation gripe) - but I'm running an 8 GB card in mine with no problems, so I'm pretty sure it would take the 16 GB if you wanted to as well. I chose the 8 GB capacity because the largest possible combination of additional map tiles that the 76-series can take is 4 GB, and I figured the additional storage room could be used for geocache data, waypoints, routes & tracks. I don't see any reason to use a larger card, since there's no entertainment capability on the 76CSx (unlike my z660, which is using a 16 GB microSD card to store MP3's as well as extra Garmin related data).

How do you toggle between maps? Refer to the numbered steps above.

You can not use Microsoft Streets & Trips with your Garmin GPS units. It's strictly PC-based software (unless it's radically changed from when I was using it a few years ago). You can use your 76CSx as an NMEA serial GPS receiver to get your position on a laptop, if you purchase the serial cable - but you can't take the maps from the PC and load them onto your GPS. You will need to get the Garmin City Navigator maps if you want turn by turn routing. There are very few commercially made maps that will work with Garmin (or any other brand) GPS units. You can find quite a few enthusiast maps though. Check out places like GPS File Depot.

You can not copy map data from a preloaded 2 GB map card onto another flash card. The map data is keyed to the serial number of the card. Again, this is another reason to go with the map DVD/CD's. BTW...you apparently can't exceed 2 GB worth of map tiles when creating map sets to download directly to the microSD card if it's plugged into your 76CSx. That's apparently a limitation of the firmware. However, you can create map sets up to 4 GB if you use an external card reader (or one built into a laptop). Modern handheld GPS units (like the Garmin Colorado's & Oregons) can apparently take as much map data as there is storage capacity for. Their code has been written to make it possible.

Please feel free to ask questions as they come to you....