eTrex Legend Mapping

[EcoTeam]

Questions on the eTrex Legend mapping:
1) Can the US base map be overridden? (does it matter if you have street level mapping added anyway?) This is the US model I'm talking about here.
2) Is the 8MB extra memory enough for decent street level mapping of Sydney?, all of Aus?
3) I read somewhere that it does not have moving map, is this true?

Thanks
EcoDave

[aussiecoder]

Questions on the eTrex Legend mapping:
1) Can the US base map be overridden? (does it matter if you have street level mapping added anyway?) This is the US model I'm talking about here.
2) Is the 8MB extra memory enough for decent street level mapping of Sydney?, all of Aus?
3) I read somewhere that it does not have moving map, is this true?

Thanks
EcoDave

1. Don't know if can be overwritten, but I have just bought the Metroguide Australia and when I uploaded the maps the base map "disappears" - although there is a menu item in the Legend that allows me to turn the uploaded map off.

2. I've been able to load all the bits of Melbourne I'm interested in seeing into the unit (which came to about 6mb). I'd not be surprised if you'd need to be a little selective for Sydney. I'm about to travel there so I may have a better idea on what fits as soon as I start pointing-and-clicking. All up Metroguide Australia is about 60mb of maps. I have a friend with a Legend Colour and we uploaded a heap of Sydney and Melbourne at that was 22mb !

3. What doesn't have "moving map" ? The Legend does and Mapsource does.

[Cached]

The Legend is a good unit - but the Metroguide maps are essential.

I used to have a US Legend, which I lost, with Metroguide.

If you want to share the second license, PM me.

[Zytheran]

I too have an import GPS with a US basemap and no , you can't replace it but as the previous post mentioned, other maps can appear on top. I had heard the basemap for Oz was pretty crap anyway for what I wanted which was national parks and remote bushwalks.
My solution which was worked out before purchase was to draw/build, compile and upload my own maps, which has been very successful. For raw data I have using the free Geosciences Australia 250k datasets which are in ESRI format and can be imported into Mapedit easily. Main drawbacks are:
1 Having to manaully seperate out the info on each ESRI layer so that roads are different and appropriate types. Same applies to watercourses.
It is a trivial but time consuming task and relies on either knowing the type of roads/rivers on the map or using another road map to tell you.
2 Have to build up what is on each layer or put up with everything on one layer which gives really fantastic maps but takes 30 seconds to draw the screen.
3 Because of the resolution there are errors in the maps where curvy bits are straightened out. If important these can be corrected by using georeferenced raster based maps which can be imported and then traced over. This will give a map to about 5m accuracy when loaded into the GPS, which is about as accurate as the GPS will ever be anyway.

Overall a bit time consuming but well worth it for the learning exercise. Plus I never had (and probably never will) the $200+ for the Garmin map software for Oz.