Garmin Australian Topo V Garmin City Navigator NT

[Teglian]

Hey

Looking at both the Topo maps and the Navigator maps from Garmin, just wondering which one is better for caching? Basically I'm looking for something that will direct me while I'm driving to a cache.

Thanks

Tegs

[Skippy]

The Garmin Topo will be better because it also has contours and can navigator down some tracks

[Teglian]

Do you have a Dakota 20? I'm just trying to put some caches on there but other then going through the mygarmin website which is extremely slow, I've got no idea how to do it so it shows up as geocaches and not just waypoints. (Currently I'm uploading them from mapsource onto the gps).

[Echo]

Just bought a new 20 & started using it on the weekend. Very impressed!
Do you have GSAK?
If so, I found it easiest to load the caches through it. Mind you I have yet to read the manual...

As for topo vs navigator, I had no idea either so I went with the navigator for on other reason other than that most of our caching is done in the surburbs.

[Teglian]

Thanks, I've just tried GSAK and it's fantastic!

[ma77hew]

Horses for courses:
Definitely Topo for walking. You can easily see if there are any bodies of water or steep changes in elevation in your path.
As for driving, I haven't tried City Navigator, but I find my TomTom is way better at road navigation than Garmin Topo. The topo map/software (in road navigation mode) will firstly indicate which direction to travel on a road. Then as you get a bit closer to the next turn it will display the name of the street you need to turn onto, but gives no indication of which way to turn until about 100m away when the unit beeps and the display changes again. On a busy road, such a sudden lane change can be difficult and I've missed many a turn. A dedicated road navigator will give you fair audible and visible warning of when & which way to turn, whereas the Garmin handhelds just beep quietly and don't display much info.
I cache with a Garmin Oregon 400t (on the trail), and TomTom One v3 (in the car). They have their respective roles and are rubbish at doing each other's job. By having the two units, I don't have to constantly swap profiles & stick the handheld in and out of a cradle. I just toss it on the passenger seat, tap the TomTom screen several times and I'm off to the next cache.

[Ksix]

We have an oregon 300 with City Navigator and find it works really well for caching. Great for navigating close to the cache.

As most of the caches we have done did not invlove long walks through bushland etc, we haven't had much use for the topo maps, but expect they would come into their own for those extended bush treks.

[bshwckr]

Hey

Looking at both the Topo maps and the Navigator maps from Garmin, just wondering which one is better for caching? Basically I'm looking for something that will direct me while I'm driving to a cache.

Thanks

Tegs

Garmin Topo V2 works just fine for navigating to an address and as for caching, you also get the walking tracks. Out of all the commercial maps I have looked at, only Garmin Topo V2 had the complete walking track over Mt Solitary. I have heard that Oztopo has more coverage off track but for the areas that I frequent, Oztopo V2 is superior.

[Neavesie]

Im assuming that only 1 map can be used at one time.
I want to use Cmaps and city maps on weekends and topo during the week.
does this means ill have to keep swapping the SD cards around?

[bshwckr]

Im assuming that only 1 map can be used at one time.
I want to use Cmaps and city maps on weekends and topo during the week.
does this means ill have to keep swapping the SD cards around?

Head over to http://www.gpsaustralia.net/ and do a search of the forums. I am sure you will find the answer. If not, ask the question.

[ian-and-penny]

Im assuming that only 1 map can be used at one time.

Nope. In my Oregon, you can have more than one map loaded, and the GPS "layers" them.

You can turn on more than one map at a time.

[jyetara]

You can use several maps at once as it layers them yep.

I can use my Oregon 550 running City Nav NT 2010, Topo V2, OzTopo, ShonkyMaps, & Bluechart all running at once.

[The Explorer]

You can use several maps at once as it layers them yep.

I can use my Oregon 550 running City Nav NT 2010, Topo V2, OzTopo, ShonkyMaps, & Bluechart all running at once.

Keep in mind that some maps will over ride others - doubt if you can see all the detail from all the maps at once (in fact Im sure you cant). You can have all the maps loaded to the sd card/internal memory but you will need to go to the setup menu - maps, to turn off and on the various map sets so you can see specific detail. Some map sets are "transparent" and will be visible over another map set (eg contours australia) but there is no way you could view, for example ...City Nav NT 2010, Topo V2, OzTopo, ShonkyMaps all at the same time as you suggest by the comment "all running at once". If you had all these running at onceyou would only be able to view one of them.....from a website
Quote
"When more than one mapset is loaded for the same area and more than one mapset is enabled, only the highest priority enabled mapset will display. An exception is transparent maps (such as OZtopo 20M Contours) which will display on top of the highest priority map.
The priority order is as follows;
- City Navigator
- MetroGuide
- BlueCharts
- Tracks4Australia
- WorldMap
- the receivers basemap "

Cheers
Greg

[Neavesie]

So.. if you had an Oregon 400t and added Blue charts as a layer, you would have a complete and well detailed map source of land and water.
If im understanding this correctly?

[The Explorer]

So.. if you had an Oregon 400t and added Blue charts as a layer, you would have a complete and well detailed map source of land and water.
If im understanding this correctly?

Well, you will have access to the Topo map and the Blue Chart map if thats what you mean...but you wont be able to view both sets of information at the same time i.e. a merged land and water map is not created. On my GPS the Blue chart map over rides the Garmin Topo Map so if I want to see detail on land I have to "disable" the Blue Chart Map and have the Aus Topo Map enable via Setup - Map Inormation - Map Information Select Map.

Cheers
Greg