Etrex 20 Newbie advice

Hi all,

 First post in OM, used to come here back in 2000 - it's been an awfully long time...

I have bought an Etrex 20, with the primary goal of using it to navigate in poor visibility on and off hills to and from hill lochs...

I have no actual dig map software and up until now I've used either paper maps or the "OS getamap" or "Where's the path" sites to plan a route and print it off...

At great naive difficulty, I managed to make a route on 'Where's the path' and export it as a gpx file to the Etrex 20 and then found it and opened it... However when looking on the screen I see the route as marked waypoints (if that's the right term) but no visible map of the area, is that right? No doubt I could navigate with this but I had hoped I'd see the contour lines and immediate surrounding OS map definition - I guess you get nothing for free!

The base map that's in the thing is very poor as everyone said it'd be, so what are the options for OS mapping for it? If I were to get some type of OS map software and load that on a card for the Etrex 20 - would it then show constant 'real time' map definition wherever it was located? Are all the dig OS maps compatible for this device?

Many thanks for your valued advice!

Hi Tony, I'm three months in to ownership of an Etrex 30 and did a bit of digging around for maps when I first got it.

You can't load just any digital OS maps to it, so it's no good having Memory Map, Mapyx Quo or other commercial PC packages (you can prepare routes and transfer those, much like you've done anyway with Wheresthepath, but you can't transfer the maps).

You can buy specific Garmin OS maps. Garmin's own Topo maps come on CD to put on your PC and then transfer selected areas to the gps. But they're generally reckoned to be less good than OS mapping. Garmin also do OS 1:50k mapping on SD card. The whole UK costs £200, separate countries are available and iirc a National Parks set, but while a bit cheaper they'd be less cost effective if you end up going back for more areas. Garmin also do a product called Birdseye which includes OS 1:25k maps. You buy credits for this and download selected areas (£20 gets you 600 square km). In all cases Garmin's free Basecamp software(or the older Mapsource product) provide the interface between the PC and gps. The Topo and Birdseye products are locked to one specific gps and not transferable. SD cards are copy-protected but work in any Garmin gps that accepts them. You can also use the SD card maps on the PC with Basecamp. BTW you'll find all these products on the Garmin website.

If you don't want to buy Garmin maps then you're looking at finding free maps on the internet, the main source being OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. I've downloaded one or two of these and getting them onto the gps was pretty straightforward. Not as detailed as OS but then gifthorse etc...

(There may be option 3, internet sites sharing hacked Garmin maps, but it's not something I've gone into...)

If you want to explore the OSM option then googling will turn up sites, many of which cover all regions of the world, but for a UK focus you could certainly start with

http://openmtbmap.org/

http://talkytoaster.info/ukmaps.htm

http://www.ukgeocachers.co.uk/home/free-garmin-uk-contour-maps.html

I suspect geekinthesticks is more advanced than me in all this so hopefully he'll elaborate some more later.

I've just bought an Etrex 20 and am having a couple of problems. I'm sure it's me so I'd appreciate some guidance please.

I can't get it to accept routes from Memeory Map. I've changed the settings in MM to read USB but it doesn't recognise the unit. MM works fine with my Geko 201 and I've downloaded my route to that but it won't do the Etrex. I get error messages saying:

'Can't open GPS device. Error 0' and 

'eTrex Software Version 2.80: Route datatype not supported; A0 D0 D0'

Any ideas please? I've downloaded the maps as above but it still doesn't happen.

Thanks

I have the Etrex 30 and it won't communicate direct with my Quo software, whereas my Geko 201 always did, so that sounds similar to your MM issue.

I think that the modern Garmins have just changed so that they either communicate with Garmin Basecamp (or Mapsource) software, or else everything else is done via gpx files.

I presume MM will export a gpx file? Save it to your PC, connect the Etrex 20 by USB, and then copy the gpx into the Garmin\GPX folder on the Etrex. Next time you power on the gps unit it'll read the file and put the route / track etc into its store of available routes / tracks.

A similar operation in reverse to get walked tracks back into Quo / MM - copy the saved gpx file from Etrex to PC, then import it to the package.

Thanks. I've had a quick go with that but not sure if I've done it right as that doesn't seem to work.

Got to go on my 3 day walk now (Limestone Way) so will have a go again when I get back.

Hello All,

Just boght the eTrex20 a few hours ago.  The only map I can see is a very basic map of the roads with some names.  I've messed with settings and it appears this is all it comes with.  However, it did come with some TOPO map on an SD card (not a micro)that supposedly I cna download to the device.  I tried copying that TOPO (.IMG) file to the on board storage (1.7 GB) but it saidf there isn't enough space(?).  The map on the sd card is 3,201,024 KB and is called gmapsupp.img.  Do I have to buy a microsd card just to load this map?  All I care about is terrain maps so I can hunt in Maine.

Thanks

JG

Well how large is that SD you got supplied? cause in my language 201024 kilobytes is equal to 24,5 Gigabytes and even if the 3201024 is in kilobits then it still 3 gigabytes.

A topomap of 24,5 Gigabytes is a rather large one that seems to be to me an img file made by mapsource or basecamp containing multiple topo's since most topo's will stay below the 3 gigabytes.

So start investing in a 32Gb SDHC card or a 4Gb microSD (whatever there is on the card for real). I think the Etrex 20 or 30 might swallow such a beast of 32 Gb. But before you go just into that try to read out the SD first in basecamp to see what it really contains.

For anyone with an E Trex 20/30 I have just found the web site below on setting the GPS units up, saves a lot of mucking about to be able to get from one screen to another, a god send after 18 months of tring to sort the thing out

http://www.aukadia.net/gps/lw3_0.htm

Hi, I have an E Trex20 and use it for geocaching.  I am after some help with waypoints. If I save a GPX file with cache info on it I have no problems locating places.  The problem is twofold, firstly if I manually put in co ordinates and then choose to navigate to them the E Trex will send me to the nearest cache that is loaded in.  Secondly if I am out and trying to maky waypoints, I name them and when I look at them later and get the caved info to transfer online then the possition is wrong.  I have checked this by going arround my village to spots easy to find on maps.  Any one know why?

P.S. I would recomend Talky Toaster maps, I got a pre loaded micro SD and its great.

Hi Imdane,

i think you're better of asking this question on a geocache forum. Loads of Etrex users there also 

Hi Guys,

Can anyone suggest a solution. My Etrex20 seems to have crashed after loading a map from talkytoaster. The unit will not stay on after PC connection or after manually pressing the ON button. I've downloaded maps before without problems.

Aqua

Plug it into your PC using the usb cable. It should boot and appear on your computer as a removable drive. You should be able to delete the map. If the map is on a memory card, just remove the card and see if the eTrex will start.

Bill007 wrote (see)

Hi Guys,

Can anyone suggest a solution. My Etrex20 seems to have crashed after loading a map from talkytoaster. The unit will not stay on after PC connection or after manually pressing the ON button. I've downloaded maps before without problems.

Aqua

if the GPS doesn't boot proper (manually power-on and going through booting sequence and ready with booting resting in main menu) than your device might be broken. Check with new batteries, still same problem? Contact garmin for a replacement. I've seen some messages with same kind of problems