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Saturday, June 18, 2011
Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx Handheld GPS Navigator (Electronics)
Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx Handheld GPS Navigator (Electronics)
I am commenting again after a few months of use.This is a great device if you want to use it to replace an Etrex. It is costly because you have to buy the maps and they are used on a single garmin-software-computer tuple. You apparently need another if you want to use another computer. The computer is required to replace the touch screen on a nuvi. (BTW the nuvi is great except the annoying "recalculating" the voice repeats each time you deviate from their path." Thus this is quite expensive. However the maps are great and the device allows you to load up and down and set marks. I have used this for laying out fiber routes and it is much better than the old Etrex, yet still quite costly. I have not tried the topo maps. Reception is fantastic as well.
Now for the old bad news. I first gave this one star but returning to it have given it 3. Garmin seems to be a bit too greedy and the software you need for a great device really is horrible. Here is what I said after my first few times and it still holds. The problem is that to really get the most out of this you need the software and thus they should be considered as one which is what is reflected below.
I purchased this for two purposes. First it replaced an old Garmin ETREX which I used for plotting out telecom systems in NH, VT, and MA. The old system allowed recording way points and then loading them into the old TOPO maps. It then allowed easy printing of maps and way points. This unit does that function well.
I also thought that having a GPS for travel was useful. That meant buying the $100+ Garmin software package. That package is clearly, in my personal opinion, the worst software I have ever seen in my life.
1. To enter an address you must enter the number of the location, then when you try to enter the street you must choose from a list of predetermined streets and half the time the street you want is NOT on their list! What moron did this interface.
3. Then you enter the town. You must use caps and spell it just the way they have entered it. I have not seen this trick in decades!
4. The state then must be entered from a pull down menu and you cannot abbreviate it in any way. So just do what they tell you to do they way they tell you!
You then do this several times until you have your route. It then selects the worst possible route possible. For example from New Jersey to New Hampshire it sends you across the Cross Bronx Expressway. For any New Yorker no one in their right mind ever goes near that road! You cannot alter your route as you can in Google.
Then you must upload to your unit. Hopefully it eventually works. Each route takes 30 minutes to do!
Now the worst part is security. It demands the key from the SW and the number from the Garmin unit. That number is inside the unit which you were told to connect to the PC. You must open it, remove the batteries, find the small letter number write it down replace the batteries, reboot the unit, enter the data and at no point are you ever told your activation was completed.
They try to move the software to another PC. Your Garmin unit is now wed to this PC and no other! Microsoft in its worst days could never have imagined such a cumbersome security system. It is as if they never heard of the Internet.
Finally, when you buy the unit they apparently ship from Taiwan via DHL first then a hand off to the Postal Service. I think in my personal opinion that it comes by boat, it takes weeks.
My suggestion if you have the same difficulties as I have had, than just use Google maps, it does everything you need and prints pretty pictures with great directions. And it is free. Frankly, again in my personal opinion based upon my experience, this is truly the worst product I have ever seen, for traveling.
Since I have used this a bit, I have found that it works well for understanding where you are, for establishing and recording specific points on the maps, and for uploading and downloading data. I have tried to use this in my car but it is awkward. The reception is superb but the integration with the Garmin purchased software is the problem, especially if you are trying to do maps.
Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx Handheld GPS Navigator (Electronics)
BUY Now Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx Handheld GPS Navigator (Electronics)
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