CurlyShavings

My ancient Garmin eTrex Legend gave up the ghost over the summer. It would boot up, attempt to acquire satellites and then the display would go blank with a strange, sometimes purple, fine line from top to bottom. And the eTrex Legend is gray-scale—no colors, not even purple on this model.

I'd been utilizing the GPSr in my BlackBerry Curve 8310 for Geocaching but I was unable to find any free software that was as good as the rudimentary interface on the eTrex Legend. While I tried GPSed for BlackBerry (v.1.01) and Spot for Blackberry, the best for navigating was probably Google Mobile Maps. With the three different map types (roads, satellite photo and terrain) and the 3-meter accuracy of the Blackberry Curve's GPSr, I could sneak up on the geocache without any difficulty at all. (Yes, I know that with the eTrex Legend's WAAS, I could obtain 3-meter accuracy, but that just didn't happen in the field. The BB Curve gets that just about all the time.)

I have two difficulties geocaching with Google Mobile Maps. One is that I occasionally/frequently geocache outside AT&T's grid (so Google Mobile Maps can't get any maps) and the second is that there is no copy/paste of longitude and latitude into their search feature (so I end up trying to type the position from someone else's GPSr device or a piece of paper).

So, I have four basic requirements for my GPSr:

1. High accuracy
2. Geocaching mode or ability
3. Tracking mode or ability (to make trail maps)
4. MacOSx connectivity
5. Oh, yeah, and maps

Enter an interview with Pete Fleszar, a mapmaker and trail maintainer. I sent him a note with my quandary and he replied that he owns the Garmin GPSmap 76CSx. Amazon.com is/was discounting them highly (52% off) and so after some research, I pounced.

It arrived late Wednesday. First impression: "It's huge!" Second impression: "We're inside the house and it still has 20-foot reception!" We took it out for a brief spin and dropped a marker and left some tracks. Nothing spectacular. Third impression: "It looks like a hard-drive to my Mac!" Fourth impression: "Garmin has a lot of Mac-specific software."

Garmin Communicator Plugin is pretty sweet. Allows you to transfer geocaches from Geocaching.com directly to the GPSr device. Garmin RoadTrip is a fairly decent piece of software, too. Now starts the frustrations: maps.

The Garmin GPSmap 76CSx comes with a simple map for the US. Nothing fancy. It knows the major roads near my house and even has exits for the highway. I have the original MapSource Topo US from my eTrex Legend. And of course, the RoadTrip won't recognize it.

Turns out there is some software that will migrate all 2,565 foonum.img files from the MapSource Topo East package to a single, 591.4 MB "US Topo - East.gmapi" file. But they don't make it easy. They expect that you have a modern Windows box . . . and here's where the problems begin. Rather than write up all the rabbit trails we followed, I'll summarize. (Garmin does tell you how to do it here.)

Steps to convert old/Windows Garmin maps to the new/Mac formats:

1. Discover CodeWeavers' CrossOver Mac product and free license (not sure if demo license will suffice)
2. Install Garmin MapSource for Windows
3. Install MapSource Topo US into MapSource
4. Install MapConverter for Windows
5. Convert all modules/CDs (?) of the MapSource Topo US product (East, West, Alaska/Hawaii) to gmapi format (approximately 15 minutes per CD)
6. Install Garmin RoadTrip for Mac
7. Install Garmin MapManager for Mac
8. Import gmapi files into RoadTrip using MapManager for Mac
9. Install Garmin MapInstall for Mac
10. Import installed maps into the GPSr using MapInstall for Mac
11. View old, detailed Topo maps on new Garmin GPSmap 76CSx

If those steps hadn't worked, I was going to get my old Win98SE cd out and install into my beta version of VMware Fusion (whose license has expired). So I now have working detailed topographical maps on my GPSr and Mac's desktop. And I had some fun hacking this together. But if time is money, I'm probably not ahead at the moment.

So we're going to play with this doing some geocaching, trail maintenance, etc. I'll post a review later in the year with my findings!