By George I thought I had it

Hi Jim,

You are on the right track. The bigger the region file the more processing the GPS has to do to draw a map which in all likelihood you are using a very small portion of.

Your detail map file can actually consist of 4 16Mb regions, if my memory serves me correctly. There's a good layout on GPSOz (www.gpsoz.com.au) for breaking Australia up into 16Mb chunks.

The more densely populated the state the more 16Mb chunks needed to cover it. Qld is a bit of a bugger for some reason.

It's quicker to export it straight to a card reader or to the HDD and then copy it to the SD in a card reader than via the serial cable to the GPS which is ....YAWN.... slow.

You only have to do it once if you do it right.

Dave

Did you know that you can now get Discover Aus Topo pre loaded on a card.

This has the full Australia set of maps and 4x4 tracks including topography already loaded onto a 128meg SD card you just stick the one card in and open the state that you need at a time. I have just used it for a trip from WA to SA, VIC and TAS. It has been great.

This is a lot less frustrating than the slow process of marking a region, converting it and hours of loading to the card.

The only down side is that there is no CD available yet (with topography), so you can not load it on your computer to do trip planning etc. I still use the old version for that. I have also found that in some areas the topo lines are slightly distracting from seeing the track.

This new version also has a heap more locations for public facilities, parks etc. etc. I found that in the city there is so many marks popping up that it is very distracting and difficult to see the road maps. I have had to go into the menu and turn off the display options for most of the marks for toilets, churches, monuments, schools, etc. etc. It even has some handy marks such as fuel stations, shopping centres, restaurants and caravan parks.

Apart from my few little gripes, it is a vast improvement on the old Discover Aus.

I cant find a product code or other info on the box, it is just called
DiscoverAus Streets & Tracks Topo.
There is also a web site and info email address that might help.

www.nextdestination.com.au
info@nextdestination.com.au
good luck
Geordie