Garmin GPS Help available here!!

I need to know which GPS youhave to give you the correct answer. In saying that it sounds like you have either a GPS2plus or a GPS12XL, if it is a Garmin. These units have world city database and is burnt into the ROM. They cannot be altered, only updated with a new version, assuming you have an old version. Check www.garmin.com for version updates. make sure you have brand new batteries or else you will have a major problem. Please reply with the GPS you have.

eMap is the model we use
We downloaded and installed the latest update 2.75 but there are no town updates
Is there a GPS unit we can buy that has no foreign places and add Australian towns and locations?
Thank you for your assistance

Regarding the world city database, this is great if you lose all waypoints in your GPS. The mapping units of today as well as the old GPS2plus and GPS12XL have permanent waypoints (city database points) in the ROM and will always be there when you lose all of everything else.

Niko,

The version of eMap I have has the australian data built in and therefore has room for a data card. Whats the largest data card one can purchase and what prices would one be looking at say from the 8Mb upwards?

cheers,
Sam.

All emaps no matter where they are from have the same slot setup for a datacard. The Australian Emap use to be supplied with an 8MB data card, now, if you buy one the basemap (substandard in most respects) is burnt into the ROM (memory). If you want to install street maps from metroguide then the minimum is 8MB which cover all of West Australia. NSW will need a 16MB card as does Victoria. The other states pretty much only require 8MB. To be on the safe side a minumum of 16MB is the way to go. Metroguide takes up 36MB which means you will need a 64MB card. The street price for the cards are as follows.

8MB $99 to $140
16MB $139 to $199
32MB $89 to $285
64MB $299 to $428
128MB $550 to $857

I truly recommend minimum 16MB, however if you are looking at travelling Australia wide make that the 64MB. If you do not have enough space on your data card then you will need to remove the map you have on it and replace it with a new area by using a computer. There is a windoes CE version to do this but is not support or gauranteed.

If anyone is interested let me know.

As you can see they are not cheap.

Niko we did buy our eMap in Australia and it has some of the Australian towns as well as all the foreign towns. We would just like to get rid of the foreign towns and add the Australian towns that are missing.
Is software available that will allow you to edit the towns?

Our country fire brigade is getting all new Magellan units because they take standard memory cards. We are not allowed to buy any more Garmin units.

the foreign towns are in a permanent area of memory. They cannot be removed. They are not in your datacard if you have one. The only option is to buy metroguide which will "overrule" the burnt in base cities points you have. Again you will need a datacard for that.

The GPS196 is based on the land version, the StreetPilot3. The STP3 can accept two maps, metroguide and city navigator. These two maps work slightly differently and are priced accordingly. The metroguide will give you all the streets around Australia. However when you input house number, street name and suburb it will show you how to get there as the crow flys. City Navigator, on the otherhand, is designed specifically to work with the STP3 and will show you graphically street by street how to get to your destination as well as a voice will tell you to make turns in so many metres. The level of street info is far better on the metroguide even though it has the above limitations. City Navigator really only has cities whilst metroguide includes country towns. This is not to say City Navigator won't get you to a country town, just that it only has the highway to the country town and maybe one or two streets. metroguide will have all the streets that were current approx 18 months ago. If you have a datacard with your GPS196 it is recommended you purchase another to use for street guidance otherwise if you install the street mapping software it may over write the original. If you have any other questions please do not hesitate to ask.

The map that comes with the E-map is not accurate because it is apparently a very old map (maybe several decades old). However I suspect it was placed in the E-map as a map that had no real reference to any datum. This is thought to be the reason due to the consistant error no matter where you are in Australia using the map supplied. consistent offsets are 99% due to incorrect datums. I haven't had the chance to change datums to see if any comes close. Apart from that metroguide will place you exactly (within 5 metres or so) of your true position. There is very little information in the supplied map and if you cannot see a road within 500 metres of your current position then the map doesn't have that road in its data base

The fire trails and 4WD tracks are something you have to create. I am lead to believe Magellan are working on this at the moment (the 4WD tracks) ahead of Garmin and may produce something much sooner. Fire tracks, well nothing as yet available. Often these fire tracks are used by people with GPS and as the GPS automatically generates a snail train that can be used by another GPS it may be worthwhile asking around for anyone who has such trails. I am looking at supporting this web site further and have a free database of tracks that everyone can email to me to store on a web site for that purpose. In the meantime any waypoints or tracks that anyone has that want to make it available for all please email me the track/waypoints to surveyshop@iprimus.com.au

City Navigator is the only one that has true street by street navigation in the sense that it will show you where you are with reference to the street you are in and direct you to the next. Metroguide shows all the streets and your current position within approx 5 metres but does not show you where or when to turn next. Also note that if you use city navigator in a GPSV you will only get a beep when you are prompted to turn etc. metroguide does not make use of this beep as it cannot guide you (autoroute) to the next turn off. Any mapping GPS will use the metroguide software, you just have to make sure you have a data card to fit it on if you have, say, the E-Map or GPS176 series. Only the GPSV and StreetPilot uses the City Navigator. If you are a piolt and have the equivalent then the software will work but I recomend a separarte data card to store your maps.

One thing I forgot to mention, it is not just the GPS that determines if it can autoroute. City Navigator is the only one that does, however, only STP3 and GPSV make use of this.