GPS Information.net Forum >

As a gift my wife gave me a Garmin CSX with the TOPO Canada Software and a 2 gb mini chip for it. The salesman told her how to get the mapping directly onto the chip. I realize the answer to my question is probably already posted hree but I don't understand all of the acronyms you folks throw around. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You need to install the software on your computer. Then you will have program named MapSource on your computer. When you open MapSource, you will see the maps.

You will use the Map tool to select the areas (called segments or tiles) that you want to load. These segments will appear under the "Maps" tab located on the left side of the program's window.

Note that you can't load more that 2025 segments and that you need to send all the segments at the same time. The size of the mapset that you have selected will also appear at the bottom of the Map tab. You don't want to exceed the size of your microSD card, but this won't be an issue (I don't think) with the 2GB card.

Next you need to connect either your GPS unit with the card insert or a card reader with the card insert to your computer.

Then you will click the "Send to Device" button to send the maps to the unit. Note that this may take an hour or more.

When done, you will use the menus on your unit to select the maps you want to see on the unit.

I started typing out all the instructions and it's going to take far too long.

If you want, I can walk you through it via phone. I'm in Toronto but get free long distance so that doesn't matter. PM me your phone number if you'd like to be walked through it.

Cheers

EDIT: MMomma and I were posting at the same time. If you can understand her instructions, go for it. If you can't, PM me and I'll help you out over the phone.

Topo Canada has 7,295 segments for a total of 3,489 MB so you'll have to select areas you'll want on it. If you travel outside your area, you can load different map areas onto your GPS without a problem.

Thanks, TOphotog. I wasn't sure how many segments were in the CA Topo.

To the OP, you will hit the segment limit, probably, before you hit the size limit.

GPSCentral.ca has a good breakdown of segments vs size for the four GARMIN MapSource TOPO CANADA CD-ROMs

This may be too late, but there is a little video tutorial on MapSource on the Garmin sight. You download it and run it. It's not bad.

Ohh nice question and thanks a lot for useful answers.