Spot, eTrex 30

[Notsofastfreddy]

What basemap do you recommend using?  I have a Garmin eTrex20 and only have topo map of the area where I live loaded.  I keep looking at the gpsfiledepot and Garmin maps but I haven't found the right combination yet to cover the entire route.  Does the Garmin Topo 100k US have enough detail, then what do you load for the Canadian Section?

Thanks in advance!

[woody]

I got the US sections (individual States) off of GPSfileDEPOT and the Canada section I ended up buying. I have the etrex 20 as well.
Like "jryter" said in this thread load the ACA GPX files with all the hotels, bike shops, convenience stores, and water.

Woody

[Notsofastfreddy]

Woody - Thanks!

I only have a 4GB microSD card, is that going to be enough to hold all of these?

[woody]

I stored the route with the ACA gpx file to the built-in memory and saved a copy to the micro SD. Garmin states the built-in memory for the ertex 20 is 1.7GB so a 4GB card should be more than enough.

Woody

[hesher]

Does anyone know if the Etrex 30 doesn't have the shut down issue as it's predecessor had? (The Vista hCX)

[jryter]

What basemap do you recommend using?  I have a Garmin eTrex20 and only have topo map of the area where I live loaded.  I keep looking at the gpsfiledepot and Garmin maps but I haven't found the right combination yet to cover the entire route.  Does the Garmin Topo 100k US have enough detail, then what do you load for the Canadian Section?

Thanks in advance!

My garmin us topo has plenty of detail--all roads seem up to date and good topo lines. For canada..... I'm using ACA maps and following the track on the GPS screen without the basemap. Or following someone else...

[Notsofastfreddy]

I purchased the Garmin Topo US 100k and that looks great. 

I am thinking the same thing for Canada, just have the maps, my cues sheets and follow the track on my GPS.

[aaron w]

I've had my etrex 30 for a while now but have never used an sd card.  Can I record my entire track for the tour divide onto a single card?  I am accustomed to recording my rides but I download the track after each ride and then erase the track from the unit so I'm not sure how to record longer stuff. 

SPOT  does it make sense to just run the unit until the batteries are dead and the lights don't flash anymore and then put new batteries in........or will the unit not "track" properly as the batteries get low but the lights are still on. 

Thanks for any thoughts.....

[gt3457b]

Does anyone know if the Etrex 30 doesn't have the shut down issue as it's predecessor had? (The Vista hCX)

I've been running 2x etrex 30's in parallel for a few months now. Primary and backup. I've used them for 14 hours at a time with no shutdown problems. I use OSM basemaps, follow GPX routes and tracks, and typically use the 800' view.  My routes were ~140mi in length. I observed some oddities above the 100 mi length. The processor seemed overwhelmed.

Over 80mi was unusable on garmin 310xt.  I loaded Sott Morris' 10k file onto the etrex and saw significant delays reminiscent of the unstable behavior on the 310xt with a 100+mi route.

I'm planning to use scott's full route to periodically check my location on the whole and otherwise follow along using the smaller tracks from ACA's gpx files. Note that the ACA's files also include other points such as food, water, and lodging sources. I could not find those in Scott's file.

[Yogi the Barry]

Moved to Q & A Forum...

A bit OT to the original Spot question, but:

Anyone know if battery life is any different between 'Track Up' and 'North Up' modes on the eT 30?
Lately, I've been using North Up and I like that it makes me think and visualize where I'm heading when following a track, more than Track Up mode. Other than the cursor sometimes getting stuck at the edge of the screen and needing to be re-centered, I'm liking North Up... as long as battery life isn't worse.

And to comment on glitches s when following long tracks - longest track I've followed to date with the eT 30 has been a 60 mile segment, which was ~4500 points. Only issue I had was the cursor centering, mentioned above, and losing one of the two data fields across the top of the display when in map mode. Both of these issues always corrected themselves when I backed out to Map mode and then went back into Map.

Edit to fill up the silence even more. Probably the wrong place to ask at the wrong time...

Anyone know if the Trip Computer or the GPS track would have better fidelity for ride time, distance and climb/descend data? Reason I ask is this past weekend I did a long ride and the GPS reported 9700' of climbing per the GPX log and over 11K' of climbing per the Trip Computer. A variance of over 1300' during a 58-mile ride. Moving vs. not moving times also varied a slight bit.

-B