Garmin Nuvi 200 GPS

Serge van Neck says:

Rating

This is a wonderful addition to my Garmin Venture HC, and really completes the package, since the basemap is not all that useful.

The software took a while to install, and I do have some minor quibbles about the installation. Users are “strongly” recommended to install MapSource into C:Garmin (come on, people, the Program Files folder has been around since Windows 95). My translation is that if you decide to change the default folder, some things may not work correctly. Also, there was no option to leave the map data on the DVD instead of loading the *entire* 3.5GB database onto your hard disk. But if you’ve got the available space, it’s more convenient to have it all there.

As has been noted before, there are some minor inaccuracies with the map data (from what I’ve noticed, mostly related to roads showing a hundred feet next to where I’m driving), and for being a 2008 map, it doesn’t show the latest freeway construction in my area. But then again, I didn’t get this map to show me how to get around town; nonetheless, street data is remarkably detailed for a topo map. Mountains, canals and other features were accurately displayed as I drove past them, including elevation data.

MapSource’s archaic and sometimes oddly behaving user interface notwithstanding, it is quite intuitive when it comes to downloading maps. Without reading the manual, it took me all of a minute to figure out how to select map regions and send them to my GPS. Downloading roughly 20MB also didn’t take as long as I’d feared, perhaps another minute or two. The area I can fit in my Venture’s limited memory also exceeded my expectations: I live in Arizona, which is quite large, and yet I was able to easily download a large swath that includes Tucson, Phoenix, Flagstaff, and Show Low.

All in all, a good product and in my opinion an essential add-on to any Garmin mapping GPS. Subtracted 1 star for less-than-stellar user interface and installation procedure.

L. G. CHARLOT says:

Rating

TOPO 2008 has some good points: it’s half the price of most of Garmin’s other cartography products, and it doesn’t require an unlock code. Read some of the reviews on Garmin’s “City Navigator North America” product – there are some real horror stories about the problems people have had with Garmin’s unlock code system.

NOTE: In specific discussion of how TOPO 2008 interfaces with a GPS, the unit used in this review is a Garmin 60CX.

What you get with TOPO USA 2008 that’s good:

1. It adds a lot of city streets and county roads that are not included in the base map. However, the positional accuracy of these roads is often pretty bad. But at least having them would probably help you find an address if you got lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood or rural area. Unfortunately though, the road network in TOPO 2008 IS NOT AUTO-ROUTEABLE. In other words, if you try to generate a point-to-point trip route in either MapSource or in the GPS itself, the route will not follow the roads or calculate turns. It will just make a strait line (actually a Great Circle curve) from Point “A” to Point “B”. This doesn’t prevent you from generating your own routes manually, of course. I guess the lack of auto-route capability is why TOPO 2008 is half the price of City Navigator.

2. Since TOPO 2008 contains a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the coverage area, it allows you to generate a profile of your hiking/biking trail or road trip route. This profile capability is very nice when comparing alternate routes, and the profiles can be generated and viewed in the GPS or on the PC in MapSource

3. The outlines of many coastlines, lakes, and rivers in the basemap are very coarse and downright inaccurate – TOPO 2006 offers a huge improvement to these outlines (but does not include water depth).

4. TOPO 2008 includes thousands of searchable place names and POI’s that are not in the base map.

What’s not so good in TOPO 2008:

1. The coverage area is ONLY the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii). Unfortunately, there is no coverage in Canada or Mexico, other than large cities and major highways that are already in the basemap. If you need coverage of our neighbor to the north, the TOPO Canada DVD is pretty expensive at $110, almost double the price of the USA version.

2. The contour interval is 1:100,000, which is probably fine for planning an automobile trip, but is very coarse if you are doing a hiking or bicycle trip. Garmin does offer 1:24,000 cartography, but it’s expensive and covers only a limited set of National Parks. If TOPO 2008 were to cover the whole USA at 1:24,000, the amount of data would probably require many DVD’s instead of only 1, and the retail price would no doubt be a lot more, so I guess the 1:100,000 scale is adequate for most users, and certainly more economical.

If you already own the City Navigator cartography, TOPO 2008 might be a nice addition to your chartplotter-capable Garmin GPS, especially if it can display route profiles like the 60CX. However, if your primary need is for automobile routing, and especially if you need coverage in Canada, and if you have a limited budget, you would be better off buying City Navigator if you don’t already own it. It’s twice the price of TOPO 2008, but has a lot more capability.

NOTE: For some reason, TOPO 2008 includes Alaska’s Dalton Highway, from Fairbanks to Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay), yet City Navigator, which costs twice as much and is supposed to offer coverage of all of the USA and Canada, does not.

SUMMARY: A good value at $59.10 if you just want to upgrade your GPS’s background map, and if you don’t require Canadian coverage. Also a nice add-on if you already have City Navigator, as it allows you to compute road profiles anywhere in the USA (including Alaska and Hawaii). City Navigator does not have a terrain model built in, so it can not show profiles on it’s own. For owners of large RV’s or people who tow large boat or livestock trailers over long distances, TOPO 2008′s road profile capabilities could be a really nice trip planning tool.

Edward C. Benson Jr. says:

Rating

First, I’m not knocking the TOPO US too much. It is expensive and does not have high resolution but it fills a niche. If you need a TOPO map in a hurry, I suppose it is the best alternative.

I’ve had my Garmin Legend HCx for several months now. During this time, I’ve hunted for a reliable alternative to TOPO US, rendering 24K resolution and not limited to a few National Parks.

Looking really paid off. The best solution that I’ve found is the following:

* Free Maps from USGS Seamless Server (24K TOPOs as GeoTiff files) $0

* Any graphics editor program that can handle .tif format $0

* Mapwell (Basic) Google to find (includes raster/vector conversion) $45

* TrackMaker (free version) Google to find $0

Total: $45

Process:

1. Search, select, download GeoTiff map from USGS Seamless Server (15 minutes)

NOTE ADDED 4/2010: Mapwell Basic can now read coordinates on GeoTiff files, making steps 2,3, and part of 4 obsolete.

2. Review the .xml data, downloaded with the map to determine the extent of the map: Northwest and Southeast boundary. (5 minutes)

3. Open GeoTiff file in graphics editor. Save as new .tif file, stripping out the embedded geo data. (5 minutes)

4. Open the new .tif file in Mapwell. Add extent information from Step 2. Add graphics features and waypoints(optional). Run vectorization option, creating a new set of Garmin IMG files (10 minutes – more if you want to add your own art)

5. Upload new map set into Garmin. Mapwell has a great Garmin upload/download manager. No need to use Mapsource although you can use it to add Mapsource maps. (1 minute)

Time burned: 36 minutes

TrackMaker (free version or licensed) is also a great product for creating tracks, waypoints, many more features. It also has a fine Garmin upload/download manager. So you can either load waypoints and features directly into the Garmin or embed them in the map itself while using Mapwell.

The only disadvantage that I’ve discovered in the process is that Mapwell works too well. That is, the vectorization of 24K maps produces superb quality maps that take 10-20 seconds to render in the Garmin (at 1 mile). The closer in you go, the faster the rendering.