Map for Garmin 60Csx handheld

[Elaine and Tony]

HI guys

Being new to this I apologise for my lack of knowledge. In a previous life before I bought my boat my delight was to motorcycle off road routes throughout Asia. To this end I bought and used a Garmin 60CSx handheld unit with maps of the region installed through microchip.

Then unit still works very well with some nice features and although my boat has some good electronics on it, I like the idea of having a handheld backup unit.

On checking the Garmin site I can purchase marine map of New Zealand but the cost is pretty high and hard to justify as a simple back up unit. Does anyone know of a cheaper or better way to use this unit or how I might obtain a marine map for a reasonable price? I am all for paying those who make and update the maps but in this instance it is a bonus to have the handheld and the costs wouldn't justify the benefit

cheers

tony

[Stu Jackson]

Garmin literally has a "lock" on their maps because they are proprietary. For example (and I know you're not asking about the USA) but in the USA the govt makes the charts and makes them FREE for anyone to use and download. Garmin gets those same charts, puts it into their proprietary format, and charges a lot for them!


Otherwise, my Garmin GPSMap 76Cx is great, too.


I'm also surprised to hear you can even get charts for it, because Garmin is notorious for not supporting what they call legacy equipment, stuff that may only be five or six years old.


Good luck.

[Elaine and Tony]

Thanks for that - I have no idea how the maps I used in Asia were created, I was helped along the way by some friends with similar interests and greater skills in IT than me.

My NZ road map I used when touring NZ on the motor bike was an opensource project map but worked just fine on the Garmin. Asia and NZ maps interfaced with my laptop for creating routes and track profiles for my blog at the time. It is all held on a small SD card

cheers