Dougmeister

Ok. I have my Axim. I have my Garmin eTrex Venture. Went the home-brew way and bought the Dell Serial cable and the gender benders from Radio Scrap.

The eTrex comes with 1 MB of internal memory and I'm under the impression that if you have a PPC, there's no reason to download additional maps/info to your GPS unit unless you want to use it by itself (hunting, fishing, etc.). Is that correct?

Now regarding software, I have Microsoft Streets & Trips 2003 and MapPoint 2002. Are these sufficient? Is there anything better here @ Handango for around $50?

tgreenstein

I have a Garmin eMap and use it with my laptop (haven't sprung for the Axim cables yet). I believe you are correct; assuming that you are going to use the maps on the Axim, there's no particular need to shell out $100 for Garmin's overpriced map files. The Streets & Trips maps should be pretty good for general travel.

Incidentally, I've found that the eMap works better with the Streets & Trips maps on my laptop than it does with Garmin's own maps loaded on the eMap. For example, standing in front of my house, the Garmin map shows me about 150 yards southwest of where I'm actually located -- while the Streets & Trips map has me right on target. I complained about this to Garmin; the tech support guy had me walk around the neighborhood, then upload the tracks to him. He concluded that the maps ARE off, but Garmin (in typical fashion) argued that they weren't responsible for any errors in the maps, because they get them from government sources. Doesn't stop them from charging me for the maps, though.

Let me know how the combination of the eTrex, Axim and Streets & Trips maps works -- I may want to spring for the cables if it works well.

Dougmeister

Works fine for me, but then again, I have nothing with which to compare it - I'm a first-timer.

Says it's accurate to within 40 feet usually.

Hope this helps.