Canadian 2610 use in Europe

[garry_kramer]

I will be traveling in Spain, France and Germany this summer by car. If I order the Europe maps from Garmin will they work on my 2610 GPS? Has anyone done this before? I would expect it to work as the maps are held on the Flash Card not in ROM.

Thanks

[Woolly]

As far as I know, there should be no problem. Ari did it the other way round when he took his LT to Canada & USA last year.

[Hilton]

Garry for what it's worth I have both City Navigator Australia, and City Navigator Europe. They run on my Nav 2 (aka 2610) and Etrex Vista Cx. A 2Gb card holds each single region, but slows down the Vista a bit. The only issue I had was sorting out Garmins' convoluted method to register both map source products to both devices. One map source product can have two unlock codes. After that was done, all was well.

[lord_helmet]

Pardon the ignorant question, but aren't Garmin units come with region specific base maps factory preinstalled that cannot be changed? At least, that's what I'm reading on the Garmin WEB site:

"...This basemap comes factory installed with the BMW Motorcycles Navigator, StreetPilot III, StreetPilot 2610, StreetPilot 2620, StreetPilot 2650, StreetPilot 2660, StreetPilot 2720, StreetPilot 7200, StreetPilot 7500, GPS V, GPSMAP 196, GPSMAP 276C, GPSMAP 376C, GPSMAP 396, GPSMAP 296, GPSMAP 76C, GPSMAP 76CS, Quest, and Quest 2.

Garmin mapping units come with built-in, permanent basemaps that cannot be altered. These basemaps come in a variety of global designations (i.e., Atlantic basemap). Please see your local dealer when purchasing a Garmin mapping unit to ensure that you are purchasing one with a basemap that's appropriate for your location and needs. Factory-installed basemaps cannot be altered..."
This would lead me to believe, that attemting to install, say, Europe street level maps on a US unit that has US Autoroute base maps preconfigured would mean overlaying
one with the other and I'm not sure how you could you then navigate.

[Woolly]

The actual maps are stored on the CF card, so you can load any continent you want on them, and it still will work well = a 2 gig card will hold the whole of Europe, so have a seperate card for Europe & the States.

[Hilton]

Steve, you are correct in saying the pre-installed base maps are non configurable. They are held in ROM. The unit will use the maps held in CF memory to display nav data, in a descending order, The City Navigator series is up the top and so on down to the base map. Only one can display at a time so no issues with overlays. Also moving that far away from your existing base map (US to Europe) the screen will be blank. IIRCC it just displays a hatch pattern.

[lord_helmet]

OK, it's getting clearer now, but I have one more follow-up question: are the base map and City Navigator street-level maps used in tandem? Put it differently, is City Navigator North America or City Navigator Europe for street level navigation within a given city and would the unit fall back to the built-in base map for freeway (autobahn) navigation in between cities? Put it yet another way, it sounds like I could use a US 2610 to move around in Paris with the right set of City maps, but can I get from Paris to Marseille as well? I though that's where the base maps would come into play.

[garry_kramer]

Looks like it would be cheaper to buy a CF GPS card and maps for Europe for my Ipac hx2495b than spend the money on maps only for my 2610. Then I have 2 GPS's. The card is about $90cdn from www.canadagps.com

[lord_helmet]

Looks like it would be cheaper to buy a CF GPS card and maps for Europe for my Ipac hx2495b than spend the money on maps only for my 2610. Then I have 2 GPS's. The card is about $90cdn from www.canadagps.com

Gary,
I didn't mean to discourage you, but I've been in the same quandary as you for some time now since I spend a couple of weeks in Europe almost every year and would have liked an all-in-one GPS solution for both North America and Europe.
I've been pretty much using an iPaq and GPS sleeve with NAVMAN software/maps myself for my European travels. Since I already had an iPaq and GPS sleeve (early adaptation of GPS gadget), the software with maps only cost me around $65 on eBay.

I respect the opinion of the other members who commented here, but they sounded like opinion only and no one actually said 'been there, done that'.

[Hilton]

Within a given area, covered by both base map and detailed map, e.g. City Navigator, The GPS will revert to the City Navigator (or the next level down in detail) as indicated by the note on the screen "Detail Map", as opposed to "Base Map" it displays just above the scale. I think the term "City" is misleading as in both Australia and Europe Map Source CD's, all the road system is presented, not just "Cities"

[pozo_izquierdo]

Here is one "been there seen / done that" comment:

I had the same (but opposite) concerns last August when planning my CCR trip and wheteher to rely on my Euro Navi II or not. I had purchased the American City Navigator maps and I stored them on the CF card.

I used the Euro Navi II (Garmin 2610) during my trip in Canada and USA and as the unit did not have the US basemap I found the following two issues:

1) Every time the unit zoomed out (like after a succesful turn or similar) it of course went to the basemap mode. As there was no basemap, what the display was showing was just a a thick pink stripe across. Two - three presses on the zoom in -button and we were on the map again. So - no big deal.

2) Routing was handicapped. Due to the lacking basemap the unit could not choose between "shortest" and "fastest" route. It always routed the shortest way. It took me a while until I realized that and that explained why I had been crossing the same Intrerstate over and over...:p
To avoid this, do not try to ask routing from "Paris to Madrid". Instead, cut your distance in 30 - 80 km intervals so the GPS will not be able to give you a run a round by trying to lead you through the shortest little roads.

With these small exceptions I managed just fine during my trip although more than half of my journey I was using Roy Jorawsky's US 2610 which he kindly borrowed to me. The reason for this was that I also had received so many different opinions whether my Euro unit would work in the US or not so I was totally "lost" in the beginning and Roy was kind enough to borrow his extra GPS for me just to be sure I will not get lost.

After personally testing my Euro unit in USA I can say that you would be OK with your US unit in Europe with the European City Navigator maps loaded on the CF card, just remembering the small danger in routing.

Best regards and good luck