Garmin GPSMAP 62SC

Why this one

I tried one of the new touch screen models, the Oregon 450, and I did not like it. For a GPS I prefer having buttons. Reliability and visibility are high priorities for me and the 62SC screen and buttons are better.

Ironically the "Oregon" touch screen does not work when it gets wet. I live in Oregon. It rains here. I hike in the rain. The controls and screen have to work all the time, even in rain.

I also prefer the more compact fits-in-my-hand feel of the smaller receivers.

I chose a Garmin over another DeLorme this time because I like making maps and there are lots of mapping options for the Garmin. I was also tired of the teensy fonts on my DeLorme PN-40.

The DeLorme mapping software does not work very well for me. To wit, it does not run in a virtual machine, and I hate having to boot my Mac into Windows just to look at a map.

I have used the 62SC for a year now and it is my favorite. I love the built in camera, it is very handy on hikes.

Automating data transfers

For a time I had Dropbox set to pull the photos when I plug it into my Mac. Then my Dropbox account filled up and I was not willing to start paying.

I am now designing a program to automate the transfer of files.

Photo management

1. Check for new photos.
2. Show thumbnails to allow tagging or immediate deletion.
3. Pull them into ownCloud
4. Remove them from GPS.

GPX management

1. Transfer GPX current log from 62 to computer.
2. Clear log on GPS.
3. Break the track into appropriate pieces, based on timestamps and jumps.
4. Transfer the tracks into a geodatabase.

Geocache management

The idea here is to help alleviate the limit of 1000 waypoints by managing the geocache GPX files.

1. Get current location.
2. Check geocaching.com for downloadable pocket queries. Get them.
3. Remove old Geocache files from the 62.
4. Load the appropriate current cache file

Design

Dashboard with summaries:

1. # of pictures on 62
2. summary of track / waypoint info
3. geocache info summary

Click on one of the three buttons to bring up the section

Photos Scrollable window containing thumbnails, click on image to select it, hover to see details. "Select All" button Upload selected button Delete all from camera button

Tracks Upload and delete

Geocaches

Can I see a list of recently found geocaches and use that with geocaching.com somehow?

Serial port access

I read an article "Public Service APRS with the Garmin Montana" that made me very curious about what I could do to link the 62SC with my new Kenwood D710. The article (and VE6AB's website) did not give any details.

So far I have found this promising posting: http://mikew.org/?p=282 "The GPSMap 62s can be paired with an appropriate amateur radio for full APRS functionality."

Information on the Garmin interface is here: http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/interface.htm

It should be possible to send a waypoint in NMEA format and have it immediately appear on the 62's screen. Sending a waypoint with the same name causes the position to be updated.

Maps

City Navigator with Lifetime option is not worth it. Use OpenStreetMap instead. (Yes, I have the lifetime option. It required a customer support call to get it functioning. No, I don't think it was worth it.)

The velomap and openmtbmap site has OSM based maps with contours. The contours look like they are 1:250K so relatively useless. Use the free version of OpenStreetMap.

For hiking consider using the Garmin 1:24K topo, it is pretty good. Go to http://www.GPSFileDepot.com and get the trail data to go with it. The topo 24k trails are outdated. The Pacific Northwest trails from GPSFileDepot is very good. For California, not so good. But OpenStreetMap is reasonably good.

Orthophotos

Birds Eye is too much bother.

I am currently trying to get the orthos I converted to KMZ format to load on the 62SC. For the conversion process see Garmin Monterra page.

I copied the files to /Volumes/GARMIN/Garmin/CustomMaps. Putting them on the SD card did not work.

History

Got this one August 10 2012

Took a picture of Julie to try out the camera. Since my house now has a metal roof, the GPS can't see satellites so the photo is not geocoded. If you love GPS, don't get a metal roof!

I installed the Garmin City Navigator NT 2013.1 map and portions of the Garmin Topo 24K West map.

I installed the free Northwest Trails map.

I loaded a GPX file containing Corvallis area geocaches. I took it outside so it could get lock and had it list nearby geocaches.