Vista C - NO NMEA! NO REAL TIME TRACKING

I just went out and bought a brand new Vista C. Only to learn that I had
to spend an additional $130 on software that I can only use in very small
chunks on my handheld....Can I be wrong about this? I purchased "City
Navigator" after explaining what I wanted to do to the woman on the
phone. When she said the software only came in DVD form I realized that I
had to buy a DVD for my laptop. She lowerd the price a bit so I could get
it...That was nice.

Then I installed the software and tried to download my city (24.9 MB with
autorouting turned on. This didn't work. Then I turned auto routing off
(not knowing if I would miss it or not).

After that I tried to interface to my map program and it doesn't work.
WTF! After all that! This unit doesn't output the single standard NMEA
format!? Heck, even my $39 Nextel outputs NMEA....BUT IT WON'T CONNECT TO
THIS STUPID MAP! whaaaaaaaaaaa....

Now that I've sounded off...did I do something wrong?

I have already written to customer support.

Rus wrote:

You didn't post here first.

@individual.net:


My bad...

Rus wrote:

No. That's why some people buy units that have more memory.


No, you purchased City Select. You couldn't get City Navigator for
$130, if you can buy it separately at all.


Apparently you figured out that's because your unit has only 24 MB of
memory, so:


You mean you didn't download the auto routing data, to reduce the size
of the download. Turning off auto routing would be something you would
do on the receiver.


Depends on whether you would want directions, address lookup, or
business locations in the area where you would be using it. If you
want those things, you'll miss having the auto routing data. You could
have just found a single map segment in an area where you don't travel
often and removed it from the download. That's probably all it would
have taken to get the selection small enough to fit, even with the auto
routing data.


I assume by this that you mean you attempted real-time tracking. You
didn't say which map program, but my guess is that you were using
MapSource (which would install with City Select). MapSource no longer
has the capability for real-time tracking; but nRoute does, and it is a
free download from Garmin.


Nope, because it's USB only. From what I've read, you need a serial
connection for NMEA.


I have no idea whether nRoute would accept the output from your phone,
but I think you can get it to do what you want with your Vista C, and
hopefully then you won't care about connecting your phone to it.


How about buying an expensive product without doing your homework or
working with a *knowledgeable* dealer who could have advised you what
unit you really needed to do the things you want to do. Speaking of
dealers, if the place you bought your receiver allows it, you might be
able to exchange your Vista C for a 60C or 76C that have more memory.
Your copy of City Select should have one unlock left that you could use
with another receiver. I doubt that there's any way to get back the
one you've already used on the Vista, and you can only unlock City
Select for two receivers.


I hope you were more clear in what you wrote to them than you were in
your post here. I really had to read between the lines to figure out
what you probably meant. Other than advise you to use nRoute, I don't
think they'll be able to help you much. Sounds to me like everything
is working pretty much as it's supposed to.

No I definately purchased "City Navigator"...v7 $130 I have the box right
in front of me.

Yea...that's right. Had I known this was going to be a limitation I would
have purchased something else. At the moment I am ~$400 into this (unit +
SW). I do not think that was inexpensive for these features.

A friend spend a similar amount and got a palm top, software and a
bluetooth GPS unit. Bigger screen, real audio directions and a palm top PC
to boot. I almost went that way but selected the portability of the VistaC
for when I run or go out on my sailboat.

My complaint is that the Garmin web site says that you can download maps
and get routed directions. Hmmm...if you happen to only be interested in an
area small enough to fit into the sizable 24 MB memory. With 24MB of memory
I could have put every street in CA in my palmtop...without all the "Jack
in the box restaraunt tags".

I used to have a Sharp Palm Top with 16MB of total memory. I could use "MS
Streets 98" to select an amorphous (arbitrary) region of any size and
upload it to my palmtop.

City Navigator has relatively large regions (in the areas that are of
interest to me) and the particular region of interest is ~22 MB...if I
select the option to include auto routing data it won't fit. Requiring such
large regions to be downloaded and having to deal with "seams" is painful
after using the MS product...no seams. I could select 1 city block or an
entire state. Memory was not an issue for the areas I uploaded. My palm top
did not have GPS. GPS is not a software overhead so the mapping data should
be similar....so I thought.


Yes...I turned off the auto routing data (deselected it in the SW) which
reduced the size of the download by ~4 MB. Thanks for the technical
correction.
On City Navigator this (single map segments of small size) is not an
option. I have since called to complain and they Fed-Exd a copy of City
Select....Thereby turning me back into a Garmin fan.

This program does what I need. It interfaces (via nRoute {which is free})
to the GPS unit. In addition, the map segments are (generally) small enough
to select just the regions I want...again I do not understand the
fundamentals of why they need segmentation when the MS product did not.
Segmentation is not a desirable feature in my opinion. The only logic I
could come up with (segmented database updates) is negated by the fact that
they only update their software once a year.


Now that I have it and have learned how to use it I have learned that what
I was attempting to do is called "real-time tracking". The SW Engine (Map
Source) is what I was trying to use in combination with the "City
Navigator" map database and this did not work.

I have since learned that nRoute will work with "City Select" which is why
Garmin shipped it to me for free the next day...great service. nRoute
allows you to select your map database.


hmmm...This unit does not send Serial NMEA data on the Universal SERIAL Bus
but my cell phone does. I still think this is stupid. It is likely fixable
with software...if Garmin writes the drivers....

They shipped "City Select", I downloaded nRoute and used it to drive around
town this evening. It worked as expected...

I do not agree with your assertion that a more expensive GPS is what was
needed. I have owned Garmin 45s that output NMEA and cost $145 back when
they were first coming out. NMEA is the GPS industry standard. Expecting a
GPS unit to output NMEA is akin to expecting a motherboard to have a PCI
bus. You don't even ask anymore...guess this was wrong...not dumb, just
wrong.

With forward product marketing practices (adding already present features
to your device for a price) running amuck I accept your valid point of
better research and thank you for your advice.