Garmin City Navigator version 6

City Navigator v6 mapping is starting to ship with units.
GPSOZ have it on a PC if you want to check it out.

Upgrade CDs are expected next week


Rough sizes and number of segments per state
(segments do not line up with state boundarys);

WA - 20 MB, 13 segments
NT - 7 MB, 10
SA - 17 MB, 11
Qld - 35 MB, 15
NSW - 48 MB, 21
Vic - 33 MB, 17
Tas - 3 MB, 4

All of Australia 132.2 MB, 68 map segments

I hope its better than the current version they've got out at the moment - CN5 that is.

I'm in Sydney and wanted to 'find' Putty - nope

how about 'Bucketty ? - nope

ok theyre fairly small - try Wollombi - guess what ? NOPE ?

Is it me ?

Couldn't take me between Wollombi and Wisemans ferry either - down the convict trail ?

maybe theres a setting i missed ??

I'm open to suggestions here........

Yes, it's a shitload* better
(*technical term)

What a lot of people did before is load MetroGuide as well and swap over in rural areas as MG had a load more rural coverage. MG did not autoroute of course.

Now CNA v6 is like MGA v4 plus corrections plus 2/3 street minor towns plus more forest/park areas plus more accurate waterways and lakefronts/coastlines. Has a lot more POI too.

Putty is there
All of the road to Wollombi is there
Dirt tracks between the Putty and Wollombi are there
Still not complete but really useful in rural areas now.

Of course if you want all of Australia you need to buy a new 256 MB memory card


Selling my 128 MB Garmin data card for AU$140 (will hold 95% of Australia).

Thanks Burnie - perhaps i'll have to buy the damn upgrade.

or ......

Putting aside any Garmin loyalties - is there another system out there that has better mapping at the moment - specifically in NSW ?

I'm thinking Magellan or even PDA based stuff - TomTom - is there a microsoft version ?? .

I've got ozyexplorer maps - they look great on a PC - but what GPS can i use them on ?

What i'm really saying is - Would i be better putting my $125 towards another system and letting Herself have the SP3 for the car ?

Magellans DiscoverAus mapping has better rural coverage.
Generally I say about 90% versus about 70% in Garmins MetroGuide (now also available in City Navigator) of dirt tracks in NSW.
The Garmin screens are better tho and, personally, I prefer the Garmin interface. Everything is a trade off.

Tomtom is supposed to be coming into Australia sometime but nobody knows who the distributor is let alone what mapping they will be using.
Currently the only autorouting mapsets are from Sensis and MapInfo.
Garmin (and TravRoute and Navman and VDO) are using Sensis which is considered to be the best.

OziExplorer on a PDA is probably the best mapping but I do not believe that the devices are robust enough. Also, the 1:25,000 NSW topo maps have been withdrawn from the market while LPI stuff around (polite term) with the new version.
The Natmap 1:250,000 topos are sort of okay but do not have the detail
No, you cannot load Ozi maps to any GPS.

I am going to buy the v6 upgrade, altho I am sort of committed with the GPSmap 276C.

I told myself I would not bite but I have to I would have to take umbrage with that statement. It's a bit "general" The 250K mosaic is in my opinion the BEST single solution for adventure "touring" in Australia.

The only issue I have with it is to much detail ie minor tracks and trails are shown, foliage density information, contour information etc.

What do you want to do with it ? once you have your needs sorted... then it's easier to come to a decison about the more suitable bit of kit. On the bike for Adventure touring in Aus.... piss the Garmin off... the mapping** is a cross between dangerous and useless and their proprietary memory card system deserves our disdain. (2610 aside)

If you're a technophobe, grab a Magellan (Meridian or Explorist) grab an SD card and load DAST (*COUGH*) and HEMA's exellent Great Desert Tracks. If you're a geek, try a PDA/GPS combo for a better, superior, more flexible solution (was that enough adjectives ?) and make your own detail maps to backload to the Magellan if you want (I do this). It will however, not cook you eggs for breafast !!!

While several assert the delicate nature of a PDA system, I have ridden wth my IPAQ 3970 for 40,000km over 3 years on my BMW 1150 Adv* with 70% off that being off road



and it still works fine (plugged into initially a Garmin GPS and now a Magellan GPS) and I use it as an MP3 player while riding on straight open transport sections and for Star Charts while camping and take the entire damn workshop manual for the bike as a pdf, along with several e-books and a few games.

If you want to use it to drive around <insert capital city of choice>, stick with the Garmin, there hardware on the whole is good.

Que Burnie M

* The big windscreen means aside from torrential rain it stays dry and I simpily have a piece of electrical tape acorss the top to stop dust from getting into the speakers, SD and pointer holes. I am sure one day the thing will crap itself from that vibration and shaking off road BUT my Garmin GPS crapped itself and the PDA is still going strong !

** Burnie states 6 is better but it needs to be a QANTUM leap better to be genuinely useful IMO.

Well for a start on a GPSmap 276C you get a screen that you can actually read in sunlight;



If you think DiscoverAus does not have enough rural detail then I guess you will like Garmins MetroGuide even less. City Navigator v6 is MetroGuide v4 plus a little.

The Magellan version of GDT is good but way overpriced IMHO.

The further from civilisation you are the worse the mapping is and the slower government (and private) agencys are to update it.
NSW is pretty good (except for the 'marketing' guys at LPI).

TrevorS - saw that very photograph today in - is it ? - trailbikerider ? in the newsagents.

Good article - and i could very easily be persuaded to go the geek/PDA route.

What sort of PDA / min specs / software ?

....make your own detail maps to backload to the Magellan if you want

how would i do this ? I'd need a foothold up to the ladder to find out more info.
Have you got any good info - or links to help me find out ?



PS it was me who was emailing you a year ago about your ADV for sale, when i first got to AUS.

I just run the BMW Mottorad on the Adventure - but have maps in the tank bag - I find, when all is said and done, the voice on the Unit to be a little off putting when all you hear is 'Re Calculating'

You need an upgrade !

Among other things. - maybe not as adventurous as you Burnie - My skill level doesnt outdo my capabilities at my age -

Yes I should get it re done - Seeing how I cant get my fookin Garmin downloads because of a stinking loss of number

Do you have the yellow piece of paper that came with the CD ?

If so, what is your coupon or customer code ?

Burnie- Is the coverage of out back SA any more detailed than before. Has it got even the common roads like the birdsville, strezlecki and oodnadatta tracks. V5 didn't even adequetly cover the adelaide hills area very well ( 20KM from the CBD) . Only about 75% of roads and towns were covered. Is the v6 worth the money to upgrade in my part of the world?

I would not say it is brilliant but it is okay

Bandwidth problem ? I thought everybody had cable

I want the contour information so I can get an idea of how steep the tracks maybe.
And you need all the information you can get way out back - there are few landmarks to navigate by so any clues are usefull.

I too like the 250k maps - covers all of OZ - enough detail to get you there ... the 50 or 25 would be usefull in places but those places are popular anyways so you can usually get local info.

The problem with the gps maps by manufactures is that they may make good gps but they have no way for you to change the map and you can only use there maps .. mostly. With oziexploreer you can use anyones map (provided it is raster based) add things - delete things ... all up to you.

You mean the one I was spose to record in my manual - um wel it was a couple of years ago Burnie - no I cant locate it, we have moved into a smaller place and about to move into our new home - so you can imagine.

All I have is my unit serial number and the original reciept from Pro Cycles - everything else except .......

Which is why I was suprised at the statement from Burnie about "lack of detail" There's MOBS of the stuff :) I have used the contour information and foliage information to determine if I migth like to try my hand to head straigth across country for a few KM to meet up with that road I can see on the map. All those thin lines close together and swatches of dark green probably mean I have no chance Also useful to me is the "sizing" information of the rivers and creeks. None of this can be found on rinky dink vector based mapping systems (yet)

I am looking foward to the day they bring the 100K out as a mosaic... fark.. one day :) I persoanly don't find the 25K or 50K stuff useful, except when hiking, to large a scale. QLD now has some 25K stuff but the coverage is pretty spotty, check the NRM site if you want.

I also have the whole of Aus on the old (30 - 40 years) 1:250K Geology maps of Aus, these are great for doing mining history research and also for finding old roads/tracks that might still be around and for those with a basic interest in Geology. Of course with the colours used, detail can be a little difficult to make out (unfortunatley)

Absolutely agree, opensource for the mapping and let the manufacturer with the best hardware win :) Never going to happen (unfortunately), so I will stick with the PocketPC and Meridian GPS combination.

You can make your own maps for the Meridian, I have an extensive "dual sport" detail map made up of trials through this part of the world, to do it on a broad area would be a pain in the arse and you have to be a bit of a nerd to give a rats arse but I am a bit of a map slut

One simple thing you could do prior to a trip, if you have the route and sidetracks in mind and some time on your hands is manually create the tracks in Ozi with the Natmap maps, and then use MMO to create your own detail map of the trip. I might do this for the next big trip as a "test", see how it goes, then I could send anyone else that wanted to ride the same area the detail map to load onto the SD card.

I am pretty sure that's a breach of copyright though, me tracing it from Natmap and letting someone else have a copy of the detail map I produce, or even using it myself for that matter !

I was comparing the Natmap 1:250,000 with the LPI Topo 1:25,000 (which you cannot currently buy). I have LPI region 4 - Sydney and west.

Just as a matter of interest, how useful are the topos in desert regions where you have little slope and contour lines are distances apart ?