UPGRADES

GPS FIRMWARE

Avnic Trading updates the firmware on new stock before despatching the units to dealers. Never the less, we recommend that you upgrade your firmware after taking delivery of your Garmin GPS. Thereafter update as and when new upgrades become available. Upgrades optimise the operation of your GPS, eliminate identified bugs, and introduce new functions and features. Garmin upgrades are available (free of charge) from the sites listed below or on http://www.garmin.com/support/download.jsp

Check the firmware status of your Garmin on the ‘System Information’ menu of your unit.

Click here if you want to download and/or update WebUpdater, to automatically upgrade your firmware. Once you have installed WebUpdater on your PC simply Run WebUpdater

Click here  if you want to update your MapSource, nRoute or POI Loader programmes

NOTE: You can download backdated Firmware Upgrades from www.gpsinformation.org/perry

MAPSOURCE SOFTWARE
MapSource software for PC’s – supplied on CD and bundled with new Garmin GPS receivers or purchased online (www.garmap .co.za) –is a useful and practical tool for planning your trips, and managing your trip data. If you own a ‘Plug and Play’ Street-navigator that operates off a pre-loaded SD card mapset, and you want to utilise the versatility of MapSource, you can use MapSource to transfer your mapsets from the SD card to the unit’s internal memory. Thereafter, MapSource becomes the interface between you, your computer and your GPS. Remember, this is optional for Plug and Play users.

MapSource enables you to upload and download data between your Computer and your GPS, to plan, and design Routes, make Waypoints, edit data (including Tracks) and manage the data. The versatility of the interface between the MapSource and your GPS depends on the model you own – street navigators, are intentionally less versatile, while ‘full house’ models are more versatile.

Garmin provide regular free updates of MapSource. Check for new updates regularly, and update your copy after loading the software onto your Computer for the first time.

Click here if you want to update your MapSource.

Remember, Garmin design firmware upgrades to optimise the operation of their GPS units.

DOWNLOADING UPGRADE FILES IN AFRICA AND SOUTH AFRICA
Garmin provide a free software programme, WebUpdater (also periodically up-dated) designed to check and automatically download new firmware to your GPS. When using the WebUpdater, http://www.garmin.com/products/webupdater/howtoinstall.jsp be aware that South Africa’s relatively slow Internet speeds (and associated connectivity problems) can interrupt, prematurely terminate, or corrupt a downloaded file.

SELECTING THE RIGHT GPS
Garmin through Avnic in South Africa, market an extensive and rapidly growing range GPS models for Land and Sea navigation. Some of their new releases replace ‘outdated’ models, while others improve existing models.

Shopping for a Garmin in this rapidly changing environment requires careful research. What do you want from your GPS? Where and how would you use your Garmin? Would you use it for street navigation in your car, or mounted on your motorbike or on your boat?

Would you use your GPS for hiking, or touring, and would you want to u deciding, consult existing owners, browse the Garmin website (www.garmin.com) or post questions on the Garmap forum (www.garmap.co.za).

Garmin group their automotive GPS Range into four categories: Full-house units, Street Navigators, Cell phone Bluetooth models and Plug and Play units. Ask a dealer to explain and demonstrate the user interface and capabilities of the models that appear to address your requirements.

Enquire about MapSource the ingenious software Garmin developed to extend, diversify, and complement the functionality of your GPS.

Ascertain how well your GPS will interface with MapSource? Each model enjoys a different MapSource interface. Some are comprehensive, others limited, and yet others, have no interface at all.  Street navigators for example, hardly compare with the versatile two-way communication of ‘full house’ GPS’s designed to log tracks. Familiarise yourself with the limitations, weaknesses and strengths of the various models; avoid ‘buyer’s remorse’, that awful feeling, when a few days after your purchase, you discover that the unit you bought, is not the unit you wanted. 

STREET NAVIGATORS
Garmin designed the Street Navigator range with a limited MapSource interface.  Street Navigators cannot take tracks.  You cannot load routes designed in MapSource to or from your unit: You can only design your route on the small screen of the GPS. 

You can however take waypoints (a two-step process under ‘favourites’) and load these back and forth between the GPS and Mapsource.  Street Navigators can generally (but not exclusively) utilise ‘activated’ POI’s (specially built waypoints termed ‘Custom Waypoints’) that activate certain predefined points on a route - road hazards or in some models, a voice file (a Tour Guide function).  Garmin provide free POI Loader software (periodically updated) to load this data to your GPS.

Click here  to see a list of POI Loader compatible GPS units (then click on the Product Compatibility box). Some Garmin Street Navigator models have Bluetooth cell phone connectivity.

The Street Navigator range includes ‘Plug and Play’ units sold with preloaded mapsets. You buy them, plug them in, and use them. These units do not enjoy a MapSource interface and you are not required to unlock the map prior to use. Most ‘plug and play’ models are POI Loader compatible.

Smartphone navigators, linked by Bluetooth to a Garmin GPS10, enjoy similar specifications to the Street Navigator range, although these smartphones cannot interface with MapSource.

The GPS10 is a versatile GPS receiver (one of several models in this range) that you can use in conjunction with Garmin’s nRoute software that links your GPS capabilities to the large screen and the trip-data memory capacity of Laptop or Tablet PC storage.

Click here to see a list of Garmin compatible smartphones.

FULL HOUSE UNITS
If you own a ‘full-house’ Garmin GPS (that can log tracks, take waypoints and save data to an expandable SD card, or couple to a Data Logger), you can deploy MapSource to design Routes, then transfer them between your PC and GPS, or exchange this data with friends. Over time, you can use MapSource to collect and manage a massive amount of travel information.

SELECTING THE RIGHT MAPSET
Garmin GPS receivers run on branded ‘Garmap’ mapsets developed under licence by Georigin in Pretoria specifically for the Garmin range. Southern Africa Streetmaps v1, encompassing South Africa and six of her nearest neighbours into a single regional mapset, is the most recent and comprehensive street navigation mapset in the range.

Other mapsets include the Topographic & Recreation’ Mapset (non-autorouting), African Road Atlas and an auto-routing mapset for Nigeria. Georigin (specialising in African mapsets) plan to incorporate additional regional maps of Africa into their range in the near to medium term.
 
UPDATING MAPSETS
Maps are static representations of a dynamic, continuously changing environment. Keeping abreast of change entails a process of continuous updating, and the periodic release of new, and more comprehensive versions of the same or improved Mapset. Garmin (through Avnic Trading in Johannesburg) release an update every six months, in June and November.

Click here for a complete list of the Garmap range of maps

MAPSOURCE
Apart from detailed GPS loaded mapsets, Garmin owners can also acquire and load MapSource, a powerful and versatile planning tool, onto a Computer to complement the street navigation capabilities of their units. If you’re serious about your planning and data logging, you will generate large amounts of data that can be managed by MapSource on your Computer (and, if you want to, exchanged with friends or colleagues). 

‘Plug and Play’ owners who buy their units with a mapset pre-loaded onto a SD card, need not switch to MapSource; neither do they need to register or unlock their mapset. Never the less, they can, at any time make the switch (provided they register and unlock the CD in the prescribed way).

Click here for information on the Dealer network, or contact sales at Avnic Trading PTY (Ltd) on +27 11 251 9999.

Click here for information on Garmap’s Product Range of maps

NOTE
Avnic Trading update the firmware on all new stock before dispatching them to the Dealer Network. However, check the firmware on your unit before to using it; a new update may have become available.

Click here to upgrade your firmware; or ask a Dealer to upgrade for you. 

Click here  to upgrade your firmware if you own a Nuvi.