Garmin 320 help

[cburchett77]

I just got my astro 320 and I was told you could get a free map download somewhere on the internet. Supposed to be a more improved map. Does anyone know where you can get one for free? Just wondering.

[Smoke'n Mack]

Not sure which maps you are looking for, I have seen on here that guys get free topo downloads from www.gpsfiledepot.com and just save them to their SD card. Here is just one thread where it was mentioned: http://americanbeagler.huntingboards.co ... po#p414063

In my opinion if you ponied up the money for the 320 and you don't spend the 20 dollars or whatever it is on a 1 yr subscription to get the Birds Eye view then you are just cheating yourself. The birdseye is ridiculously cool for knowing where your dogs are (in woods, fields, trails, roads, etc). I also think you can get the birdseye and the topo maps both and lay them over top of each other on your handheld. I haven't tried that yet though.

[T LEE]

I went to the Garmin site and ordered the" Birds Eye View". You will not need a card for it. The unit will store tons of info.

Bird's eye is detailed and like watching the dogs run from Google Earth type maps. You can see fields,houses,creeks,roads and about anything else the dogs may run near.

Well worth it.

[Mo. Beagler 5000]

Ok I just got my unit and have been playing around with birdseye and there is pros and cons...

pros..

its cool because you can see your dog and exactly what they are getting into or next to. sometimes even individual brush piles depending on how recent the imagry is.

Fairly easy to use even for a guy who never uses gps stuff. Its easy to get an area you want especially if you use the "google earth center of screen view"

cons..

Download speed is ridiculous... the company PURPOSLY SCREWS you. I have acess to a t3 blazing internet connection but they limit how fast and therefore how much you can download. I have downloaded 4gigs of maps so far and its taken over 72 hours to do... In comparrison, I can usually download 4gigs in about an hour.. I sent them a letter describing how unacceptable that crap is...

Download SIZE also needs to be DOUBLE what it allows also...

One other thing... at least on my unit the birdseye does not give street names and other important information so you kinda need something to layer over it...

either way still worth the 30.00.

[Mo. Beagler 5000]

and a side note... I just got off the phone with garmin and if you download the topo map from the site or buy the sd card then you CANNOT use it with bridseye on the same card. For some reason he said they overwrite each other and cancel out.

However if you buy the dvd of a region then you can tranfer maps onto the card with no issues... go figure

[T LEE]

Hi Mo. Beagler

The area your're uploading may be too large if it's taking that long. I uploaded 15% of Michigan's U.P in about an hour. You may want to try and narrow the area selected.

[Mo. Beagler 5000]

Ya, I downloaded 30 areas at highest resolution. I hunt and hike ALL over the place and trial all around to so I need lots of areas downloaded.. the time is an inconvenience but I can deal with it because once its on Its there forever.. A week of hell for years of enjoyment

[barnold1]

That's why I commented about download times after reading Amazon reviews; it doesn't matter what kind of connection you have if they throttle you.