GPS question

Not sure if this comes under Biking Issues, Idle Banter or what anyway...

So far my only experience of electronic mapping is Mapopolis on my Palm Tungsten which is not GPS enabled and is just a very handy glorified A to Z. I decided against a PDA/Bluetooth GPS solution mainly because they are not very robust and finally after much looking around went for the Garmin Vista C which is a newish model with electronic compass and barometer (useful for sailing). I wanted a multi purpose unit rather than one that was permanantly fixed in the car or bike i.e it can also be used for walking and cycling etc

My question - has anyone got any experience of the add on mapping software? The Garmin Mapsource stuff looks a bit like overkill but if I want street level mapping, I think it's my only choice. The included basemap info doesn't show much less than dual carriageways. I don't think there are any alternatives to the official Garmin software (which is quite pricey although you get pretty much all Europe) except for some offerings that are more geared to setting up and downloading waypoints.

Any info much appreciated.

Ta.

Your Garmin can connect your your Tungsten with the right cable. Try expansys.com or ebay. I have a Garmin etrex connected to a Tungsten T. The software I use is Mapsonic by ViaMichelin. Apart from a few bugs, it works very well. This setup will give you turn by turn spoken navigation which is great. You want to be looking at the screen as little as possible when driving/riding. To make the wiring simpler, I joined up the 'palm sync and charge' cable with the garmin data cable. That way, I have a box with 3 wires coming out of it - one to 12v, one to the palm and one to the Garmin. This powers both devices while providing communication between the two.

Mapsource is excellent software, I've used in on many GPS's and like it alot. I just picked up a Magellan Sport Map with their Mapsend software, I haven't loaded it yet but I'll find out soon...