Customer Reviews:
 City Navigator Download & Bicycle Mount June 2, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I like my HCx and other reviewers have detailed the pros and cons. I don't understand why the HCx can't profile altitude as accurately as the Vista C. I give this a four star because Garmin does such a poor job of documentation.
First, the bike mount. DO NOT buy the Garmin handlebar mount ((Garmin 010-10267-00). It won't work with the HCx. Instead, buy the rail-mount kit (Garmin 010-10496-00 for small handlebar or 010-10496-01 for larger handlebar). If you do a Google search, use rail-mount and not handlebar mount.
I am a GPS novice and this is intended for folks like me. If you bought a preloaded SD card, you can ignore the rest of this. If you have a DVD with City Navigator (v8 in my case) and want to download it to an HCx, this may help. I already had a certified DVD with City Navigator (came with my GPS 18 USB program for laptops) and bought a Vista HCx along with a blank 2 GB micro SD (BTW, SD cards greater than 2 GB won't work with the HCx). Garmin allows you to install City Navigator on two units. I spent several hours on the Web trying to find out how to download City Navigator to the HCx. I finally called Garmin support and, after the obligatory twenty-minute wait, talked with a very helpful person named Chris. Here's what he told me:
First, you have to go through the process of unlocking the map for the GPS unit (I had already done that -go to the Garmin Website follow the instructions). This is the sequence to download City Navigator.
1. Turn on the HCx and connect it to your computer with the cable
included in the kit.
2. In MapSource, make sure that upper left box is set to City Navigator
(not Trip & Waypoint Manager).
3. In the top tool bar, click on Map Scale and zoom out to 1500 miles.
4. In the top tool bar, click on the Map Tool (funny looking icon that
resembles a square).
5. With the mouse, move the icon to the upper left corner of the map.
Hold the left mouse button and move it to the bottom right corner.
This will create a box with the entire map inside. Anywhere is fine as
long as the entire map is within the box.
6. In the top tool bar, click TRANSFER. In the dropdown menu, click
"Send to device". You may have to choose your GPS from a menu. If
you download the entire map, (about 1.5 GB), it will take an hour.
 Excellent product June 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this product to replace my Magellan Explorit 150 that went bad (and lost all of my waypoints). I can honestly say that this Garman eTrex Vista HCx exceeded all my expectations. Battery life is great-even with using the backlight for hours at a time when driving on an extended vacation trip the NiMH batteries lasted well over 16 hours. Tracking, backlight, color, maps, features are all great. One problem with my Explorit was it was slow zooming. This Garmin zooms in or out in less than 1 second, very acceptable performance. I love the layout of the buttons and although I was at first glance scratching my head over why the viewing screen was located on the bottom of the unit I understand now-this facilitates very ergonomic one-handed operation. The only issue I experienced was in getting the USB drivers to work on Windows 64 bit Vista. A call to Garmin tech support resolved this. I am a Garmin man now!!!
Perfect for me June 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Bought this for geo tagging my photography and routing on my motorcycle. Both uses are perfect for this device since it is nice and small but still has a readable screen. I bought the navigator NT software and it does a good job routing the roadways when I go riding. I obtained a RAM mount and it sits right on my handlebar when riding and I do not need any voice prompts so the screen gives and arrow and a written prompt for me and it is all I need.
 Garmin Etec Visa HCX May 25, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Great GPS but be prepared to spend lots of time learning to use it!! Much to complicated for everyday use and better at telling you where you've been than planning ahead.
Small screen but cool in-your-backpak GPS May 23, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
First I have to say I have been a professional computer programmer since 1978 and our industry generally agrees that the Programmers who work for the two GPS maker's are the worst in the industry.
After buying the Vista HCx I see that this "myth" hasn't had reason to change.
Given that all GPS software looks like it was written by someone who learned how to program 5 minutes ago, the Vista HCx is a good single-function GPS unit. But once Apple's iPhone or iPod Touch adds a GPS unit, its game-over for Garmin and Magellan.
I love GPS's, I use the Vista for my hikes and walks around the forest preserve and since I'm now filming for commercial television (yes I'm trying to change careers) I often have to mark the lat/long of a filming location. This Vista HCx is great for that.
But like the low-rating review said, without the City Navigator software (sold separately) its really just a hiking GPS, which you can find for much, much cheaper. So if you only want to hike and track your trails, get the cheapest handheld unit you can find.
I like the HCx with the City Navigator loaded. I purchased a 4-GB microSD card for it, and loaded up the entire North America map set onto the card. Now I can fly anywhere in the U.S. and have a street-level mapping GPS "in my pocket".
Be warned, however, although the HCx supports 4GB microSD cards, the GPS software only supports map files up to 2 GB's. Ironically, the Garmin MapSource software will create a larger file. I had also purchased the Topos maps and tried loading both into the GPS. This exceeded 2 GBs in size. After loading the file into the GPS for nearly 24 hours (yes, it took a day and a night over the slow USB cable) the unit did not recognize its own map files. After ready some materials on the support pages, and knowing a thing or two about operating systems, I first thought it was the 4GB card, but then took a chance that it was actually a software "integer length" issue and deleted the Topo maps and got the file down to 1.8GB (under 2 GB) and guess what? It worked great!
Now that I've got it working the way I want it to work, the only real problem is keeping the backlight on while using it so I can see the LCD screen. It doesn't come on when you turn on the unit, you have to hit the power button a second time and then press the joy stick to remove the backlight meter level from the screen. Again, poor program design at its worse.
I know this sounds so negative, but all Garmin and Magellan GPS's have crappy software so if you're a GPS user, you're use to working with these things.
But once the iPhone with GPS comes out Garmin and Magellan will be dragged (kicking and screaming I suspect) into the 21st century of programming user interfaces.
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