Using a garmin 800 in bulgaria

skeff10

Just bought an 800 second hand. want to use it on holiday. What do I need to do to use it in Bulgaria.
No European maps cd provided but it does have the sd and micro sd cards with it (don't know whats on them though!) Can I just take it and it will pick up a signal?
Not bothered about following any routes, just want to record etc when i'm there
cheers

homers_double

Just turn it on and it'll pick up the GPS and record your data, then upload to wherever to scrutinise the data.

imposter2.0

If you are asking whether GPS satellites cover Bulgaria, then the answer is yes.

iPete

Yes but pick up the satellites well before you ride. If I ever travel far it can take 5-10 minutes to pick up.

skeff10

nice one, cheers

redvee

If you're not sure if the maps you have cover Bulgaria, look at the map and scroll across/down to Bulgaria. Zoom right out, then zoom in when your in Bulgaria.

wongataa

skeff10 wrote:

Can I just take it and it will pick up a signal?

Strangely enough the Global Positioning System works all over the planet (Note: it wont work at very well at very high latitudes and it may be degraded in war zones - neither apply to Bulgaria).

Runtothehills

I know you said you didn't need maps but it may be worth having a look here:

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/05/down ... 00810.html

Simple steps to downloading open street maps to your garmin. Not sure how great they'd be in Bulgaria but might come in handy. My Garmin wristwatch quite happily worked in New Zealand and Iceland, just was a bit confused when I first turned it on

marcusjb

iPete wrote:

Yes but pick up the satellites well before you ride. If I ever travel far it can take 5-10 minutes to pick up.

This is very true. If I am overseas (or even at the other end of the country doing an event), it can take a long time to lock onto the satellites.

I tend to turn it on whenever I arrive at my hotel or whatever (sat outside of course) and leave it to sort itself out so I can make a quick getaway in the morning. There's nothing worse than setting off on a big adventure and waiting 10 minutes for your GPS to find where it is so you can work out which way you are meant to go!

ManOfKent

marcusjb wrote:

iPete wrote:

Yes but pick up the satellites well before you ride. If I ever travel far it can take 5-10 minutes to pick up.

This is very true. If I am overseas (or even at the other end of the country doing an event), it can take a long time to lock onto the satellites.

I tend to turn it on whenever I arrive at my hotel or whatever (sat outside of course) and leave it to sort itself out so I can make a quick getaway in the morning. There's nothing worse than setting off on a big adventure and waiting 10 minutes for your GPS to find where it is so you can work out which way you are meant to go!

My Garmin took about five minutes to find satellites in London yesterday. Admittedly I was moving and went through a tunnel along the way, but I'd turned it on again in exactly the same location it had been turned off in the morning!

handful

marcusjb wrote:

iPete wrote:

Yes but pick up the satellites well before you ride. If I ever travel far it can take 5-10 minutes to pick up.

This is very true. If I am overseas (or even at the other end of the country doing an event), it can take a long time to lock onto the satellites.

I tend to turn it on whenever I arrive at my hotel or whatever (sat outside of course) and leave it to sort itself out so I can make a quick getaway in the morning. There's nothing worse than setting off on a big adventure and waiting 10 minutes for your GPS to find where it is so you can work out which way you are meant to go!

Good tip, mine did exactly that, missed the first mile of my ride round a Greek Island last week before finally picking the signal up. Incidentally I downloaded an OSM (free) map of Greece before I went and I was able to follow a pretty basic and not too detailed map of the island with no issues at all.

drlodge

OSM maps indeed work great, as I found out in Gran Canaria. However I looked for an OSM maps for Bulgaira and couldn't see one.

marcusjb

drlodge wrote:

OSM maps indeed work great, as I found out in Gran Canaria. However I looked for an OSM maps for Bulgaira and couldn't see one.

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

Quick select Bulgaria and it'll download the tiles ready setup for a Garmin.

drlodge

Cheers...think I looked here http://mapas.alternativaslibres.es/downloads.php

freezing77

Here is direct download link for osm for Bulgaria


http://osm.pleiades.uni-wuppertal.de/garmin/generic/30-06-2014/8f1fd72712ed8d820c09df4594e01035/osm_generic_gmapsupp.zip

skeff10

Fantastic work fellas