I did see the neighboring thread about openstreets maps, but I think I need even more basic info.

I would rate my tech savvy as above clueless but lower than average.

I recently purchased a new Garmin 530 off Ebay. It seems to work, but it came preloaded with maps of Singapore/Malaysia/Thailand/Philippines, so as a USA cyclist this is not helpful. I downloaded a local route and the device would not navigate.

So obviously I need to download the USA maps to my device. I installed the "Garmin Express" app on my desktop and looked to find an option to update default map setting to North America but there is no option that I see.

Advice??

Well maybe I am not so clueless. I went to the BBBike.org site and was able to download a Pennsylvania map that seems to work.

I am still wondering if there is a way to get full USA maps but I am guessing this is the best way.

https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fit...europe-not-usa

aweatherall (he's an authoritative source) indicates that it won't be possible.

The 1030+ lets you install other maps (including ones outside of the device's "home" region). The 1030+ also has much more memory than the 530.

Thanks. The irony is I have a Garmin 130 that I really love, but it's battery life sucks and I need a unit that will give me turn-by-turn directions from a preloaded route and also work with my Varia radar. The 530 seemed to be a cost-effective decision but it's turned into a hassle with the maps snafu and also the volume is pretty quiet for the Varia, my 130 is actually better in so many ways except for crap battery life.

It use to be that if you read the various articles on eBay about buying Garmin Edges, that they recommended you be sure to buy the Edge that was made specifically for your part of the world. Even on Garmin's own forums there were users that had the Asian version of the Edge and since they were in North America, Garmin support for North America couldn't do much for them.

This was almost ten years ago that I'm talking about. So I don't know if it currently still goes on. But Trade Agreements, FCC requirements and all sorts of things sometimes make the very same models not so same when they were sold originally elsewhere.

I use to have a Sony PC that was only for the Asian markets and no one at Sony would talk to me about it when they found out I was in the USA.

I was talking about the 1030+ (extra zero). The 130/130+ doesn't have maps (or enough memory).

The 530 does everything the 130 does and lots more. People might prefer the monochrome screen of the 130 over the color screen of the 530 but the 130 isn't "better" (it's just simpler and there's nothing wrong with preferring that). Maybe, the volume of the 130 is louder (I don't know).

The free OSM maps should work fine on the 530.

???

I'm not sure why you are bringing up stuff from 10 years ago. Talking about Sony PCs seems unhelpful.

For maps, the problem isn't "trade agreements". It appears to be related to the space available on the device.

Current information an authority actually concerning the model the OP has says it's not possible (see the link in my earlier post).

For the 1030+, it is possible (you can install any of the Garmin maps on that regardless of region).

Because I like to!

Just like you like to determine what's relevant or not and tell the others they are wrong for sharing!

I think Garmin recently pushed a US map upgrade for the 530, which I am currently using. For some reason there was about 8 GB of maps dumped on my hard drive, which I found and deleted last night. As another regular 130 user, this is all a bit of a mystery to me, but it might be worth seeing if you can get the Garmin maps through the Express desktop interface.

My 130 has about 3 hrs of battery life when paired with my radar (and about 3.5 when not paired). I ordered a new battery so I will try to do a transplant operation, but that may well result in a fatality. I do miss its simplicity, but the 530 has a lot more to offer.

Yeah the free maps downloaded and works.

I agree the 530 has more features than the 130 such as maps/navigation. That said, for my purposes, I prefer the 130 and only changed to the 530 for battery life. I may learn to like it more with time, of course.

The 530 is pretty nice. (I like a bigger screen and there are extra map/navigation with the touch screen models.)

That it's something you "like to" (kind of self-centered) doesn't make it right either.

It wasn't helpful and it's confusing.

(In any case, if "because I like to" is sufficient reason for you to do anything, it makes no sense at all for you to be telling me that I'm "wrong" for anything.)

Sugar is yummy but it has a lot of calories and you can get fat

Bumping for a dumb follow up question. I downloaded my local map from the site and the file gmasupp.img file works fine once copied into my garmin device.

However I am traveling to another area of the USA soon, and I want to also load THAT map, so on the Garmin 530 how do I have two sets of maps?

Change the name of the file.

"gmasupp.img" is the name that really-old Garmins required (these units could only use one map). The newer models don't care what the name is (but they need to be "img" files).

(You don't want to enable multiple maps that overlap but, if they don't overlap, there's no issue having multiple maps.)

Thanks, will give it a try.