WyleOne

No... the only gps device I own is my cell phone, so I have no way off finding a cach to put them in That is just hurting other cachers that have no influence on this decision. Drop them in a cache you have already found. I had to do this when my GPSr basemap was corrupted. Another cacher helped me out and my GPSr works fine again. The trackables went on their merry way.

Try this site: http://www.samsung-omnia.org/ I'm sure the Omnia can do it, what mod you may have to do to make it work may be the question. I have been running Geocaching live on My Samsung Impression with ATT. They lock out the internal GPS for their "monthly charge ATT navigator". But a slight tweak made it work for me.

If anyone knows, it will be the members of this board: http://www.samsung-omnia.org/

In a nutshell, No, the base map is barely adequate and out of date to boot. I bought mine in a bundle with Topo USA. (Detail maps CD) 2 and half years ago. Most have to get this separately. Since you are in Canada, you will likely have to go to Magellan's web site store to find out how to get Canada's version of Topo USA. The basemap will include all of North America. Magellan does not seem interested in Updating their maps for their obsolete models either. The last update was in 2007.

Not that I have found. It is a versatile program considering it is a BETA in Europe. It does work here. I run it on my Samsung Impression.

Groundspeak said you invalidated your account? I am interested in the GPSr for a friend. Email me at : wyleone872@icqmail.com

Interested, will send a message to you via Groundspeak. Kept getting fatal error messages each time I submitted a reply. It was obviously still going through. Sorry for the multiple posts.

Interested, will send a message to you via Groundspeak.

Interested, will send a message to you via Groundspeak.

A lot of factors can make your accuracy off by that little amount. My eXplorist 500 is the same way. Remember the accuracy of the cache owner's GPSr is also a factor. Cloud cover, trees, amount of satalites locked in. I have found them up to 30 feet off before I started questioning the owners accuracy or mine.

I thought Mapsend files were not recognised by the Explorist, you have to use the "Geocache manager" that will turn them to .GS files that the Explorist will recognise. At least that is the process I have been using.

The bad connection was where I was going w/ my Qs. Get one of the bases available so you never have to deal w/ the screw again. That is the only way to get the battery out now that it is locked in. Just do it where the two notches are on the top if the battery. Then do what I said in my above post to the top edge of the battery.

That was me, I sent it back to Amazon.com for an exchange. I wanted to give it another try. But the e-mailed me the next day and said they did not have any more and Magellan was not shipping any new ones right now, so I took the refund they suggested. My son in the mean time had his christmas present for 2 hrs, and then yanked out from under him. I own an eXplorist 500, and think I may get him an eXplorist 400 instead. I have all the Maps already. I even have a spare Li battery for him.

I had the same issue w/ my sons Triton 300. I called Magellan and they wanted me to send it back to them. His did not communicate right out of the box either. I would make sure the drivers installed for starters. The drivers are installed from the Triton disc that came with the GPSr in the package. Then make sure windows is recognising the GPSr by looking under the drives list under My computer. Someone here may have overcome this issue. I had to send mine back as it smelled like burnt wiring and it would not do a number of things.

Well the Explorist is recognising that it is plugged to the PC and is in USB file transfer mode. The PC is not recognising that the GPS is hooked up. With or without the SD, it should show up as a Drive in explorer/My computer dives list. Did that SD card reader you bought plug into your USB? Does the SD show up on explorer/ My computer as a drive? Your side note on the LI battery, I used a knife to whittle down the edges slightly at the notches at the top of the battery. The battery door holds the battery in so the the notches are less important. I can pull my battery in and out w/ my fingers now.

I picked mine up Local at an Academy sports and outdoors store. You can get them on e-bay and Amazon as well. Magellan sells them at the regular retail price of $24. A quick search on Amazon got it for 13.99 free shipping. I'm sure it could be found even cheaper w/ patience, I have none. On your communication issue. I usually go to My computer and look and see if the GPS is showing up as a drive. Mine is hooked up right now and showing as drive M:. My windows XP media edition chimes when my explorist USB is plugged in. Does yours?

I have used the swivel since day one, and maybe used the screw twice. My USB cable has been clipped into the swivel mount since I bought it. It charges and transfers data through it w/o using the screw. You won't know how you got along w/o it once you start. I just wrap the cable around the base of the swivel mount and unwrap enough to hook up the USB when I need it.

Does it do this all the time? Or just intermittantly? BTW if you get one of the explorist cradles, the screw connector locks into the cradle and you just drop the explorist into the cradle and it is connected. No screw needed. Much faster too. I got my swivel cradle for $8 new.

Did you get some software discs with the Explorist? The explorist does not use conventional waypoint files, I use the Magellan conversion manager to convert the files to the format that the Explorist uses. That is the program that came with my Explorist 500LE. There are other programs that are available that do the same thing (maybe more efficiently). Here are some of those programs. http://www.geocaching.com/waypoints/

Well I know it is not good form to reply to my own post, but be sure my call for help was answered. I will not post his/her name, but wanted to thank them as I reloaded the base map and my GPSr is working fine. I had asked the Magellan Tech repeatedly on the phone if I could get a copy of the base map as I felt this was the problem. They said no this was not possible. I noted that the original file in the GPSr was there but the file size was 0bytes. When I loaded the new base map it said it was 8.6Mb and they of course had the same file name. Reloading the firmware update will not load a new map. I just want to thank the people on this board and site for the help that they give, for no expectation of return.

I was about to go caching on my last day of vactaion (today), and my Explorist 500LE spit out an "ERROR Map security error", I restarted it and got a "UNIT CURRANTLY CONTAINS NO MAP" " INITIATING MAP UPLOAD" and it freezes there. Had to pull the battery to shut it off. Spent 2hrs on the phone w/ Magellan, they said that it will have to be sent in to repaired. BUT could not give me an RMA number to send back the unit as their computer is down that does that. [dry] yay [/dry]. I can get into the unit to move around files and such.....Does anyone have the basemap for me to upload? I searched this and found a russian site that had it at one time but no more. I used the service function from the FAQ file to verify, I don't have a basemap, 0 bytes. I feel all it needs is a basemap and I don't have to fight w/ the $^^%$&*&%% people at Magellan this go round. Wow those Garmins are looking better and better. During my forum search, I found 5 or 6 posts identical to mine, they just say " I'll PM you" PLZ help. BTW I did the firmware upgrade again and it did nothing for the problem.

Um, I have used the screw on mine, maybe twice....ever. I bought the swivel mount, the cable clips to it and the screw is obsolete. The cradle holds the Explorist against the contacts w/o the screw. When you want to use the unit, a half second to pop it out and you are caching. Far faster, more conveinient, holds the GPS in any position... I bought the base for $8 at Academy sports and outdoors. There are tons of the different mounts available, Magellan and aftermarket. Bike mounts, swivel, suction cup.... Plus one better on JohnnyVegas, you don't ever have to open the battery door to remove the SD card, so that screw will not follow suit. (If you have a Li battery that is.)

Long but if you are considering a Triton here is another experience and you need to read. Well, I tried to ignore the buzz about the problems w/ Tritons and bought my son a 300 for Christmas from Amazon.com. And in my eyes Amazon.com was my saving grace in the end. Being an Explorist 500 owner I had dealings w/ Maggie before. I had ordered a Li battery and they took a while before it showed up but they told me that that was going to happen, and it showed exactly when they said it would...(in broken English) It powered up fine the first time and went down hill from there. The base-map sucked worse than the one in the Explorist 500, so it needed a detail map, easy right? It wouldn't communicate w/ the USB. Windows threw up an error USB device malfunction, disconnect. (or something to that effect) Then it froze up and I had to remove a battery to restart it. When I shut down the unit it would freeze up on 1 sec to go, then when I restarted it it would not restart, it would say 1 sec remaining, frozen there. Popped the battery out again. Then it restarted with the proper restart screen, hooked up the USB cable to the back and to the PC, the Triton said "waiting for connection" and froze. PC said there was a Malfunction on the USB and nobody was talking to nobody. I powered it down by popping the battery out again. Connected my Explorist to the same USB port and it now is happily chatting w/ Vantage point. I called Maggie on Dec 26 just as they opened the lines. Got through. Talked to a rep long enough for him to put me on hold and he hung up on me....Called back and got through and their computer router hung up on me. Called back again, got through, and to a rep, went through a ton of stuff I already tried for an hour, he had me in my PC like it was the problem. Duh, the Explorist is talking to Vantage point. Not my PC or the program. (My PC now has an extra step it takes to start up now for some reason....grrr). He told me that he cannot approve the return for replacement. A supervisor will call in 24 hours, stay near a computer so he can troubleshoot it and give me authorization to return it....like I have nothing better to do w/ my vacation time. They never called..... I called back on the 28th of Dec. Never got through after 1 hour on hold. I completed the return for faulty merchandise on Amazon.com for a replacement in 4 minutes. I truly thought if I got a good one, I could tolerate the bad service for a good GPS. Sent it back this morning, Got an e-mail from Amazon.com, they had to refund it because Maggie stopped their shipments to them temporarily. Hmmmm Moral of the story, Buy from Amazon.com they will take care of you, and don't buy a Triton right now. Wait to see if they can straighten out. Magellan better straighten out, they are nearing the event horizon of the black hole they created. (Point of no return)

1. Did you have a properly formatted SD to start with? The 500LE will do it for you. Mine does fine. 2. Mine has no signal problems You just may have a malfunction w/ your unit. 3. Mine has been submerged by accident and it did not let water in. I noticed the battery cover lower latch needs to be seated or it will bow the cover when you tighten the screw, That may be your water intrusion problem. and signal problem due to water contamination. 4. I ordered a Battery/ euro/ us charger from Magellan. They told me in English, that it was back ordered and would be the middle of Sept when I would receive it. I received it yesterday. Hmmm they were right on the money. I got an e-mail from them within an hour to ask if their service was satisfactory. It was. The CS rep I talked to may have been German. He had a good command of the English language but not perfect. 5.The battery fits tight because if it didn't, it would loose power, and that would be the complaint instead. I'm not sure the battery is designed to be removed constantly, that is why it is rechargeable. If you do want to remove the battery a lot, take a knife or file and smooth the notches on the battery. NOTHING is Vista compatible, the whole industry is sandbagging on drivers for Vista, I have a grocery list of stuff that I am waiting on drivers for. Am I saying Garmin, Lowrance, or others are better. They may be, I don't own them. My kids got me my 500LE for my birthday recently, It works where others say signal will be a problem. I have not had to send in for repairs so I don't know how they will react to that. I don't care for the little screw in data cable or the need to have the data cable just to charge it. I just bought the swivel base, it takes the screw out of the equation. I will just have to live w/ the data cable hanging there. I can see where the button design can lead to failure w/ a lot of use. When using the Geocache manager, it defaults to internal memory every time. So I have to switch to SD each time, that's kind of a pain. Hopefully some of this will ease your "Absolute disaster in every way". I on the other hand am fairly satisfied w/ the performance. If Magellan wants the Tritons to be successful they will have to improve their support if they want to continue. JMHO

Just to add to the evolution from Explorist to Triton, all the Explorist stuff is showing up as clearance. I just picked up an extra car charger $8.00 and a swivel base for $9.88 at Academy in Mobile. All the Explorist units in stock are on clearance as well.