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SCDaukas

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Everything posted by SCDaukas

  1. February you say! I first contacted Magellan towards the end of October (if memory serves), they told me then that the target had been pushed back to Thanksgiving. Now we are out as far as February? Magellan have taken a page from Microsoft's marketing strategy from the 80s: pre-announce and hopefully keep folks from buying from another vendor until you really do have product to ship. I haven't seen this strategy practiced so openly in years! I hadn't realized how much I missed competition... ;-) Someone earlier made a remark about Magellan not dumping product on the market in time for the holiday shopping season... No need to do that - if you have a large enough market presence, its far less expensive (in so many ways) to pre-announce! Steve
  2. February you say! I first contacted Magellan towards the end of October (if memory serves), they told me then that the target had been pushed back to Thanksgiving. Now we are out as far as February? Magellan have taken a page from Microsoft's marketing strategy from the 80s: pre-announce and hopefully keep folks from buying from another vendor until you really do have product to ship. I haven't seen this strategy practiced so openly in years! I hadn't realized how much I missed competition... ;-) Someone earlier made a remark about Magellan not dumping product on the market in time for the holiday shopping season... No need to do that - if you have a large enough market presence, its far less expensive (in so many ways) to pre-announce! Steve
  3. When I purchased a PN-20 a couple of months back, I decided to return it for software/application reasons (I did like the hardware) having to do with the ability to upload "custom" maps. Once I started down the "return" path because my 30-days were just about up, DeLorme issued the RMA without any questions. DeLorme Tech Support / Prof. Services were very responsive and followed-up with me via email. (While I did return the unit, at least DeLorme made the effort - that, by itself, is a good way to capture customer loyalty.) I decided to "wait and see" what the Triton would bring to the table before doing much else with GPS, and that strategy has, in fact, paid off: the fact that I'm still waiting for Magellan speaks volumes... I'm just guessing here, but I imagine other vendors are feverishly exploring what they can do to add support for different mapping formats in the short term... And, maybe they will be able to ship product at about the same time as Magellan? Anyway, it will be interesting to see what is available, and what isn't, when I make a second attempt to settle on a GPS solution in a month or two... Regards, Steve
  4. Hi Max! Don't be too sure about my communication abilities - I may be on the edge of most people's universes(s)! I too was happy that the return was as simple as could be. If DeLorme would have granted me a few more weeks with the product, I was prepared to try T6 on other PCs running Windows (or as I'm fond of typing, window$) and also load XMap. I am reasonably sure that the problem I ran into is intrinsic to T6, but only shows up with some pathological combination of factors. But, time was running out and I got tired of spending so much time not using the PN-20. Too bad, I did like the hardware... Garmin tech support told me they can't offer the 7.5 USGS (1:24k) Topo (1:50k for select areas only) and do not have a way of importing "custom maps". So, I'm prepared to wait and see what Magellan have to offer with Triton. I would guess that DeLorme will have a new release of T6 / XMap that may be worth a second look if Triton doesn't measure up. Perhaps I am making the same mistake in placing my hopes on Triton? After all, Magellan are making essentially the same claims as DeLorme regarding the ability to upload "custom" maps when I spoke with Magellan's tech support... I guess I'm now squarely in "trust, but verify" state of mind so I hope to find an vendor that has a demo unit that I can actually try... Given the prices involved, I have also thought about getting a small "plamtop" / palm / whatever and using some sort of blue tooth GPS unit... This approach holds a certain appeal in that it reduces the dependence on proprietary hardware (and may allow for a Linux-based solution as well). Anyway, I'll let you know what I learn. Regards, Steve
  5. Sad to say, I thought I had! I just hadn't come across anything to indicate DeLorme's software might not work as advertised... I also have to say, in my own defense, that it wasn't entirely clear that XMap would be required for what I wanted to do. I had to chuckle when, while on hold getting the RMA number to return the unit, I heard the "commercial" for the PN-20 tout the all-in-one capabilities including using virtually any type of map data... What I find most interesting is the seemingly randomness of the problems I encountered (based on the DeLorme forums). Would I be a happy customer today had I, for example, used a different PC? Yes, I would have had to upgrade to XMap, but that wouldn't have been a show-stopper by itself. I'm glad, in a way, that I ran into this now - I would not be happy at all if I ran into this at some future time after upgrading to a new PC, for example... Anyway, yes - more research than I would have guessed would seem to be in oder for GPS units. When you buy a GPS, you have to evaluate the company as you can't just use bits and pieces from different manufacturers. I had forgotten the difficulties that can be associated with proprietary hardware/software... (sigh)
  6. Thanks! I've decided to return the PN-20. The fix that DeLorme customer support gave me didn't solve the problem, but it did cause me to have to reinstall my Linksys EasyLink wireless network! I'm hoping Magellan's Triton will give me what I need... Their technical support folks said that while the official product information isn't yet available and they couldn't be certain, the Advantage software should handle "GPX, and others", and National Geographic's USGS topo will run on the device... If that is the case, then this will give me what I am looking for... Steve
  7. I doubt that they ever had them. My contacts say they are still a few weeks out. I just got off the phone with Magellan's tech support about an hour ago... I had a couple of questions regarding what formats they can import (e.g., GPX, etc.). They said the release date is "just before Thanksgiving"... For what its worth... Steve
  8. Good morning! I am in the midst of trying to decide if I should keep the PN-20 I bought a couple of weeks ago, or return it and try something else... I'm interested in a unit I can use in the field for hiking, "rock hounding", as well as for use in the car. What I want is an accurate GPS unit that lets me load topo (USGS 7.5) and geologic maps (e.g., Bedrock), use maps created using GIS applications and/or the GPX format I have recently read about. DeLorme don't support GPX, nor GeoPDF. When I went with the new PN-20, I wouldn't have guessed there would be so much DeLorme product-detail to wrestle with in order to load data layers in the PN-20! As it turns out, I am satisfied with the hardware (as this is my first GPS unit, I'd probably be satisfied with any unit, but my wife thinks the screen is too small), but I am not at all impressed by the software bundled with the unit (Topo USA 6.0). My first impression of the software was "this is perhaps the most unintuitive piece of software I have ever used." Topo USA has a less-than-intuitive conceptualization of "file management" that differs from the de facto of today's operating systems and has a steep learning curve for quite a few of its features (says a guy who has been in high-tech for more than 20 years). I printed their user guide at FedEx/Kinko's (they don't offer a printed manual) because I decided I needed to read it like a book so I could get some feel for the product... Well, I then ran into a (not too common?) bug in the Topo USA 6.0 application that keeps me from downloading aerial data packets (for those who are familiar, its in the "NetLink" tab), and the only solution appears to be an uninstall, manual clean of the registry, and a reinstall. Of the several "fixes" discussed in one or more DeLorme forums, none have worked for me thus far (I am waiting for DeLorme customer support to get back to me, so there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.) Then, several helpful folks in the DeLorme forum tell me that, given I want to use maps from other sources, I should really be using XMap instead of/in addition to Topo USA. XMap allows one to import MrSid, etc., and DeLorme offer an upgrade discount to new PN-20 customers. Sounded like the way to go, but... I ran across a thread where a user couldn't load what DeLorme agreed was a good MrSid file (no resolution for the past two months)... When I read that thread, I thought maybe XMap isn't any better than Topo USA. When I received the PN-20, I anticipated having to do a fair bit of "playing" to get familiar with it, its software, etc. I thought I'd be able to get outside with my PN-20 in short order based on my assumption that there would be almost as many "GPS maps" available as there are "GIS maps", and dig into the bits and bytes of the product (and the GPS world) over time. Silly me! So, I have come to learn that as a new PN-20 customer, I could buy XMap 5.2 Professional for an additional $100, use it to "import" MrSID versions of maps (2 point registration, I think), and be able to exchange that XMap 5.2 version of the imported image with my PN-20 for use as a "layer" with the Topo USA 6 map, routes, waypoints, etc. This solution puts me well over $500. If I want to use "GIS" maps, I'm looking at an additional ~$800. If I go that route, I'd be looking at ~$1200! At that price point, I realized I could buy a small laptop and a blue-tooth GPS receiver, or a fancy PDA, or any number of other solutions. For a specific example of what I'd like to do with a GPS unit... MassGIS have a very nice collection of all sorts of useful and interesting stuff for the GIS-type person. (See http://www.mass.gov/mgis/laylist.htm) Of particular interest to me, among others, is http://www.mass.gov/mgis/bedlith.htm, but this layer is only available from MassGIS in an ESRI Shapefile format, with ArcView 3.x legend files and ArcGIS 8.2+ layer files... DeLorme only support ESRI shapefiles in the $800+ version of XMap because they consider "ESRI" to be "professional" level use (therefore, the customer is assumed to be a business that can afford to spend more on software)... Having now been "initiated" into the realities of the GPS market through the DeLorme forums, I decided to ask around at work. After a phone call to a colleague at the USGS, I pointed my browser to their web site that provides maps in (and a viewer for) JPEG2000 and MrSID (http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ngm-bin/ILView.pl?sid=q250_16357_us_1.sid&vtype=. This file suffers from not have georeferencing info, however there are ways to add this and/or convert the file using a Decode Tool (see http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Info/imlibhelp/). OK. Given my saga and the above example, can anyone out there recommend a hardware/software solution that would help me? Thanks very much! Steve
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