user13371
-
Posts
4331 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by user13371
-
-
Thanks for the feedback so far, everyone...
Has anyone used the Rayming TN200? On paper it looks like ti's just what I asked for (even Mac drivers), but I was hoping someone here had some hands-on experience - and maybe comparisons to other units.
A few places online list these for under $100. If any of them have a liberal enough return policy (e.g., no restocking charge and at least 14 days to decide), I'll probably give one a try.
L.
Edit 8/8/04 - 9PM EDT
I did find a review online of the Rayming TN-200 as well as the Delorme Earthmate. Summed up, all the reviewer said was "yup, they both work like they's supposed to." I would still be interested in hearing from GC members with first hand experience using the TN-200. L.
-
Backstory:
My wife and I are planning a cross country drive (Michigan to Oregon) later this year. Usually we leave computers behind when we travel. I load up my SporTrak Pro with the maps I think we'll need ahead of time.
But on this trip, we'll both be taking our laptop computers. So my brain went through a whole slew of new possibilities:
Hey - I don't have to worry about loading all of the maps at once. I can load what I need for each part of the trip each night when we stop for rest.
...Or even better, I could hook the STP right up to the computer, and we can navigate using Route 66 or MS Streets & Trips instead of a paper map. Won't have to load maps to the GPS at all.
...Hmm, neither of our laptops have an RS-232 port, so we'll have to fuss with the USB-Serial adapter, and I'll have to get the combined power/data cable for the STP, and we'll have to find power for BOTH the computer and the GPS.
BINGO! An excuse to buy a new toy: I want a GPSR specifically designed for use with a nobile computer, one of them antenna+receiver only jobs that connects and draws power by USB....
Okay, so now you know how I got to this point, and you'll know what my needs are: On the road navigation, not geocaching. Must have a direct USB connection that handles both data and power. NMEA so it will work with any software I choose to use, not necessarily GPS vendor specific. Mac compatibile isn't strictly necessary, but would be a bonus as I'd rather use my iBook than my wife's Dell.
I'v e found a few products listed online, so what I'm really looking for is firsthand user experience - what products work well, which ones don't. Pointers to any online comparative product reviews would be greatly appreciated.
Comments and suggestions?
L.
-
...Magellan screwed up with this series ...not being able to link to a computer is just plain stupid.
Um, no. It's just not the right GPS for YOU.
It always amazes me how many people call something stupid or useless if it's missing a feature they personally want or need. Not everyone will to want or need a computer link - and if/when an Explorist buyer decides they DO need one, they'll trade up to differernt model.
Don't get me wrong, I think being able to link to the computer is a hugely useful thing, and I wouldn't buy an Explorist for myself. But a cheap, rugged, and simple unit might be just the thing for my outdoorsy (but not so technically savvy) older brother.
-
There's another way to do it - it's not simple but provides more flexibility:
Download your waypoints from the GPS into your PC using Mapsend. In Mapsend, check (or uncheck) the waypoints as needed, then right-click on the list and choose "Delete unmarked." Finally, upload the remaining set back to the GPS.
It's too bad that functionality isn't built right into the unit.
-
4x4Van: The most current version I can find online is here. Robert Lipe tells me there's a newer one that he got right from Thales/Magellan and I believe him.
Robert: Speaking of that later version, here's the reply I got back from Thales support after I specifically asked for the newer version:
...we have many different versions of that document. For some reason they have kept all of the older versions of it ( And they are spread out, there isn't just one place they are in )
I can't find a 2.13 but i think that its because the version that is released to the public has its own versioning system. I will have to email our own group and ask them what the newest is.
It's not exactly a "no" - more like "let me get back to you on that"
-
I've been buying neodymium-iron-boron magnets from these guys for years:
Their website is a bit silly, but the products are quite good.
-
Thanks to everyone who replied -- even those who answered my request for BASIC or FORTRAN code with other languages!
-
2.13?
Robert,
I have version 2.11 of the protocol - and asked Magellan support if there was a newer version. Maybe I worded the question wrong, but the reply was that I had the latest.
Is 2.13 posted anywhere online?
Lee.
-
4x4van, re your questions:
Deleteing waypoints: Thales provides a document on communication protocols separate from what the MpaSend software can do. There is a command to specifically tell the GPS (through its comm port) to delete a single waypoint. This command simply does not work. Even though you can delete a single point in Mapsend, when you upload your set it's really doing a "DELETE ALL" before uploading a complete batch. Mapsend does not support uploading a single waypoint without replacing whatever's on the unit and the spec does allow for this.
Track upload: I know Mapsend supports this - but the odd bit is that the protocol doc says this is not supported on most units. I find the contradiction amusing!
-
JeepCachr: yes, you can convert a track to a route - and tell the unit to reverse the route - but you lose a great deal of resolution. A route can only be 30 points (50 with latest firmware, or so I'm told). Imagine what that does to a track of several hundred or even a couple thousand track points!
Magellin: Saving multiple tracks on an SD card is a great idea, but that feature is only available to Merdian users. Even so, the uses you point out make sense and i can see how uploadable tracks would be useful. Thanks.
-
I've been poking around with programming/communicating with my Magellan SporTrak Pro, and I'm surprised how simple and straightforward it actually is.
I've found also that Thales Navigation's documentation has quite a few errors in it. For example, the command provided for deleting a single waypoint doesn't work; although you can upload and replace individual waypoints.
One other error got me thinking... According to the spec, you can only DOWNLOAD a track from the GPS. You shouldn't be able upload one - makes sense since the track is supposed to be a record of where the GPS has been, right?
Well, you actually CAN upload a track. But would that be useful for anything? Maybe if you had a route you needed to follow more precisely than you could outline with the normal routes and waypoints. You could load a fake "track" of up to 2000 points and follow the breadcrumb trail it would draw on your screen. Of course, you would have to have continuous/live tracking turned OFF while you were trying to follow your preloaded breadcrumb trail, or you'd mess it up...
Any thoughts on this? Other ideas?
-
Does anyone have source code showing how to calculate great-circle distances?
Preferably in some old computer language, like BASIC or FORTRAN... I thought there was one in Numerical Recipes but I can't find it.
-
My 9-year-old nephew really wants a GPS. His dad (my brother-in-law) told him he can have one if buys it with his own money -- and he told me NOT to give one as a gift.
At the rate he's saving, he'll be able to afford an eTrex or Gecko by the time he gets out of college
Anyone have a really cheap used one?
-
We've discussed it before here and in the yahoogroups.
Cool - I searched for it but I guess I didn't have the right keywords. Could you markwell it for me?
If it's been discussed, I guess the real question is if someone has already done it successfully yet
-
I have a Magellan SporTrak Pro, but this same idle daydream might apply to any GPS...
To use my GPS on a USB port, I need a USB->RS232 adapter. This terminates in a DB9 connector into which I plug my GPS's standard serial cable.
I'm sure it would prohibitively expensive, but I'd really like a short USB-RS232 adapter cable terminated with the appropriate connector for my GPS. And since power is provided on the USB port, it should ALSO have the option of POWERING the GPS.
The power-option should come with an on-off switch - so you wouldn't drain the GPS batteries while uploading maps from your desktop computer, and you wouldn't drain your laptop batteries when using the GPS on the road.
Even if it is doable, the major manufacturers would never make one because it's too small a niche market.
But suppose you started with data & power cable and a cheap, generic USB-RS232 adapter. Could it be cobbled together?
-
While you're at it, I'd like to toss out one of my idle wishlist items:
A USB->RS232 adapter that terminates directly into a Magellan power/data connector (instead of a DB9).
It should have the voltage regulator box on it so it can supply power to the GPS via the USB port (so you don't run the GPS batteries down loading maps from your desktop computer) and a switch to turn off the power feed (so you don't run down your Laptop batteries on the road).
Just a daydream. Nobody makes such a thing, to they?
-
I *think* firmware update are a variation of xmodem...
I guess I was misinformed. I thought it was just a few startup commands followed by a simple ASCII send. Don't recall where I read that, but it made sense to me because the firmware files are just text in Motorola S-record format.
-
Mtn-Man:
Thanks, I'm really looking forward to it. Quite a few of the exhibits will be interesting to me. I usually don't brag, but I've already seen more than one SR-71 and Space Shuttle close up, and not in a museum.
Lee
-
Robert:
... take a look at my 'magxfer' program available on the download server. It transfers primary basemaps, secondary basemaps, and detail maps and runs on UNIXy systems.I have been looking at it, I think it's great. I'll let you know if I run into any problems with map transfers, but the program compiled okay and seems to run just fine on my Mac.
I can't thank you enough for this stuff! Between gpsbabel and magxfer, you've given me (and other Magellan+Mac users) almost a complete toolkit.
The only thing missing is a way to do firmware updates; that's what I was really hinting at in my last post to you. Have you considered adding this feature to magxfer? I think the transfer protocol is even simpler than for maps.
Lee.
-
Jeremy:
I apologize for the tone of my last note to you in this forum. I wrote it in the wee hours of the morning when other issues were depriving me of sleep. That's my explanation but I admit it's a lousy excuse. Will you accept my apology in the purest form as: "You're right - I was in a bad mood and being a jerk about it" and let me off the hook?
I still think having the OS X command-line executable available on sourceforge along side the GUI version is a good idea - I should have just expressed that opinion and left it at that.
Lee.
-
...you should be able to either add $HOME/Desktop/MacGPSBabel.app/Contents/Resources to your $PATH or just spray a symlink to it from a place like /usr/local/bin if that's in your path. Something like 'ln -s $HOME/Desktop/MacGPSBabel.app/Contents/Resources/gpsbabel /usr/local/bin/gpsbabel' should do the trick.
I've gotten it working in a simpler way, I think. As suggested, I pulled the gpsbabel component out of the MacGPSBabel package. I put it in its own directory along with my style sheet and files I'm converting, and cd to that directory when I start my temirnal session. Since the bash path doesn't include the current directory by default, I just issue my commands as "./gpsbabel ..."
No changes to path needed, no symlinks to set up, and I have all the files related to this exercise all in one place.
If there is interest in keeping the -osx build up to date, I could be bribed into doing so...What will it cost me? As long as we're talking bribes, what would it take to turn magxfer into a full replacement for Magellan's "MAGUP" tool for updating both basemaps and firmware?
-
As Robert has said, perhaps also having a binary download of gpsbabel available on the sourceforge site would be a solution. But as this file would be exactly the same file as the one that is already found in MacGPSBabel, I don't know how this would help you.
Jeremy:
I agree with Robert. I'm not knocking the effort you've put into the GUI; I'm just saying it would be better to ALSO have the command line version available for download on sourceforge.
How would that have helped me? I could have jumped right into the process of figuring out how to run it in the terminal window without the extra steps of finding the thing and getting it there.
The GUI is good, but it's not for everybody; and I really don't mind running a command line. But I see the MacGPSBabel distribution as a reversal of stereotypes.
The i386 binary? Just download it, and it works. That's what people usually say about Mac programs.
The Mac version? Comes in a GUI wrapper, that's good. But the GUI doesn't support every feature of the command line. No worries. I can write AppleScripts to drive the menu selections. I can use the undocumented verbose/debug mode. I can copy components out of the application package to install elsewhere. I can even figure this stuff out, after a while and with some help, though a large number of users might not be able to.
Missing features, undocumented features, extra steps, and anyone who really wants to use certain features of the program should be able to ("should be able to" == "will be required to") figure all that out?
That's what people usually say about i386 programs.
Lee
-
PStat: Thanks for the coords. I already know about the parking fee.
Mtn-man: No, I'm not planning to create a cache.
Team-Misguided: Because I'm planning a trip and want the significant points pre-loaded into my GPS.
-
Jeremy:
I tried each of the things you mentioned, before I even posted my questions. As I was having unsatisfying results, I assumed I was on the wrong track. It took several tries to get it working at all (one mistake here and stuff just doesn't work) -- and still it's cumbersome. And will be until I set up paths and scripts and such.
I hope I'm not annoying you by posing these gripes. Maybe I'm just thinking like a Mac user. I know this a "work in progress" -- but still, shouldn't the Mac version be at least as easy to use as the i386 version? I dislike using Virtual PC for all of it's overhead, but the gpsbabel binary worked there right away, without so many of these steps that are necessary with the Mac version.
Lee
Route 66 For Mac Os X
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
I just got a copy of Route 66 for the Mac. I had read some pretty poor reviews - but for various reasons I got it really cheap so I didn't set my hopes up very high.
Good stuff first: It's the only native Mac OS X program that includes complete road map for USA and Canada, elevation data, and POI information, and can be connected to a GPS to plot position in real time.
Unfortunately, it's no good for caching as you cannot search or mark areas by lat/lon! Which is really a shame because the map data seems really good.
It comes with no real documentation - nothing printed, and online help is a joke - and the user interface is kinda weird. I figured it out in an afternoon though, because the program is so limited and there aren't many features to figure out.
GPS plotting is dead-on, right down to showing what side of the road you are on. But like everything else about this program, the good bits include a disappointment. Even though it updates the position once per second, it lags anywhere from 3-6 seconds behind.
In short, if you have a Mac and can find this program at a steep discount somewhere, it's probably worth having. I paid very little so I'm not too unhappy - the data is valuable. But I'd be unhappy with the lack of function if I'd paid full price.
.