Triton, eh?

It looks like Magellan found one or two critical bugs more in firmware update, so they decided to fix them before releasing stuff to customers. So probably we can expect firmware update back by the end of the week on in the beginning of the next week. And most probably we'll have firmware update for all other Triton models by that time as well.

It looks like Magellan was releasing different Triton models at different dates. Triton 300 was first to go in mid-November and Triton 2000 was last in late December. And some bugs were fixed in the meantime. So as I said above next firmware update should bring all Tritons to the same performance level.

WSOD when loading many waypoint or geocaches is a well-known problem. But it looks like this problem haunts only 300, 400 and 1500, because these models have older firmware dated by mid-November. 500 and 2000 which were released in late December don't have such problem. So next firmware update for 300, 400 and 1500 should fix it. According to Tritonforum update is scheduled to be released in a week or two max.

ATTENTION TRITON OWNERS! Magellan released firmware update for Triton series. This update resolves freeze problem which happens after uploading lot of waypoints on the device and many other fixes. Update is highly recommended for Triton 300 owners, since 300 was released long time ago and there are lots of bigfixes in updated firmware. To update firmware you need to connect your GPS unit to the VantagePoint, select "Connect" tab in the ribbon and press GPS Update option hidden under Update button.

Problem with all above screenshots is that all of them were taken when Triton had minimal LCD brightness level. When you take Triton out of the box, at first start it has minimal brightness, so comparing such device with 60CSx is pretty much useless. To compare properly you need to go View-Profiles-Display page, set backlight level as High and turn off backlight timer (it turns off backlight automatically). Then do the same for garmin device and you can compare brightness level. If somebody has both Triton and 60CSx devices, it'd be interesting to know which device will run out of power first if you leave both of them lying on the table with maximum brightness. From my experience bright screen isn't that good as it seems, especially for handhelds. I remember with early firmware on Magellan Crossover devices, I used my device as a flashlight at maximum brightness level. But crossover was running out of power after 2 hour of work. Good thing, that it was fixed in later firmware version.

Map selection screen on Triton shows all properly authorized maps found in internal memory AND SD card. You can load map directly from SD card. There is no need to delete any maps from internal memory. The only exception is Triton 300 which doesn't have SD card, so you need to use VantagePoint to upload/download detail maps. Clear Memory - removes all user objects (waypoints/geocaches/routes/trails and detail maps on Triton 300). It doesn't remove maps from SD card and doesn't remove built-in background map in internal memory. Reset factory settings - does the same as Clear memory PLUS resets all user settings to default values.

As the Triton models don't use the USB mass storage device protocol, these units will not show up as a disk on a Mac (or Linux or Unixware or Solaris or....) and you thus can not drag/drop/copy files to/from them. No developer specs on this line have been released yet. So you really are at the mercy of Magellan's software which is Windows only. According to "Topo! Hacker!" site. VantagePoint and Topo! work fine on Mac, so there is no need for Windows. http://topohacker.blogspot.com/2007/11/mag...works-with.html

It looks like Triton doesn't store any files on SD card. And VantagePoint is able to convert from many formats. I don't remember all of them, you can download and try it for yourself. Probably you don't understand my statement, because you don't know what IPX7 means. I'll give you a hint http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code. miniUSB connection is not IPX7 compliant, meaning that a splash or a rain drop will kill your device. Some GPS devices have a miniUSB connector under the rubber flap, but once you plug the cable the device is not IPX7 compliant anymore. These proprietary cables are specially designed to be IPX7 compliant while connected to the device. I agree that serial is dead on consumer level computers, but it's widely used in many other areas, especially when you need the ability to withstand harsh conditions. Take a look here, for example, http://www.ruggedlaptops.us/tds/tdsranger.html If you don't need a serial, it doesn't mean that nobody uses it. Serial port at 4800 bps is more then enough for NMEA messages. Wireless connection may be good, because you'll get rid of cables, but once you get a BT chip in GPS device, you can say goodbye to electronic compass.

You can upload waypoints and geocaches from upt, gs and many other formats on Triton using VantagePoint. You can use imi, mgi, lqt and rmp maps. If you put old explorist files on SD card - you won't see them, except for maps (may be). Regarding connector, I saw a lot of complaints about Magellan connectors, but as didn't see anyone trying to think why Magellan makes such connectors for eXplorists and Tritons when it's much cheaper to make regular miniUSB connectors and Magellan uses them on all CarNav devices. Correct answer is IPX7. It's also an answer to a question why dedicated GPS devices is better then all PDA/smartphones. NMEA output doesn't exist for laptops, that's why it uses serial. NMEA output through serial cable is an industrial standard and there are lots of equipment that use serial cable for NMEA input (i.e. Nikon D2X, D2H). And what would you like to do with Bluetooth?

Magellan site is quite right when it says that Tritons will be available in February. But that'll be European version, which will support many languages, coordinate systems and map datums. NA version supporting English and French languages, Lat/Lon and UTM coordinate systems, WGS84 map datum is available now (Triton 300). Also when speaking about Tritons released or not by Magellan keep in mind that there are 5 different products with 5 different release dates. So Triton 300 is already available at stores, so if you want one - you can get one. Triton 400 and 1500 are already released by Magellan so should be available at stores not later then end of next week(depending on shipping time probably). Triton 500 and 2000 will be released in the beginning of next week so probably get to stores a week later then 400 and 1500. All Tritons should be shipped with cable included meaning that there is no need to buy one and that if your Triton package doesn't contain one, you may start screaming and kicking Magellan CS.

You can put as many map on SD card as you like. The only problem that if you have 100 maps on SD card, it'll take a quite long time to scroll through all of them to find one that you want to load. Also Tritons do not have any limit on map image size. But i personally never saw a map image larger than 1.5GB and that image worked fine. And one more good perk is that Tritons support SDHC (SD cards larger than 2GB) so you can get really big one and put there all US Topo and NG at the same time.

I removed this silver stuff on top using screwdriver. It doesn't contain any antenna. Probably it's just for attaching device to something like belt. Overall device looks quite sturdy to me with all rubber housing around. And it already survived several drops from about 3 feet height. Also there is small bump right above the flashlight that probably should protect flashlight from fall damage .

Tracklog on Tritons may contain up to 10000 points. It works as a circular buffer, so it'll always contain last 10000 points. If used in auto mode it'll be enough for 5-10 days of hiking. And you'll be able to read and write cache descriptions and hints up to 1000 characters.

It looks like small batch of Triton 1500 devices slipped out of Magellan before official release and got to Newegg and RadioShack. These Tritons are missing cable, CD etc. from the box and have outdated unstable firmware loaded on them. Magellan is aware of this problem and already pulled off this batch from retailers (It looks like Radioshack is still trying to sell them). So probably all people who bought devices from the early batch should contact Magellan to get properly packaged up-to-date Tritons. According to some sources, Magellan officially released Triton 1500 and 400 yesterday, so you can expect to see them on the shelves in a week or so (depending on logistics). Until then I wouldn't recommend buying Triton 1500 from any retailer.