swales

Applied Firmware Update 1.28. (1.24 was stock firmware) Here is what it seems to have improved: ----------------------------------------------- 1. Interface speed. Menus are now faster, even with 25+ waypoints and a couple routes... appears much quicker to navigate. 2. Brightness now has 10 levels... previous firmware only had 5. Brightness works correctly whereas previous had hard time when cycling through to stop on backlight off. 3. Satellite screen now shows status of satellites better (green, yellow, red). Accuracy is 14ft inside and more consistent. Here is what they DID NOT FIX: -------------------------------------- 1. Odometer.. Still off.. Took a short drive that was 11.5 miles and Triton said it was 17 miles. 2. Altimeter.. Still shows in miles when above 4000ft. (What a stupid feature.. unless you are an astronaught). 3. Tracks - Vertical Profile. This screens scrolls so slowly it is useless if you want to know an elevation for a point in time. You have to wait until you download to computer to utilize. 4. Connectivity. Says there is a File Transfer option, but it does not appear to do anything. Only VantagePoint option works. New bugs introduced: ------------------------- 1. When viewing a profile and then exit, the Profiles and Settings buttons are both highlighted. The Settings actually has focus. Not a big deal, but an interface issue. Summary ----------- Some progress was made with this firmware, however you would think Magellan would focus on the most important features... like the odometer issue. As I stated before. I would not rely on this unit in the field quite yet. It does save WayPoints and draws a decent Trail, but if you rely on the odometer you will surely be lost.

Took a trip the other day... approximately 660 miles. The battery (2500mah) lasted over 14 hours... although I did not use the interface much.. just to create a couple waypoints... so backlight was off most of the time. The battery meter was reading dead for the last 7 hours, but it was still operational. The unit did mess up once on me... I picked it up and on the map screen there was a pop that had the current time of day information... and when I pressed a button the popup changed to say "Something Goes Here"... looked like an incomplete dialog used during development. Well the unit was unresponsive after that... had to remove batteries and restart. When I got home I noticed the track log was incomplete. It only saved about 1/2 my trip... so maybe when it locked up it stopped tracking??? I submitted 2 support requests today... first was to ask why the Tritons were not listed on the Request Support page... the second request was to ask when a firmware version is to be expected. IMHO this unit is a nice toy right now... but DO NOT rely on it in the field. Too many bugs to be reliable. Just read the previous posts... I believe they will be fixed in the future... but my patients are wearing thin... the firmware release I have is over 2 months old now... it needs a patch.. and soon.

Many of you have posted our reviews of the 400.. and indicated it is just a 300 with an SD slot.. However it seems that they are using different firmware on the two. Obviously there must be additional code included for the 400... however many of the issues... like the Profiles not working on the 400 do not have the same problems on the 300. BTW... I received an email response to my support issue about the Triton not being a support option on their website... their response is they will update the website shortly.... and they did not bother to answer any of my other questions, but referred me to phone support.

Update... I took the Track file for the trip I mentioned above and loaded it into VantagePoint. Although the GPS said 36.2 miles on the screen for a trip measuring 17.4 on my automobile odometer, the track file loaded said it was 17.4. So this is good news... at least the track file is correct, which means the hardware is working correctly and storing the results correctly. The odometer problem seems to be in the display which I am sure will be resolved in a future firmware patch.

Maybe it's one of those "Back to the Future" GPS units. You are just ahead of your time my friend! BTW... Mine is off every time I boot it up... once it gets the sats.. it corrects itself. Also when I first turned mine on.... it said the Max Speed was like 233mph... wow that FedEx guy is FAST!!! I thought there was something weird when his name tag said "Ricky Bobby"...

Hmmm... so when I'm at the office I can't connect it since I can't get a signal? I connected and did get the hardware connect warning, but the VP software seemed to figure it out. On another issue... backlight. I figured out how to change the profile settings and is it me or does the setting for backlight level not seem to do a thing. The screen brightness doesn't change when fully lit or after its timed out (and then its far too dark.) Is there a way to change the level of the dimmed state? I would think that setting would be far more helpful. That's not what he's saying. You can connect your unit to your computer and download all you want. But without reception to satellites, you won't have an accurate reading, if any at all to tell you where you are located. You won't have accurate tracking, speed, distance, etc. The GPS unit has to have reception with the satellites to do that. Sometimes you can connect with satellites when you are close to windows, but sometimes not. None of those things are needed to download maps or info to the GPS. Actually what I was recommending was to boot the GPS.. wait until it aquires satellites and then connect the USB cable. If you cannot get reception it would probably be best to still wait a minute or two for the unit to figure out it can't get a signal.. Either way it really doesn't matter as Windows takes care of it anyways... just an annoyance.

I have confirmed that the Odometer is incorrect... as others have mentioned. I took a trip that registed 17.4 miles on my automobile odometer and it registered 36.2 on the GPS. it seems to be a factor of around 2.08x that is is off by. I did store the journey as a track file, so later I will load into VantagePoint to see how it measures it. Also the speedometer seems to be correct on the unit.. it matched my vehicle speed. On the backlight issue..there are 2 options... the first is the Backlight Level (Off, Low, Medium, High) and the other option is the Backlight timer (Off, 15, 30, 60 sec). Set these the way you want.. then be sure to go back to the Profile you selected and hit Activate. I confirmed that this works on my unit... Whatever I set it to it changes to... also if I manually set the backlight to low and have the setting in the Profile to High once the backlight timer shuts off the backlight and I hit a key.. it goes to the backligh setting in the Profile.. which is high... so it seems to be working correctly. The only weird thing I have noticed with the backlight is when manually changing it... sometimes it does not go to 'off' mode... just cycles back to low,med,high... I have to try a couple times to get it to go off... Also the only buttons that reset the backlight timer are the center (silver ones). The Zoom, Page, Manu, and ESC do not reset the timer... so if you are pressing Page button to see the next page and the backlight timer has hit it's setting.. the backlight goes off.

I also discovered that if I turn on the unit and wait until it aquires the satelites before connecting the USB for VantagePoint, Windows XP does not have the issue of an Unrecognized Hardware. I believe when it is aquiring sats it is no talking to Windows via the USB... so boot it first... then connect it up.

Not sure if this might be contributing to the Odometer issue, but if you turn the unit on and let it sit there it will show your track line moving a little... probably due to the Accuracy being 20+ feet indoors. My theory is that it is tracking this as distance traveled... so something to try would be to reset the Odometer before you start your trip to see if this is what is causing it.... We all need to expect that there will be some bugs with this unit as it is so new... remember how bad some of the Garmins were when they first came out... So I am willing to give it Magellan some time to get it perfect (but just not too much time). I also own a Maestro 4040 and they have been pushing quite a few firmware updates to it lately... and they have improved speed and accuracy with those updates. On battery life.... I turned my unit on last night with the 2500 nimh and set the screen to full bright and no power off... let it sit there for 30 minutes and only lost one bar on the power meter (granted I also had been using the unit for probably another 30 minutes off and on before starting the test). When I get more time I will do a full drain test and report my findings. Another post asked if I updated the firmware... there is no new firmware available yet... only the update for VantagePoint and TOPO.

Also if you are having a problem connecting your Triton to VantagePoint or TOPO be sure that your unit is set for VantagePoint in the View - Settings - Connectivity menu. For some reason it switches from VantagePoint back to Power Only after each connection. You have to set it back before it will connect again.

Look at the Magellan Triton 300. It has a color screen and comes with a data (USB) cable.. all for $129 at most places. If you get an ETrex you will have to buy a cable... putting them at about the same price. There is no comparison between the Magellan 300 and Garmin ETrex... ETrex is old school compared to the new Magellan 300 hardware.... color screen, geocaching, vertical profile, etc. Look at my post on Magellan 300 First Impressions for more information.

Had a chance to take the 300 out on a 50 mile ATV ride today.... here is what I discovered. 1. In reply to the VantagePoint import... I think the version that came on my CD did not allow for other types... but doing an upgrade to 1.21 has fixed it. 2. Battery life... I am using NIMH 2500mah.. I noticed that if I suspend the unit (have not seen any other 'OFF' option... just push and hold power button) that in the morning my batteries will show they are almost dead... not sure why... It might be an option I had set... Power Off = Off... I set it to Power Off = 5 min today during the trip and the battery power was still good after 8 hours... the BAD part is that my track log only had data when I turned it on. I wish it would continue to log when the screen is off... I will be sure to set the Screen Off option to 60 seconds and the Power Off to Off during my next venture. Rather have the log then the battery life. I also noticed the batteries die quickly when you have the screen on full bright. I was entering waypoints the night before and was messing with the unit for a couple hours. I guess I got an hour or so before they were registering dead. I had to replace batteries twice. I will do more testing to confirm how long they last. 3. So where is the lanyard? Magellen does not include one in the box. My old ETREX had one... was convenient to have it around your neck when hiking. Also wish they would include a carrying case.. I have learned that throwing stuff in my ATV bad tends to mess up the shiny plastic from all the vibration. I suggest wrapping the unit in a towel... I was fortunate to find a cloth cover that came with my ATV goggles that worked perfectly. 4. Waypoints It takes quite a few clicks to set a waypoint at your current location (around 9). Would be nice to reduce this a bit. The onboard keyboard for entering names is good though. When you click on the default waypoint name you are sent to an onscreen keyboard... Magellen was smart enough to put the cursor on the delete(backspace) icon since they figure you want to rename the waypoint... nice touch. 5. VantagePoint. If you want to keep from having to remove the batteries (lockup) when using VantagePoint.. just remember to hit ESC on the GPS when you are done with VantagePoint... and before disconnecting your USB cable... when you hit the ESC the unit reboots and does not lockup. 6. Elevations... this still ticks me off... elevation goes to Miles once above 4000ft. There are other screens you can see your 'true' elevation.. but you have to go to View - Tracks - Vertical Profile... I reported the issue to Magellan support and hope they fix in the next firmware. 7. Satellite aquisition is fast. It only takes a few seconds for it to figure out where you are.. even inside it typically takes < 30 seconds. 8. Accuracy is good... 22ft - 26ft inside... didn't check when outside.. but I am sure it is much better. 9. Speaker... beeps... these need to be louder. Even on the highest setting you can barely hear them. If it is in your pocket forget about it.. you won't here them. 10. Buttons. In my last post I complained about the buttons.. I am getting used to them... still wish they were round, but I would not consider them show stoppers. 11. Screen Brightness. Had no problems seeing it in the bright sunlight. Actually was a ton better than the old grayscale ETREX I have. I have to admit the screen looks great. 12. Speed. Pretty good.. only once in awhile when you go to certain screens it can be a little sluggish... I think it depends on how many waypoints / geocache you have shown. Not a big deal, just has a noticable pause.. second or two. Most of the time it is instantaneous when you select an option. 13. USB cable. This must be a cable used on Magellans other GPS's. It has a clip at the top and looks like it would slip into a slot before you screw the cable down. But the 300 has no clip area... you just hold it in place over the 4 round dots and screw it down. It is a little cumbersome to do this, would be nice if they had an easier way to connect the cable.... but hey... at least they give you one.. 14. TOPO software. The CD has a National Geographic TOPO software with it... but it is only a demo advertisement.. Costs around $99 to get a real one. Would like to load a TOPO map to see how different it is. So do I like the unit.... yep... and as I said.. I would buy the 400 model just for the SD slot... The 300 will give you about 20mb of space if you remove the included map.. but for $50 get the 400 with SD slot. That way you can also view the pictures you take on your digital camera.. since both probably use SD. I will keep messing with this and let you know what I discover.....

Just got the Triton 300... only because the 400 and 500 don't appear to be shipping yet... Here are some of my first impressions. I was happy to see it did come with a USB cable for connecting to my PC and the Vantage software on the CD allows me to upload and download from the unit. I was disappointed that it only handles Magellan .GS and .GSX formats... it does not know what a .LOC file is.. you have to convert one with GPSBabel or some other program... however EASYGPS converted files did not work. I am not sure how I will like the buttons on the unit... the buttons are very small and are not round, but more like a MINUS sign.. you have a tendacy to want to use your finger nail instead of your finder tip to press them... I am sure this will wear on them down the road. The software definitely is version 1.. the date on mine was 11/14/2007 version 1.24.0.43. I found I had to remove batteries a couple times after I was done connecting it to my PC... not sure why. Also it takes alot of clicks to simply create a waypoint at your current location... it acually takes 9 clicks.. Menu.. Down Arrow to Create Menu...Enter... Enter on Waypoint Menu.... Enter on Current Location.... Down Arrow 3 times... Enter. There has to be an easier way!!!! The problem with the 300 is the memory. Yes it has 53MB, but with the included 12MB map loaded you only have 9MB left... so not much to add a TOPO map to this unit... the $50 for the 400 would be a good investment since the 400 has a SD slot... this 300 is going back just because of that. First major complaint... I noticed my Elevation screen was switching from Feet to Miles. I called Magellan support and they told me that above 4000ft the unit switches to miles. So I live at an elevation of .8 miles. This has to be the dumbest thing I ever heard of. Who cares about Elevation in terms of miles... unless you are a pilot or astronaut. The good is the screen is bright... as long as you have the backlight on... otherwise you cannot read it... but you will want the light on. Unit feels sturdy... just wish the buttons were round... not dashes.. The battery compartment hold 2 AA's... I suggest some high capacity NIMH... The USB cable attaches a little weird... you hold it against the unit while you try to screw on the cable... what ever happened to a simple slide on cable... or how about a standard USB cable end??? would be nice. I did like the fact you can hit the Page/Go To menu to see the Current Location screen which shows Lat/Lon, Destination, Odometer, Bearing, Date, Time. If you press it again it shows a customizable screen.. meaning you can pick from a large number of things to show.. such as Elevation, Current Speed, Accuracy, Time, etc.. If you press Page/GoTo again you will see a Current Speed, Max Speed, Odometer, and Current Trip counter. Press it again and you will see a Compass with 2 customizable boxes at the bottom.. Press again and you get your satellite strengh screen. Indoors I was getting Accuracy of about 22ft. There is also a Vertical Profile screen which is pretty cool... it shows you what elevation you were at at different times of the day. I think Magellan has the potential to have a great unit here... but it will take software updates and listening to their users to have one. The unit runs Windows CE 5.0... just like their Magellan series. The 300 costs about $130 and to get the same level of hardware with a Garmin you will spend over $400. So I am looking forward to updated software and trading it back in for the 400 when it comes in. I only wish Magellan would release the OS open source.. Just think of what could be done with this type of unit if it was!