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IceKnight (aka VectorJoe)

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Everything posted by IceKnight (aka VectorJoe)

  1. Just fyi, when I got my Meridian Gold a few years ago and sent in my rebate, it took a while. It was just about the end of the period that they specified (8 or 12 weeks), but I got it.
  2. Yup, have traveled with my meridian gold several times and never had a problem with security or the xray machines. The only time I've not been able to use it on a plane is when flying with American Airlines- they have a policy not to allow use.
  3. Any of Garmin's (Mapsource?) mapping products should do this. Also, pretty much any 3rd party mapping software should do this. For free, you can get USA photomaps and it will interface. usa photo maps You download usgs topo maps or photos and it will show the gps position on the computer. HTH Joe
  4. To be honest, I think that a lot of people (or maybe just me) think that the altimeter/compass/barometer are definitely in the extraneous crap category. On the Magellan side, if you want the compass/barometer, you can go Meridian Platinum and maybe one of the high end explorists. But your requirement for altimeter/compass/barometer is pretty much going to get you more than the 8-16 MB memory range. It would probably help if we knew the actual application.
  5. Just checked version 2.6, then upgraded to version 2.74 for USAPhotomaps and tried communicating with my Merigold and don't seem to have any problems with waypoint communications between the 2 machines.
  6. Sounds like you are trying to set up a proper GIS database. If it were me, and I had the resources, I would rent a 'surveyor' grade gps for the initial mapping. A professional grade unit will give you CM accuracy and make for very accurate maps. Then for finding, you can use commercial grade handhelds because they will get you within 10-20 feet. If you use a regular handheld for both parts and stack the tolerances, you can be 40 or more feet off (and that is assuming you can 'see' the WAAS satelites). Just an idea/suggestion.
  7. My suggestion would also be to go with the Meridian Gold. As far as deleting the base map, I wouldn't recommend it. Just buy the European detailed maps and upload them to the unit. It isn't that complicated. In terms of maps to upload to the unit, in general, you are stuck with proprietary software for each manufacturer.
  8. What you need to do is to convert your tracks manually to routes. Background...converting a track to route automatically is problematic because a track has many points while a route is limited to a set number of waypoints. When this is executed, it tries to pick the best points (turns and such) to use as waypoints, but it will have its limitations. So you need to download the tracks and view them on a map (Mapsend works ok, but most other mapping programs that can talk to the ST should work). Then on that map, place waypoints that will follow the 'track' as detailed as you would like. Then create the route and that route can be loaded to the ST. I am not sure what the limitations to the number of waypoints/route are on the ST, or how many routes you can store on the ST. Once you create a route and have it loaded to the GPS, you can then view the 'distance' remaining in the route. Hope that helps.
  9. Got my MeriGold from CompUplus Jan 2004 and was very happy with the deal I got. Got MeriGold + MS -S & D for $200 after rebate (I think).
  10. If it doesn't power up with just the cord, then you are probably screwed. Did you have it plugged into the cig lighter port when starting the car? That can sometimes cause a power surge and maybe burn out the electronics of the gps. Just wildly guessing though.
  11. When you download the pics to the computer, does it list the time last modified and/or when pic was taken on the windows explorer screen? On my explorer (WINDOWS XP PRO) when set to VIEW-DETAILS, it lists the NAME SIZE TYPE DATE MODIFIED (including time of day) DATE PICTURE TAKEN (including time of day) DIMENSIONS I would think that that was enough information to match the pic to the locale.
  12. Most of the big mapping packages have this feature of live positioning. But if you want autorouting, you will have to be a bit more selective. One of my favorite programs, USAPhotoMaps will show your position live when you have your gps plugged into the computer. It is a free software that you download USGS (free) photos (b+w, some color) or TOPOS (old data). It won't do the autorouting, but it is free and works well with topos or photos.
  13. I do a bit of VB programming, but I doubt I can help. Are you looking for getting live data or just uploading and downloading sets of stored data? Either way, I would first start investigating the NMEA protocals which describe the 'language' for serial communication. You could also look at the source code for GPS Babel. I don't know what format the information comes out as, but I suspect it is binary which would give it a bit more complexity. Good luck.
  14. Example of what a GPX file looks like, you can see the waypoints and route information below: <?xml version="1.0"?> <gpx version="1.0" creator="GPSBabel - http://www.gpsbabel.org" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0"'>http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0 http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0/gpx.xsd"> <time>2005-03-04T18:05:44Z</time> <bounds minlat="41.787422180" minlon ="-88.279968262" maxlat="41.790245056" maxlon="-88.273223877" /> <wpt lat="41.789840698" lon="-88.279968262"> <ele>0.000000</ele> <name>WPT001</name> <cmt>WPT001</cmt> <desc>WPT001</desc> <sym>crossed square</sym> </wpt> <wpt lat="41.790245056" lon="-88.275894165"> <ele>0.000000</ele> <name>WPT002</name> <cmt>WPT002</cmt> <desc>WPT002</desc> <sym>crossed square</sym> </wpt> <wpt lat="41.789302826" lon="-88.273223877"> <ele>0.000000</ele> <name>WPT003</name> <cmt>WPT003</cmt> <desc>WPT003</desc> <sym>crossed square</sym> </wpt> <wpt lat="41.787422180" lon="-88.278373718"> <ele>0.000000</ele> <name>WPT004</name> <cmt>WPT004</cmt> <desc>WPT004</desc> <sym>crossed square</sym> </wpt> <rte> <name>Route 1</name> <rtept lat="41.789841" lon="-88.279968"> <ele>0.000000</ele> <name>WPT001</name> <sym>crossed square</sym> </rtept> <rtept lat="41.790245" lon="-88.275894"> <ele>0.000000</ele> <name>WPT002</name> <sym>crossed square</sym> </rtept> <rtept lat="41.789303" lon="-88.273224"> <ele>0.000000</ele> <name>WPT003</name> <sym>crossed square</sym> </rtept> <rtept lat="41.787422" lon="-88.278374"> <ele>0.000000</ele> <name>WPT004</name> <sym>crossed square</sym> </rtept> </rte> </gpx>
  15. My suggestion: both of you download GPS Babel. Any routes/waypoints in almost any format can be saved as almost any other format. So you can convert a Garmin pcx5 or a garmin Mapsource to a magellan format, or for more general use, convert to GPX format (which is just text in XML format). Then you can post the GPX format to a website or attach to email. Then anyone can convert the GPX to whatever format they need. GPS babel will convert most formats into most other formats. Many of the other programs (GSAK, Easy GPS, ....) will usually only take the GPX or LOC format and convert to most other formats (as far as I can tell). GPSBabel, GSAK, and Easy GPS are all available for free download. If you get GPSBABEL, go to the website above, and download the ZIP file with the .exe for windows. Then you go to the folder where you saved the files and open the GPSBABELFRONT.EXE. In GPSBABEL, you choose the file and format of the input file and the output file and it just converts them. Very simple interface. Mapsource is the Garmin mapping software. GPX is a standard XML format for waypoints LOC is based on GPX, but has less information (I think).
  16. It really depends on what you want to do with the route. If you want others to be able to upload it to their GPS, then you will need to save or convert it to the format for their particular machine. If you just want it to display for other people of different map software, then you may have to convert it to that software format, but many will read multiple formats. GPS Babel is good for converting. If you are just using it for personal use, then just save it to whatever format works for you/ your gps and then store it on the website. It shouldn't be that hard. If you can give more specifics, we could probably be more specific on what to do. Hope that helped. Joe
  17. this is just off the top of my head, but I think with the latest firmware, 512M is fine. The manual was printed when the biggest commonly available was 64M.
  18. I *think* that at one time, magellan had a software package that you could use to make maps to upload. From what I remember, it was expensive and only available to professionals. But that is going completely from memory which is probably wrong. I suppose that if you could figure out the format for the magellan .img file, you could probably find a way to convert vector maps into that format, but I don't know of anyone/any product that can do it.
  19. I don't think that the GPS was reading accurately - unless you were on a concorde. Most (non concorde/Tupolev Tu-144) commercial air liners cruise at 550+/-. Speed of sound at cruising altitude is about 660 MPH/573 knots. Of course, you may/probably know this, but just want to clarify.
  20. TimPat, What do you do? I am looking to get into GIS and wanted to see what others are doing. Cartography side or analysis side or other? Thanks Joe
  21. The link doesn't work. This worked for me though trimble outdoors I haven't really seen much/heard much about it, but I do know that you can't export the actual maps to the meridian. You can export waypoints and routes, but not maps. If you are just looking for maps on your pc or printing them, it would probably be fine. For a bit of free software that will do a lot of what TrimOD will do see USAPhotomaps.
  22. The other thing you can do, which is very simple is use GSAK to convert whichever caches you want into HTML. Then just copy all of the HTML folder (I think, going from memory) to the SD card. Then on your PDA/PPC open the index.htm with an internet browser. You can then see all the caches as hotlinks. Don't need any extra programs, but you don't get some of the bells/whistles.
  23. If at all possible try and borrow one or go out with someone else. Now since you just heard about it recently, you probably don't know anyone who has one. So you can approach this in 2 different ways. 1) Get the cheapest you can get but are still comfortable that it is good quality. If you go this way, I would get an magellan or garmin or maybe lowrance low end to see if you like it. The problem with this method is that if you do like it, you may want more features. If you go with this method I would say at least get one that will connect to a computer. 2) Get the best that you can *afford* for now. If you have a budget for 150 pounds, then try and spend that. If you go with this method, then you need to see what is in your price range and then choose from the features. Once you know what features you want, then you can check the used models. Personally, I went with method 2 and after weighing the features available (around a year ago), I went with a Meridian Gold model. Some features you will need to consider. (in no particular order) 1)mapping 2)computer interface 3)memory 4)display (color/monochrome, size) 5) if mapping, then software available most units will only upload proprietary maps into the gps itself
  24. Are you saying that you don't think these devices affect operation, or are you saying that you don't trust other passengers to control themselves? Have you ever been on a cordless phone and picked up someone's cell phone conversation? Or have you ever been by a speaker/subwoofer when a cell phone is trying to connect to it's network? Same principle applies here... and while it probably won't make the plane crash, if I were on it or the pilot, I don't want anything to be messing with communications or any other electronics, no matter how minimal that interference is. So I think that most instances these devices may have little or no effect, they can at some times. And I think that in most cases, the airlines are able to control the ignorant or stupid from causing the interference. I trust airplanes and their technology, but things go wrong all the time and I cannot disagree with policies that limit the use of devices that are *designed* to transmit.
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