nchmura

For some pretty neat mapping features (and uploading and downloading data to and from), give topofusion a whirl - www.topofusion.com It has some pretty neat features! Quakemap is pretty cool as well. (Both are free, mostly)

Ah that was a different one then. $25 for the whole shebang is really good! I haven't done better than $31 Which i am still happy with. These explorer units are troopers though! Certainly older and cludgy, but the features and such in these rival the newer base units and thensome. And yeah, the batteries are supposed to last 10 years, but these units were manufactured around 1997 and from what i understand many don't make it all 10! Both of mine are fine so far....

I am another happy pfranc customer. I bought their plug kit for the garmin rino and unsuccessfully made my own cable. But thats my ineptitude rather than the plugs they sent I also bought one of their serial to usb cables and it has worked perfectly with 4 different gpsrs (garmin rino and 12, magellan 330, eagle explorer)!

Well, its not the 130, but I have a 110 and really like it. The only thing i could say about it so far is that the overall menu-ing scheme of it can be somewhat overwhelming (theres a lot going on in there!) But i do love it.

Was that the one up there with the couple dead lcd lines on the display? If so, I may have put a bid on that one as well! Can't remember, i was watching it at very least. It was a good deal. So far i snagged 2 explorers from ebay for my mapping "project" - but i just wanted to thank Hoary for the link to that battery replacing thread. I think that might come in rather handy sooner or later

That looks pretty slick. I didn't know they had something new in the works - hopefully it won't cost me more to upgrade to that version. Going to have to check it out regardless cuz they are good peoples making good software.

Yeah, i was looking into those as well - pretty expensive though

Yeah, i agree - keep your serial cable and pick up a serial to usb adaptor. But Garmin and Magellan charge an arm and a leg for their adaptors, i recommend pfranc.com's serial to usb adaptor (http://www.pfranc.com/usb/usb.mhtml) - works like a charm on all four of my gpses (2 garmin, 1 magellan and 1 eagle). Highly recommended

Kinda of what i figured I am still smitten that that cable works so well

Just wanted to update everyone for posterities sake. I ordered the serial to usb cable from pfranc.com, it arrived today and i just did the whirlwind tour of units: Garmin GPS 12 Garmin Rino 110 Magellan Map 330 Eagle Explorer So using ExpertGPS to download the data from the GPSes - the pfranc cable onto my Toshiba Satellite Laptop - every gps downloaded perfectly! Though i didn't try uploading to the units.... But, needless to say, I am very happy about this

Thanks for all the help. The pfranc adaptor will be ordered. Stopped into compusa for fun over the weekend to chat usb to serial and see what they had and I came out knowing less And the cheapest adpator they have was $40. Pfranc to the rescue again! And as of last night i now have a 4th gps, a Garmin GPS 12, should make things a little more interesting!

For cables i suggest www.pfranc.com - good stuff for good prices. I have made several orders and have never been disappointed.

robertlipe, sorry to bother you some more - but reading around it seems a lot the serial usb adaptors out there for garmins list they support just about every unit EXCEPT the rino's! Do you have any experience with the pfranc cable and the rino's? thanks again

I am leaning towards just going with one of the pfranc dealios you mentioned. I bought a cable and some rino plugs from them so far and have had no problems so hopefully the streak wil continue. I will let you know it works with my eagle explorer gps (its the same as the lowrance 12) if it helps with your gps babel efforts Thanks!

Thanks! Would you say you had luck using the pfranc usb-serial cable with magellan GPSes (or eagle / lowrance for that matter)? Looking around pfranc i saw one person had luck with a newer magellan unit after performing some configuration trickery, but thats all i could find. There are also bunch of serial-usb cables on ebay as well, all labelled for garmin, for $5.... i wonder.

Are you talkin' a generic USB adapter? If so, did you have to do any setup to get it to work? What softwares are you using as well? Sorry for all the questions

Here's my situation: I have 3 GPS units: 1) Magellan Map 330 2) Garmin Rino 110 3) Eagle Explorer (more on the way) And i have 3 different serial cords, one for each. Now besides geocaching, I use my GPSes to map mountain bike trails, and this year i have several biking trips planned along with an initiative to leave GPSes at local bike shops as loners so i can map more trails. The idea was to have the shop contact me or whatever and i could swing down with my laptop and download the data and be on my way. Basically i need to get connect these gpses to my laptop. The problem is i have a nice toshiba laptop with NO serial connections. So I need some sort of device that will get my laptop a serial connection somehow. If i was to go the Usb adaptor route i would need to get one for the garmin, the magellan, and the Eagle is so old i doubt that sort of thing exists. And thats $100 easy, not to mention from what i understand many of the softwares don't fully support usb data transfer. Next I was looking at PCMCIA to db9 serail connectors, they seem to be about $50 and might do the job - but i have never used or known anyone to use one of these. I am hoping someone here can attest to them. Will it work for me? The last thing i was thinking was the possilbity that there was some sort of db9 to paralell port converter 'method' that would somehow figure out what was going on and make the paralell port act like a serial and route the data correctly? Seems far fetched and unlikely, but i have to ask. Are there any other options for me? Any suggestions? Experiences? Thanks.

I have been using a Magellan Map 330 for mapping mountain bike trails for several years now. It replaced my stolen Garmin 12xl Though both are older units, the magellan kicked the 12xl's butt in reception under heavier canopies. So i am kind of a proponent for magellan as far as reception is concerned. This year i picked up a new Rino 110 and an old Eagle Explorer so we will soon see how they perform Battery life on the 330 is not so good however. For map routing software, there are plenty of softwares you use - you don't have to use Garmin or Magellans stuff - give softwares like ExpertGPS or Topofusion a try. Most new gpses i have toyed with all have nice route management features. Though for biking one with loud audible alarms would probably be nice. Of course PC connectivity is important here. Of course if you want to be able to upload topo maps and such to your GPS then thats a whole different story! For "mounting", I always just throw the GPS in the mesh netting on my camelbak - on the trail I typically would never allow me to take my eyes off the trail long enough to see my gps without some sort of spectacular crash! Originally i built a crazy makeshift holder from an old waterbottle and threw it in a water bottle holder. That worked pretty well too. And all mountain bikers with GPSes, please check out my site: www.crankfire.com - it is built around collecting GPS data about bike trails and the number of members with GPS units is pretty thin (sorry about the shameless promotion i get excited when i find other gps using mtn bikers)

Holy crap that sucks, getting ones bike stolen, at least for me, would be like tearing out ones heart and soul. You have my deepest sympathy Those ram mounts look pretty slick. However, i have been mountain biking with a gps for years now (check out http://www.crankfire.com and my new beta mapper at http://www.crankfire.com/gis/index.php?tid=18 (sorry for the shameless plug ) ) - but what i found to work best for me is to just throw my gps into the mesh compartment on my camelback. Of course if you don't wear a camelback or actually want to keep a close eye on your position, this method is kind of moot. The first approach i took to this was to hack up a water bottle, make a gps holder out of with some foam and velcro and such, and secure it into my water bottle cage. That worked as well with more velcro. That worked out nicely as well.

Holy bad math batman. 10% off $100 brings it to $90. Oh my. The staples deal still holds true

Here's one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...me=STRK:MEWA:IT Ending soon though

There may be an easier way... Here's an approach i have taken: 1) Use nero or some sort of software that allows you create a disk image (iso, etc..) 2) Get Daemon-Tools - freeware virtual disk mounting software 3) Then mount the disk image - you will now have a new (virtual) cd drive 4) Install from there (it will act just like a regular cd rom) 5) Run from there. If you want to make it even easier, there is a scripting tool (daemon script?) that once setup, you can click one icon - it will launch daemon tools, mount the image, and then launch the program. I like this method because the disk images are each single files. Keeps things nice and tidy. Again, there may be a better way.

I see a couple a week of something like this go by on ebay, worth a look. If i see any i will post for you.

Sports Authority has the Garmin Etrex Yellow for $99 (with free shipping i believe) and this month there is a promotion for 10% off orders $50 or more - so it will come to just about $80. Pretty decent deal. Use code = AFFTSAMARCH (valid from 3/1/05 through 3/31/05) There is also a staples $20 off $100 coupon out there, have staples price match to someplace else (like amazons $93 etrex) and add some filler for a similar deal. Edit: Oh yeah, this is on online deal not B&M

There are several free (some shareware) softwares available as well out there, take a gander at Topofusion or Quake Map for example. They are both pretty robust pieces of software! Of course they both operate off of the terraserver, so the topo's are not going to be as crisp and hi-res as NG's...