this is the download page for the 2.15 firmware upgrade. It's HUGE, so it's going to take time to download. (even over a wired cable network, it took almost 30 minutes for me.)
Now, before you turn on your GC, make sure it's connected via the USB cable to your computer.. While holding the joy-button up, and holding the menu button, THEN press the power button. The Win-CE safe mode screen will appear. using the joy button, navigate over to Files,press in once, and click down to "Flash Memory", press in once, and it will re-appear on the screen in safe mode again, Except.. It's no-longer safemode.. You've just released the lock on the flash RAM.
Now, run the firmware update file you downloaded.. Again, this will take time.. it takes roughly 20 minutes.. included is a upgraded topo base map, and a new menuing system (looks like Windows-8 chicklets.) If you had 1.7 or 1.8 firmware before, it's going to be a new learning curve, as everything is changed..
Now, when it finishes, follow the instructions, to unplug it (go to your PC's 'Computer' menu, and eject the 'Compass' device. (the GPS)
let it reboot/install, and when it finishes, you'll need to do one more tiny patch....
re-connect the GPS to the computer, and when it asks, select 'Connect To PC'. when the flash drive of the GC shows-up on your computer, go to the following menu on it:
APP
In there, you will find the file 'Atlas.ini' ... Open it with WordPad. Near the bottom, you'll find a value defined as "MaxWaypointsCount", followed by an "=", and a number.. If it says anything less than 1000 or any number less, change it to 10000 (1 and 4 zeros) Save it, exit Wordpad, and close the directory on the GC. You've just upped the # of waypoints. (Original release had it as low as 500, and you had no place to put child waypoints for Multis.) Go through the task of ejecting it from the computer again, let it reboot, and now you have access to the entire GPS again.
This will allow you to handle the caches, waypoints, and tracks on the GPS. Also, when you run it, allow it to update the map (Which is now the new expanded map on the GC).. You'll get a large view of the map this way, with the caches as well.
Now, When you edited the Atlas.ini file, you probably noticed the MaxGeocaches value was also 10,000.. From personal experience,
leave it.. Yes, you can put 10,000 caches onto the device, but you'll also noticed the device will work even slower.. Welcome to Win-CE!
I usually put no more than 5000 on mine.. (which is a pretty good radius).. 10,000 is a lot like overkill! (and takes even longer to upload to the GC. 5000 takes about 8 minutes on my 1.2Ghz AMD-Vision (X64) HP laptop, Via GSAK.)
Now, the 2.15 firmware has it's quirks too.. It slows the USB down dramatically.. It's supposed to be USB 2.0 compliant, but the new firmware drags it down to the speed of USB 1.2 Standard. it's a trade-off, so don't be surprised if your computer complains that the device will run faster in a USB 2.0 socket.
Also, Like I said, If you remember the menus for Firmware 1.8 and back, forget your directions.. It's all over the place again. It took me 3 days to figure out where the selection to erase the track data was.
Hope this is of help.. You two aren't the first to have the firmware go kaphlooey. I did it the first time I tried to update from 1.6 to 1.7..
Stephen (gelfling6)
Thank you so much Stephen (gelfling6)! I just was trying to update the firmware on my eXplorist GC and it my computer quit responding in the middle of the update. Needless to say, my GPSr went into safe mode. I followed your easy-to-follow instructions and now I'm back in business! Thanks again
How do you reset the Magellan eXplorist GC GPS back to factory settings?
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
Thank you so much Stephen (gelfling6)! I just was trying to update the firmware on my eXplorist GC and it my computer quit responding in the middle of the update. Needless to say, my GPSr went into safe mode. I followed your easy-to-follow instructions and now I'm back in business! Thanks again