Torgut

Ok guys, I came to the conclusion that the disturbing element for the establishment of a perfect contact is the strap; as the strap doesn't come with the Explorist some of you may never noticed, but the place for fixing a strap in this model is in the top of the unit, very close to the contacts area. If a strap is present, it will stop a perfect colocation.

Hummm... I'm a complete newbie in Explorists but for sure they show more 20 characters on hints. I had that idea and just grabbed mine to take a second look. Here is a hint of a Geocache, copied of my Explorist: PT - 20m a Sul da ponte escada acimaENG - 20 - sou That makes 38 characters not considering spaces or 49 with spaces. Obviously I had kept a wrong (and optimistic) number of 200 but things are not so bad as 20.

Your Explorist will not import more than 200 geocaches and will truncate hints with more than 200 characters. So I assume that when you say hints are not showing you mean hints are not fully there. It's a limitation of the GPS unit, nothing you can do about it. If you want, you can edit hints in GSAK before you export data to the Explorist. Perhaps you may simplify those longer hints so they can be less than 200 characters. But this is only functional if you are preparing a short batch of Geocaches. It won't be an option, I believe, if you are working with a long 200 group of geocaches.

I'm not understanding what the problem is. Are you having trouble with the suction mount? The GPS Cradle? The power cable? The power cable and cradle are actually a pretty slick design. Clip the power cable into the cradle and plug it into a lighter socket. Now whenever you put the GPS in the cradle, it's automatically powered. You don't have to fuss with attaching the cable to the GPS over and over, which admittedly is a pain. Jamie Humm Jamie, I would be happy I could get my material working the way you describe. Here, if I don't actually screw the thing, contact is random. Sometimes it makes contact, cometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it looses contact after a while. Then, the position adjustment system, which I don't think is the best the engineers could had designed. Anyway, let it be, thank you for your help. :-)

I would return it at once if I could. Believe it or not, the world is not only USA and market regulations and commercial practises are not equal worldwide. What I did of "proactive" to fix my problem was put a few advertisements to sell the unit. Meanwhile, I've been handling the unit and finding more and more annoying aspects of it, revealing a certain degree of incompetence and/or disregard towards the consumer from its creators. Naturally, I will keep expressing my opinions and the facts, wether you like it or not.

Hummm trying to figure out how to use the Magellan windshield mount for Explorist series. Don't find an usage for the hole in the back of the place where unit should be mounted. In theory it looks it should allow the connection cable to pass through it. But it doesn't seems to work, what makes the whole piece a piece of junk. Because it doesn't make sense to buy a windshield mount AND a lighter power adapter cable if you cannot use it because the mount doesn't allow a proper connection. Oh my! Since I bought this Explorist a week ago, it seems an endless nightmare, each day I find something horrible about it.

and.... 14) The Goto waypoint is lost each time one turns off the unit; 15) The Magellan windshield mount doesn't allow a proper connection of the lighter power cable also from Magellan... this is crazy.

Vendo Magellan Explorist 500 por 250 EUR, incluindo o acessório para montar no carro e o cabo para alimentar através do isqueiro, assim como duas bolsas. Estimo que o custo deste material no nosso mercado seja de cerca de 500 EUR ou talvez um pouco mais. Não tenho a caixa mas tem uma semana de uso. Se alguém me quiser livrar deste pesadelo que é um Magellan, fico muito agradecido.....

Hummm it seems each time I turn off the Explorist it looses the current GoTo waypoint. Is it normal? Am I missing something? I'm used to my Garmin which keeps it in memory and it's still there when I turn iton again next time.

I would say "keep trying". When I first bought mine, same happened. And even now, from time to time, while it's connected it kind of loose connection... this is only one amongst so many reasons why I don't like this machine.

I can speak from experience here. I had a bad 2GB SD card, and my Magellan eXplorist 600 would not power-up with it in. It didn't matter if the battery was in or not, it just wouldn't start with the card in. The same GPSr works great with a different 2GB SD card in the unit, and I just recently got the replacement card from Sandisk for the bad one. Other than being without the SD card for a couple weeks, it went relatively smoothly for me in getting it replaced. Ok guys that was it: damaged card. Bad luck for me because it was damaged between the moment I took it out of a camera and the moment I inserted it in the GPS, a few days later. Bad timing and a coincidence, made me think that the problem wouldn't be in the card but somewhere else. Yes, it works Ok with other card, this card is not working anymore in the camera. Problem solved. Thanks!

Ok, after a few days of experiences, I came to some conclusions about the Explorist 500, some of them in a perspective of "versus my Garmin eTrex". And they are not good: What I don't like in the Explorist: 1) Battery capacity; Garmin makes it easier with AA rechargable batteries. 2) Limited datafields in compass screen and absence with a screen with plenty of datafields. 3) Icons of Magellan. Garmin icons are much nicer. 4) How can I be 10 meters west of a point and the unit pointing 10 meters to east with 2 m of accuracy? 5) General graphical design of interface; I prefer by far Garmin concept. 6) Unlike Garmin it won't show the units up to meters until you are 100 m away of target. 7) Price vs Features. 8) Dump software, generally based in good ideas but with lousy development. 9) Limits on Geocaches in each file and specially in hints characters. 10) Would like to move waypoints (and geocaches) between files. 11) Is it refresh rate? Magellan takes long time to update compass when I turn, while walking. Garmin is almost imediate. 12) System to plug in the cable is not easy to use. Same goes to open the battery / SD cover. 13) Absence of a good software solution to manage waypoints between files, on unit or on PC. What I DO like in Explorist: 1) File structure for user data.

I completely agree with you ! I bought this Explorist a few days ago and I'm not happy at all with it, compared to my previous experience with low budget Garmins. This situation of limiting the points per file is completely insane and drove me to tears. All right, I'm almost there... I don't think I can resit another pair of days and not puting this unit for sale.

Yeap buddy, I'm pretty sure. Everything is accordingly to the plan. I can bet all on that. Anyway, with this unit of mine and this card, it's not phisically possible to miss the right position.

Hey ! I have a brand new Explorist and I'm facing this issue: if I introduce a memory card in the compartment, the battery will not work. I thing the extra volume of the memory card in the tiny "storage" area (I mean, battery + card) is stopping the battery of establish proper contact. Anyone else experienced or heard about this issue?

I was obviously joking, sorry. We're independent from Spain since 1640. The acronym had some references to a fellow geocacher with plans to hide a micro cache in every geodetic marker available. Well, this is slightly off-topic but.... Portugal is not independent since 1640. Portugal was founded in 1143, and since then it has been an independent country. However, between 1580 and 1640, Portugal had the same king as Castilla, which, for those who don't know, is basically current Spain. Even if technically speaking Portugal had lost its independence in 1580, we couldn't say that it became independent in 1640. It would had became free in 1640. Same way Austria or Chzecoslavaquia didn't became independent in 1945, they just had gained their freedom back. Just as a trivia, Portugal is the oldest country in Europe with its current borders, and probably of the whole world. And yes, we all praise the established priorities around here...............

Da Mariazinha? "Ai senhor, vá devagarinho e vire ali mais à frente... Acho eu, quer dizer, antigamente era, agora já não sei. Sei que é ali ao pé do lugar do ti jaquim, mas o resto já não sei. Olhe, para ali mais à frente e pergunte aos senhores" Ao que os senhores respondem: "o quêe? prá cáche culturale? Segue, segue, segue, segue, segue, passa ao café do Barbuosa, encontra uma estrada de areia à direita, não vira, encontra uma estrada de areia à esquerda, não vira...."

Penso que depende do bom senso de cada um e da forma como a abordagem for feita e da forma como se "apresenta" o possível estranho. Confiar em alguém estranho? fazemos isso todos os dias quando vamos ao supermercado, compramos um bilhete de comboio, vamos ao médico, quando saímos de casa, quando viajamos de carro ou outro meio de transporte. Há-de ter alguma fé na humanidade. Às vezes acertamos em cheio e outras vezes enagamo-nos redondandamente. Faz parte desta vida triste. Por natureza sou um "arriscador" e esgrimo este tipo de argumentos com os hiper-prudentes deste mundo. A questão é que no caso de que falamos estamos a "arriscar" a criação de outrém. O Mantunes, dos casos que me lembro, expôs a situação referente a caches dele ou que lhe estavam confiadas. Aí, plenamente de acordo, sem reservas. Mas decidir revelar a existência da cache de outra pessoa porque achei por bem é que já não sei. Talvez não me compita.

Sugestão: criação de um topic "stinky" para entrada de sugestões de caches a criar. Exemplo: estou em Tomar, não posso criar uma cache aqui porque não tenho condições de prestar uma manutenção atempada, mas gostava de sugerir e encorajar a criação de uma cache aqui, podendo ajudar com sugestões detalhadas uma vez que até conheço bem a cidade. Isto é apenas um exemplo. Creio que é uma situação recorrente e pertinente, isto de se conhecer locais onde não podemos deixar uma cache mas cuja criação gostariamos de sugerir a quem para tal tivesse condições.

Às vezes vejo logs de malta que ao ser mais ou menos surpreendida por um polícia vai de abrir o livro e explicar ao dito agente da autoridade o que é o Geocaching, com todo o detalhe. Quem diz o polícia, diz o jardineiro, ou guarda disto ou daquilo... etc. Lembrei-me disto hoje ao ler um log de uma cache do MAntunes: "Estacionei o carro e por sorte veio logo á rua uma Sra. da aldeia, sem meias medidas perguntei-lhe como se ia para onde apontava o gps" Afinal, será que os prós destas atitudes se sobrepõem aos contras? Não se estará a confiar demais num elemento estranho ao jogo que, como numa lotaria, poderá achar piada ou, pelo contrário, pensar "vira lá costas que já te atendo, a ti e às tuas caixas maradas, vai tudo de vela e acabam-se as porcarias" ?

Por acaso não me tinha apercebido da existência dessa cache. Depois de ler os logs fiquei com a impressão que um animal chamado gaivota foi sintetizado em laboratório e largado naquela zona para destruir ecossistemas. E eu que pensava que já havia gaivotas por ali antes da fundação do Reino de Portugal.... Mantunes... pessoalmente não atribuiria um crédito tão elevado ao ICN e à iluminada doutora com que trataste do assunto. Sei lá... há umas quantas caches em praias... dever-se-ia contactar as respectivas captinanias de portos para obter um parecer? E nos Parques Naturais, por exemplo, da Ria Formosa. Há, vê só, um Hotel! Para Travel Bugs mas mesmo assim um hotel.

I was reading an article about the small island of Berlengas, not far from Peniche and I thought: how come nobody had the idea (or the act) of creating a cache there? Well, not me... I'm a little far, something like 500 km. Naturally such a cache could not expect dozens of yearly visits, but there are a few others of the same kind.

Not sure if you are beeing ironic here. Clarification: I don't own an eXplorist and I never had one im my hand. However, basically all the reviews I read about this series point the problems of screen reading under sunlight as a Con for the unit.

A mim (Firefox, XP) aparece sempre os icones especificos de cada secção, mesmo quando não há mensagens novas. O meu Explorer mostra sempre a bandeira, mesmo quando não há mensagens novas. O expediente técnico que conduz a essa situação, não sei, mas é assim que está a suceder. Verdade que depois de fazer o teste de marcar as mensagens como lidas, não surgiram os icones. Mas por algum motivo, na sessão comum, o icone sempre apareceu mesmo sem mensagens novas.

Thank you so much for you precious help. I thought it would be strange a rigid 110 v for this charger, as a GPS is obviously a device created for travelling (amongst so many other things). However, I mailed a few online shops and all them told me it was a USA charger only suitable for operating in USA. It's so annoying. As I read those replies I felt imediately that the guys didn't even cared about actually look at the specs of the unit. Ok, thanks. I'm gonna buy it right away.