robertlipe

This is two of you now that have said if you turn off NMEA on your 330 that S&A completely fails to communicate with your GPS. I just ran a test with my 330 and S&A deluxe 9. With NMEA disabled, it (predictably) failed to do the "gps start" thing for tracking your position on the map, but I could successfully import and export waypoints and routes just fine. Is this perhaps a difference in deluxe and deluxe-not or am I just the only one that considers these two different types of communication?

This is two of you now that have said if you turn off NMEA on your 330 that S&A completely fails to communicate with your GPS. I just ran a test with my 330 and S&A deluxe 9. With NMEA disabled, it (predictably) failed to do the "gps start" thing for tracking your position on the map, but I could successfully import and export waypoints and routes just fine. Is this perhaps a difference in deluxe and deluxe-not or am I just the only one that considers these two different types of communication?

To clarify, yes, if you're using the delorme stuff in a car, NMEA must be turned on. This turns on unsolicited positional information to stream to the host. If you're attempting waypoint or route management, the setting doesn't matter. (In fact, the packets get in the way of the "interesting" data in that case and most programs will temporarily turn off NMEA, make you do it manually, or incur some performance degradation from the hose multiplexing.) But an NMEA mismatch doesn't match the original poster's symptoms of getting NO communications with the GPSr.

To clarify, yes, if you're using the delorme stuff in a car, NMEA must be turned on. This turns on unsolicited positional information to stream to the host. If you're attempting waypoint or route management, the setting doesn't matter. (In fact, the packets get in the way of the "interesting" data in that case and most programs will temporarily turn off NMEA, make you do it manually, or incur some performance degradation from the hose multiplexing.) But an NMEA mismatch doesn't match the original poster's symptoms of getting NO communications with the GPSr.

I'm writing software that would find it useful to write *.mps files for Garmin's Mapsource. I've scoured the 'net for a byte-by-byte description of it (Magellan makes such doc available for Mapsend) but have drawn blanks. I've found enough info to write a backend for the PCX5 ".wpt" format but that's less than fully satisfying becuase the waypoint names are stuck with the six character NMEA limit while Mapsource actually allows longer names. (And this is going to sound silly, but the difference beteween six and eight characters for human-readibility is huge!) In the absence of formal documentation, I'd welcome pointers to any open sourced or free (libre) software that can read and write these files. The source language and host OS don't matter that much; I'm multi-lingual enough to get the info needed from just about any programming language. I've stared at hex dumps of the files to try to deduce how they're built. As with any binary decomposition effort, some things are obvious and some are not. Unfortunately, one of the things that I couldn't deduce in cost-effective manner was the four-byte field that is obviously the lat and lon. It's not an IA32 float. So does anybody know of either a document describing the waypoint file format for *.mps or a program with source available that knows how to read and write these things? Thanx!

I own a 330x and Delorme S&A 9.0 Deluxe. In hindsight, I'd have to say I'm sorry I purchased the latter. I experienced the same problem the original poster. I was able to solve it by disabling the s/w for my Agfa camera which apparently claimed the serial port in some way that made SA (but nothing else) unhappy with talking to my 330. So look for something else (anthing else) that might be camped on a serial port. Yes, it's a totally lame failure state. What really ticked me off was their handling of a defect I reported. I'm a programmer by profession. I've written s/w that talks to the magellans, so I DO understand the serial protocol. I sent them a 100% reproducible way to totally crash the program in a single legal packet (hint: enter more than 20 characters in a comment for a waypoint then do an import in SA, They would have seen this if they actually tested Magellan serial protocol instead of NMEA protocol.) I went through the same insulting "RTFM paperchase" that the original poster did only to correspond with a tech that basically refused to accept that the program totally crashing, losing state and unsaved data, was actually a serious problem. All becuase they have a stupid input buffer that has a fixed size that's wired to the wrong constant. On a recent trip, when I'd loaded my magellan with sensible and legal waypoint comments, I was faced with either roaming through 250 waypoints and editing away the last 12 characters of the comments or letting S&A go unused. As much as I'd have *loved* to have the "drive to waypoint" directions functioning that I actually paid for,the aforementioned defect simply resulted in the program being unusable. Yes, I'm ticked. (And it's deet-immune. :-)

I own a 330x and Delorme S&A 9.0 Deluxe. In hindsight, I'd have to say I'm sorry I purchased the latter. I experienced the same problem the original poster. I was able to solve it by disabling the s/w for my Agfa camera which apparently claimed the serial port in some way that made SA (but nothing else) unhappy with talking to my 330. So look for something else (anthing else) that might be camped on a serial port. Yes, it's a totally lame failure state. What really ticked me off was their handling of a defect I reported. I'm a programmer by profession. I've written s/w that talks to the magellans, so I DO understand the serial protocol. I sent them a 100% reproducible way to totally crash the program in a single legal packet (hint: enter more than 20 characters in a comment for a waypoint then do an import in SA, They would have seen this if they actually tested Magellan serial protocol instead of NMEA protocol.) I went through the same insulting "RTFM paperchase" that the original poster did only to correspond with a tech that basically refused to accept that the program totally crashing, losing state and unsaved data, was actually a serious problem. All becuase they have a stupid input buffer that has a fixed size that's wired to the wrong constant. On a recent trip, when I'd loaded my magellan with sensible and legal waypoint comments, I was faced with either roaming through 250 waypoints and editing away the last 12 characters of the comments or letting S&A go unused. As much as I'd have *loved* to have the "drive to waypoint" directions functioning that I actually paid for,the aforementioned defect simply resulted in the program being unusable. Yes, I'm ticked. (And it's deet-immune. :-)

quote:Originally posted by Bear & Ting: And the output will be XML? Well, that isn't QUITE my reading of the teasers so far. My understanding is that the "PDA Output" will be openebook which is an XML mutant, but it's not yet clear if it will actually be in a reusable format allowing us to choose our own readers or if it uses facilities like the Digital Rights Management stuff to make massaging the data and portablity of the data more difficult. Elias' comment that it's "compiled and binary" sure doesn't sound very open. The GPX output (which doesn't sound like it may make it to rollout of this) is standard, documented XML and to me, that's a much more interesting and useful format. (I fully realize that I'm in a minority; those people that'll use whatever program and hardware is recommended will probably be tickled pink with the approach being discussed.) It's unfortunate that both data formats will exclude the logs. In the field, I find that "three no-finds in a row", "your coords are 450 feet off", "this is now in a copperhead nest" log entries to be quite valuable in the PDA. I do realize there's a 'freshness' problem with the logs. Until I lay my fingers on the new data - and I'm looking forward to it - I won't speculate any further.

Don't apologize; search. This topic is covered at least once every few days. Quick summary: if you're going through enough batteries to matter, go with NIMH and a good charger.

Don't apologize; search. This topic is covered at least once every few days. Quick summary: if you're going through enough batteries to matter, go with NIMH and a good charger.

quote:Originally posted by StitchesOnQuilts: You may have already incorporated this, but I'd like to be able to request difficulties and/or terrains *less than* a number, rather than just greater than. Shannah With no inside knowledge, I'm guessing you can do that. Look carefully at the picture and you'll that the "is greater equal than" text appears on a pulldown menu. While it's possible that a programmer would put a sole option on a menu, no self-respecting one would. If they went to the trouble to make it a menu, it's likely becuase there are other variations ("is greater than or equal to", "is lesser than", "is equal to", etc.) that are available.

quote:Originally posted by StitchesOnQuilts: You may have already incorporated this, but I'd like to be able to request difficulties and/or terrains *less than* a number, rather than just greater than. Shannah With no inside knowledge, I'm guessing you can do that. Look carefully at the picture and you'll that the "is greater equal than" text appears on a pulldown menu. While it's possible that a programmer would put a sole option on a menu, no self-respecting one would. If they went to the trouble to make it a menu, it's likely becuase there are other variations ("is greater than or equal to", "is lesser than", "is equal to", etc.) that are available.

quote:Currently, the only option is the EasyGPS LOC file. But we're planning on providing support for GPX as well (may not be ready by launch though). You'll basically get all the data currently on the cache detail page except for logs. Since you can't express all the data (the prose, the hint, etc.) as an easy GPS file, I'm speculating that your second sentence is also predicated upon GPX, isn't it? quote:The ebook itself is compiled and binary, so its not particularly useful outside the reader but it is based on the "Open-ebook" standard. Just don't ask me what that means. Oh. It's probably the stuff from openebook.org. I'll reserve my grumbling until I've had to parse the data. Does the openbook rendition of the sheets contain the logs? Thanx for the clarifications.

quote:Currently, the only option is the EasyGPS LOC file. But we're planning on providing support for GPX as well (may not be ready by launch though). You'll basically get all the data currently on the cache detail page except for logs. Since you can't express all the data (the prose, the hint, etc.) as an easy GPS file, I'm speculating that your second sentence is also predicated upon GPX, isn't it? quote:The ebook itself is compiled and binary, so its not particularly useful outside the reader but it is based on the "Open-ebook" standard. Just don't ask me what that means. Oh. It's probably the stuff from openebook.org. I'll reserve my grumbling until I've had to parse the data. Does the openbook rendition of the sheets contain the logs? Thanx for the clarifications.

I'm intrigued. Maybe this is becuase I've invented my own interface to serve my selfish needs by beating stones together. I think this will solve many inconveniences for us and I appreciate the steps to make it happen. So please don't take my questions as whining or ingratitude. :-) While I realize you're not in "ready to announce" stage, can you help clarify a few details, Jeremy? Does the "limit of five searches at any given time" mean that I could "only" have five browser windows or progammatic connections wailing on your server at a time (a generous limit, IMO) or does it mean that I can only store five queries (not the results of the queries) on the server and readily flip between them? (Not as generous for those that travel to do long-distance, but still a tractable problem) Will there be a CGI-ish interface to this? (If not, we can presumably generte the form/post data.) Does "from origin" default to the coords you've marked as home in your profile? Does "during" mean "hidden during", "found during" , "logged during", "description modified during", or something else? What are the contents of the "formats" pulldown? I'm interested in not just the coords (and I can cope with geocaching.loc, GPX, or just about any other format for the waypoints, but the entire sheets as HTML or XML. Is the "Free Ebook reader" somehow tied to this data or is this ebook format a very open/standard thing so those on the fringe aren't excluded? I'm really interested in seeing this succeed. You have some great ideas there!

For $230, you could have done better. Newer units - even those a couple of years old - address your concerns. A map330x, for example (and you can find THOSE at closeout) addresses every concern you raise. The Meridians and Sportrackers are newer and have a variety of minor -not life changing IMO - improvements. They float, have WAAS, can acquire a lock in under 30 seconds if the wind is at their back, are 12-channel units, get active firmware updates, and so on. And just so the Garminites don't squawk for equal time, $230 will hook you up with one of several models in that general range. I'll let those that can remember the model heirarchy discuss specific models, but AFAIR most of the current Garmins in that price range will be a win over the 410. (Note that the recurring theme here is "current" or "recent" and not brand or model...) The 410 was probably a nice unit in its day. I can imagine uses for it if the price was right, but from where I sit you didn't get a bargain if you were expecting modernish features like WAAS and fast locks.

quote:How long to upload a 23 Mb map at 9600 baud? It doesn't matter, becuase that's not how it works. The protocol spec is clear that once you send a map or firmware upload command you must rendevous with the unit at 115Kbits/sec. If you drag out your stopwatch during a serial upload, you'll realize is't moving way more data per second than it'll ever push through the NMEA parser. Of course, it's probably disabling all those pesky interrupts from the receiver circuitry so it can focus on slurping up the bits. I haven't seen the trackers yet. It does seem like they missed the mark if they were trying to make an Etrex killer. The non-mapping unit still comes closer in price to an eMap than an etrex, even though it does have a nicer feature set. But maybe the low end isn't business they want.

After bragging about my nokia call fone case for the 330, I fear mine has given its life to save my 330 in the field today. My son and I knocked down ten caches today. Last weekend, we detached two ticks from him and one from me, so we were more ambitious with the deet spray this time. The clear case is now opaque and therefore, far less usable. Hoping that it was just something bad that would wash off, I took soap and water to it. Doing that made the belkin belt clip adhesive decompose and that popped off. I'm quit glad that it wasn't the plastic on my magellan itself that had this happen, though.

The incompatiblity of wriststrap and w/s mount is one of the sillier things about the 3xx series. For a while I had fashioned a neckstrap with a clip that snapped in and out of the battery cover loop. That worked better than threading the wrist strap in and out each time. Currently I'm using a cell phone case (clear plastic front to protect keys and screen, unlike magellan's own) with locking belt clip. The old nokia cases seem to work out OK, but get one with a BIG antenna hole and be prepared to try several on while you're in the store. This lets me slip it out of the case and into the w/s mount without a lot of grief.

quote:Originally posted by Atilla the Pun: Ok, I just got to work after purchasing my new Map 330X at Sam's. This is a really good deal, the GPS, windshield mount, DC power and PC cables, and MapSend Streets all for $200 US. And tomorrow is the last day to buy the GPS if you want the $50 mail-in rebate from Magellan. It's a lovely deal on a lovely unit. quote:My 330X shows firmware of 2.10 and North America map version of 1.10. Being a computer guy I thought I'd check Magellan's Web site for updates. Their site has 2.08 and 1.07 as the latest revisions. Is it typical for the Web site to be that far behind? Or am I looking at something wrong? Thanks, AtP No, that's actually correct. You must have a pretty recent unit - I think the date on 2.10 is the end of December if I remember right. According to Magellan, 2.08 and 2.10 differ only in a data table used to drive the LCD. They changed manufacturer and had to tweak a table for those units. There is allegedly no user-visible code change. (I haven't diffed the srec files to confirm or deny that.) I'm not sure what the story is with the basemap. Mine has 1.07. The reality is that if you're in an area where you've downloaded a detail map - and there is an update to the CD that's on Magellan's site - the basemap doesn't really matter much. There is a yahoo group called "m330" for users of your unit Roaming the archives there will answer a lot of questions you don't yet have. Enjoy. And if you're feeling lucky, make your wife watch while you hold your unit under water to demonstrate that it's waterproof

quote:Originally posted by Atilla the Pun: Ok, I just got to work after purchasing my new Map 330X at Sam's. This is a really good deal, the GPS, windshield mount, DC power and PC cables, and MapSend Streets all for $200 US. And tomorrow is the last day to buy the GPS if you want the $50 mail-in rebate from Magellan. It's a lovely deal on a lovely unit. quote:My 330X shows firmware of 2.10 and North America map version of 1.10. Being a computer guy I thought I'd check Magellan's Web site for updates. Their site has 2.08 and 1.07 as the latest revisions. Is it typical for the Web site to be that far behind? Or am I looking at something wrong? Thanks, AtP No, that's actually correct. You must have a pretty recent unit - I think the date on 2.10 is the end of December if I remember right. According to Magellan, 2.08 and 2.10 differ only in a data table used to drive the LCD. They changed manufacturer and had to tweak a table for those units. There is allegedly no user-visible code change. (I haven't diffed the srec files to confirm or deny that.) I'm not sure what the story is with the basemap. Mine has 1.07. The reality is that if you're in an area where you've downloaded a detail map - and there is an update to the CD that's on Magellan's site - the basemap doesn't really matter much. There is a yahoo group called "m330" for users of your unit Roaming the archives there will answer a lot of questions you don't yet have. Enjoy. And if you're feeling lucky, make your wife watch while you hold your unit under water to demonstrate that it's waterproof

This will sound like a "yeah, what they said" post, but I think it's good advice. PDAs are pretty fragile compared to even a cheap GPS. While the convenience of having the log sheets and the GPS in one box sounds really tempting, the reality is that the GPS "strap-ons" for Visor or Palm are bulky things attached to a device that wasn't meant to be carted around in the woods. I recently found an 8MB visor with USB on closeout for a good price and use it to cart around the sheets. I'm still experimenting with the software to slurp up the sheets. It usually stays in the car but I'm finding it more convenient than keeping the folder of sheets up to date. But a PDA to keep the sheets and log notes until you get back to your tube is pretty convenient.

Let me clarify what I said above. If you're getting sub-hour battery runtimes you have a problem somewhere. My runtimes are always iwth WAAS enabled. Does WAAS make some microscopic difference in battery time? Maybe, though I'm skeptical. Does it tank the battery life by 90%? No.

If you're looking for a documented, officially supported Magellan way to do it, I don't think there is one. If you're willing to slog around in the officially undocumented, unsupported support menu to turn if off and on, there it is. Yes, the menu lets you do potentially dumb things and there are appropriate warnings. So just don't push buttons other than the ones that do what you want to do. :-)

You can find the undocumented waas disablement key sequence in the m330 group on yahoo. (I would give you a URL, but it's dead-like right now. Search the archives if you can't find it int he files section.) I average about 9 hours pf runtime (without backlite) on my Mag 330 with Ray O Vac NIMH 1600's. If you're getting one hour, you have something wrong. Could be your batteries, could be your GPSr, and it could even be your power cable if you have one of the defective ones. It's all covered in the Magellan 330 group...