Jump to content

phantom4099

+Premium Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    953

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by phantom4099

    Platinum

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    My Platinum in about 3 years old. Here 2 weeks before I'm to leave on a Middle Fork of the Salmon trip, the screen went almost dead. :tired: You can see it if you get it in the dark. Well, that's not exactly true, the light went out a year ago. <_<

     

    What's the repair turn around time? Anyone know?

     

    Thanks

     

    I heard in the past of where the contrast gets turned down, have you tried uping it?

     

    Wyatt W.

    Sd East River Geocachers Are U Out There?

    in Midwest

    Posted

    Not as active in them as I used to be.

     

    I have been a little bit more interested in other hobbies, mainly remote controlled airplane/helicopter flying. However, I still make it to the geocaching website and forum on an almost daily basis to see if there is any news about my existing GPSr or new models and check on caches nearby.

     

    Unfortunately I been doing less geocaching and more flying (the best days to geocache are also the best days to fly). However I still go out if I can find some one new to show the hobby to, or if I go out of town (the planes normally don't go with me).

     

    Wyatt W.

    City Select North America Version 7

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    WOW! this is the first time I looked at the maps for version seven.

     

    Any one know where they get the data outside of the major towns? Because they are horrible, worse than the tiger maps, worse than city select 5.00, and WAY worse than city select 6.00 (for my town and area at least).

     

    I am so suprished to see such a step back for my area when I thought the maps were pretty good for my town with version 6.00.

     

    Wyatt W.

    Distance Between A, B, C....

    in How do I...?

    Posted

    If you want to do this quickly on the GPSr one way of doing it this way.

     

    1. From the map screen hit the menu button.

    2. Scroll down to vert. profile and hit enter.

    3. click on path check.

    4. this will take you to the map screen.

    5. move to the first point you want to measure from, and hit the goto button once

    6. scroll to the next location, and it will show the distance from the point you selected.

    7. You can keep hitting goto at several points, then when you want the total distance (for example the permiter of a lake) hit enter. If you have a topo progrm installed, it will show the verticle profile of that route.

     

    Another thing this is handy for is creating a quick route. After your done with all the points just hit enter and chose "save to Rte". On the route page you can also see the distance between each leg...

     

    Hitting clear on that page will reset all the points.

     

    Wyatt W.

    Magellan Meridian Question

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    For $50 dollars the meridian is a pretty good deal if your willing to accept you can't use autorouting, and have the 2mb basemap.

     

    A questions about the Rino's range, what is the range of the units with GMRS? I see Garmin got a waiver from the FCC to send it's position on those channels (think you can download the firmware for older models to do this).

     

    Wyatt W.

    Mio Gps/mp3 Player

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted · Edited by phantom4099

    I see lowrance is making some of their new ifinders with MP3 players, and at least one has a voice recorder. To tell the truth I am suprised lowrance is not mentioned more, they seem to have several products that compete quite well with Garmin and Magellan...

     

    http://www.lowrance.com/Outdoor/Products/iFINDERMM.asp http://www.lowrance.com/Outdoor/Products/iFINDERphD.asp

     

    Their iWAY also looks intresting... http://www.lowrance.com/Automotive/Products/iWAY100M.asp

     

    Wyatt W.

    Magellan Vs. Garmin

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    not really. right now my  60c has 56 megs. I can store all of TN, birmingham, atlanta and the interstates between each. If I bought a 512 meg card for $50, I could store all of the SE. 

     

    It hasn't been THAT big a deal with the Garmin, a minor inconvenience really. and I wouldnt trade to a Magellan Direct Route for the 512 M chip, but if Magellan got its act together and released a polished autoroute similiar to Garmin, I would consider leaving the Garmin family. I guess one could say that I am not a Garmin fanboy, but that I just want the best  B)

    Also, I just remembered that my laptop sticks me with USB 1.1--not 2.0--although I guess I could buy a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card for more bucks. Anyway @ 1.1 I wonder how long and how much longer to load a Garmin or a Magellan SD?

     

    Why is Garmin's AutoRouting considered so superior to Magellan's Map Send Direct Route?

     

    Thanks.

     

    Susan

    I have not used Direct Route in my Meridian, but there is a few area's that Garmins autoroute is better implemented.

     

    1. You can choose things to avoid (highways, toll roads, and U-turns)

    2. Select model of transportation (e.g. a car route is determined by the fastest way there, where a bike route would be the shortest)

    3. You can select either the fastest way to a location (e.g. use interstates and other highways even if it's slightly longer than another way-this is the mode direct route uses), and shortest route.

    4. The unit will automatically reroute (optional)when you get off track with out having to press the goto button twice.

    5. Can add one via point to a route.

    6. When creating a manual user route you can select it to follow roads (Magellan is similar with it's manual routes, except it uses the first and last waypoint in the route to determine route-Garmin uses all the waypoints)

    7. Garmin does not require you to have free waypoint and comment space for the program to work correctly (this may be just be due to using units that originally were not designed to autoroute).

    8. Does not mess with all the setting when you make a route (except for "lock to road" feature, grrr...).

    9. Can adjust the length of time a route takes to calculate.

     

    But keep in mind that Garmins autoroute software had been out longer, and Magellan added this functionality to units that were not originally designed to autoroute.

     

    Wyatt W.

    Three New Magellans!

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    It seems like some of the features may already be found in the meridian series.

     

    The file manager may just be what they call the card utlities in the meridian, but a little more advanced to create submenus.

     

    It also sounds like there will be the same limits to the number of waypoint/tracks/routes that can be held in the active memory (e.g. only 2000 track points, 500 waypoints...).

     

    If you also think that it will display the full GPX file data, then you will most likely be severly disapointed when you get it. The software sounds like it will just be PC based, and will only send the coordinates to the GPSr (probably because no third party software will support it when it first comes out).

     

    The preimeter calculater is probably like a little used feature on the meridian that creates a manual route on the fly (if you want more info ask me, or look in your manual...it's under the "verticle profile" section).

     

    They also make it seem like this is the first GPSr with SD memory...

     

    Only having four screens may be a limit to some people...

     

    Wyatt W.

    Maps On Pda Or Gpsr?

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    Tried maps on the PDA (Ipaq 3955), did not care much for it...

     

    It takes two hands to manipulate things, where the gps you can usually do it with one. A PDA is more fragile, and it's harder to get programs that do a good job of replacing a what a standard GPSr does. I also did not like to use it in a car since it is hard to use a touch screen while a vehicle is moving.

     

    Wyatt W.

    Battery Use In Magellan

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    The backlight is a big drain on the batteries, this becomes a problem with later firmwares that turn on the backlight when ever an alarm goes off. If this happens during the it is difficult to tell that the backlight is on.

     

    I also second rechargable batteries. I have gotten 12 hours of use on my meridian platinum and 2100 maH batteries.

     

    Wyatt W.

    What Magellan Do You Own ?

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted · Edited by phantom4099

    I have a Magellan 315 (had since June 8 2000- I celebrate their birthdays ), and a Meridian Platinum (not sure when I got this unit, but ordered my first meridian October 15, 2001 (their release date)). I have been happy with my Magellan units, and would have no problem purchasing another or recommending them.

     

    In the past, I have had a Magellan 330 and a meridian gold. Sold the 330 to get the gold, and Magellan traded me even up my gold for the platinum (I had the blue spot problems and some other stuff...).

     

    Wyatt W.

     

    edit: spelling

    Usa Photomaps Upgrade - 11/04

    in GPS technology and devices

    Posted

    Just download the new data (not the full program), unzip the data and paste it in the same fold as the old program. This will over write the old program, but keeps all your maps/tracks/downloads....

     

    This is how I have been doing it and have not had any serious problems (at least I have not lost any map data).

     

    Wyatt W.

×
×
  • Create New...