phantom4099

I have had a 315 since June of 2000, a Magellan 330 for a few months in 2001 which I sold when I bought my Meridian Gold when they first came out in October 2001. I traded my Meridian gold for a Meridian platinum last march, and bought my GPS V (mostly for the routing-this was before Mapsend Direct route) this October. In all the years that I owned a Magellan I only had a couple of instances where I would have the 'boomerang affect" (and I use my GPSr pretty much on a daily basis). When I had to use Magellan’s service I had a positive experience with it and they were fast on the turn around. If a friend asked me to recommend a GPS unit I would have no problem what so ever recommending a Magellan unit to them. I would also have no problem buying another of their units in the future. I actually timed my GPS V and my Meridian; the Meridian ALWAYS warned me first that a lock was lost. I think Quakemap does this. Wyatt W. There is just so much bad infromation in this thread I can't possible correct it all.

I have heard that city selects route instuction are shorter (to fit on the smaller displays).I think the map and POI data is the same between them. I don't know if this is correct, but it's just what I heard. Wyatt W.

If it came that way after coming back from magellnag, call them and tell them about it. Also make them send you a new unit before you send in yours, and have them pay for the shipping to send your old unit to them (I had them do this once for me-I recieved a repaired meridian that did not look the SD card in place). I think Brain Oliver is head of tech support, you may want to ask for him if the tech you speak to does not allow that. Wyatt W.

I wish GPS manufactures would remove EPE from their GPSr; it just confuses people that don't know better. Does he have a 315, I know mine use to read an EPE of 0 feet when I first got it in 2000 (with newer firmware it is more realistic). All manufactures have a different way of measuring EPE, and it sometimes can vary from firmware to firmware. So it not enough to saw that my GPS had "8 feet of accuracy" and some one else’s had "15 feet EPE", so mine is more accurate. Also claiming to be closer to a cache is not enough to prove accuracy (how do you know the placer was accurate). The only way to "prove" "accuracy" is to go to a bench march that has been significantly located by surveyors. Wyatt W.

Two min is kind overkill for being wrong, but I suppose it can happen. And like Kerry said the time the GPS displays is not the highest priority (altough the time used for the location calculation is more accurate). Sometimes clearing the memory does help your problem (but it will probably come back with time). Magellan allows 15 min time (e.g 8:05, 8:20, 8:35, and 8:50) offset to counter act certain time zones (I just saw the other day one country that had this, but for the life of me I can't remember which). Wyatt W.

I heard really bad weather can affect surevey equipment by 2cm. So I say, if you fear the storm your in may destroy the world, you just might have GPS problems. Wyatt W.

Other than possible intitalizine the GPS if you had it off, the only other thing you may want to do is change the clock (this is up to you). Wyatt W.

I have windows xp (home), meridian gps, and activesync (I have the newest version installed, but you may have 3.5). When I first got my Pocket PC activesync tied up the com port so a GPS could not be used. You have to disable activesync use of this port, I think you start the program with the pda pluged in, go to file-conection setting and unclick "allow serial or infrared connection to this port" (or change it to anotother port). You may also try the newest version of activesync, you may not have as many problems with it. Wyatt W. Uh yeah, don't set your GPS to 115200 Baud, most programs don't work well at this setting (or at least don't support it-mapsend is one of those).

Also when you calibrate the barometer, make sure you set it below 31 InHg. This can cause some probelsm if it gets above that. Wyatt W.

That was the same problem the first person on this board to get a meridian (clayjar) had. Every once and a while it pops up, but not as often as I first thought it would (I only remember it happing 2 or three other times-but then again I have not been paying as much attention to GPS groups lately). Wyatt W.

Could be a few things, most likely is the springs in the battery compartment are not making contact with the circuit board (might need to take it apart-violates warranty). Something else you might try is pressing goto-esc-enter at the same time- doubt that will help. Menu and power also resets the memory, so you can also try that. Wyatt W.

Ipaq's are pretty nice PDA, and since they are so popular it is easier to find cables and asseories for them (sometimes they are cheaper too). It also seems that pocket PC's have better GPS programs... Wyatt W.

It does not really matter anymore what format you use, it was fixed in a version between 3.12 and 4.02 (it was unreleased-it was also the same firmware that addressed the power button "fix"). There was a problem with newer sandisk cards that made them not work with firmware below 5.12. Wyatt W.

I wonder if they will just sell the software for the PDA, and if they do I wonder if a serial GPSr would work. Wyatt W.

I have both mapsend TOPO, and mapsource topo. Mapsource PRO's (Garmin). 1. I think it better represents land features since it is scanned right from 1:100,000 maps. CON'S 1. Road data is older than mapsend product. 2. Few road names. 3. Does not appear to be a way to search items once in my GPS V (POI's, parks, water ways etc...) Mapsend PRO's (Magellan) 1. Street maps appear to be a little newer, it also has road names. 2. Can look up all POI's, parks, waterways etc... 3. Elevation profiles on the unit. 4. Find address with the unit / topo maps. Mapsend Con's 1. The elevation data does not seem as accurate at times (some times steams run uphill) 2. Maps seem to be have less resolution than 1:100,000 maps. Wyatt W.

It is not user fixable, your going to have to call Magellan and get a RA number. When I sent my meridian into them I recieved it shortly after they recieved it (it is possible to get it the same week you send it, but figure 2-3 days to get to SD once Magellan mails it-they provide a tracking number if you give your email). Another thing you can do is ask magellan to send you a unit before you send in yours. I know they did it once for me, and they might do it for you since it was like that when you bought it. Wyatt W. Uh yeah, it is not really worth emailing them. Your better off calling their toll free number.

Lets see if this works this time.... I am from Huron (not many caches in this area are there?). I am hoping to place the first one in my town in the next couple of weeks. Wyatt W.

Make sure NMEA messages are off (menu-setup-NMEA-off then hit enter), and it would not hurt to set the baud rate to 4800 (menu-setup-baud rate-4800 and hit enter). Can you use your com port at all with your GPS (sometimes somthing else tries to use it-like a PDA)? Edit: I see you did quite a few South Dakota caches, are you from here too? Wyatt W.

When I sent my platnium in for blue spots (or whatever it was), they sent out a diffrent unit within a day (or the same day). I would pass on trading in your unit at magellan, you can buy a new (or refurbished) unit for around the same price. Wyatt W.

I was kind of thinking "what nothing free?" Wyatt W.

I guess I am the third from South Dakota. Wyatt W.

Overton's catalog is where I saw it too, they wanted $399 for it. Wyatt W.

I don't hqave direct route, but I do have mapsend topo/streets and destinations, I also have Garmins mapsource topo, road and rec, and city select (garmins autorouting maps, based on navtech data). The navtech data has the least amount of water detail, so I suspect the direct route would have similar amount (very little, and what there is is not very detailed). You may be better off with the topo software. Wyatt W.

Datasave is a free program that Magellan put out before the 330/meridian/sportrack units (basically for the 315/320/ and maybe sportrack yellow). It allows a user to save his personal waypoint/route and maybe tracks. I personally hated this program because it ate my waypoints/route/ tracks whenever I used. I would recommend easyGPS (free) if you want to do this know since this will work with most units and does a lot better job at saving waypoints/routes (but I don’t think it saves tracks, so you will have to use another program for that (should be some free)). Datasend is only for the 315/320/ sportrak yellow and it has points of interest (restaurants, hotels, golfing...) that can be downloaded to the units it worked with (limited to a certain amount, and the number of categorize you can download). I imagine it has been a few years since this has been updated so the data may be inaccurate. Datasend cannot be used in the 330/ meridian/ or most sportrack units. For these units you want mapsend streets, streets and destinations, Topo, blue nav, world wide basemaps, or direct route (mapsend land, or mapsend marine will not work since it was made for the map 410). Wyatt W.

I saw this item in a boating catalog for $399.00. It appears to be a VHF/GPS combo (I think it has similar capabilities to send locations as the rhino) the maps come from Magellan (several of the screens shots look like my meridians screen). http://www.uniden.com/productpop/00_produc...prd_code=MYSTIC Wyatt W.