centme37

This was the reply I got from Delorme on 1-11-07, However I'm a great believer in a test being worth 1000 expert opinions. Hermit Apparently, from the Delorme forums I've been following, the original 3DTQ (not v. 2.0) can be read by USA Topo 5.0 as well.

That's about double what I paid for the very similar Venture Cx. Although I believe the PN-20 has a more sensitive chipset, hard to compare so I'm not sure. IIRC, the Venture and PN-20 had identical displays but the PN-20 was significantly larger, not a plus. In any case DeLorme's bundling and abandoning of old customers leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I own 3D TopoQuads for Colorado, they won't work in the PN-20, they're v1. Also, the hateful GUI of 3DTQ had me swear-off any DeLorme electronic product years ago, however I do like their paper maps. FWIW Hermit RE: 3DTopo Quads. Not true! Topo USA that comes w/the PN-20 reads the 3DTQ's just fine. I have the original set for my state that were intended for Win 98, etc. There. You've just added $100 worth of 3DTQ or you could subtract the amount from the cost of the PN-20 You could also think about it this way, PN-20 = $369 minus Topo USA 6.0 $100 (Fully door to door auto-routing w/up-to-date Street data) minus CO 3DTQ $100, minus $100 worth of ADP's. Now that seems to make the $369 lokk alot smaller.

I believe that some imagery is available on CD that translates to much less cost per/sq. mi. Check out their website and search for the imagery.

I think it's great that you have experience with the eX500 and 60Cx, as those are two of more popular model lines among the forum users. I'm more willing to trust your opinion since you have used both brands. My question is, how does the autorouting compare between the DeLorme, Magellan, and Garmin? I know the Garmin beats the Magellan, but why is that the 60Cx is your choice for in the car? The interface for autorouting is not as easy to use on the Delorme. If one were to use the PN-20 for trips of any length, I would suggest creating the trips on Topo USA 6.0 that comes with the GPSr and transfer it to the GPSr. Once on the unit, the screens, etc. are similar. I've set the off-route calculation to 100'. And unlike the 60Cx, the directions remain as created on the Topo software including vias, etc. The Garmin is much easier to use for trips. However, the Delorme can do some things the Garmin can't such as creating routable self-made routes from tracks, etc. Handy for Mt Biking, etc.

The unit was $369 included USA Topo 6.0 which includes door to door routing, and $100 worth of Aerial and sat maps - about 400 sq kilometers.

Kind of hoping you will take the plunge and get the PN-20. You are such a rich resource to Magellan users and others alike, you would soon become a valuable resource for us new Delorme GPSr users.

I have about 20 hrs. of expierence with the new GPSr but what may be of interest to you all is the fact that I have owned and used a Magellan Explorist 500 and I currently own a Garmin 60Cx. My first impression was that the unit was less well built than the Garmin such as the buttons. After using for while, I've changed my mind. The Delorme buttons are crisp and feel solid. My 60Cx buttons are okay but occasionally the direction rocker doesn't want to scroll right and the on/off button is not easy to use. Well, so much for the mundane. The Delorme is equally as sensitve and accurate as the Garmin. Inside my computer room on the second floor of a wood frame house I regularly get nine sats and WAAS w/Delorme. As far as maps go, now there is where the real difference is noticed. I have available 10 meter color sat maps, USGS topo quads, 1 meter aerial map as well as Delormes Topo USA 6.0 w/updated street info etc. When I zoom into a 1 mile scale I see my location on the 10 meter color sat map, at .25 mile I see streets, at 160 feet I see the 1 Meter aerial map. I can change the order of map preference around, include or not certain map types, etc. One of the biggest beefs I had with both Magellan and Garmin was their lousy topos. Now I have 7.5 minute USGS scanned maps. The one area where the Garmin will continue to be my GPSr of choice will be the street navigation. However, when I go into the field, off route so to speak I will be carrying the delorme. Edit: Check specs and features at http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtp...;minisite=10020

There is auto routing, just pick your two points and then calculate. When you get off route, it just asks you if you want to recalculate and then you either hit yes or no. That's true but having had an Explorist 500 which also tells you when you are off route, you still have to look at the device and hit a key to reroute. I now have a Garmin 60Cx and it re-routes automatically very soon after you missed a turn, etc. and it does the recalculation very quickly. This is one of the best features of the Garmin.

You may be right regarding delorme products on a PDA. However, with so many complaints from GPS users concerning the lack of good topo capabilities on the Garmin and Magellan units, the new Delorme GPS might be the answer for some. Maybe it will apply some pressure on the Garmin and Maggie people to find some solutions to their topo shortcomings.

I noticed that the unit and information is displayed on their website. www.delorme.com I downloaded the PDF manual and quickly perused the info. It sounds quite capable and it will certainly capture some of the people who complain about the topo resolution and detail from both Garmin and Magellan. One thing I noted that displeased me was there was no auto-routing. It warns you if your off route but you have to select a reroute like the Explorist 500 and unlike my Garmin 60Cx which re-routes automatically. At first blush, it doesn't look bad. I'll be anxious to hear reviews, etc.

I marvel at the patience of the people on this forum. They are for the most part helpful and courteous. I admit some frustration with people who cry for help when you know they haven't bothered to read the directions. I tend to research a product or service long before I buy it. In fact I download and study the manuals before I buy sometimes. People have taken the time to compile FAQ's and you know that they aren't accessed nearly as often as they should be. Well that's my rant for the day. I hope it wasn't too offensive. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

It's a very frequently referenced thread. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=111250 I think th OP wants to know to compare in all areas. The referenced thread just covers the autorouting. I would like to know th different of Magellan's truefix vs. Garmin's technology. I am also looking into buying a new gps and have not picked one or the other. I owned an X500 for about 6 months before I purchased the 60CX. There is no comparison, the Garmin outperforms Mag in every way I can think of. Autorouting and navigation especially. If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

It's true that you might not get the route you selected especially if you're familiar w/where you are going. For example, I travel down the Maine coast to my son's house. There are three different routes to get there. The 60CX selects routes that are least favored by me however, I recently took a two day trip to the Cirque Soliel (sp) in Boston. I didn't know where I was going but trusted the GPSr and had no problems what so ever. Even impressed my wife and she's not into gadgets.

Are you sure you have both sets of maps on your GPSr? When you loaded Topo maps you probably replaced the CN maps. All map segments have to be selected and loaded at the same time from Mapsource. After that you can select different types from those listed on your GPSr.

The only topo softare you can use is Magellan's. You can switch back and forth between topo and DR if you have sufficient memory. Older versions of Magellans topo SW can be used but the POI info won't be as up-to-date. I'm speaking from the experience of the Explorist models.

You can try the choice Hide City Nav and that should allow display of other maps.

Yes, there is a way to download from the microSD card. Go to the Main Menu/Setup/Interface/ and highlight the USB Mass Storage. This turns your unit into a USB device and opens a new drive (in my case E:\), and each tracklog will be there named in this format: "20060525.gpx". Just copy these .gpx files to a folder on your PC and open them in MapSource, or other program you may use. Cool stuff- Go Garmin! When finished, simply hit the GPSr power button to take it out of USB mode (if you have the latest firmware update: v.2.90). Or, use the icon in the sytem tray to disable. Thanks all, Worked just as you indicated... This brings up 1 Question. How does one stich the tracks together? Thanks again! As you can tell I am new to a lot of this. Joe Joe Using Mapsource program with track logs loaded, look under TOOLS and you'll see an option to join tracks.

If you don't save your tracklog - just shut off or select stop recording and you'll have all the data. The main memory will savet the number of track points you select up to 10,000. The memory card will store as many as your card has memory for.

For general use in the car, etc. I leave the screw-in knob off my 60 Cx and put s strong rubber band through the RAM mount ( where the knob would go) and pull it over the antenna on the GPSr. This holds the unit pretty securely and doesn't trash the unit when removing.

Try it with the same conditions but don't turn the unit off. I suspect info has to be reacquired after the unit is turned off thereby differences in readings.

I emailed Garmin suggesting they do some R & D toward dev. of 24K topo. Here's their reply: Thank you for contacting Garmin. Unfortunately, the USGS has not published the whole of the US in digital, vector 1:24K detail (the scale of the 7.5' quads so commonly used)...they have for the 100K scale, though, which is the reason MapSource US TOPO (010-10215-02) uses that detail. This is USGS detail, but it is similar to what you would see on a 30' x 60' USGS map. The USGS does have Digital Raster Graphics over most of the States in 24K detail, which are in big part what PC based products commercial products out there have. They are largely raster based (scanned quads). We MUST have digital, vector detail for product, though. Our market is different. And the USGS does not have that all over the US, unfortunately. That’s the crux of it. The USGS does have some 24K digital, vector detail...but not all the US in such for that scale. We put the 24K National Parks West, 24K National Parks Central and 24K National Parks East products together using some of the digital, vector detail they had. http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/topo24knp.jsp http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSourc...po24knpeast.jsp http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSourc...4knpcentral.jsp But there are many holes in this vector detail they offer...you might have a transportation layer for a quad but not a hypsography layer, for instance, in the vector detail. We ran into this a lot just with putting the National Parks products together. To fill such holes, we put quite a few resources into it. But these parks products just cover the specific areas noted/listed on the coverage maps with them. If and when these are updated/republished down the way, etc. I assume new coverages will be added. But it is a pecking order on that. Please don't take the preceding paragraph too seriously...it is personal speculation...it may pan out differently. I hope it does, really...might mean more data faster. But I expect it will be something like that at this point. Thank you again for your interest in Garmin GPS. Have you seen our online Map Viewer? Preview the basic data in many of the MapSource products firsthand. http://www.garmin.com/cartography/ Best regards, Loy mailto:cartography@garmin.com Garmin International 1200 E. 151st Street Olathe, KS (USA) 66062 http://www.garmin.com

Using Mapsource identify the maps from CN and from the Topo map so both sets you've selected are listed in the maps that you upload to the GPSr. Once loaded with my 60 Cx I select to hide or show all maps from the map menu. CN will show unless you select to hide CN. If you hide CN then the Topo will show.

Try software package called GPSgate. It creates a virtual comm port that allows S&T to recognize GPSr. I think it is free to try.

You might try Franson GPSGate. Do Google search.

Have you tried going into the bios on the mother board at startup and resetting the USB options? What you saw in Device Manager means the driver is not working. Try resetting the bios and reloading the drivers. right click on the Garmin (yellowed out) in the Device Manager and delete it. Then reinstall device by attaching to your computer.