boyscoutbuzz

9/1/08 I reloaded 5.2.03 firmware into my explorist 600 and when I went to set the tempeture and barometer both were reading off the scale. I could not reset either. I thought I read something on the forums about this awhile back, but I can't find anything. Can someone point me in the correct direction? Thanks Buzz

Monday May 15 th Thanks Vagabond, asking Magellan worked. Buzz

Monday May 15th A couple of questions on my Explorist 600. This weekend the rubber covering the "Enter" button cut and is now ready to fall off completly. Does this compromise the water proofness of the unit? If yes, the unit is a year old this month, is it still covered under warranty? If yes I know this a Magellan number to call for an RMA. If not, where can I send it to get fixed? Thanks, Buzz

Thanks Embra, I hadn't thought to look there. 'll try Saturday after my 17 mile hike. Buzz

Thanks GOT GPS, I too have had a GPS315 and a Meridian Gold and noticed the same odometer flaw. I'll just have to hike faster. Oh, Magellan-a little help here PLEASE1 Buzz

Tuesday May 9th I have a question about the odometer readings on my 600. I have over the last 10 years run hiking merit badges for my troop. We have hiked on trails that I always know the total distances of. I'll use an AMC trail book or maps detailing the lengths of the trails we hiked. Because I use my 600 more for hiking and backpacking, I tend to pay more attention to how far off the odometer is from the distances listed in the trail books or maps I use. Point in case: I've hiked 4 times on the last 4 Saturdays, 10-1/2, 11-1/2, 13, and last Saturday 15.7 miles. Last weeks odometer read 12.1 miles at the hikes end, but when I loaded the track points to Topo 3-D it registered 15.7 miles, a difference of 3.6 miles. Overall, the maps stated the hike should have been just over 15 miles. The other 3 hikes where also off by approximately 1-1/2 to 3+ miles. The difference was between what was listed on the odometer on my 600, what the Topo 3-D said after loading to that program on my computer and what the trail books and maps stated was the actual miles over all. Should't my GPS unit be telling me exactly the distance I walked, if I had satellite coverage the whole hike? I usually set the track points on the HIGHEST readings (.01 miles) available and store them to my SD card. Thanks in advance for any help, Boyscoutbuzz

Well Mr. John Tee, I hate being upstaged by my son-he's a good kid-but he did it to me again. I told him the trouble I was having trying to submit my cache. I explained that I wasn't filling in the two items: Related web page? Background Image URL and that when I went to send the form in it would come back with an error message: • You do not have a valid web page URL. • You do not have a valid background image URL. Well he watched me type in the information for the 36th time and send it with the same result. He said type it in again, I did. He said see what you did in those two boxes, you put N/A in both boxes. Try taking them out. I did, I hit enter, the form went through, my son looked at me with a big smile on his face and walked away. Well at least I got the cache submitted and my son is one up on the old man again!. Thanks for your reply. Buzz G Garbage in, garbage out, if only I could remember that!

Well I've been around using my GPS for hiking and backpacking for about 3 years. I've decided to start Geocaching. I found a few caches 10-12 days ago and placed a cache yesterday. Here is my problem. I've spend more time trying to register my cache then it took me to make and place my cache. I must be doing something incorrectly but I don't know what. I read the FAQ's but I'm coming up empty. I put in the information in the on line form except for two spaces: Related web page? Background Image URL Optional field. This will change the background image on the web page to the location you define. When I submit the form I get these two remarks: • You do not have a valid web page URL. • You do not have a valid background image URL. So what do I need to do? I’m obviously missing something here. Thanks in advance for the help. Buzz

Double-check that the scouts didn't change the datum from WGS84. Embra I checked that the WGS84 was still on and also when we went to the last cache of the day with nothing being cahnged the 600 was right on the money. Thanks for the two links I'll go thru them again. Buzz

Saturday 3/11 I took 12 boys from my troop hiking and Geocaching. The weather was gorgeous for early March. There were blue skies and a temperature of 64°. We found 4 caches. One was a virtual and traditional cache in the same place. I set the go-too for each cache and gave the boys my Explorist 600 so they could find the cache. I had gone out two days earlier on March 9th and done the same hike and found the four caches so I knew where they were for the 3/11 trip with my troop. The boys found all three caches quickly. They had come within about 15-20’ of all the caches. They only needed a hint for one cache and they were as close as 15’ but did not see it. All in all it was a great day for everyone and my Explorist 600 worked fine. I wanted to check the battery after this trip as I had been reading about short battery life on this forum, but I forgot too. Thursday March 16th my daughter who is 19 asked to go Geocaching so she could see what it was like. I took her to the same 6 mile hike and four caches I had done twice in the last week. I set the go-to for the caches and gave her the Explorist 600 so she could find the caches on her own. As she was approaching the first cache I asked how much farther and she said 150’. We were right on top of the cache. I let her continue on and it was at least 150’ from the cache. I checked the accuracy and it was bouncing between “about 25-35 ft”. I had her try coming back and when she got to the cache it was still about 150’ off according to the GPS. We tried coming in from two different directions with no improvement in accuracy. I had to show her where the cache was. She enjoyed finding the cache but if I hadn’t been there before we would not have found it with the coordinates I got from my Explorist. The same thing happened when we tried to find Caches # 2 & 3 which were together at a different location. I had to show her they where located-hey it was a great spot for lunch so we eat. The only difference between the two days I went out to find these caches was the weather. On Saturday March 11th as I stated earlier the skies were clear and the temperature was 62°-and all was well! When my daughter and I went out yesterday the skies were clear but the temperature was 40°. Now in all fairness, I set-the go-to for the last cache and gave the unit to my Emily and she walked to within three of the cache and found it. I checked the satellite screen every time we came to a cache and there were at least 5-6 tracking. So I don’t know why at the last cache the coordinates were right on. We where out for 4 hours in 40° temps and then, leaving my Explorist on in the car and home at approximately 68° the fully charged battery went dead in just under 7 hours. The light was on low 95% of the time and the compass was set to off. I have a brand new battery that I bought last week and charged over the weekend and I’m letting it run in my house at 68°. I’ll see how long that lasts. On a final note, I noticed yesterday while walking in to the caches that I had no tracks showing on the map screen. I checked the Map set-up, Format screen and found that the Track mode was set to OFF. I remembered that Saturday it was off also and I needed to reset it. I checked it twice more last night and both times I powered the unit down it defaulted to OFF. I don’t remember this happening before the upgrade, but I may be wrong. I thought that once I set the track mode to Auto detailed it stayed there as the default setting. Does anyone have an answer to that last question? Finally, finally any ideas besides the temperature difference why my GPS would have been off by so large a distance? Thanks in advance for everyone’s help. Buzz

Upload instructions #'s 12, 13 and 14 have changed. Buzz

spoke before I looked

Magellan has put back the same sofeware version-2.03 on their site. But on the upload instruction sheet #'s 12 13 and 14 have changed. I wonder if there has been any changes to software itself? Buzz

Well I just loaded the new software into my 600, we'll see what happens now. Wish us luck, Buzz

Try the following, - Go to hidden menu selection - select menu 22 (clear sensor calibration) - Answer Yes (even if it says its a bad idea) - restart the unit - go to compass calibration - you now have to do the advanced calibration, it takes longer and you have to do many things with your unit, eg. set it to nearly every axis and let it collect data. - at last the normal calibration comes up - now the world is fine again ;-) Thanks Dot-Com your fix worked. Buzz

I loaded the new firmware in on the 22nd and my Explorist 600 seems to be working better(ish). I don't do a lot of geocaching. I use the 600 more for hiking and backpacking. Yesterday and today I loaded in about 40+ caches in an area I hike frequently. I also was playing around with "GSAK" today for the first time; I'll check that out some more later. I got off track here; while playing with my 600 after supper I notice that the weather screen was not working properly. It was working fine the day I loaded the new firmware in as I set the temperature and barometer. Right now it is reading “516°F” and “49.70 in Hg”. When I try to go into the “calibrate” screen and reset the temperature from “+516°F” I can’t change the”5” but I can change the + sign and the last two numbers. When I move down to the “Sea Level Pres.” which is listed as “49.70in Hg” I can change all four numbers; but when I go to save the changes they all go back to the original numbers of “+515°F” and “49.70in Hg” respectively. The Reset button does not do anything when pressed. I cleared memory and reloaded in the new firmware again—same result with the weather screen. Anyone have any ideas out there? I don’t know whether I should put on a jacket or get into shorts! Confused

Wednesday December 28th AM I bought an Explorist 600 in May and loaded a bunch of caches into it back then. I remember that I could not load them in using the Geocache Manager as it did not have any Explorist units listed on the upload screen. I forgot how I loaded them into my unit, whether it was direct to the unit or through the SD card. Sometime in the last month or two I deleted the geocaches from my SD card. I updated to the new firmware just before Christmas and have been trying to figure out the easiest and quickest way to reload in Geocaches to the Explorist 600. I have a 512 sd card installed with 51% left on it. A little-or lot-of help PLEASE. Thanks, Boyscoutbuzz

As a somewhat newbee to the explorist 600 (May-05) what is the problem with the firmware. I've had a 315 and gold unit it the past. Thanks, Confused or as my wife says JUST MALE