drbugs

Hi Kevin, Did you decide which GPSr you will get? Tough choices, as they seem to both be very good units. edit: spelling

geognerd, It was just like geocachingbaker says. I ordered the cheap inkjet refills. Trying to convince people it was legit was HARD. One trick is not to create your account from a public computer, or a computer (actually the IP address) that someone has created an account from, or they will call fraud. I have seen on one of the forums dedicated to this kind of stuff that a rep from freepay monitors, and has fixed this a couple of times, but it is easiest just to avoid it. Check this link Anything4Free Forums to get a good idea of things that can get your account shutdown for fraud. No spam for me either. Good luck! The ipod workd for me, and I use it all the time at work. R

I've not done that specific one. FWIW, I have an ipod (white, color screen) I received from the ipods.freepay.com site, so some of these offer sites are legit, but there are a lot that are not. I haven't heard this specific company though. You can do a google on the company, probably find them on some of the message/forums boards for this kind of free offer sites (you can trade offers, etc). Check google. Good luck! Randy

Where did you see this? Was it at Garmins site? Another dood on this forum posted it: Sirf III LT chipset topic Pretty cool. Johnny Vegas mentoned in another thread that garmin will be releasing some new receivers this summer, I'm wondering if they will use this. I'm hoping this plus a big display like the magellan XL series. Thread about new GPSr's Cool stuff. I'm not sure I can be patient enough to wait that long though... Temptation!

Hi Kevin I'm not sure what this is called (I haven't pulled the trigger and ordered a unit yet), but I think of it as route by waypoint. In the post that Embra linked to (the magellan vs garmin autorouting) he mentions in the things that garmin can do that magellan can't is the insert waypoints to get a customized autoroute. On a parallel note, Johnny Vegas mentioned in a recent thread (here) that both garmin/magellan has some new devices they plan on releasing this summer, and later. My hope is that either garmin releases a pda size screen like the XL, or magellan improves it's autorouting, which what Embra mentinoned may actually be firmware related rather than directroute related. decisions decisions.... I wish they had an emoticon with smoke coming out if it's ears...

what the heck. Here's some more... Explorist 500/600/XL review with pictures This has some pix of the autorouting on the handheld too.

Hi, check this out. it's for the garmin 60C (not the cx), but it should be similer 60c(s) review and here are some pictures of 60c(s) screens which include some turn by turn screens. I also think there are a set of different beeps/noises that are assoicated to events like turn coming, etc. But I've not seen it since I don't have one yet.

Hi, I've recently went through this comparison too. I really like the screen size of the xl, and it looks like the csx and the explorists receivers are compariable, but the autorouting on the handheld was the deciding factor for me. As of this moment, I plan on buying the 60cx, unless magellan improves this between now and when I buy (in a month or so). Embra, Is the autorouting part of the handheld firmware, or is it something that gets installed with the maps when you upload it? TIA! Randy

OK, here's the link to Magellan Vs. Garmin Autorouting. There is some great info in that topic. Ah, excellant post. That helps a lot. Tx for digging that up! FWIW,that makes me lean towards the garmin, since the autorouting is actually a key requirement for us. Tx to everyone for your help! Randy

Whoohoo! It works for me now too. I didn't even logout first (my session from last night was still active).

Thats actually what I meant. I noticed that a couple gold/premium members mentioned that they could search, which I'm assuming is a paid membership. The error message was something like "no permission" which made me think along the lines of a failed authorization versus just not working.

I might be wrong, but it looks like the search works for members. small sample set, so not sure if it is true though.

Hi, I'm researching my first GPSr. My primary requirements are both geocaching/hiking, and autorouting on the gpsr. At a later time I might play games with tracklogs on googleearth type of stuff, generating stats on hikes, etc. Geek stuff, but not as much a requirement. The units I'm contemplating are the Garmin 60cx, the magellan XL, and the Magellan 500/600 (not sure if I really want the sensors). At this point, I feel that whichever receiver I choose, I will be happy, but the engineer in me wants to dig in the mud a bit. Some of the questions I have include: 1. Do the XL and the 600 have the same receiver? Robert Lipe's initial comparison convincned me how good the magellan receiver in the 600 was. I'm assuming if they are the same recevier, they should have comparable performance. 2. DirectRoute vs Mapsource (CS/CN). I've read many posts that garmin has the edge in autorouting (I'm assuming this is autorouting on the device), but have not found much details as to how the garmin routing is better. 3. Screen configurability. I've seen some complaints as to the 4 screen limit of the explorist, but not sure exactly what this implies. 4. Training mode. I've thought I read somewhere that the explorists have a training mode (work without satelites to learn how the gpsr works). If true, does the garmin have a compariable mode? Thought I would take a random shot by asking this. Would anyone be interested in doing a side by side comparison of gpsrs? What I'm thinking is finding volenteers who have different receivers that are close geographically to do a bit of hiking with each other in different conditions, and compare overall performance. Some of the ideas I was thinking for tests would be: 1. John Muir woods north of San Francisco (or some other compariable place). Very heavy tree cover. If we could get some volenteers to hike it, note satellite locks, etc, and maybe even compare tracklogs, this would provide an interesting comparison of dense wood performance. The Muir woods is just a suggestion, since I expect it would have pretty dense cover even this time of year. Any other suggestions for locations? 2. Hiking in a downtown (read tall buildings) environment. Maybe use autorouting to navigate to several different locations? I'm thinking like LA/Manhatten/chicago type of downtown (let's make the GPSr sweat a bit). I figure the test wouldn't be as scientific as what Robert Lipe has done, but it would be if nothing else a very interesting project. Anyway, just a thought. Any rants/raves/suggestions/comments appreciated! Tx for listening to me ramble.

Here is a good link about how to maximize the life of LiOH batteries. Short answer is not really (ie you don't have to make sure they are dead), but with some exceptions (need to complete a complete charge/discharge cycle per month). Apple LiOH Battery page HTH!

Here's some more info from basspro. They confirm that the VistaCX still has the 24mb onboard ram in addition to the microSD.

Got a response from basspro: edit: add response from Garmin, move url into quote:

Hi, I've noticed another difference on the product pages for the vistaC and vistaCX. On the CX page: Garmin VistaCX page There is an icon at the top (in the feature icon list) that says NAVTEQ onboard. This is not on the VistaC page: Garmin VistaC Page Anybody got an idea on what this is? FWIW, I've emailed garmin support about the sirfstar (and if it uses the same chipset/receiver as the vistaC). I've also emailed basspro which lists on its site "Improved Receiver Sensitivity" as a new feature: BassPro vistaCX page I've also emailed gpscity (US) about the sirf iii since they mention it explictly: GPSCity VistaCX I've noticed amazon.com lists the vistacx with sirf iii too, but not sure how to contact them yet: Amazon VistaCX Page ah well, more fuel to the fires of discussion. If I hear anything worthwhile, I'll post the emails here. Randy