rmm200

All I can say is my eXplorist 600 is perfect for my purposes today. I use it daily. My Garmin 2720 has spent the last year living in my desk drawer... I will reevaluate the situation if my Magellan fails or my needs change; neither company has me locked in. I am hoping at this point that Magellan does get sold off, to a company that has an interest in staying around. Robert

Opinions are great, but this really falls under the heading mis-information. Carrying extra batteries for the eXplorist series are no more trouble than carrying along a stick of AAs. The Magellan pouch even has a pocket for an extra battery. Robert

Dang Embra - I had no idea you did that review. Thank you for a great service to our community - your review is bookmarked as one of my primary references. Robert

On SD cards - I put a 1gig card in my Magellan 610, but I swear it is overkill. I got it just because Costco had good prices on the 1gig. The biggest region Topo 3D will let you cut is about 240 meg, and nicely covers the Western third of the country. I could do the entire country on my 1gig card, using 3 regions. But why... For the area I actually use, Northern California, 64 meg would work well. One thing to note: Like my cell phone, the SD card is removeable, but I never do. It is used just like built-in memory, and all downloads are through the PC interface.

Let me just note it is now illegal to discard batteries in household garbage in California. That is right - discard a AA battery and go to jail. Well it is California... We get to save up all our battery discards and take them to designated recycling centers. No curbside pickup. The list of things we can not discard in garbage is way longer than what we can discard. Robert

Having a Garmin 1620 in my car, and a Magellan eXplorist 600 for field use - I do not understand how you can say it is hard to turn on and use a Magellan... Usability as far as I am concerned is perfect - layout of controls, and joystick for map navigation - I really can not think of any way to inprove it. With the downloaded topo 3D maps, I literally use this daily. Sounded like bashing to me... Robert

Only test I would do before sending it back would be to see how it does without the SD card. Quality varies a lot between brands, and a bad one can cause all sorts of problems. Robert

Very nice reply from Peter. You are right to be concerned - never hook a power supply to an electronic device not made for that power supply unless you are sure the supply voltage is appropriate. Getting advice here is a good way to go... Robert

I know Sandisk would replace it under similar circumstances. I had one hassle-free replacement. Check the manufacturer website - I would expect a 90 day to one year warrantee. If not, try returning it to who you bought it from as defective. It should work more than two months! Robert

7 or 8 degrees - I wish... Today in San Jose the magnetic declination is 14' 34" E. If I followed the compass North to San Francisco I would probably wind up in Fresno. (exageration for effect). Robert

Replaceable - a $5 Motorola cell phone battery is a replacement. How replaceable do you want? Robert

If I were reading the display, I would say the user interface code is version 2.60 and the firmware that actually does the GPS operations (manages satellites, etc.) is version 2.30. I would expect these to have their own version numbers; I know my cell phone does something similar. Robert

You might get the impression from the name that Topo 3D does not include detailed road information. Well it does - the same as Direct Route. Same POIs, plus a ton trail related. Driving, it shows you the road name you are on and every cross street name as you get to it in a detail box at the bottom of the display. The Roads display looks very good. If you don't do route planning on the handheld, I think Topo 3D is the better choice. It sure gives you a feel for the lay of the land, and on the PC the 3D view is spectacular. Robert

My guess would be they took it down to check out reported calibration problems like mine, were unable to find a problem, and put it back up again. Robert

General request - when you open a topic like this, could you specify the GPS you are referring to or at least the manufacturer. It would save a lot of us significant time trying to figure out if this applies to our unit. Robert

You might consider it a stupid file structure now - but the flexibility it gives you is one of the best features of the eXplorist line. I really expect Garmin to copy it. Robert

I will note that if you create a region in topo3d for your eXplorist, only the poi's you have turned on are included. It helps a lot to reduce clutter on the handheld if you turn off what you are not interested in. Flip side is, if you decide you want a missing poi, you have to redo the whole region cut process. I have switched to using 240 meg regions; I really can't see any performance degradation. Robert

The Explorist line use a Lithium rechargeable battery. It is the same form factor as the extended life Motorola T720 battery, available on EBay for 5-10 dollars. See other threads here for part number. I carry a spare in the Magellan pouch (it has a pocket for it) and a second at home. Battery life is very acceptable. I use an old motorola phone as a second charger. Robert

A properly functioning Explorist only shows the communication screen if you are plugged into the PC using the USB connector. It will not show this screen if your cord is going down or up. It might if you connect it with the cord going sideways - I am not about to try it on mine. Recommended procedure: 1) mount cable to the Explorist going straight down along the back 2) Plug wall wart adapter into wall (order of 1 and 2 don't matter) 3) Plug power connection into Explorist cable (this really should be done last) If your screw-on connector is "hot" when you are connecting it, there is a very good chance you will apply power to the wrong terminals and fry your unit. If you apply power in the method indicated, not plugged into the PC, and it still comes up in USB mode, it is time for a service call. Robert

Having used my Magellan suction cup mount for awhile, I would say: Look seriously at what RAM has to offer. Robert

This is really a question(s) for DOT-COM I think. If you use service code 22 to clear calibrations, does this only affect the compass? How does the Explorist handle temperature calibrations as the unit goes from powered off to up and running for a long time? There must be some internal temperature sensor used as an offset? How do we calibrate this? Where is the external thermistor on the 600? I sort of expect it to be in the bump on the top front of the unit. With the 600, the barometer seems accurate and stable to two digits. Where is the pressure chamber located and is it vented to the outside air? The altimeter seems to drift a lot over 30 minutes, and it does not go below zero. Just sitting at a stoplight, my elevation can change by 15 feet. How are other users results? Thanks! Robert

Question on 600 calibrations moved to its own topic. Robert

RAM is a system of components. You buy the suction base, adapter, arm, and GPS adapter. Arms come in many lengths, from 1.75" to 8" I saw. They come in aluminum or plastic. The 8" pvc arm can be cut to a custom length just by cutting the PVC pipe. From the literally hundreds of components RAM offers, I can not imagine not getting exactly what you want. Robert

I would like to note that California law prohibits anything mounted with suction cups to any window in a vehicle. I don't see any rules about a DVD player sitting on the dash though. It makes no sense to me, but this is California. Robert

I think a topo map downloaded to a handheld GPS is simply wonderful. Really gives you a feel for the terrain. I have Magellan Topo 3D on an Explorist - but Garmin is similar. Advantage to Magellan is that Topo 3d includes detailed roads, POIs, and trails also. Robert