anethema

EDIT: I see you already use raid1, nvm! Raid wont help you if your computer catches fire, but at least you will not lose everything to a hdd failure (which is guaranteed to happen at some point) I run a 1 terabyte radi5 array of 3 disks, and all my pictures are backed up off-site (flickr pro)

Just goes to show the research is right, customers end up more satisfied after being helped well with a bad experience, than a customer who has had a good experience right from the start! I totally agree though, I just got my PN-20 and have been making my own maps with XMap editor. I can do anything and it looks godlike on the PN-20. Any bit of data I can find, and 2 button presses and I'm looking at aerial imagery. I really couldn't be happier.

No idea about whether an 8 gig card will work or not, but there ARE non SDHC cards which are 4gb. They go outside the SD spec a bit to do it, but they do exist.

I just used Brasso (avail at walmart etc, its a metal polish) to clean up scratches in my plastic devices, works like a charm!

Just read up a bit more on here before deciding on the triton for what may come in the future. Right now most people are having trouble downloading anything to their triton, much less NG Topos. It is currently basically an unusable device which many retailers have pulled off the shelves all together. The PN-20 for example with the $99 upgrade to Xmap can use any map you can scan into it, including USGS quads or any paper topos. It has a couple faults but NOTHING like the triton. If you really want a triton, wait at least a year for them to iron out the bugs and make the device usable. I created my own topos from scratch using a GIS program (dont have xmap yet..monday!) Take a look here: http://forum.delorme.com/viewtopic.php?t=13215 . Using mostly free data you can make pretty much any map you want.

Just to chime in on this topic: The stuff isnt a 10 cent piece of vinyl, it is 3m "Scotchgard". It is very tough and if you watch the promo videos on their site you can get an idea of how tough it is. Also, other companies sell the EXACT same product for quite a bit cheaper (less than 1/2 price) as shieldzone, but no lifetime warranty. So that is always an option. And just a note about customer service, I have always had excellent customer service from shieldzone (ordered probably 6-7 shields now). I have had a few come in the mail with burst water sprayers, but the early ones never used to come with it, you just mixed a drop of liquid soap in a cup of warm water, mixed it, and dipped the shield in that, worked very well and that is what I have done for the ones that came with the broken sprayer. Worked like a charm. I am just a satisfied customer, but I would buy from them any day without hesitation.

Just letting you know these go for 150$ish on ebay, 200$ at the very high end. Not interested just a suggestion to help you sell

Yes but if he waits, he knows the unit is working (since he is watching the updates) and his unit will be maybe a little, maybe a lot cheaper. But almost certainly cheaper. Also if they do a hardware revision change he will have benifeted from that as well.

It would be nice if they just released the codes for (or just transmitted in the clear) the P(Y) codes so that normal civilian GPSr's could compare L1 and L2 without it taking forever (surveying gps's etc). I dont think they ever plan on doing this though. I read somewhere they might transmit additional codes on L2 and L5 to increase accuracy. Maybe we should just eliminate the ionosphere! dadgum unpredictable bugger!

Tons of these around dirt cheap guys: http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?f...&category0=

With the current cheapness of small SD cards I am certainly considering this as well. Seems like an easier way, but since I have to make all my maps from scratch anyways, we'll see how well this works out.

Yeah, XMap editor evaluation is on its way right now, Ill see what all the fuss is about. I bought the pro version anyways just to make sure I have SOMETHING. Good deal for $99. Cant wait to see what I can do.

I am with apersson850 on this one. It, like the 60cx is marketed as a high end handheld, but my 60c is a perfectly serviceable car navigation device with CN on it. If it had a bigger screen it would not be all that different from a Nuvi in that regard. I still think it should some street names, at many as the 60c would be nice. Well it should - are you saying that Garmin should ignore the intended use of the Colorado when desigining the appearance and functionality of the unit? That's not going to work out very well for a company trying to make a profit. I'm OK with them reusing features/functionalities but it shouldn't come at the expense of basic/core/useful features typical (or even standard) on most handheld units. No matter how popular/great the Nuvi is - it's not very useful as a handheld unit.... Thanks, dfg

I did not get an adapter maybe I should get one from delorme. I dont have a LiIon battery either but dont really want one. I like the secuity of the fact that No matter what if it is dead I can use AA's. I have lots of those new hybrid rechargables anyways so the life is pretty good. I will probably be switching maps more often since mine will all be raster based imagery and topos. Unless I can make enough vector topos in my 45 day trial of xmap editor to do me. So far so good though, I really like it, cant wait to get my areas on there.

I understand it made for an easier time of waterproofing but the 60c and 60csx etc are considered waterproof and just use a plug to cover the USB slot. I am right now using the external card reader for the SD which is why i complained about the location of the slot, but its not so bad. I'm hoping I get xmap soon so I can really play though. Thanks for your advice!

This is a VERY preliminary report of my new PN-20. The only other GPS I've owned is a 60c by Garmin, so most comparisons will be made against that. Disclaimer: I don't geocache so I don't know which features would be important to a geocacher. The GPS is, for me, primarily a mapping tool to navigate while I hike, skidoo, and dirtbike. Hardware: The PN-20 feels good in my hand and seems a bit easier to operate one handed because of the bit girthier bottom as compared to my 60c. The buttons, I think, are MUCH better, more tactile etc than the 60c, even though they look cheaper. The startup is a bit slower than a 60c, but not by much. It then goes right into the sat screen just like the 60c. The initial lock is MUCH faster, and signals much stronger than my 60c, and is more comparable to my friend's 60csx. The display (2.2") is smaller than my 60c (2.6"), but I can only really tell if I compare them side by side. The resolution is a bit higher with a quite a bit higher pixel density. The PN-20 is 220 x 176(38720 pixels) and the 60c is 240x160(38400 pixels). So a bit more pixels into the slightly smaller screen makes for a display that does look quite a bit less pixelated (sharper). I have basically, at this point, pulled it out of it's package and played with it. I put some aerial imagery on it and tested it out, but since I am in canada, I cant do most of the stuff I plan to do. I did, however, add about $30 worth of aerial imagery to poke around in Oroville, Wa, just a couple hours south of my location. Here are a couple screens: And zoomed in a bit: Looks very good, and should help me navigate anywhere I plan to go once I can get my own images on. The redraw times for non image maps is pretty good, but not as good as my 60c. The redraw for aerial images, especially the initial draw, can be quite slow. The software to load stuff onto the PN-20 is quite a bit different than mapsource. It seems much more powerful, but does take some getting used to. It still only took me maybe 5 minutes of 'figuring out' before I was able to download maps and aerial imagery to the PN-20, so after a bit of learning it could be quite a program. Since I will be using X-map and not topo USA in the near future this really means not a whole lot to me, but I'm told X-map is similar so much of it should transfer over. It is also pretty neet the way you take screenshots. You just add a 'screenshots' folder to the SD card, and now when you press the power button briefly, it takes a screenshot and puts it there! Just rename the folder to something else to remove this. In the hour or so I've played with it, the MAIN cons I see are (this is a big one) proprietary use cable. I can't stress this enough, the fact that they did this is just beyond reason for me. If I lose this cable I have NO way to update the device or use it with any software. I can still put maps on the SD card etc, but this doesnt alleviate the other problems it would cause. I would then be at Delorme's mercy for another. If they were out of stock or out of business I would be screwed. There is no reason I can think of that would justify not having a mini-usb on there. Some minor ones from here are: SD card under the batteries. Since pretty much all map transfers involve removing the SD card, They really should have considered a slot on the side with a waterproof plug. The batt cover screws arent half turn type like garmin, they are like 10 turns to close it, and there are two of them. Then I have to pull the batteries (powering off the device) and remove the card. If it were my design, it would be 2x half turn tightener screws (like on the back of the garmin, but 2 of them (mm redundancy), and the SD card would be in the side under a rubber plug. The other one I consider minor but many would consider major is the slow updating of the screen. It actually updates once every 1-2 seconds, but it is the redraws that are slow. I switched the map to north up and now it only redraws once you aproach the end of the screen. I will be using my 60c for car navigation untill i get a Nuvi 200W and my PN-20 will be my trail-only GPS so the screen draw does not affect me for fast moving road use. I find it acceptable but mildly annoying. This is another thing that would have been easily fixed with a faster processor. NONE of these for me is a deal breaker. The USB cable thing is annoying, but even if I lost it, I would have a perfectly functioning GPS. The batt cover and SD card thing are just minor gripes that I wanted to mention, but are not really that big a deal. So far I am very happy with it for what I've done so far. I will post more details about X-map and custom aerial imagery once I get that going. It will probably be when I come back from Mexico Feb 17 since I don't think I will get X-map in time for my departure. That about it for my first hour with the PN-20, if anyone has any questions, let me know! PS..I see now looking back that half of my body of text was dedicated to the CONs but it really was a MUCH more positive experience than negative. So far it is really a fantastic little device.

Ibycus has inspired me and I would like to get some canadian support for the PN-20 GPS. I made a post in the Delorme forums here seeing how much support there would be for a Donations for a copy of GIS editor to make these maps! I wish I could make a groundbreaking post like Ibycus with some maps already done, but with the Delorme the free tools just aren't available I'm afraid Here is the post, if there is support here guys, let me know what you think: http://forum.delorme.com/viewtopic.php?t=13215

They would be insane to basically instantly halt all sales of current units by announcing a PN-21 on the horizon at any distance. I really doubt chip is going to do that no matter how much he would like to help.

A friend with a Magellan Triton let me know that there is an update available now, but I'm not sure how many of the bugs it fixes. I think all the units have updates available.

Any interest in selling the unit alone? I dont need any of the software, already have a nice smartphone, and already have a bunch of RAM mounting gear for this unit.

Just letting you know, this price is VERY high for what you are offering. Like, a bit less than double. You can get a 60c on ebay for $150 and the used price for all that gear would be under $100. I would suggest $250 as being a closer price point. Not wanting to buy the unit, just trying to help a fellow GPSer out

I think buying the maps again on another GPS device is total crap. I am not going to buy the same content again and again. Everything is free on the internet after all I am not a total pirate, I paid once. But switched gpsr's and you can bet I didnt pay again the second time.

Thanks so much I will shoot him an email right away. Here are some pics like you asked: This is the overview..can see how some of the ant rubber got torn off so I put some silicone on there to seal it up again, aint pretty but it worked. Also can see where the case is split on the one side. I can actually grab the antenna and pull and the whole front of the GPS seperates from the rear. Can show you why better in a couple pics. Here is a closeup kind of showing the antenna, but it is a crappy picture. Here is the internals showing why it is broken. The piece of retaining plastic inside is normally attatched to the back of the case, but here it is not. You can see where I put a bit of silicone to try and help it out, but it dindt work

Edited to add quote and say Finding a "super cheap" 60 that is cheaper then the cost to send your unit to Garmin for repair is extremely unlikely. Well I'm thinking a totally non working unit might be cheaper than the $150 it will cost to send it to garmin. I seem to be able to buy a perfect used one from ebay for that price. Maybe if there are no replys I will just buy a 76c which is actually the unit I wanted originally (much harder to break than a 60c while dirtbiking haha, that antenna sticking up caught on my jacked and tore the case in half pretty much) Thanks again everyone!

My 60c has a broken case and worn antenna, I would like a new casing to put the guts of my GPS in. If anyone has a broken garmin GPS (60c, 60cs, 60csx, etc) I would like to buy it from them. Just looking for something cheap because the case is all I need. Even a working 60c would do. I already paid for city navigator once but have no more keys, so I will just pirate it this time around. Basically looking for anything with the same case, broken or working, but the most important thing is cheap. Thanks guys! EDIT: Thanks for pointing that out!