RabidJack

the eXplorists seem to be assembled out of a mix bag of different parts. I've found that about 50% of the LCD screens are brighter with a crisp bluish tint, while the others have a brownish and dimmer screen. The behavior of the joystick is also very individualistic as well. When I initially purchased my e500, the joystick felt really gummy and stiff and didn't feel as if it clicked in 3 of the 8 directions although the cursor did respond to that direction. Feeling kinda picky, I exchanged it for another one, citing the joystick problem as a manufacturing defect. My new one had a nearly perfect joystick, clicking solidly and easily into 7 of the 8 directions, but the screen seemed dimmer and a little blurrier than the one I had returned. I went back to the store and repurchased my old one to compare and the difference between the LCD screens was definitely noticeable. I then dismantled the devices and played a little Dr. Frankenstein to end up with the perfect e500 hybrid of the two. I returned the doubly imperfect one and claimed that it was defective as well. anyway, does this make me a bad person?

it seems like you'd tend to gaze more downward than foward while watching the screen too, which doesn't seem like a good idea if driving or otherwise. Just discovered the edit button, neat.

I dont understand how you're holding the device, The hand position seems identical, the only difference is in resting your hand on a desk or something while holding it. You'd have to tilt your hand upward more to allow space beneath for the screen.

Are there any benefits to this?

Also, I think its a good idea to allow the regions to cross a bit so you have some mutual ground between them.

Umm... I cut my regions up into squares based around geographic lines. For instance, I have washington and oregon as one region, northern california and nevada, a second, S. CA and arizona a third and so on... I then name the regions accordingly. I find it much easier to manage my files and swap between regions that way. I think you'd benefit more if you asked some questions though.

funny how un-photogenic the eXplorist 500 is. It really looks a lot better "in-person".

the difference apparently is in the accuracy of your GPS tracking. Waas is a system of newer GPS satellites that are used as a cross reference to the original GPS satellites.

somehow stumbled upon an eXplorist 500... considered selling it, then changed my mind.

Yea, according to the Magellan webside, the eXplorist's SD compatibility has been tested up to 2 GBs, but it can supposedly handle even more. I'm using a one GB card myself. The default memory size limit for directroute maps is 64MBs. With Topo maps I'm not quite sure, but most of my regions are about 128 megabytes still sticking with the default settings. Apparently you can adjust the upper limit, but that would cause longer loading times, and potential errors depending on how much you decide to exceed the standard limit. Hope I helped.

what is the screen quality setting? is that the same as the map detail setting? p.s. just visited and now I'm back, yahoo groups has an awful message board system. I didn't find any more details though. But upon further thought, maybe the frame rate isn't what I should be concerned about, it's the screen refresh rate which does seem to increase when you trim out unnecessary stuff. Thanks for the advice.

true dat. I also find the white background display much sharper and cleaner than garman's mustard military color, and the infinite expandibility with the SD slot saves you the trouble of having to reload your GPSr's memory too frequently. I have a gig SD so I keep topo and directional guidance maps for the entire states of california, nevada, washington, oregon, and arizona in my unit at all times with plenty of memory left for POIs and routes. And with the ability to swap memory media, you can specialise by swapping between different cards for different tasks. Which is basically a macroscopic extension of JohnnyVegas' point, and almost just as nifty. Also: someone mentioned that the garmin had better direction routing, can someone elaborate on the differences.

bells, whistles and pretty blinking lights for sale!!! $5.00 with free shipping!!! =)

heh, I wonder if richard371 has moved on with his life. he doesn't seem to be as involved as he was when he started this thread.

Please PM if you have any questions. Thanks for lookin!

It seems by accessing service function (from the menu screen click right left right left) 72, there's a way of increasing the frame rate of the LCD screen. But it seems you cant simply change the frame rate number without also changing the clock select number to complement it. Has anyone fgured out and useable combinations besides 14 and 14 64112? Thanks

no, hangover's still lingering from last weekends morning party.... ("shots" get it? har har... ) I know a source for 1gb SDs for 40 bux. Memory's dirt cheap these days, which is a windfall for the explorist line. So how're you liking it so far? I've been messing with the hidden service functions trying to increase the frame rate on the screen =P, but alas, it only freezes. I think you have to know the right combination between the clock speed and the frame rate. Too bad there seems to be no information about it anywhere on the internet, I guess no ones figured out how to make it work? I shall post the question.

I would forego the compass and the weather features and save more than a hundred on the explorist 500--which is what I did. So far I've been more than satisfied with my e500, the screen is beautiful especially with the map info off which works great for general casual usage: flip to compass view for 2 customisable read-outs plus vector compass. The neat thing with the explorist line--something I haven't seem other's mention-- is that it is compatible with basically all the power solutions for the sony psp. Pick up the PSP Solar Charger by Logic 3 , hook it into the usb adapter as you would the "wall wart", and charge your explorist as you geocache beneath the sun. I also use the Pelican Power Brick the same way, especially in my car on long trips. Rmm200 has already mentioned that the motorola t720 battery also works as a spare, which combined with the stock battery could supply a weekend's worth of juice. As for the gui, if you're pretty familiar with configuring, say, a word processor, the eXplorist will be a cinch. if you explore the files a little, you'll realise that the eXplorist handles standard ansi text, which means you can edit the POI type files directly with windows notepad. Which reminds of another complaint: Unfortunately, the current geocaching manager (hopefully awaiting a firmware update?) is extremely limited and bare when it comes to handling details about specific caches. It allows for the display of name, cacheID, owner, type, location, date placed, date last found, difficulty, terrain and the glaring shortcoming: hint, which only allows about a sentence worth of non-scrollable text. That's it . I don't see the difficulty in implementing a notepad-like tool especially considering the inclusion of the incredibly expandable SD memory. So all and all I'd say the eXplorist 500/600 is beautiful, feels comfortable and solid in your hand, and works reliably and with exceptional versatility (specifically referring to the huge memory capacity) especially with the directroute, and topo software. By the way: Hi. This is my first post and actually my first appearance in the geocaching world. I hope all is well...