tsk1979

One software which comes to my mind is Oziexplorer CE. Its just 30$ so well within budget. any other suggestions. I basically need software which will dump tracks for me with altitude and timestamp information. when I am stationary it should not keep dumping trackpoints(so auto setting is needed). any advice

you can download india.img from downloads.cloudmade.com. Its openstreetmap, so not as detailed, but big cities and highways are mostly covered

For 300$ budget why restrict yourself. Go for the expedition C or the hunt C. I own the expedition C and am extremely happy with it.

I got the lowrance expedition C. did not get the PC cable because I am okay with using the card as medium of transfer. So I can use the PC to create data, put in SD card and load it into the GPS

On my expedition C I have left it on. Get around 6-7m EPE when WAAS is highlighted, and around 15-20m with no WAAS visible. Did not see any performance degradation

I use the hostler marked by LEI. It protects the screen pretty well but in sunlight the reflections get worse.

If you can somehow attach the GO so that its near the side window it should be okay. Diminished level but still pretty good.

I have been using the Lowrance ifinder expedition C extensively in the last few days and have been amazed. I dont own any external antenna 1. Inside the airplane, next to the small window, got the reception most of the times. But since the field of view is so small, it would loose sight if the plane changed direction suddenly. Also if you are away from the wing it helps(dont know why) 2. Inside the VTA(San Jose) buses it works. Need not keep it close to windows. Ditto for the light rail. Guess the large windows help here. 3. Inside the car works when on my lap, but for best results keep it on the dash 4. Works indoors. Yes! If there are no floors above you, ie you just got the wooden roof. We are talking about double layerd roof. flat false roof and the V shaped upper roof.

with the backlight on its great, but in the sun you have to squint. Also in full light, you need to have the backlight on to see clearly. I have set the contrast and brightness to max and that helps

i did not get the plus package, as US maps are useless for me. I live in india, and will be creating maps myself with tracks. 1GB SD card for new Delhi....hmmm 1. Learning curve is going to be steep. So many features! Good value for money 2. Screen really sucks. Have to agree with ya fellas 3. Online support is fickle when compared to garmagellons. Just have the yahoo group 4. The manual is huuuge. If anyone could point to something consise and nice which can get me started on creating some tracks and all List of accessories to get 1. HPA-1 so I can attach headphones. It seems like a foolish thing not having a standard headphones jack. I hope the local Fry's store has it, otherwise have to head to Stevens creek BLVD. That means 2 bus changes from my office. 2. Couple of rechargable NiMH batteries, heck I will get a 4 pack. Have the charger and stuff 3. Neoprene case to carry the thing, with a belt clip of course Suggestions fellas. Any advice appreciated.

The golden rule : No matter where you buy from, always go to resellerratings.com and check for store rating. Best way to catch fly by night operators

You can get a 1GB card on dell for around 29$. Wont be high speed, but then the about 25minutes to transfer a GB of data is not really a problem

I was going through the expedition C pdf manual and they say at the time of writing this manual 1G cards were supported. My guess is that if the addressing space can support 1GB cards, it will support 2GB cards too. Anything larger than that would go kaput

I am planning to get the Lowrance Expedition C basic package. PLus package does not interest me as I dont plan to use it much in the US. Since I will be using it in India, where I live, and for where there are hardly any maps available, is there some software which will let me create custom maps. How much does it cost for the lowrance. I know about mapcreate etc., but they come with US maps which are useless to me mostly. So is it possible to create maps from waypoints and tracks. Suppose I use google earth to see the track on satellite image, and ?I construct a rough map from the same since I know the city well. Are there free third party tools available for Lowrance to do the mapping and stuff like that? I know Garmin has a lot of support on this forum, but its outside my budget. So I will go for the lowrance

Thanks people, that clears the doubts. Since good reception is a necessary criteria(trees and such), I will go for the expedition C. Not going for the Garmin CSx because its way way over my budget! I havent done much online shopping here in US. I normally look at reselleratings.com for store reviews. But many GPS stores have just 10-15 reviews which are easy to rig. So could you point me to a few stores of repute which offer good prices on the expedition C?

I dont mind greyscape, but isnt the map and music 16 channel? Also how come there is no info about in on the website?

Hi, After lot of help from this forum, I have decided that lowrance map and music or the lowrance Expedition C would be what I need. Both have the same features but differ in price by around 70$ with the map and music being the cheaper one. I went to lowrance.com but they dont have any details on the map and music range. So guys could you tell me whats the difference between the two. Is one a newer version thats why it costs more or is it actually worth it? Also could you point me to any site which provides the detailed specs of map and music. I dont trust the shopping sites.

Sorry for bumping up the thread so soon, but by now I have almost finalized on a lowrance ifinder. But I am unable to see whats the difference between ifinder map and music and expedition C? Is this a processor change which will enable better reception or just minor features change so that it can be sold higher. I could not find Map and music on the lowrance.com website, so I assume its been discontinued, but when I go to online stores the ifinder expedition C is mostly out of stock whereas map and music is available for much lower price

I am back guys Searched the forums and the view which comes across is 1. you got moolah, go for the GPSMAP 60csx 2. You are willing to compromize a little : Explorist 600, but its expensive too 3. You want everything, dont mind flimsy rubber or hard to read screens, ifinder expidition C is the answer Now I also searched about this. Looks like I can use freely available tools to convert track and waypoint etc., files to .kml files for viewing on google earth. Also it does everything which garmin and magellen do, well thats also great Only one gripe. I did a lot of search about the "5 card limit". What is it. Does it mean that I can use only 5 differernt SD cards for maps. Lets say I dont have any maps, just waypoints and tracks created by me, then also I need to use just 5 different SD cards? Well 5 is a big number, I can get a 1GB card(have a blank 256MB card for now) What about 2GB SD cards, some people say that 2GB are not supported(the sales team definately says that, but then they say anything above 256MB is not supported!) So it looks that at around 254$ this is the unit to have. Suppose I want all the features but not the color screen? Then what do I go for. Many online sites sell this MAP and Music ifinder. I did not find this on lowrance site. Is this discontinued? On the websites the price is a lot lower than expidition C, but features look to be the same(Barometer/Thermometer/compass etc.,)

Lowrance Explorer $170 at Amazon.com , $156 at PlanetGPS. checked the specs, it says # 1,000 waypoints/1,000 event markers/100 routes Lowrance Expedition C $235 at Rogue Wave Marine checked the specs, it says # 1,000 waypoints/1,000 event markers/100 routes For all of them. Does this mean that this is the internal memory limitation? # Up to 100 savable and retraceable plot trails, with up to 10,000 points in any trail The second one also, internal momory limitation? The Expedition C is out of stock! Could you shed some light on the reception capabilities in trees etc., Also how good is third party support. Can I convert lowrance files into .kml files for viewing in google earth?

The number of routes/waypoints is limited. Thats the issue. I wont have many maps in my SD card as where I live there are no maps, its the waypoints and routes which will do all the mapping for me! Imaging being in some place like antartica where more the number of waypoints to guide you to your destination, the better! Limited by what? They hold 1,000 waypoints in memory and many thousands more on the card. The number of waypoints it can hold from as far as I can tell , is only limited by the size of the memory card. wow, I was not aware of that. I looked at the specs on lowrance site it told me that only maps etc., can be stored on the card and not the waypoints, like you have in garmin, where you can store POIs on the card and not waypoints. This thread revealed to me 2 things. 1. meridian gold can handle more than 128MB cards which is a good thing. So it comes in reckoning and its a great unit 2. Lowrance can store waypoints and tracks on the SD card, I used to think they can store waypoints only in the internal CD 3. Garmin can store tracks on SD card but no on field storage. This will take a while to figure out. So now I must narrow my search. I want the cost to be around 200$. So I have the explorist 400 which is pretty basic, the meridian gold, any ideas about that? Then there are the garmin GPSmap series which is more than 300$. How about the etrex series, will it allow me to have waypoints/tracks on the SD card? Do they have a SD card facility. If not, I guess garmin is out due to the high price. Maybe later when I upgrade I will go to 350$ range, but for my first GPS unit the lower the better!

The number of routes/waypoints is limited. Thats the issue. I wont have many maps in my SD card as where I live there are no maps, its the waypoints and routes which will do all the mapping for me! Imaging being in some place like antartica where more the number of waypoints to guide you to your destination, the better!

Thanks! Actually accuracy of the elevation is not really necessary, so 50-60 meters here or there is okay. What is very important is something which tells me where north is when I am standing still, and ablity to create waypoints and routes to a level which is limited by only th memory card capacity. This is the feature which led me to strike of garmin.

Actually any accurate compass is fine, need not be 3-axis. Worst comes to worse I can get a 1$ pocket compass which will be accurate. The real problem is the limit on no of waypoints and tracks since they cant be stored on SD card in garmin

Hi, I am a complete newbie to the world of GPS systems. I was looking for a GPS around 200-250$ range, and if there is something really good avaible will be willing to go above it, but the lower the better. MY needs are a little different I did a lot of search and came up with the following choices 1. Magellen meridian series 2. MAgellen explorist 400/600 (500 just has color, so I dont need it) 3. Garmin etrex series Now lets come to my requirements. I will be using the GPS on US roads while walking/cycling/driving. The former two will be done more than the last. So having some sort of route planning is a good thing, but not necessary. For example in cities where the streets are right angled and you can choose any of the routes, it should have a feature where I set a "destination point". The unit should constant point me in that direction irrespective of the route. Something like if you are in wilderness and you want to reach a coordinate. It should also save the track. Now lot of my driving will be in India(since I live there), and there are no maps for most places. Since I know the city around and there are almost an infinite number of routes, I want the ability where it just points me in a general direction and I keep heading towards that approx. So It should definately have the ablitiy of setting multiple waypoints long, really really long tracks too. Most have like max 2000 points/track irrespective of how big a SD card you put in. Moreover the Garmin series has microSD in which you can store the tracks, and not the waypoints and POI. This is what has put me off garmin. I will be in a place where there are no street maps and I will be navigating by lots of waypoints when I am in situations where I dont know the way. Also there will be some off road driving where the only way of getting to a place is through a waypoint. I was wondering wether you could set POI/Waypoint in the explorist series by just giving a latitute and longitude, or you atually have to go there and then click on set waypoint or something like that? Another feature which is needed is a reasonably accurate compass. I have heard that most GPS have compas which work only if you move. And many have electronic ones which work erratically. So I need a compass, need to ne three axis. There there is the Barometer and Temparature stuff. Its not strictly nessecary, thats the reason I was thinking of the explorist 400 rather than the 600. I read that in GPS systems you do not need the barometric altimeter to know your height, as it shows the approx elevation anyways. Is this true? Also color is not necessary, a 16 level grey scale with do. Same is for automatic routing. Now lets get to the non GPS related features. Interfacing with computer. I need something for which there is lot of third party support. For example I can convert Magellen track files to google earth .kml files and see my route in the satellite view. I read this somewhere in forums that many people see their tracks in google earth like this, and you dont even need premium edition since you are not hooking up with google earth, just providing it the kml file. Do lowrance etc., support that? Is there a way by which I can locate a place on google earth or some other satellite imagery software, once I have the latitude/longitude I should be able to just feed that into my GPS and set a waypoint/destination etc., Direct interface is not necessary, even if third party tools can do the same it will be good Also in meridian series I belive the size of SD card is limited. I have a 256MB SD card which cant be used in a meridian GOLD/platinum I reckon or will it work as a 128MB card? So guys thats my long post I will summarize 5 means really must 1 means not necessary Color screen - 3 Barometer/Temparature - 3 Elevation data - 4 Compass(non movement) - 4 Unlimited tracks waypoints etc.,(SD card should be able to store tracks waypoints and not just maps) - 5 Route planning - 3 Sensivity - 4 Lower the price the better - 5