[Explorist 400 Starting Up Slow]

Well, maybe I can explain the difference between a cold and a warm start. In a cold start the GPSr doesn't know where it is and what satellites to listen to. So finding them and locking to them takes some time. A warm start is when it hasn't been switched of for a long time and it can find the same satellites as last time. Knowing what satellites to listen to takes less time than to find them anew.

 

Hope this helps

Bengt B

[Is The Site Slow Or Is It Dropping Requests?]

Often, very often, whan I click on a button or a link geocaching.com doesn't answer. If I instead stop the current request and try it again I get a rather swift reply. Could it be that geocaching.com is actually dropping requests? I initially thought that it was only slow. Being slow is by far much better than dropping requests. Any insights?

[Does Bad Batteries Affect The Reception Quality?]

Today when out geocaching I thought that the coordinates where all several meters off. Shortly thereafter my Magellan Explorist 100 told me that the battery level was low. Does the battery level affect the quality of reception or the accuracy of the GPSr?

[Is My Magellan 760 Of Any Use In Geocaching?]

I cannot say anything about the Magellan Roadmate700, however I did buy a Navman iCN 530 recently and tried using it for geocaching. It didn't work out good. The navigator knows about cars and roads. Cars are normally on the road and very rarely in the woods. I have to move a good 30 meters into the woos before my navigator realises that I have moved away from the car. It also couln't say anything on how far from the coordinates I was.

 

Therefor a bought the cheepest hand held GPSr I could find: Magellan Explorist 100 and it works like a charm. Check your navigators performance off road and then decide.

 

Hope this helps

Bengt B

[Is The Nuvi Viable For Geocaching]

I don't know anything about the prices in the US. But in Sweden I just bought an eXplorist 100 and a Navman 530. These two together costs less than a 60csx and that it not counting the cost of the maps. My Navman 530 is great on the roads, but not as good in the woods. The car/marker doesn't move from the road until I move at least 30 meter into the wood.

 

I believe that a navigator for the car is better in the car than a GPSr with navigational skills and maps. A handheld GPSr is better for geocaching than the car navigator.

[Explorist 210 Or 400]

I have neither and I have only been geocaching for two weeks, but here is my two cents worth:

 

If you only do casual caching then the 210 would probably be enough. I have a 100 and it get's me where I want to go. If you do extensive caching or want to save all found caches in the GPSr then the 400 is probably a better fit, due to the extra memory. Both models have a computer connection (my 100 hasn't) so I would think that the computer would be a better place to save all found caches. Standard batteries are probably better than Li-ion when you forget to charge them. It's easier to find standard batteries than a charger when away from home. The extra battery clip is too easy to forget to bring with you.

 

If I have understood correctly all of the Magellan GPSr of today have the same receiver (GPS chip) so the accuracy would be the same for these two units.

 

If price matters the 210 would probably be the best choice, if not then you will get more features from the 400. If you need the extra features for caching is uncertain.

 

/BengtB

 

I own both. The 400 is my primary unit and I picked up the 210 recently for $95 after rebate to act as a backup. They are pretty much the same unit, but here are the differences.

• The 210 has 22MB of memory. The 400 can take an SD card, so the amount of maps you can store on the receiver is only limited by the size of the card.
  
• The 400 has a user-replaceable Li-ion battery. It can also use a battery clip that holds 3 AAAs. The 210 runs off 2 AAs.
  
• The 400 has newer firmware. You can mark geocaches as found on the 400 but you cannot do that on the 210 yet. The 210 has Geocaching POIs but they're not as useful as on the 400.
  
• Some people get confused by the parallel file structure on the 400. Maps, POIs, and tracks can be stored on both the internal memory and the SD card. If you know how to manage files between different drives on your computer, you should be able to understand how stuff is stored on SD-equipped eXplorists.
  

Otherwise, the display is the same. The buttons are the same. Menus are the same. What will be the determining factor for you is if you want to carry a bunch of street or topo maps on the receiver and if you want to use a Li-ion battery instead of AAs.