Cash-n-Dash

Update on my GPS in the last week.....Magellan's tech support had no clue, and other options suggested here in this forum and by local cachers have made the unit worse, and now Magellan has declared the unit fried. They have given me 2 offers: a refurbished Explorist for 75 bucks,or a new Triton 500 for 150 dollars. Should I take one of the offers or non of the above?

lee you are correct. The service dept at Magellan still thinks its a driver issue, even when I explained it had problems without the connection. I haven't unzipped and tried the driver yet.

Magellan support suggested I download the latest drivers for Vista for this unit. I did download this to my desktop. Now what is the next step I need to do to update this? It is in zip format. Cash-n-Dash

The reset hasn't helped, and I have tried to sync with every computer in the house. (3 of them) . The thing that baffles me is that the battery shows I'm hooked on external power when clearly I'm not. I'm not sure if I would get anywhere with Magellan with an 18 month old unit that I had never registered.

The reset hasn't helped, and I have tried to sync with every computer in the house. (3 of them) . The thing that baffles me is that the battery shows I'm hooked on external power when clearly I'm not. I'm not sure if I would get anywhere with Magellan with an 18 month old unit that I had never registered.

In the last month my Explorist will no longer download any caches from Geocache manager, and also the battery says it is on external power when it is not. When I turn the unit on, it says it is in USB mode and I have to switch to Power only mode just to get it unstuck. This unit is acting very sick. Any suggestions? I'm about to throw this unit under a bus, which is only 1 1/2 years old..

She is on in about 5 minutes...Lets root for the geocacher....lol

I guess no one knows her here, unless she doesn't get out often, but it sure sounds like many of you would like to meet her!

You live in Amarillo TX. Come to Seattle. It rains a lot here. If you were using your Treo outside in the weather it would be dead by now. Waterproofing is not just for the battery or SD card slot. I, for one, would want the unit to be waterproof if I am outside geocaching. I am not sure what the issues are with the battery compartment but it sounds like it is not installed correctly. The compartment door has never been flush or sealed, even before I have put any battery inside (either the triple aaa's or rechargeable). And true Amarillo only gets 20 inches a rain a year, and only about 2 inches since last summer!

Those are swivel mounts for your car.....what does it have to do with charging and downloading? I am asking about a cradle that the unit pops in to charge and download, not a swivel mount for the car.

1)Not sure why you have such a problem as I have found the connection to be simple and quick. As for downloading to the unit, I have never had a problem 2) Again, the battery door on mine closes flush every time and removing the battery is a simple process, It does fit tightly in the compartment and will only come out one way but I have never destroyed or damaged a battery in removal or installation 3)Again no problem... I don't want card slots exposed to the elements... It's a good place for leaks! I'm not sure why you are having so many problems with yours, I've had my Explorist 400 for some time now and have found it to be a good dependable unit that has caused me no problems at all. And yes, I have gotten it very wet and am still using it 1. It takes my screw connection to take forever to thread and connect, and its been that way since its been out of the box. I know the design is for waterproofing reasons, but for geocaching, waterproof isn't a big feature that I need. 2. It has never been flush for me. If you can see daylight thru the cover, then its definately not flush and waterproof. Then I don't care about waterproof, but It would be nice if this thing actually looked like it closed fully. I have a battery in there now that I guarantee that it won't come out without some damage. 3. My treo cell phone has a card slot, and has been out in the elements, with no problems. Water resistant is good, but waterproof is not as important. Are you folks swimming with these units? I have never been caught in a sudden rainstorm while geocaching, and I think my pocket would work if I did. 1. I did strip out the connection on my explorist 600, but REI swapped it for a new unit (gotta love REI). Now I use the cradle mount on my desktop. Just pop the unit in whan I get home- no problems charging and downloading. 2. I have the rechargable battery, not the AAAs, so the fit is not a problem and the cover fits tight and flush. 3. I very, very rarely remove the SD card. I don't need to take it out to load it, so the location dosn't bother me. As for water, I have taken the unit canoeing (managed to keep it dry), and caching in the rain (it didn't stay dry). So water profing is important, but the unit has done fine in that regard. Where do you find a cradle for these that you can charge and download? I have looked everywhere!

1)Not sure why you have such a problem as I have found the connection to be simple and quick. As for downloading to the unit, I have never had a problem 2) Again, the battery door on mine closes flush every time and removing the battery is a simple process, It does fit tightly in the compartment and will only come out one way but I have never destroyed or damaged a battery in removal or installation 3)Again no problem... I don't want card slots exposed to the elements... It's a good place for leaks! I'm not sure why you are having so many problems with yours, I've had my Explorist 400 for some time now and have found it to be a good dependable unit that has caused me no problems at all. And yes, I have gotten it very wet and am still using it 1. It takes my screw connection to take forever to thread and connect, and its been that way since its been out of the box. I know the design is for waterproofing reasons, but for geocaching, waterproof isn't a big feature that I need. 2. It has never been flush for me. If you can see daylight thru the cover, then its definately not flush and waterproof. Then I don't care about waterproof, but It would be nice if this thing actually looked like it closed fully. I have a battery in there now that I guarantee that it won't come out without some damage. 3. My treo cell phone has a card slot, and has been out in the elements, with no problems. Water resistant is good, but waterproof is not as important. Are you folks swimming with these units? I have never been caught in a sudden rainstorm while geocaching, and I think my pocket would work if I did.

Why I HATE my Magellan Explorist 500. 1. The screw connection is the stupidest thing in the world. The one I have is next to impossible to connect, and once it does, downloading is a crapshoot! Sometimes It works, and sometimes it don't. Whats wrong witha a normal, plug in type USB not unlike an MP3 player? I noticed the Triton has the same crappy type connection! 2. Battery compartment suffers from terrible design. The battery door never closes flush and the 3-aaa battery compartment does not fit well. I bought a couple of lithium rechargables online, and once you put them in, you will never be able to get them out without destroying them! I even put a ribbon underneath, and still no luck. Just poor design. 3. SD card is behind the battery compartment. If you can't get the battery, how do you expect to get the SD card out as well? Whats wrong with a pop-in type slot like a camera or cellphone? My next GPS will not be a Magellan, unless they learn how to design a unit that is well designed for easy use and connectivity...... End of angry rant!!

I was looking thru the Survivor bios and Tracy lits her hobbies as geocaching. Does anyone know her? bio

I finally had a sucessful sync this morning on my laptop. I tried connecting the unit first to usb cable then to the computer and it seemed to work. I had a successful sync, but I tried the exact same thing 10 min later and it didn't work. I hate the screw connection and think this might cause the inconsistancy in the connection. Now............How do I get the battery pack out of the unit without ruining another one? It fits so tight you can't pull it out, and the last one was ruined when I pried it out with a screwdriver. I want to get to the SD card without ruining the battery. Any suggestions?

Mine does not show up as a drive when I plug into either USB port. My computer is windows 2000 office, not XP. Does not explain why this worked 2 months ago, but not now.

I installed Geocache manager on my other computer and still would not transfer. I went to troubleshooting and it mentions to check if the drivers are installed, and they are ok. I also put the sd card in a reader I just purchased, and that did not work either. The unit is in data transfer mode as well. Still not working. I had no problem syncing a couple of months ago, but now I am baffled. On a related note, what is the best way to get the rechargeble lithium battery out of the unit? It fits so tight that I tore one up just getting it out of the unit! The GSAK I downloaded requires me to pay for it....I don't see a free version. I could not find a cradle on eBay. Where did you find those for 8 dollars?

I don't have a card reader or a cradle. I took a break from geocaching for a few weeks and now downloading is a problem. I did have GSAK but never really used it because I had no problem with this, plus I don't want to pay for it. it says " Magellan geocache manager is unable to detect any explorist. Check to see if the USB cable is connected at both ends. Check to see if the unit is powered on." I've done both...still not working.

Lately with my Explorist 500, I cannot get my caches from the geocache manager to transfer to the unit. I get an error message that the transfer failed and the program cannot detect the unit. I am connecting with the USB that screws on the back of the unit, which I hate. Anybody have a clue what would be going wrong?

You can also just drag it to the desktop and then drop it in GCManger. Thanks! That idea worked perfectly!

When I do a normal PQ or a cache along a route PQ I can have the option of sending it in a loc. only format for me to dump into the Magellan geocache manager. When I perform a PQ for a bookmark list however, it does not give me the option of loc. only format, and it arrives in my mail as a zip format, which is useless for my geocache manager to download into my Magellan 500. How can I fix this? I have bookmarked certain caches for a Las Vegas and Dallas trip next week, but I can't recieve this in a non-zip format. Help!!!!!!

This was in my hometown of Amarillo. At least the bomb squad had a great sense of humor about it. I think the man collecting stray golf balls was upset because he wanted to use the ammo can to collect the golf balls and he realized the ammo can was chained up!! Like someone said before, why would someone think a chain link fence bordering a golf course would be a target for a bomb? Too much paranoia for me.

What happened to the state level maps? I like to pull up a whole state at once and scan to whole state for caches, since I'm in an isolated area. When I do a search by state, then click on the map icon, I get nothing. Please bring this back. I think the new maps are useless since I can't zoom out over 15 miles. We need to have both options.

I don't mind these kind of hides, but the gray area here to me is..... When you drill into a telephone pole or other structure to mount an electrical box cache, could it be considered vandalism or defacing public property?(unless permission was granted) What about removing a fence post cap to hide a cache? Just wondering........

Roadside cross caches are somewhat common in my area. Iv'e have visited two of them. In both cases, I had to take apart the cross to get to the container. The cross was put there by a geocacher, not as a true roadside memorial. The hider added some history about roadside crosses and their significance.