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Magellan Vs. Garmin


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Ok, since I was posting in some other forums and this topic came up, I figured I would open it (agian I'm sure) for debate. I would ask to keep the debate friendly and try to support your claims with some fact or piece of information. (We don't need 100 replies that say "I like <favorite>. They're the best, forget <not favorite>.")

 

I prefer the Magellans based possibly on some outdated perceptions. I have a Magellan 315 and have tried to follow the new ones through the years. I have noticed that it seems to be a very similar comparison to "IBM PC vs. Mac" if you follow computers. The Garmins are all very pretty, their interfaces are pretty too. They are very "map oriented". It uses the map as its base of operations. Any menus that give you detailed data are popups over the map. If not a map then some other graphical goodies. The Magellans seem to be very data oriented (at least with the exception of the eXplorers, but I'll get to that.). They have lots of navigation screens with nothing but data. Or maybe a graphic widget, and a bunch of data. I like that, it's like having a car with lots of gauges on the dash, instead of just the more simple to use single warning lights.

 

Now the eXporists puzzle me. :lol: For all intents and purposes they seem to just be Magellan brand Garmins. It seems in the past each company's products filled a niche, going after users with slightly different tastes. Magellan seems to be trying to take over both sides possibly?!?

 

What do other people think?

Edited by guido666
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I have a garmin 60cs and I went caching a couple of weeks ago with a friend who has a magellan, sportrak I think. We found 4 caches, 2 each. The only difference we could see between the 2 units was that he walked right past the caches and had to come back. Not by much only 20 ft or so but we would get zero readings at very different spots. It worked out well because we then walked toward each other and usually the cache was right between us. It was a very enjoyable experience having a different brand of GPSr in use, my usual caching partner uses my ols etrex and we end up close to each other but not to the cache. It seemed to us like the garmins and magellans just have opposite zero readings that happen to work well together.

 

Other than the slight boomarang problem, and it wasn't really a problem, I think magellans are fine units. I do like the way my 60cs fits in my hand though, as well as it comes with a clip to hook it to the sternum strap on my backpack.

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Ford vs. Chevy

 

Pepsi vs. Coke

 

East Coast vs. West Coast :D

 

 

 

Garmin vs. Magellan

 

Pick the one that you like and go geocaching with it!

Fords & Chevy's both suck. Chrysler rules! :lol:

 

Pepsi or Coke? Nah neither. Beer's the real thirst quencher :lol:

 

East or West coast? Hey I'm Canadian.. NORTH is where it's @ :D

 

Garmin or Magellan? Nah,, pass. Everyone in the know knows Lowrance rules GPSr :lol:

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...Now the eXporists puzzle me.  :lol:  For all intents and purposes they seem to just be Magellan brand Garmins.  It seems in the past each company's products filled a niche, going after users with slightly different tastes.  Magellan seems to be trying to take over both sides possibly?!?

 

What do other people think?

I think the explorists were targeting geocachers and other casual users. Their firmware and even the math behind your position seems to be different from other Magellans.

 

At the time I got my GPS I didn't know jack about Garmin, Magellan, Lowrance, Brunton and other GPS makers. What I did know was that the GPS V was the cream of the crop, came with maps and autorouted so that's the one I got. Since then I've learned the interface is easier. The screen resolutuion was better than the Magellans that I saw and it just worked better for how I liked to geocache. I flat out would not have been able to use a Magellan Sport Track Pro (the Magellan I have access to) the same way.

 

Since then there are things I've come to like about both GPS's but would still buy a Garmin over a Magellan.

Edited by Renegade Knight
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Only ever used a Garmin Vista C, never even touched a Magellan. Just wanted to comment on the bias of the OP towards Magellans. From the tone and wording it equates idiot lights to Garmin and serious gauges to Magellans, etc. Sounds to me like your intent was to just start a debate.

Sorry not playing today.

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Yes, the intent was to start a debate (hence the saying "the big debate" in the subtitle). There is nothing wrong with debate. I have never once heard those lights called anything else, and had I not called them that you probably wouldn't have known what I was talking about. But just for you, I edited the post. If you're just going to post that you're not going to post, then please just don't post.

 

I also changed some other parts that picky linquists could construe as biased. But just to warn anyone else that it isn't clear to, I am biased (we all are). And my bias is toward Magellan. But being as how everyone owns diffferent GPSs and knows how to use theirs well, others are in the best place to give opinions and explain why theirs might be the best.

Edited by guido666
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From the tone and wording it equates idiot lights to Garmin and serious gauges to Magellans, etc.

Funny I thought the oposite, Garmins have alot more serious navigation pages like an EHSI that can simultaneously show bearing and course information to the same or even different waypoints plus completely user configurable data field pages, what order you want the pages to display..etc What does magellan have, a compass and a needle pointer? Do they even have an HSI ?

Edited by wickedsprint
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HSI shows a course deviation needle superimposed over your ground track compass card Really quite wonderful for course intercepts. The aviation units also have a bearing bug that will show realtime bearing to a waypoint at the same time, in case you leave your desired course and need a direct bearing right away. Here is a pic of one in an airplane, most garmin handhelds have a variation of this.

 

HSI-esm.jpg

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In the above example if we turn to make the needle vertical, we will be parallel our desired course and be right of course. It shows us right now on a good intercept to get back on course, then put the needle back to the vertical to stay on course. In aircraft it represents heading so sometimes keeping course shows the head of the needle off to the side due to a crosswind, this is your crab angle. On a gps it shows ground track, which means you need to keep it vertical, do this and the cdi will stay centered and you will remain on course. You can set up a multiple leg route and fly the whole thing with this screen since it will move the needle to the desired groundtrack at each turn, so you keep the needle centered for all legs as it switches and you stay on your route. To put an HSI in a plane can cost more than some cars, to have this available in a handheld is amazing. Here is a screenshot of a garmin HSI. Right now it shows us on desired groundtrack, on course and the bearing bug is centered showing that we are on the original course line. The needle will ALWAYS be on 347 since 347 degrees was the original course line, if you turn, it gets displaced as in the displaced HSI pic I showed. pt-GPSMAP96CLarge05.jpg

Edited by wickedsprint
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As to the distinction made in the OP, I like pictures. I'm a visual learner. I like data too, but not when I'm on the move, whether driving or hiking. I think the maps and nav arrows are a great way to communicate information. Based upon my very limited experience with Magellan units, I really think both brands offer all features. Its is more a matter of what pops up first, and what you have to dig for.

 

I can't imaging operating a computer without a graphical interface and a mouse. If we were still typing DOS command prompts to get things done, PCs would not be in every home. So Bill Gates had to borrow the graphical interface of Apple to get users into the main stream (and PC architecture meant that it took forever to get the clock speed needed to do it).

 

You have to adapt to what users want or get Beta-maxed!

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I wasn't going to post to this thread, but then I read the thread about Magellan's customer 'service'. Last year, I had a car wreck which resulted in a missing antenna and battery door on my 3+. I bought a new antenna and sent Garmin an email regarding the battery door. A week later, I had a new door at no charge.

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I also changed some other parts that picky linquists could construe as biased....[jump]  .... But being as how everyone owns diffferent GPSs......

You want to see picky linguists? I'll show you a picky linguist (you wanted debate, right?).

 

"Being as how..." is something my college writing instructor would consider grounds for an immediate "F".

 

Instead, use "Since" or "Given that".

 

Now, just to confirm, you wanted debate....?

 

LOL. No offense meant. Take it in the spirit of this thread.

Edited by jacques0
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You want to see picky linguists?  I'll show you a picky linguist (you wanted debate, right?).

 

 

Now, just to confirm, you wanted debate....?

 

LOL.  No offense meant.  Take it in the spirit of this thread.

I assume you meant that you wanted TO debate or A debate, since we are ribbing each other. LOL is not a word, linguists don't argue in acronyms. I suck at english(only took the minimum classes to graduate with my crim degree) so I expect a funny response since I am sure I broke all sorts of rules. I just learned last week a period is always followed by two spaces..imagine that.

Edited by wickedsprint
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I also changed some other parts that picky linquists could construe as biased....[jump]  .... But being as how everyone owns diffferent GPSs......

You want to see picky linguists? I'll show you a picky linguist (you wanted debate, right?).

 

"Being as how..." is something my college writing instructor would consider grounds for an immediate "F".

 

Instead, use "Since" or "Given that".

 

Now, just to confirm, you wanted debate....?

 

LOL. No offense meant. Take it in the spirit of this thread.

Why do you people insist on posting about posting? Please don't. If you don't have something to contribute about either Magellan, Garmin, or any other brand of GPS, then I would appreciate if you start your own topic where you can debate the nature of debating.

 

As for this HSI, it sounds very interesting. So can you be "going to" one waypoint, then tell it a second? And then it will show you both? Or is this some cousing of "cross track error"? Because I'm still very unclear about how this works and what it does, since I've never had the fortune to use it.

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After rereading the HSI posts a few times I believe that my Magellan 315 does do this. In the picture below you will see a picture of the compass nav screen. The small internal arrow points in the direction you are going, the larger arrow outside that points in the direction you "need" to go. The compass ring rotates to continue pointing where you are going.

 

compass2.jpg

Edited by guido666
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FWIW:

 

Having just switched from a Meridian to a 60C, and done my first set of caches with it, I'll give my first tentative impressions for those who may be considering the same choices:

 

Both units do a fine job, accomplishing what they were designed to do.

 

The 60C(S) display is spectacularly good and readable under any conditions, despite being conserdable smaller than the Meridian's. (to be fair, this is the main reason I made the trade, I have a heck of a time reading the black on dirty greenish grey display the the B&W units use. Not a criticism of Magellan, they have their color screens too and I could have bought one of those, but WOW, really like that hi-res display!) I never considered the eXplorist series, though, since they aren't very usable for boating (not compatible with Magellan's own BlueNav charts, what kind of a marketing decision is THAT?).

 

60C is packed with nice features, while the Meridian Color is pretty basic for about the same price.

 

The main reason I switched was to reduce the impact of "boomeranging", which drove me nuts with the Meridian. On cache hunts today with both units, the Garmin did take me straight the the cache location and stick there, while Magellan wanted me to go ~100 beyond.

 

On the plus side for the Meridian, it never lost lock, while the 60C lost it about eleventy seven times while walking through moderate tree cover. I know the Garminites claim that the Magellans just don't report loss of lock as quickly, but I don't think thats a legitimate claim, since it continues to show track and coords change appropriately as I walk along (even indoors) while the Garmin is off in brain-dead land every time a medium sized bird flies overhead (hyperbole, of course, but apt.)

 

I was disappointed in the amount of detail map data I could fit into the limited 60C memory. I couldn't even get all of Michigan on board, let alone the multistate coverage I really need for travel. Looks like I'll have to carry my laptop along whenever I travel so I can switch maps. I carry all of North America in the 1gB SD chip on the Meridian, so I never need a laptop. The 60C would be about my ideal if it had expandable memory.

 

The Garmin unit just offers a lot more capability, although you have to hunt through several nested menus to find it sometimes. Turn by turn autorouting is MUCH nicer, with auto-recalculation.

 

Magellan's DirectRoute software seems to have it all over Garmins CitySelect in some respects. In DirectRoute, you can choose any size region you want to send to your GPSr, while Garmin makes you choose preselected regions that may or may not fit your needs, or your GPSr's memory. But that's minor stuff.

 

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the 60c and feel that the additional features are worth the loss in memory and satellite reception.

 

Too bad I have to tie a life jacket to it for use on the boat. Waterproof is only semi-useful if it doesn't float.

 

My 2 cents. Rebuttals welcomed.

 

FiddlinFool

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Wow, thanks for the awesome info. The "boomerang" effect you speak of, is that where the GPS shows the destination beyond where it really is, and you overshoot, then it corrects and you come back? I just have never heard anyone use the term except on these forums.

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A good way to see just how finicky a magellan unit is about losing satellite locks involves some screen customizing.

 

On the map screen and the "HSI" screen, replace one of the customizable fields with an EPE readout. Then pay attention to this. You will see the EPE go from a reasonable 10-20 feet to upwards of 200-600 feet. You will also note that your backtrack has almost nothing to do with the reality of where you actually hiked.

 

Magellan's answer to all of this was to reinstall the satellite almanac. Now instead of finding its location within a minute of startup outside, I get to wait upwards of 15-30 minutes, and then I can watch the satellite status screen blank out as the unit decides whether or not it wants to play today.

 

No answers from magellan, but they did send me a carry pouch and belt clip for my sportrak map paperweight. Nifty but useless, as is the unit.

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That is some story. It alsmost sounds like one of those bogus "send this to 10 people to get good luck" emails that go around.

 

Does anyone know if my old 315 is susceptable to this boomerang effect. I've used it on only 4 caches, but have had it for nearly 10 years now and used it literally thousands of times. Zero problems. Is there something new in Meridians? Or am I really experiencing it and just don't know.

 

P.S. I'm glad this thread is finally settling down into some seriously good GPS talk.

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After rereading the HSI posts a few times I believe that my Magellan 315 does do this.  In the picture below you will see a picture of the compass nav screen.  The small internal arrow points in the direction you are going, the larger arrow outside that points in the direction you "need" to go.  The compass ring rotates to continue pointing where you are going.

 

compass2.jpg

Close, an HSI shows numeric track, crosstrack error and with my 96C even bearing to the next waypoint all visually. Your magellan is showing desired bearing, with actual groundtrack in rough numbers since it does not show it on a detailed compass card. The arrow on an HSI will ALWAYS read the same course and show it relative to your track, and the middle of the arrows body will displace to either side to show crosstrack error. For example, if your desired groundtrack (course line drawn on the map) is north/south and you make a turn to the east, the head of the arrow will be at the 9'0clock, the tail at the 3 oclock and the middle of the arrow will start to get displaced towards the bottom of the screen, if you turn back north to paralell the course, the head of needle will return to 12'oclock, but the bar is way over to the left, you have to turn west ish to start seeing the bar come back to join the rest of the needle, when it joins you are on the course line but not the right heding, so now turn back north. I hope this is not confusing you too much.

Edited by wickedsprint
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FiddlinFool -- sounds like you need a 76C! :lol: Double the memory, and it floats!

 

And speaking of the Magellan vs Garmin debate... I couldn't find a Magellan unit that had all the features I wanted, that I got in my 76C. And I grew up on the GPS III, and know how durable the Garmins are, so I decided to stick with Garmin. But I'd love to try a Magellan sometime, just to compare.

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So a visual representation of cross track error is really what is missing, since I could set any of the 4 display data to XTE?

 

PixelMan, what "features" are you referring to? Some others have made some of these claims for either brand, but could you specifically list the features you were looking for?

 

People keep bringing up durability. I don't think anyone is really questioning durability on either side, but discussion is always good. The only durability issue I can really remember is people mentioning that Magellan SportTracks crack around the screws or something. Does anyone else have any opinions on durability? I think I would trust either company's lines equally well in the durability category.

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As for this HSI, it sounds very interesting. So can you be "going to" one waypoint, then tell it a second? And then it will show you both? Or is this some cousing of "cross track error"? Because I'm still very unclear about how this works and what it does, since I've never had the fortune to use it.

On my 96C yes, but usually it shows bearing amd course info to the same waypoint, unless you set it up to do an approach, the heading bug will show bearing to the final approach fix in the published approach for whatever runway you choose while the HSI will align itself to thepublished final approach course, so in that sense you are navigating with reference to two points in space. The heading bug is like having the bearing needle, except only the head of it. The 60C still does an HSI, just without the heading bug. If you have a route with multiple legs and turns at each waypoint, the HSI will align to the desired course, but won't read up and down untily ou make the correct turn.

 

For a fantastic article on how an HSI works, go to www.cockpitgps.com

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From the tone and wording it equates idiot lights to Garmin and serious gauges to Magellans, etc.

Funny I thought the oposite, Garmins have alot more serious navigation pages like an EHSI that can simultaneously show bearing and course information to the same or even different waypoints plus completely user configurable data field pages, what order you want the pages to display..etc What does magellan have, a compass and a needle pointer? Do they even have an HSI ?

The Meridian Platinum does something similar with its floating 3-axis compass. I used to have images posted that showed North, COG, and bearing to the waypoint. Included in two customizable fields, you can have distance to the projected waypoint and total distance left in the trip if you have multiple waypoints in a route. I use this page exclusively when I'm within 300 feet of the target. It's very handy for live triangulation.

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Now the eXporists puzzle me.  For all intents and purposes they seem to just be Magellan brand Garmins.

 

This is not correct, You will not find a Garmin Hand held in which you can expand the memory wth an SD card, which you can do with the explorist 400, 500 and 600.

The exlorsist also give you the option is storing waypoints in a file system, you can have several thousand way pints store in files that can be broken down to regions, cache type, cache ratting and so on, this is also a feature that is not offer in a Garmin.

You can also store more maps on an exlorist with the SD card.

The Magnetic compass in the explorist 600 is traxial which means you do not have to hole the explorsit 600 level for the compass to be correct.

 

Will any of this make it easier to find a cach, No.

 

Wow, thanks for the awesome info. The "boomerang" effect you speak of, is that where the GPS shows the destination beyond where it really is, and you overshoot, then it corrects and you come back? I just have never heard anyone use the term except on these forums
.

 

The explorsit do not have a boomerang effect, the OP is asking about the explorist and not early magellans.

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It's all good information, new or old.

 

An interesting [off topic] thing about waterproofness... ever since I've had my Magellan 315, and saw how easy it was for the company to make

it waterproof, I wondered why they don't do the same for cell phones.

They are basically the exact same thing; some electronics, battery, speaker, screen, buttons, external connector; only in a slightly smaller package. I even called Motorola once and asked them if they were planning to make any waterproof models, and they gave me some lame answer about it costing more to waterproof it then the whole rest of the phone cost. I called their bluff and explained to them that my GPS was waterproof, along with practically every other model around at the time, and that my GPS cost less then my cell phone did. At that point they blew me off, gave me some politically correct schmoozing response, and told me "they would put in a suggestion for me". Hmm... that was 7 years ago, I think my suggestion must have gotten lost in the mail... :D:D

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This really is a chevy vs ford coke vs pepsi kind of argument. I am a Magellan user and prefer their interface - because I know it. My first GPS was a Maggie so I'm probably biased. My current unit is a Magellan - I looked at Garmin and Lowrance but felt the E500 fit me best. I like the expandable memory, the rechargeable Li-ion battery and the small size.

 

I am still amazed at some of the p---ing matches that erupt here over units. It seems every time someone mentions an issue with Magellan the same few Garmin users come out of the woodwork to bash the product. Yet their are several posts on the first page right now with issues with Garmin products (including the beloved 60CS) and all the responses are other Garmin users offering help or telling them to contact customer service. No Maggie users bashing the products. Several Garmin users here bashed the hell out of the Explorist series before they even saw one, much less used one. I expect they wouldn't buy anything but Garmin anyway, so why bother telling the rest of us how bad the Magellens are? Just an observation from a frequent lurker and infrequent poster.

 

The internet is a strange place, and boards like this seem to bring out that strangeness. I'm amazed at how everyone is 10 ft tall and bulletproof while anonymously typing on a computer.

 

As long as my unit gets me to the cache (or tree stand or fishing spot) I am happy with it. Is any GPS unit perfect? Probably not. Some are closer than others. Pick the one you like best. But as the old saying goes you can please all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time. But you can never please all of the people all of the time.

 

Scott

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Now the eXporists puzzle me.  For all intents and purposes they seem to just be Magellan brand Garmins.

 

This is not correct, You will not find a Garmin Hand held in which you can expand the memory wth an SD card, which you can do with the explorist 400, 500 and 600.

The exlorsist also give you the option is storing waypoints in a file system, you can have several thousand way pints store in files that can be broken down to regions, cache type, cache ratting and so on, this is also a feature that is not offer in a Garmin.

You can also store more maps on an exlorist with the SD card.

The Magnetic compass in the explorist 600 is traxial which means you do not have to hole the explorsit 600 level for the compass to be correct.

 

Will any of this make it easier to find a cach, No.

 

Wow, thanks for the awesome info. The "boomerang" effect you speak of, is that where the GPS shows the destination beyond where it really is, and you overshoot, then it corrects and you come back? I just have never heard anyone use the term except on these forums
.

 

The explorsit do not have a boomerang effect, the OP is asking about the explorist and not early magellans.

I believe standard complain is that you cannot sort these thousands waypoints by name. in any case I don't see a need for having thousands of waypoints.

 

The only thing (in my opinion) which is better on Magellans is SD-card slot.

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JohnnyVegas

 

You Wrote:

 

“The exlorsist also give you the option is storing waypoints in a file system, you can have several thousand way pints store in files that can be broken down to regions, cache type, cache ratting and so on, this is also a feature that is not offer in a Garmin”

 

Be Advised:

 

Mr. b_rad2cool and Mr. Rubberhead are taking care of the lack of waypoint management in the Garmin 60CS and 76CS. See attached letters to and from Garmin.

 

To Garmin -> http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...7&hl=rubberhead

 

From Garmin -> http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...l=crazy+diamond

 

Shouldn’t be long before Garmin catches up to Magellan on this issue. I’m sure that the Magellan Developers took the most common sense approach at square one when they designed their units – WOW a way to manage waypoints – Let’s start there and build a unit around it.

 

Externally Garmin is a better unit – Internally Magellan is a better unit.

 

Did you ever see what a straight list of 950 Waypoints Names and Symbols looks like – if not - get your hands on a Garmin.

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