Explorist Clickstick / Joystick Issues

[+kevenh]

How well does your Explorist clickstick (joystick) function?

 

On my Explorist 600 I can only get the cursor to move in 6 directions with the clickstick!!

 

That's : Up, Left, Right, Down, Down+Left, and Down+Right

 

I'm missing the up to left/right.

 

And the Up takes more pushing than the other directions.

 

How well do your clickstick/joysticks work?

 

Thanks

[WH]

I recently won an Explorist 500 and Ive had a chance to do a side by side comparison with my Garmin 60CS and I must say I am not impressed in the least with the Explorist. Here is a few of the resons:

 

- The enter key is pushing the click stick straight down. If you dont push it exactly straight, you end up moving the cursor to a different selection.

 

- Navigating between the different folders is slow and tedious. I spent more time waiting for things to process that actually using it.

 

- The 60CS updates your position alot faster. I would find the cache with my 60CS while the Explorist shows me being 200' away. The explorist would eventually catch up, but it takes a minute or 2.

 

- The rechargable battery makes it impossible to do a quick swap of batteries in the field unless you happen to have a fully charged battery pack on you. You can't just run over to the store to grab a pair of AA's

 

- The users manual that comes with the unit sucks to say the least.

 

- You can't project a waypoint with the Explorist

Edited August 17, 2005 by WH

[+D0T-C0M]

my joystick was very difficult to make the curser go in the up direction so instead I kept using the down position. Now I have noticed that the rubber is busted and I have to send it away.

[+kevenh]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

There are a few of us with problems moving the cursor up, but are there explorist users that can move the cursor in 8 directions?

 

For the price of this GPS it would be nice to know if the comments here are typical.

 

It's my 1st GPS receiver so I'd like to work out the level of expectation :?

[+Hard Oiler]

My 500 joystick moves in 8 directions OK. It's been well used and I haven't had any problems with it at all other than the writing wearing off which I really don't miss.

[+D0T-C0M]

this is my second E600 , I lost my first one but that one worked OK, this one is very tempermental. I'm sending it away to get repaired.

[freeday]

my 1st had a joystick-problem

my 2nd had bad reception

my 3rd had a usb-connection-problem

my 4th has now a good hardware

[+kevenh]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

I'd better look into getting mine sorted.

 

hmm, but I wouldn't want to get one of freeday's

Edited August 17, 2005 by kevenh

[+geognerd]

my joystick was very difficult to make the curser go in the up direction so instead I kept using the down position.

My eXplorist 100 has this issue. I wouldn't say that the stick is very difficult to click up, but I would say that it is definitely easier to make it click down. So I'll just scroll down for a while until things cycle back to the top, instead of trying to click up. All other directions besides up work just fine. Thankfully, no broken rubber (yet) after 11 months of use.

[vagabond]

After 3 1/2 years using my gold, I was very comfortable using it one handed.

I've found with the explorist 500 to use the click stick in the up position its easier to hold the unit in my left hand and use my right thumbnail to click up with it. Other then that everything works great one handed

[+Marcie/Eric]

After 3 1/2 years using my gold, I was very comfortable using it one handed.

I've found with the explorist 500 to use the click stick in the up position its easier to hold the unit in my left hand and use my right thumbnail to click up with it. Other then that everything works great one handed

Marcie's dad just got a exp300. I notice the click stick is fine, except for the 'up' direction. I use my thumbnail as well. If I try to use my finger, like the rest of the directions, it thinks i'm clicking 'enter' and not 'up'. It's not mine, so I could care less, I only carry it when i'm quading as a backup.

[+maleki]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

There are a few of us with problems moving the cursor up, but are there explorist users that can move the cursor in 8 directions?

 

For the price of this GPS it would be nice to know if the comments here are typical.

 

It's my 1st GPS receiver so I'd like to work out the level of expectation :?

My Explorist 100, which I thought had no probs, moves in 7 directions quite reliably and easily. Up-Right does not work. I never would have noticed because I can't see any reason I'd ever need it to move other than L-R-U-D on this basic device.

 

I returned my new out of the box Explorist 500 last week because the up direction was terrible and unacceptable. No questions asked, just an RA# given, when I finally got thru late on a Friday afternoon. Seemed like apparently they'd heard the same call before and were not at all interested in rehashing the ugly details It's been there over a week now so anxiously waiting some word or better yet a UPS truck.

[+kevenh]

Thanks for all the feedback. Really appreciated.

 

I need to start a 'Who has a working E600 joystick' thread to restore some balance

 

At the moment, my E600 is boxed ready to ship back for refund or replacement. After checking back here, it will be a refund from the online shop I used.

 

If I persist with a E600, I should buy from a shop so I can try the joystick out before leaving.

[+embra]

It's hard to get a good sense of just how prevalent this (or nearly any other) problem is with a relatively new model line like this. Although several people have reported it here, to my memory this is the first it has surfaced. While definitely a concern for those who have the bad luck to see it on their unit, this hasn't seemed to be widespread.

 

It's encouraging that the 1/2/300's, which have been around for a longer time, haven't shown a high failure rate so far. OTOH, I suspect that with their extended feature sets, the 4/5/600's get a more extensive joystick workout.

[+kevenh]

Thanks, embra.

Good points.

 

The online reseller has offered to check the joystick on the next e600 he sends me.

 

I might ask him to check the reception while he's at it!

 

BTW his GPS rec of choice is an e600

[+kevenh]

Just to round off this thread, my explorist was replaced by the seller - he kindly checked that the replacements clickctick moved in all directions.

 

The replacemet seems to be working well

 

I'm in Germany being a newbie with some webcam caches.

 

Seems you need a mate to capture your presence.

Doesn't matter how much waving and jumping you do

[+DocW]

Mine has the same occurence, just was wandering if this is really a defect or it is still inside the tolerances.

On my e600 it is possible very hard to get the cursor move diagonal up left or up right.

Just befor reading this thread, I had contact to my dealer for exchanging the unit....

[WH]

I won an Explorist 500 in a contest and I think its the biggest piece of s**t GPS Ive ever seen. Id give the thing away but I can't think of anyone I dislike enough to curse with it.

[+jacques0]

I won an Explorist 500 in a contest and I think its the biggest piece of s**t GPS Ive ever seen. Id give the thing away but I can't think of anyone I dislike enough to curse with it. 

You can hate me, if you'd like. Go to my profile page to email me and I'll send you my shipping address. Please, let me be the lightning rod for your contempt!

Edited August 24, 2005 by jacques0

[+jacques0]

I have had an eXplorist 200 for over a year and have used it a lot. The joystick works in 7 directions (NE does not work). The biggest gripe I have about it is that it becomes difficult to operate on hot days, when my fingers are sweaty. I wish there was a textured surface to it.

[+sailormike62]

I guess it may be time to send my x600 in... I've only got 5 directions working and up is still pretty stiff after almost 4 months of steady use. Also the silk screen is worn off the joystick and the rubber looks pretty close to splitting open.

 

I did call Magellan tech support soon after I got my x600 to report the up position of the joystick being very stiff, but the informed me that this was "normal" and would get better with time... go figure.

 

On the up side my thumb no longer hurts after a long day of use due the the callus that I've built up.

[+Sue Gremlin]

I won an Explorist 500 in a contest and I think its the biggest piece of s**t GPS Ive ever seen. Id give the thing away but I can't think of anyone I dislike enough to curse with it. 

You can hate me, if you'd like. Go to my profile page to email me and I'll send you my shipping address. Please, let me be the lightning rod for your contempt!

*shoves Jacques*

 

No, send it to me. I'm cuter.

[+BoomerFZ1]

Ahhh...yet more eXplorist 600 issues. Boy Magellan dropped the ball on this one.

[+Barjon]

My eXplorist 600 clickstick fails on "down left" other directions ok.

I'm overwhelmed by reading all the problems.

Mine can only be fired up (up to showing satellites) after 3 or more tries, each time powering down by nav-menu-pwr.

Rudolf

[+Barjon]

My eXplorist 600 clickstick fails on "down left" other directions ok.

I'm overwhelmed by reading all the problems.

Mine can only be fired up (up to showing satellites) after 3 or more tries, each time powering down by nav-menu-pwr.

Rudolf

Hi,

It's disappointing again.

In november 2005, my first (3 month old) x600 was replaced by a brandnew x600, because it got so deteriated that finally it completely stopped working.

The present one (6 month old) is ready to be send in for service, because of keyboard & clickstick problems. The zoom "in" button has to be pressed firmly with a fingernail, otherwise is doesn't function. The clickstick does not function properly, i.e. sometimes a vertical click is no [enter]. Just a little force north or south while pressing it down for [enter] is enough to fail.

After my summerholidays Magellan will get my x600 for repairs.

Has anyone hints or tips?

Rudolf.

[+Geo-Cad]

Seems that my explorist XL is doing better than the 600's most are talking about here.

[+embra]

Has anyone hints or tips?

Someone recently suggested (can't remember if it was on these boards or elsewhere) that poor button functioning could be remedied by taking the unit apart and doing a little cleanup maintenance on the key contacts witht the motherboard. As long as you're in warranty I'd let Magellan do it, as taking the thing apart would void any remaining warranty.

[RG&MD]

Just a “heads-up.” The “NAV” and zoom “IN” buttons on my two-year old Magellan Explorist have stopped working. Sent an e-mail to Magellan to request a repair address. They sent back some routing #, but never followed-up on my request. They did express concern that it may not be under warranty.

 

I simply gave up on them and found a company in Miami that repair GPS receivers.

Magellan has lost a customer. They have no product support. Appears they did little R&D prior to placing the Explorist models on the American market.

[+kevenh]

I've had another E600.

The last one had the 'IN' button become unoperable.

It was a warranty replacement.

 

It's still early days, but the 3rd unit seems to have the best keyboard/joystick

 

The power adapter for the UK has changed, BTW

[+Team JSAM]

My 500 joystick moves in 8 directions OK. It's been well used and I haven't had any problems with it at all other than the writing wearing off which I really don't miss.

 

Same here but with a 200 however unit is only 3 months old.