Magellan Explorer 210

[+StephenTravels]

Well, I'm new to all this and I'm thinking about purchasing the Magellan eXplorer 210. Would this be a good choice for beginners? I'm going to use it primarily for geocaching and I would like to know it's pros and cons. Thanks for any advice/tips!

[Photobuff]

Well, I'm certainly a beginner, and I bought the 210 about a month ago. I came up to speed reasonably fast, and I like the way the data is presented better than other units I've seen. IMO, the physical thing itself is very well done, and I'd buy it again in a minute. My only concerns come from reading this forum. It seems Magellan (Thales) is not terribly responsive to customers, and may have more on their plate than they can deal with in a timely fashion. Even though I'm enamoured with the 210, I'll be as nit picky as possible- My LCD display has some irregular pixels. Check a new unit with a magnifying glass and look for any non-square pixels, internal streaks or scratches, before taking it home. The processing speed can be pretty slow if you're used to file manipulations on a fast PC. If the unit is trying to get a lock on satellites, it may freeze up briefly if you try to do other functions. Drawing detailed maps is pretty slow. The power on button requires more force to press than is desirable. There is a desire to use ones fingernail to press the center, but that would probably lead to damage on the rubber coating if done over a long period. The button action in general is soft, and harder buttons with a click would be an improvement. The menu system is context sensitive, so it takes a short while to remember how to find things. One battery installs in a manner backwards to what yo might expect, so pay attention to the plus signs in the battery compartment. On the good side, I get generally excellent reception, usually get a WAAS indicator, and the update rate when walking or driving, is excellent. The unit looks like a hard drive when connected to the PC, and manipulating files is really easy, since it's just another Windows type directory tree. It appears to be extremely rugged and well built. Battery life is excellent even if you use the illuminator a lot, and in spite of all the cautions given in the manual. I use two pairs of NiMH double As, one in the unit, and one ready to jump in if necessary. I've yet to have to change batteries in the field, just swap 'em out in the evening if I've used it all day. I can normally go many many days without a battery change if I only use it a couple hours a day.

[+Tabmow]

Funny you should ask this question now. I'm a relatively new geocacher myself and am thoroughly frustrated with what is now my second Explorist 210. I purchased my initial one through TheGpsStore.com and I was initially impressed with it after I received it. However, I had several spectacularly unsuccesful geocaching trips with it in the following weeks.

 

A few weeks later I joined up with an experienced geocacher who had a Meridian Gold GPS and we went out togther. We quickly discovered the reason for my abject failures on my own - my GPS was routinely giving me positions anywhere from 100' to 300' feet different than his unit. We went to several caches we had previously found together when he was introducing me to the sport and used them to test my unit. In one case, his Merdian Gold was showing a 1' distance with a 1' error as we were standing right over the cache. At the exact same time my Explorist 210 was showing a 130' distance with a 30' error.

 

On that trip, we checked everything - we both had WAAS locks and we were both set to the WGS84 standard. The cache points that were loaded into both units were the same but the positions reported by the units differed, sometimes by as much as 1/10 of a second. Since his GPS was consistently leading us to the right place, we figured mine was faulty.

 

I attempted to contact Magellan's support via e-mail and after not hearing anything for several days, I opted to ship my unit back to "The GPS Store" under their 30 day return policy. They were very understanding and sent another unit out to me right away. My second unit arrived just a few days ago. Ironically, I just heard back (2 weeks later) from Magellan support with an RMA # if I wanted to return my unit to them.

 

Well, I just got back from a trip this afternoon back to the same cache points we tested my first unit on and my new one is still way off. It was the exact same conditions (WAAS lock, WGS84 reference, etc) but my unit was still around 100' off in most cases. I double and triple-checked everything this time since it seemed highly unlikely I received two defective units in a row.

 

At this point, the only conclusion I can come to is that this GPS is not particularly accurate - probably no big deal if you're just using it for general navigation but its totally usesless for me in the urban environment of New Orleans. I'd be better off using Google Earth and printing out a satellite shot of the area I'm looking in.

 

I do want to emphasize that I don't hold "The GPS Store" at fault in any of this. In my conversations with them so far, they have been very helpful and understanding. They even went so far as to change the shipping destination of my second unit in order to accomodate the crazy delivery schedules we have post-hurricane in New Orleans. I plan on calling them tomorrow and hope that they'll agree to take back this second unit and issue me credit towards some other unit in their catalog. I'm now leaning towards the more expensive Meridian Gold (the same unit my friend has) but I'm a little reluctant to give Magellan and more of my money.

 

- Paul (aka Tabmow)

[+RamNspd]

I've had my 210 since late October. So far I've had pretty good luck with it. Most of the time it gets me within 10' or less. There have only been a couple of times when it was off by about 30'. I originally had an Explorist 300 which I liked quite a bit, but the lack of a PC connection became too bothersome. As soon as the 210 was available I snapped it up.

[Photobuff]

That's certainly worrisome about the accuracy issues. The only advice I can offer is never to compare two GPS units! It's too tough to know what's really going on, and human biases will generally lead you to the wrong conclusion. Find a nearby benchmark with adjusted horizontal coordinates, and take some data around that.

[+EScout]

I understood that the explorist series all have the same receiver. I have the 500 and the receiver is excellent. It is very sensitive and very accurate. I have tested it at 3 super-accurate benchmarks and it showed within 3 to 9 feet of each. (I consider the rounding of the benchmarks coords.)

 

Tabmow, I do not know the problem you are having, but one of your comments leads me to believe you may have the coordinates set up differently. You mentioned 1/10 of a second. In geocaching, we do not use seconds, we use decimal minutes, as in one-thousandth of a minute. For example: 118° 17.869' not 118° 17' 52.1"

[EROK1]

That last bit of information I will definately remember that when I get explorist 210. Thanks for the great advice!!

[+Tabmow]

Thanks for the advice and sorry for the confusion. I meant a tenth of a minute. The geocache where GodeFamily and I tried out my unit is "Garden of Books" in New Orleans and it is at 29 55.581 N and 90 06.600 W. When I received my first Explorist 210 and went there to try and find the cache, I spent a good hour searching through an area about 200 feet away from where the cache really was. It was where my GPS was giving me a reading that I was 10 feet away with around 10 feet of error.

 

When I went back with GodeFamily a few weeks later, his Meridian Gold led him right to the cache (1' distance with 1' error) while mine was telling me that I was still over 100 feet away. At that point we checked everything we could think of in both units and noticed that mine was indicating I was located in a different location - I don't remember the exact difference but it was over 0.010 minutes different. I remember remarking at that time that I wish I brought my digital camera for a picture of the two units side-by-side.

 

The rest of the day, we visited at least 4 other caches in New Orleans and each time his unit got us right there while mine had me way off. At one point, while visiting a few caches along the banks of the Mississippi, my unit insisted that I was standing in the middle of the river which would have had me around a half mile off.

 

With my new unit I have not had a chance to revisit these other locations yet but I hope to do so shortly. Now that I'm having trouble with my second unit as well, I'm much more willing to believe its operator error but I'm at a loss to explain what I'm doing wrong. One interesting thing to note is that my new unit was around 90 feet off of the reference cache I was using, only in a different direction that the first unit.

 

For other explorist 210 users - what software do you use? I'm just generating pocket queries on GeoCaching.com and using the Geocache manager that came with the GPS to upload it to my GPS.

 

Other than the accuracy problems I seem to be having, I am really impressed with the GPS. My only personal wish list is the ability to mark caches as found or at least be able to add comments to them so I can log when I found them.

 

I certainly appreciate any other advice you all might have - I'm getting ready to leave the country for a month and a half so I'd prefer not to try to swap out my GPS again at the last minute. As a professional software developer, I understand how the problem is almost always the user, but I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong here (and neither could GodeFamily).

 

Thanks,

- Paul (aka Tabmow)

Edited December 7, 2005 by Tabmow

[+embra]

I can't see from what you described why anything would be going wrong. I would try a clear memory/all and reinitialize by leaving the unit out with a clear view of the sky for 30 minutes (10 or 15 is usually enough time, but when you're having such problems I would superstitiously leave it out plenty long.

 

If you could reload the firmware I would do so, but with no firmware released yet you'll have to live with what is already there.

[Photobuff]

Agree w/ Embra, do a full cold start from the menu, entering your initial location, and let the unit sit in a clear spot for a bit while it gets its bearings. Don't understand your request for marking with comments- when you mark a locaton and make it a POI, you can enter comments, change the icon, and name it anything you want. I hunt benchmarks and give them a map symbol different than other stuff, sometimes including a comment on when recovered. I do limit my text entry and abbreviate because text entry using the grid can be a bit slow ;-)

[+geognerd]

Don't understand your request for marking with comments- when you mark a locaton and make it a POI, you can enter comments, change the icon, and name it anything you want.

I believe the post was referring to Geocaching POIs, which cannot be deleted or edited, unlike regular POIs.

[+Tabmow]

Don't understand your request for marking with comments- when you mark a locaton and make it a POI, you can enter comments, change the icon, and name it anything you want.

I believe the post was referring to Geocaching POIs, which cannot be deleted or edited, unlike regular POIs.

Yep, on the Explorist 210 you can't edit the geo-caching POI's so its impossible to mark the ones you've found. I've resorted to carrying a notebook around with me to write notes in.

 

I have tried reseting the unit several times and clearing the memory but I have not left it out in the clear for a significant amount of time. When I did my last test of the new unit, it was on for my 20+ minute walk to the cache site I tested it at. Since this was in the uptown section of New Orleans, it is basically a neighborhood filled with a scattering of trees, lots of overhead power lines, and one to two story homes. Not sure if that could be causing my innaccuracy.

 

From some of the other Explorist related threads, it sounds like there is a chance of a software update relatively soon. My plan is just to hang on to this GPS for my upcoming trip (to Peru) and then re-evaluate it when I'm home in two months. If I'm still not happy with its accuracy, I'll sell it and try something else.

 

- Paul

Edited December 8, 2005 by Tabmow

[+jacques0]

I would try the following, as a diagnostics of sort:

 

To pinpoint the problem it's important to remove the variables. So, for now, skip the Pocket Queries and the Geocache Manager. Instead of using the .loc or .gpx files, do the following:

 

1. Go go geocaching.com and find a geocache

that you would like to visit.

 

2. Press the Mark button on your 210

 

3. On the screen that comes up use the joystick to move to

the Location field, then click it to allow you to manually

edit the coords. Now enter the coords. of the desired

geocache.

 

4. When you're done, use the joystick to move to the Save field

and click it to save your manually-entered coordinates.

 

5. (This should have been number 1) Make SURE that the datum

and coordinate display are the same ones as being used by

geocaching.com (WGS84, LL MM.DM)

 

Now go out and see how close you come to the cache (it would be helpful if you used one of the problematic ones that you've already discussed in your posts).

 

If you get different results (i.e., more accurate) then that suggests the problem lies somewhere other than your 210's receiver; perhaps with the downloaded file or with the geocache manager.

 

If that should be the case (i.e. a software problem) then maybe you were just "lucky" and happened to draw two lemons. Return it.

 

It may also be helpful to compare the coordinates of your present position that are being displayed by your 210 and by your friend's gps. If they are significantly different then perhaps the receiver is faulty.

 

Good luck, and keep us posted.

[+Tabmow]

Good advice, tjhanks. I'll try and give that a try this weekend. As a little test in the comfort of my home, I entered the cache point manually (the same one I've been testing at) and on the unit's display they show up in the exact same place. They also show the exact same coordinates too so I don't think its the software. But I'll give it a try when I can get back to the cache site in the next few days. Hopefully I can convince my buddy with the other GPS to join me (and I'll bring my digital camera).

 

For reference, my GPS is configured as follows:

 

Nav units: Miles/Ft/MPH

North Reference: Magnetic

Coord System: Lat/Lon (DEG/MIN.MMM)

Map Datum: WGS84

 

The date and time are also correct.

 

- Paul

Edited December 8, 2005 by Tabmow

[+JohnnyVegas]

Yep, on the Explorist 210 you can't edit the geo-caching POI's so its impossible to mark the ones you've found. I've resorted to carrying a notebook around with me to write notes in.

 

If you are caching paperless are you also using a PDA or Pocket PC. I use a pocket PC with GPXsonar, when I find a cache I just make a note in the notes section of GPXsonar. I also run Pocket streets and trips in my PPC and those maps have the caches on them. With that program I change the pushpin to a happy face icon. Even when I was using a GPS that would allow deleting waypoints I never did.

[+embra]

Paul, rather than using a cache for jacques()'s suggestion, I'd recommend heeding Photobuff's suggestion to use a benchmark with *adjusted* (not scaled) horizontal coordinates. These have been set with professional equipment to a high degree of precision...virtually no error on the part of the placement. Any error showing up would be completely in your unit's reading.

 

You can search by your zip code in the benchmark section, just like for a cache.

[+paulamur]

Tabmow,

 

It sounds like you are using the geocaching POI. I have a 400 and notice that when I used the geocaching POI and selected the goto off the map screen it gave me a goto that was off the actual coords, by quite a bit sometimes. I haven't used the geocaching POI's since then. Use the regular POI ( I use GSAK to generate the file) and find my accuracy is usually less than 10'.

[+jacques0]

embra/photobuff: good suggestion to go with an adjusted benchmark. That rules out even more variables (like errors from the geocache placer's gpsr).

[Photobuff]

I tried restarting my 210, and it's near impossible to confuse it. No matter what I do, it just stays locked to the available satellites. When powered on, it takes about 70 seconds to get a good lock inside the house, though longer if it's near the computer. I assume the computer generates some interference. Anyway, something else you can try is to set a POI in any convenient place. I use the easy chair in the living room. Now set that same point as your goto. Carry the 210 around and/or leave it near the chair. See how much variation you get. I find the "zero" point wanders around slowly, but rarely more than ten feet from the chair, even if the error indicator is up around 30-40, which is usually the case inside the house. If the unit is consistent with itself, that's a good sign. I'm guessing we need to further investigate those caching POIs.

[+Tabmow]

I've installed GSAK and I must say that I'll never go back to Megallan's GeoCache manager software. :-) My plans for this test are as follows:

 

- Find a suitable benchmark (i.e. not scaled) and my other reference cache.

- Set them in a GeoCache POI file using Magellan's GeoCache manager software.

- Manually added them to a normal POI file.

- Put them in a normal POI file using GSAK.

- Test with each of these POI files at both the benchmark and cache.

 

One question I have is what is the recommended way to get data into GSAK? Is it ok to produce GPX files with a pocket query and then import those files in GSAK?

 

- Paul

[+geognerd]

One question I have is what is the recommended way to get data into GSAK? Is it ok to produce GPX files with a pocket query and then import those files in GSAK?

Yep. GSAK even has drag-and-drop capability - you can drag the zip file containing the GPX onto the GSAK icon on your desktop, and GSAK launch to unzip and open it.

[+ClydeE]

One question I have is what is the recommended way to get data into GSAK? Is it ok to produce GPX files with a pocket query and then import those files in GSAK?

 

Certainly, and in fact that is the best way. Just make sure you select the GPX format for the PQ. LOC files will also work but GPX files contain a lot more useful information.

[+EScout]

You can also use GSAK to create a regular POI file of geocaches from your PQ GPX data.

[ictester]

Im new to geocashing. I went out Saterday and found 2 withen 2 hours using a laptop, delorme street atlas and their gps unit, but it was the old one with NO waas. I just ordered a 210 from Amazon using their CC discount of $30 total with shipping was

$125.95

 

My question is does the supplied USB cable also power the 210 from the USB port or will I need to get a power adaptor for the car?

I read the manual and I assume that it does, but it doesnt say.

 

I live in the boonies of South Alabama but I have a benchmark on my property and another across the street so I can check the accuracy of it which I will post.

 

thank you

Edited December 9, 2005 by ictester

[+paulamur]

From what I remember reading at the Magellan site it comes with an AC adapter.

Edited December 9, 2005 by paulamur

[Photobuff]

It doesn't come with an AC adapter, but the USB cable has a connector in the middle if you want to use one. The cable is thus a dual function cable. It also can be powered from the USB port- I just removed the batteries from mine and confirmed this.

 

Not sure why you'd need a power adapter for the car; just load it up with a couple AAs, either regular or rechargable NiMH, and you're good for days.

Edited December 9, 2005 by Photobuff

[+embra]

Not sure why you'd need a power adapter for the car; just load it up with a couple AAs, either regular or rechargable NiMH, and you're good for days.

In the 4/5/600 (and I would suppose the XL), using DirectRoute mapping for long trips would run down the display--especially the color ones. It is nice during the daytime to have the backlight on, which would also take a toll. Additionally, whenever you take the unit out of the car you've got a fully-charged Li-Ion ready to go (XL excepted from this one).

 

I would agree that the 210 differences make the need for an external power supply less compelling...although someone still may have their reason(s).

 

Edit: has anyone done battery rundown tests for the 1-300 with and without backlight on?

Edited December 9, 2005 by embra

[+SandyEggoGuy]

I've found my 210 to be pretty accurate. As a newbie, to help me understand my GPS better, after I find a cache put it back, I walk away and refind it to check the GPS accuracy, coodinates, distance and my own dumbness. I've found the last one pops up most of the time. I been very happy with my 210.

[ictester]

It doesn't come with an AC adapter, but the USB cable has a connector in the middle if you want to use one. The cable is thus a dual function cable. It also can be powered from the USB port- I just removed the batteries from mine and confirmed this.

 

Not sure why you'd need a power adapter for the car; just load it up with a couple AAs, either regular or rechargable NiMH, and you're good for days.

Thanks for checking.

I normally use a gps in the motorhome with laptop and Street Atlas softwere and see no reason to worry about batteries while its hooked up to the laptop for 90% of the time.

Last year we traveled from Alabama and through the whole state of New Mexico from the North West to the South East, took 3 weeks, meanwhile I didnt have to worry about turning off the GPS to save the batteries, I just closed the laptop. At least now I can take it from the car with rechargables for foot treaks.

It would have been nice to have a portable one for some of the hikes we went on. Like the time I lost my walkey talkie about 1/2 mile up the side of a mountian in Rockhound State Park. I couldnt sleep so I hiked back up the mountian side at 2am with a full moon keying my other walkey talkey while the wife slept in the MH and luckley walked right over it, it was under a bush in a revine. Had it not been so quiet I would never have found it.

 

thanks

[+Tabmow]

Eureka! I think we're on to something here...

 

I had a chance to go back out today with my second Explorist 210 and try some of the suggestions from everyone. Before I left the house, I ran a pocket query for my area in order to get the information for the cache I had been testing at previously. Once I had the pocket query, I loaded the results to the GPS three different way:

 

1. Transfered over using Magellan's GeoCache Manager software so that it was a geocaching POI.

2. Loaded in GSAK and exported to the Explorist 210 using the Export option under GSAK so that it was a regular POI.

3. Manually entered (the one cache) by creating a mark and editing its coordinates.

 

After that I then turned on the unit and walked the 0.6 miles to the cache from my house (just I had done on the last occasion). As I was leaving I set a goto for the regular POI created via #2 above. This time, my Explorist led me right to the correct location for the geocache and with a little big of walking around I got it down to 4 feet of accuracy with a ten foot error (and I was definitely within that range). This was a major improvement over when I used the geocaching POI which was off by over 100'.

 

Next I switched to the POI I entered manually and had the same kind of accuracy (I walked several hundred feet away and re-approached the cache). After that I tried switching to the geocaching POI but I instead stumbled across the bug in the unit where it wouldn't forget my manual POI. The following steps repeatedly result in the same failure:

 

1. Select the geocache POI either through the map screen or the menu.

2. View the geocache POI and press "goto".

3. Confirm that a goto (for my manual POI) already existed and that I wanted to clear it.

4. Confirm that I wanted to create a goto for the geocache POI.

5. Exit back to the map screen.

6. Dialog would pop up telling me I was nearing my manual POI (not the geocaching one I had just selected).

 

This occured at least three times. After the first two attempts, I tried deleting my manual POI but it would still come back up as the POI I had a goto for. Unfortunately, at that point I had to give up messing with it (the joys of geocaching with a two year old :-).

 

So, based on my not-so-scientific tests, my feeling is that the geocaching specific features of the Explorist 210 are not to be trusted. I've never had good accuracy with a geocache POI and I suspect there are some bugs lurking in there that are serious enough to confuse the unit big time.

 

However, when used with GSAK and just regular POI files, the unit is quite accurate and very flexible. For now I'm going to just ignore the geocaching POI's and I'll re-evaluate them once a software update for the unit comes out. I'm finding that I much prefer the ability to edit the regular POI's (you can edit the geocaching ones) though I do miss the ability to view the hints.

 

Even with these bugs, I still think this is an excellent unit for the average geocacher. The only other issue I've had so far is when I tried to get the NMEA data communication working with a laptop. However, I think that may have more been an issue where the program it was communicating with wanted to work the a real serial port (not an emulated one).

 

Again, thanks for the great suggestions on troubleshooting my unit. If any one wants me to try any followup experiments, just let me know. I have a few more weeks before I leave the country for a bit. I'm still hoping to seek out a benchmark but I have yet to find any convenient local ones that are publically accssible.

 

- Paul (aka Tabmow)

[+geognerd]

On my 400, I haven't had any problems going to a geocaching POI. I load both geocaching POIs and regular POIs to my receiver, but usual use the regulars for the goto. Sometimes I'll use the geocaching POI to get info about the cache without having to pull out the printout. Sometimes I'll use the geocaching POI for the goto just to change things up. I recall Paulamur having a problem with creating a goto by selecting a POI on the screen. The spot next to the POI on the map would become the destination instead of the POI because the cursor wasn't within the "snapping tolerance" of the POI. To play it safe, I think you (and all other eXplorist users) should choose the POI for your goto route from the menu and not from the map screen.