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Magellan Gps 300


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okay heres the deal, I've had my GPS for a few days with the intention of using it for geocaching. none such luck. reason being is i dont know one thing about the gps, i try to teach myself by using the manual, and it just makes me want to thrust it on the ground and destroy it. the manual is sooo confusing!!! the GPS is brand new, so its me not the GPS.

 

i have a very old model Magellan GPS 300.

 

it has arrow buttons, mark, nav, enter, goto, and menu buttons, if that helps...

 

could someone PLEASE just tell me an easy step by step process for using the GPS in entering and finding a cache somewheres??? please do not assume i know a thing about them, cause i dont,

 

thanks very much!!!!!

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Ok clean slate here.

 

I own a Magellan eXplorist 300 and I think I can help if this is the model you own.

 

How much help do you need? I assume you know how to turn it on already. So I will start off my instructing you on how to set a waypoint from the Geocaching website.

 

1) Turn the unit on by pressing and holding the button on the right side of the unit for about 2 seconds.

Then push in on the enter button (the one that has an arrow pointing down and to your left), This is a thumbstick and you move around to screens with it and press it in to select a field.

 

So you need to press it in before the unit turns itself off when you first power up the unit.

 

2) Wait for the unit to aquire a GPS fix.

3) Press the buttom named Mark (thumbtack)

4) use the thumbstick to more up to the name field and press it in. Then type in a name for your waypoint by using the thumbstick and on-screen keyboard. When you are finished go down to the OK and press the tumbstick in.

5) The next field with the coordinates should be highlighted, use the thumbstick to enter coordinates here from the data on the Geocaching.com website.

6) You can scroll down to create message or elevation and set those if desired (optional).

7) Scroll down to Save and select it.

 

Setting a goto;

 

Next you want to goto this way point.

Here is how I do it.

1) Press the goto button on the front of the unit.

2) Select "My Pts of Interest"

3) Scroll to the waypoint you just set.

4) Press the thumbstick in.

5) A street-level map will appear. You can use this for long distance like driving to the waypoint.

6) When you get close about 500 feet or so, press the button on the front named NAV.

A compass will appear and you can home in on the cache this way. Just follow the compass bearing and watch the distance box.

 

I hope this helped a little if you have advanced questions feel free to ask.

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ok maybe the problem is i can never get a fix. im in a relatively rural area and cant ever get more than 1 satelite. when i press "mark" it enters my location as 47.00.00 and 121.00.00, and i know i dont live right on an even coordinate like that. so could the lack of a connection with the satelites be a problem???

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ok maybe the problem is i can never get a fix. im in a relatively rural area and cant ever get more than 1 satelite. when i press "mark" it enters my location as 47.00.00 and 121.00.00, and i know i dont live right on an even coordinate like that. so could the lack of a connection with the satelites be a problem???

 

Yes, try turning it on and leaving it in your backyard away from structures and a clear view of the open sky for about 5 minutes and allow it to find the sats. You may also need to set the time and date and your general area using preferences so that the internal almanac can help the GPS receiver find the sats.

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ok maybe the problem is i can never get a fix. im in a relatively rural area and cant ever get more than 1 satelite. when i press "mark" it enters my location as 47.00.00 and 121.00.00, and i know i dont live right on an even coordinate like that. so could the lack of a connection with the satelites be a problem???

 

Yes, try turning it on and leaving it in your backyard away from structures and a clear view of the open sky for about 5 minutes and allow it to find the sats. You may also need to set the time and date and your general area using preferences so that the internal almanac can help the GPS receiver find the sats.

 

allthat stuff has been set, umm i left it out there for 10 minutes, with it on the main screen, it found 1 satelite still.

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ok maybe the problem is i can never get a fix. im in a relatively rural area and cant ever get more than 1 satelite. when i press "mark" it enters my location as 47.00.00 and 121.00.00, and i know i dont live right on an even coordinate like that. so could the lack of a connection with the satelites be a problem???

 

Yes, try turning it on and leaving it in your backyard away from structures and a clear view of the open sky for about 5 minutes and allow it to find the sats. You may also need to set the time and date and your general area using preferences so that the internal almanac can help the GPS receiver find the sats.

 

allthat stuff has been set, umm i left it out there for 10 minutes, with it on the main screen, it found 1 satelite still.

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Try going to the preferences screen and selecting (Restart GPS) then put it outside for like 5 minutes. It should be finding sats. Mine finds them pretty quickly.

 

i got a pretty old GPS here, i dont think it has a restart.

 

EDIT: kinda found a restart, not making much of a difference though. is it just a bad GPS? i bought it new, does anyone know its capabilities???

Edited by flashmollison
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I hadn't used my GPS 315 for over a year and decided to start caching again in February. I thought maybe it had died so I reloaded the latest update. I had to let it set outside for quite a while to get locked on. I'd lay it down, go do something else and check it every so often. I had 2 FTFs in Feb with the 315 and now use it as a backup to my Platinum.

A friend of mine had an old one that he claim didn't work after Y2K. Is yours older than that?

Edited by Woodbutcher68
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