Topo ? - Lowrance Vs. Brunton

[kidnitro]

I think the Brunton and Lowrance units are nearly identical- except for the Brunton MNS having 12 channels vs the 16 for the Expedition C. Also, the firmware and software CDs may be different and not interchangeable but I'm not sure.

 

I can't seem to find anyone who knows the minimum contour interval visible using the TopoCreate (Brunton) or MapCreate (Lowrance) CDs. I called Lowrance and the guy didn't even know what a "minimum contour interval" was- matter of fact, I had to explain what a contour line was to the guy (a line identifying equal elevation). I thought that was kinda weird. But he did point me to the Lowrance website where I was able to download a free product emulator. Pretty cool. http://www.lowrance.com/Software/PCSoftware/demos.asp

They have some more detailed maps you can look at- Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta, etc... but none of them have topo detail... just streets and POI icons.

 

I'd like detailed topo for backpacking up here in flat Minnesota.

 

Brunton claims to have true 1:24,000 scale topo but I can't even get them to tell me their minimum topo interval.

 

If there's someone out there who has an Expedition C or a Brunton MNS, could you please zoom in on a part of Minnesota (if you have the Minnesota topo map loaded) and let me know what the minimum contour interval is for the Minnesota map section?

 

Thanks in advance,

-Dave

[+synergicity]

Based on the Brunton site we have:

 

12 channel parallel GPS & WAAS receiver

16-level grayscale LED backlit display 1.7” x 2.2”

240V x 180H display resolution

 

for the Atlas MNS. It has a real electronic compass and a barometric altimeter.

 

From the Lowrance site it is clear that this is an Explorer. Not an Expedition, thus it uses the older chipset. The Expedition is color and has 16 channels as do the Hunt C and H2O C.

 

The Brunton software is weird. It is based on the Lowrance MapCreate, even on the Brunton site, they accidently use the MapCreate name in the description. But they advertise only 700,000 POI while Lowrance sw has 2,000,000. And both allow searching by Quad boundaries, but only Brunton claims 24k topo info. Maybe they had Lowrance do a custom version, dumping some of the POI database and adding elevation info instead. If so it could be cool.

 

My main issue is that Brunton prices the Atlas/Explorer way high. And then add $200 for the software, card reader, and card. For $325 you get the Expedition Plus which includes software, card reader, etc. It'd cost over $500 to get the same setup with the Atlas MNS and then you have the last generation GPS hardward, not the latest and greatest. Maybe if the 24k topo data is really there, it might be worth it, but I can't find any info to support it.

[kidnitro]

Just got an email reply from Brunton and they say the contour interval on the Brunton units is 50 feet.

[+Airmapper]

Mapcreate 6.3 displays contour intervals of 50 feet, but bringing up the cursor will reveal more detail for a particular position, pop up's display elevation at cursor point.

[peter]

Just got an email reply from Brunton and they say the contour interval on the Brunton units is 50 feet.

Generally, the contour interval for a given map series varies depending on the type of terrain in an area. That's true of the USGS 1:24000 series and also for Garmin's topo maps. E.g. their Topo24K series has contour intervals of 10' in the Minnesota Boundary Waters area but 40' in much of the Grand Canyon.

 

Of course with DEM digital encoding of the elevation data the software can give you any contour interval it wants to even if the level of detail doesn't really warrant it. So just looking at contour interval as a measure of quality may not be giving you anything meaningful.

[ocsbluebird]

Just got an email reply from Brunton and they say the contour interval on the Brunton units is 50 feet.

 

 

Kidnitro:

 

I was also looking for better contour lines in the minnesota area.

 

The minnesota USGS quads are mapped at a 10' contours minor and 50' major levels, the 50' are what are shown on the MapCreate 6.3 maps.

 

I'm sure we would be looking at a few more CDs if the 10' data was included, buy it sure would be usefull.

 

 

Maybe Lowrance (with some thought) would add the possibility to add map data to the MapCreate program.

 

Lowrance hello out there. we could use some flexibility...