3appleshigh Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 I have a set budget, the Garmin Venture CX, and the Magellan 500LE both fit, which should I buy?? I'm a newbie, and would use mainly for GeoCaching, some minor Vehicular direction use as well. Thanks for the input. Quote Link to comment
ossumguywill Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 The 500LE is very accurate and small. It is very easy to use and has a very short learning curve. It has lots of cool features. I would go with this. It gets a great signal in the car, great for caching. Quote Link to comment
+hukilaulau Posted November 11, 2006 Share Posted November 11, 2006 The 500LE is very accurate and small. It is very easy to use and has a very short learning curve. It has lots of cool features. I would go with this. It gets a great signal in the car, great for caching. The 500 with DirectRoute is just great! $229 at Crutchfied.com Quote Link to comment
ucdcrush Posted November 11, 2006 Share Posted November 11, 2006 (edited) One thing to consider is street map availability. Garmin maps maybe easier to find than Magellan maps. I have a Venture CX and I'm happy with it except for the lack of detail in documentation. Functionally you probably can't go wrong with either one. Edited November 11, 2006 by ucdcrush Quote Link to comment
+AdmSteck Posted November 11, 2006 Share Posted November 11, 2006 Hello everyone! I'm also a noob and I have been considering both these units for the last week or so. I've been lurking around this forum for the past week and at the moment I have started to lean towards the Venture. I have three main uses that I can think of so far... I want to start geocaching, car nav, and using the tracking feature along with nav during atv trail rides. But I have a few questions. First, it appears that the Venture does not come with any software, are there any other programs that can upload maps, routes, waypoints to the Venture? I really don't want to buy the unit and then spend the same amount to get a copy of MapSource. I watched the videos rws posted on creating custom maps and I think I would rather try my hand at it before shelling out the extra cash for street and topo maps. I know you can get MapSource Trips and Waypoint manager for $30, but if I really need that then I might as well get the Legend cx for $40 more on Amazon. I also want to use my unit for tracking atv trails and saving the maps for future reference. As I understand the 500 is limited to 2000 points per track log. Is this correct or can more points be stored if using an sd card? Also, in your experience, how much distance can be covered with 2000 track points? I know this is alot to answer but before spending the money I want to make sure I am going to be happy with my purchase. I don't want to end up saying "I should have got the other one" a few weeks later. Thanks in advance. PS. Great thread by Jamie Z on the explorist 500 Quote Link to comment
+TASKForce3 Posted November 11, 2006 Share Posted November 11, 2006 First, it appears that the Venture does not come with any software, are there any other programs that can upload maps, routes, waypoints to the Venture? I really don't want to buy the unit and then spend the same amount to get a copy of MapSource. I watched the videos rws posted on creating custom maps and I think I would rather try my hand at it before shelling out the extra cash for street and topo maps. I know you can get MapSource Trips and Waypoint manager for $30, but if I really need that then I might as well get the Legend cx for $40 more on Amazon. I also want to use my unit for tracking atv trails and saving the maps for future reference. As I understand the 500 is limited to 2000 points per track log. Is this correct or can more points be stored if using an sd card? Also, in your experience, how much distance can be covered with 2000 track points? I know this is alot to answer but before spending the money I want to make sure I am going to be happy with my purchase. I don't want to end up saying "I should have got the other one" a few weeks later. Thanks in advance. PS. Great thread by Jamie Z on the explorist 500 I'm a noob as well and I just bought a Venture cx two weeks ago and I love it. I don't know what is involved in creating your own maps, but for the money, I am hugely impressed by the maps I purchased as it even has new roads in my city that don't have houses on them yet. I live in Canada and I purchased the Metroguide Canada product. I would recommend you get the Venture instead of the Legend if you want waypoint/map software as it is cheaper and the hardware is identical other than the colour and the included microSD (tiny) on the Legend. I used the money I saved and purchased a 1 GB memory card for less than the difference in price. All of Canada fits into under 400MB so I still have 600 MB to store other maps and track logs. On page 27 of the manual (you can download it from Garmin) it clearly states that in the TRACK setup, it is possible to configure the unit to record track logs to the microSD card and dump them to a computer as GPX files. You will still have a few bucks left over and that can go towards buying one of the Mapsource street or topo maps. All of these map products have the same waypoint management capabilities as the waypoint software that comes with the Legend, plus the actual maps so they are a decent deal. I use this software to import waypoints and view everything on the maps on my laptop. I also manage geocaching waypoints using GPS Swiss Army Knife ($20.00) which is capable of dumping waypoints to the unit, but not maps. Quote Link to comment
+hikergps Posted November 11, 2006 Share Posted November 11, 2006 I would choose the Garmin Venture Cx for 2 reasons. 1st reason is I think yellow GPSr's are cool. 2nd is field replaceable AA batteries. Quote Link to comment
ossumguywill Posted November 11, 2006 Share Posted November 11, 2006 I would choose the Garmin Venture Cx for 2 reasons. 1st reason is I think yellow GPSr's are cool. 2nd is field replaceable AA batteries. That's what the LE is. It uses AAAs or li-ions. Quote Link to comment
thechubbybunny Posted November 12, 2006 Share Posted November 12, 2006 I am a geocaching newbie as well, and had the same dilemma choosing between GPS handhelds. After numerous hours of google searching, I narrowed it down to the Garmin eTrex Venture Cx and the Magellan eXplorist 500LE also. Both handheld units have good reviews and are quite affordable, but I ended up purchasing the Venture Cx for a few reasons. Garmin eTrex Venture Cx: -Uses 2 AA' Batteries at 32 hours battery life under normal use. (compared to the 3 AAA' battery clip on the 500LE) -Backlight is adjustable by % to improve battery life. -Same as the Legend Cx minus the usb cable, mapsource waypoint manager, and microSD card. -Yellow is catchy. -256 colour screen (compared to 16 colour on the eXplorist 500LE) -Expandable memory up to 1GB via microSD card. -$50 rebate until December 31st, 2006. -Product support seems to be alot better than Magellan based on some reviews. -Can function down to -15c conditions (compared to -10c on the 500LE) However, eXplorist 500LE has a very good PC-style filing system which is easier to use and to learn with compared to the Venture Cx. You can squeeze out up to 17 hours with the Lithium ion battery pack but I hear that it only lasts 4 hours with 3 Alkaline batteries in the included clip case. It also, has expandable memory via SD cards up to 1GB which are readily available and cheaper than microSD cards in retail stores. I like my Garmin Venture Cx though, it has very good features. But I have to agree with ucdcrush on the poor documentation it comes with. Quote Link to comment
thechubbybunny Posted November 12, 2006 Share Posted November 12, 2006 First, it appears that the Venture does not come with any software, are there any other programs that can upload maps, routes, waypoints to the Venture? I really don't want to buy the unit and then spend the same amount to get a copy of MapSource. I watched the videos rws posted on creating custom maps and I think I would rather try my hand at it before shelling out the extra cash for street and topo maps. I know you can get MapSource Trips and Waypoint manager for $30, but if I really need that then I might as well get the Legend cx for $40 more on Amazon. You can use EasyGPS for managing waypoints and uploading them to your Garmin unit. It's free too. You can also, use your standard digital camera usb cable with your Garmin for uploading unit updates (Ver 2.60 update is now available for Venture Cx). I use the usb cable that came with my Sony Cybershot. I strongly suggest you consider purchasing Mapsource Topo software later on and get a 1gb microSD card. The one that comes with Legend Cx isn't that great and eventually, you will want to buy a 512mb or 1GB microSD card in the future. Topographic maps seem to be popular for geocaching. Quote Link to comment
+MN-CACHE-TRACKER Posted November 12, 2006 Share Posted November 12, 2006 I have 3 GARMIN units that get used or abused, one on the 4 wheeler an etrex VENTURE has been run in mud, rain, dust, dirt, washed with the power washer left out in the sun and snow for the last 4 years and has had no problems. The other two a map 60cs and a gps v, no problems. I know others who have Garmin units and abuse the on the 4 wheelers that have had no problems. In my opinion from the experiance I have had with GARMIN products, I would say go with the GARMIN. The end choice is up to you. Good luck with what ever unit buy... Quote Link to comment
3appleshigh Posted November 12, 2006 Author Share Posted November 12, 2006 Also guys, I'm in canada, what mapping software do I need to start?? P.S. Thanks for the great replys, althought I has cleared up nothing LOL Quote Link to comment
+hikergps Posted November 12, 2006 Share Posted November 12, 2006 (edited) I would choose the Garmin Venture Cx for 2 reasons. 1st reason is I think yellow GPSr's are cool. 2nd is field replaceable AA batteries. That's what the LE is. It uses AAAs or li-ions. Oops, my bad. I didn't realize that Magellan had added a GPSr to their line above the 210 that takes replaceable batteries. BUT, It still isn't yellow! Edited November 12, 2006 by hikergps Quote Link to comment
+smokin69 Posted November 12, 2006 Share Posted November 12, 2006 I have a set budget, the Garmin Venture CX, and the Magellan 500LE both fit, which should I buy?? I'm a newbie, and would use mainly for GeoCaching, some minor Vehicular direction use as well. Thanks for the input. buy a explorist xl 300.00 Quote Link to comment
+Thrak Posted November 12, 2006 Share Posted November 12, 2006 I'd recommend the Garmin for one major reason. If you ever mess up your unit and need to send it in for repair Garmin service is the best you will find for any product anywhere. From all accounts Magellan service is horrible. I've sent two units in for repair -- I messed them up the units weren't defective -- each time Garmin has shipped me a brand new unit for free. Try that with Magellan......... Quote Link to comment
thechubbybunny Posted November 13, 2006 Share Posted November 13, 2006 (edited) Also guys, I'm in canada, what mapping software do I need to start?? P.S. Thanks for the great replys, althought I has cleared up nothing LOL It depends on the location you will be using your gps in. I use Topo Canada for Garmin. Topo Canada has all the streets just like Metroguide Canada V4 but with topographic detail and parks. Topo maps are good basemaps to start with for geocaching but if you want to find the nearest hotel or restaurant, City Navigator NA is the way to go. Whether it's Magellan or Garmin, I prefer to use Topo maps. Edited November 13, 2006 by thechubbybunny Quote Link to comment
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