Explorist 500 Canada street maps

[Find-me]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and a new owner of a Magellan Explorist 500.

 

I live in Eastern Canada (New Brunswick) and I am trying to find suitable street maps for my area. It is my understanding that the current version of Magellan's DirectRoute North America (V3) includes detailed maps for essentially all of the USA but only covers limited metropolitan areas of Canada. This amounts to around 16 cities or urban regions; none of which is in Atlantic Canada. (I discovered this information during some Internet searching; it isn't obvious from the Magellan website).

 

1) Is this correct or do the Internet references I have found refer to the previous version of the software?

2) I have posed this question to Magellan support but have not received any response. (its only been a couple of days)

3) Is the MapSend TOPO Canada worthwhile in terms of coverage of all areas? I have a coupon code for $9.99 for the USA version but would have to pay the full price for the Canadian software - makes sense for a unit sold in Canada!

4) Is there any such thing as second-party software available that might be compatable with this unit?

5) Does anyone know whether Magellan plans to extend their map software in the near future?

6) And finally, I have done a little reading on the utility of (and minor bugs in) the current 2.03 firmware - anything new in the works?

 

Thanks for your patience. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this!

 

Ross

[+D0T-C0M]

The topo maps are excellent IMO for NB but you wont get any routing capabilities. The topo maps are very very close to the DNR maps that you can buy at Service NB outlets. What is good about the topo maps is it has 90% of the offroad trails which is what I use alot when ATVing. I do not have DR v3 but I have the DR v2 maps and it has most major roads but are missing alot of the street names and missing alot of POIs. They aren't as detailed as the topo canada maps but works well for routing. DR is pretty useless offroad but great for routing on city to city trips. If you want more info email me darngtek@hotmail.com

Edited January 9, 2007 by D0T-C0M

[Find-me]

Thanks for the response Dot-com. I may end out buying the topo maps for Canada - it irritates me that I can get the US topo maps for $9.99 with the coupon provided with the unit but have to pay over $100 for the Canadian maps. While the Explorist is going to be suitable for hiking, geocaching, playing etc., it is a big disappointment when it comes to street maps. I have no intention to get a separate unit for use in the car, so I guess I'll have to wait until Magellan sees fit to produce street maps for Canadian locations other than a few select areas. I must say that I am pretty disappointed that Magellan support did not even extend the courtesy of responding to my queries about their products.

 

Overall, I like the function, sensitivity and apparent accuracy of the Explorist and IF I had been able to get suitable software support (i.e. apppropriate maps for my area), I would have said that it was in the "Best Buy" category for a middle-of-the-road hand-held GPS. Under the circumstances, however, I wish I had considered another product.

 

Maybe I'll end out with the MS "Streets and Trips" with GPS operating on a laptop for the car! Pretty cheap but I don't know (yet) about functionality or coverage in Canada. I can get the program with GPS for less than the cost of the DirectRoute NA software for the Explorist!

 

Ross

[+D0T-C0M]

The DR version 3 is supposed to have better canadian coverage. Version 2 wasnt so bad for routing, just it didn't have all the street names and POIs. Version 3 should be better. I agree though that if your doing alot of hiking/off-road stuff , topo would be the way to go. Just make sure you get the latest rev of topo/DR as it has explorist support built into it.

[Sarjor]

Hello Find-Me

I am located in Nova Scotia and feel your pain regarding maps for Canada. However I am using a combination of the Magellan Streets and Destinations for street detail and I also have a world topo basemap for the topo info loaded into my Sportrak Pro. Only having 23mb storage does not seem to be an issue as I can usually load most of the Maritimes from both to give me a good street map with the topo detail. I also just loaded the Microsoft Streets and Trips 2007 into my laptop and it works well with the Sportrak, voice prompts and all.

I do have all of Nova Scotia in digital topo that I use with Ozi Explorer, which is my favorite program for track analysis after my excursions into the wild blue yonder around the Maritimes. Where in N.B. are you? I have a sister in Douglas just outside of Freddy and also fly into Havelock a couple times a year.

[Find-me]

Sarjor

 

The Explorist 500 has the abiliy to upload maps of almost any size using an optional memory card - I just haven't been able to find anything with sufficient detail (for street navigation) that is actually compatable. The Magellan topo Canada offers little detail other than main roads and DirectRoute NA essentially ignores anything outside of a few urban areas (including all of Atlantic Canada). From what I have read, Magellan Streets and Destinations Canada will not run on the Explorist.

 

I assume that when you mention the MS Streets and Trips you are using it on your laptop with your hand-held GPS plugged in to interact with the program instead of using the MS unit that can be purchased with the program? I don't suppose that there is any way to use the maps by downloading to the hand-held GPS?

 

I live in Fredericton (North Side), just a couple of km from Douglas - small world, isn't it.

 

Ross

[dmlakins]

i would also be interested in hearing a solution for this one

id love to use the 3d topo maps on my 500 too