Tutorial for eXplorist XL?

[+Knight2000]

I know i have seen tutorials on eBay for Garmin models. Does there happen to be any type of tutorial for the XL? We recently got one and i can enter coords manually and fumble through entering a few test coords with GSAK but that is about it.

 

(At this point i do not know how to use GSAK.)

 

When i use Magellan software to enter a PQ into the XL many waypoints get lost. (It goes from 500 to 200 and i lose 300)

 

I also wonder if the topo3d has any other purpose than loading maps onto the GPS.

 

At this point i am pretty frustrated.

 

Thank you.

[vagabond]

Maybe this will help

[+Knight2000]

Maybe this will help

Yeah i seem to have that on CD. I understand the unit itself.

 

I was asking for more information that the unit manual does not contain.

[vagabond]

Ok how about this

 

Geocache Manager:

Select the gpx files of interest. The Manager allows you edit individual caches. Activate the unit in the File Transfer mode, select either the Internal Memory or SD Card, and Export the (*.gs) files to the GPS. Then in the unit, change to the Power Only mode, select -Preferences -Active Setup -(Navigate to the Internal Memory or SD Card depending on where the caches are stored) -Geocaches -and then select a file of interest.

 

While Geocache POIs are a step forward in making useful geocache data easily accessible on the GPS, the current implementation suffers from several shortcomings. Geocache POIs, unlike regular POIs, cannot be edited or deleted on the GPS. The Explorist will only accept 200 POIs per file, but no warning is offered that excess data is being lost. There is no field for description of the geocache, and only the first 50 characters of any hints provided are displayed. It would also be desirable if there was a way to directly access the Geocache POI data screen directly from the compass screen (the most likely screen to be used for a final approach of a geocache) while an active GOTO is set.

 

GEOCACHING:

The pathway for this internet data is as follows: get gpx files (called pocket queries) emailed to you from geocaching.com based on search criteria you define. Open the gpx file in Geocaching Manager or Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK) -a program for managing an off-line database of geocaches- and upload POIs to GPS. GPSBabel is also capable of sending gpx

files to the unit. Geocaching.com will let you sign up for 1 month at a time for $3 per month.

 

GSAK:

Geocaching Swiss Army Knife is a waypoint management program focused on the needs of geocachers. GSAK is nagware; all features are available for use, but after a trial period reminders to register the program delay program functioning. A full review will be published in the near future, but a brief description is provided below. GSAK is available at

http://gsak.net.

 

GPX format "pocket queries" from geocaching.com can allow the import into GSAK of up to 500 cache waypoints per file. Once in GSAK, users can track caches that they have found, not found, or placed. Detailed cache information, such as the cache description, is easily accessible. Users can sort or filter subsets on a wide range of criteria. GSAK uses the power of

GPSBabel (http://www.gpsbabel.org/) to upload waypoints to many GPS receivers and/or export to popular mapping programs. Additionally, GSAK supports PDAs with html output and the format for the popular CacheMate (http://www.smittyware.com/palm/cachemate/) program for the Palm OS. Macro automation speeds repetitive tasks.

[+Knight2000]

I thank you for your help but i think we are both thinking about different things.

 

I have already used all that you mentioned except GPSBabel.

 

I have been using GPX files with cachemate and uploading info to GPS for a few months now. (Just a different GPS.)

 

I was looking for a tutorial on possibly using the XL to do a little more. I am sure it is capable of more. If none are out there that is ok too.

Edited July 25, 2007 by knight2000

[vagabond]

When i use Magellan software to enter a PQ into the XL many waypoints get lost. (It goes from 500 to 200 and i lose 300)

 

The Explorist will only accept 200 POIs per file, but no warning is offered that excess data is being lost.

 

I thought that was part of what you were asking about

[+Knight2000]

I see. I was aware that i would lose the info. A nice choice would be to be able to choose how many of the points from the geocache manager to upload. You can highlight certain ones, but unless i count manually, i can see no way to actually see how many are highlighted. (I have searched for the answer to this but the instructions are pretty much one page.)

 

Also it would seem that there might be a better way to organize them when you go caching. Switching between small files seems so tedious. How do you know where one file ends and another begins? How do you know whether you actually have all of the points in a certain area? It seems that you would miss some points while having other points in there twice. Either way, if you didnt miss any points you certainly would have some more than once. (If you just ran PQ's of 200 from different starting points.)

 

Are there any tips or tricks out there?

[vagabond]

On my SD card I have mutiple folders with mutiple files in each folder, for instance San Diego folder has east county, north county, south bay,downtown and the coast area.There are approx. 175 caches in each file, The reason I keep them at 175 is just in case the are parking coords included. All I have to do is go to the menu, active map, which ever folder I want then activate that file I also have a few in my SD card that are just individual files. I havent counted the caches but I would estimate well over 2000 caches just in geocaches. When ever I plan on going to an area I download a fresh PQ or PQs

I know you have had problems with GSAK, but my advice is to learn the basics of it because it can do so much for you.

I trashed the geocache manager after about a week and went to GSAK and haven't looked back.

Hope this helps

[+RRLover]

I see. I was aware that i would lose the info. A nice choice would be to be able to choose how many of the points from the geocache manager to upload. You can highlight certain ones, but unless i count manually, i can see no way to actually see how many are highlighted. (I have searched for the answer to this but the instructions are pretty much one page.)

 

Also it would seem that there might be a better way to organize them when you go caching. Switching between small files seems so tedious. How do you know where one file ends and another begins? How do you know whether you actually have all of the points in a certain area? It seems that you would miss some points while having other points in there twice. Either way, if you didnt miss any points you certainly would have some more than once. (If you just ran PQ's of 200 from different starting points.)

 

Are there any tips or tricks out there?

 

Although this doesn't address your issues directly, . . . I noticed that the help documents accessed

from the splash screen that launches when you first insert the 'Install Wizard' CD are more complete

than the documents that download and are accessed from within the separate applications themselves!

This made a huge difference in my ability to grasp what the software required from the users.

Coming from the MAC side, learning to use Parallels, and Win/XPsp2, & Magellan all within one week

was one of the most intense trials of my perseverance I've encountered in a long time! And I'm still

not very proficient at (nor will I ever be) Windows. Magellan will croak long before I ever master this

MapSend expletive deleted.

 

Norm

Edited July 26, 2007 by RRLover

[+EScout]

There is no magic answer or video. Please do what the rest of us do with a new device: read the manual and go through each item in the menu and try them all out. For example, I bought a new digital camera today. I have spend hours going through the manual and trying each setting, taking a few photos, etc.

 

There was a suggestion here about learning GSAK. Again, go through the help menu, and learn many of the things it can do; do some filtering, etc. Spend a few hours. Then load a filtered cache file and then activate it in your GPSr. Then do some searching by alpha and distance. Mark some as found and see how to access. Take a break from posting on this site for a few days while you do this and you will be less frustrated.

[+Die Baumanns]

The Geocachemanager has a bug, the data base is indicated not after the Waypoint, but after the name. If now Caches are in the file, with which the first 20 letters are equal, only the latter in the file are indicated. Greeting from germany

Guido

[+Knight2000]

I am not asking for a magic answer or magic video. I know other units have tutorials to unlock the different things that their units can do. I know that info is out there about Magellan GPS units that is not in the manual.

 

I have read the manual and understand my GPS.

 

Understanding GSAK will not help with the limitations of the unit. It might help get them in there easier though. GSAK shouldn't be a requirement to go caching though.

[+bassmig]

I have a 500LE and tried to use geocache manager to no avail. I found GSAK to be much more intuitive. I also use it to do paperless caching with my Palm(I find it usually works better than the 500 itself because of the limitations of the unit) I hate the fact that there is a 200 cache limit on the unit, I would say that this is my biggest annoyance on this unit. I just use the same logic as Vagabond. I agree that some data might get duplicated but it's about the only way I have found to deal with the 200 cache issue. Some people have even tried to change the limit in the unit itself but that seems to be hardcoded and cannot be modified. Many people have urged Magellan to change it in a firmware upgrade and they do not seem to be willing to move on that.

 

http://www.mtgc.org/robertlipe/exploristwiki/ has a lot of extra info

Edited July 26, 2007 by bassmig

[+Knight2000]

I have a 500LE and tried to use geocache manager to no avail. I found GSAK to be much more intuitive. I also use it to do paperless caching with my Palm(I find it usually works better than the 500 itself because of the limitations of the unit) I hate the fact that there is a 200 cache limit on the unit, I would say that this is my biggest annoyance on this unit. I just use the same logic as Vagabond. I agree that some data might get duplicated but it's about the only way I have found to deal with the 200 cache issue. Some people have even tried to change the limit in the unit itself but that seems to be hardcoded and cannot be modified. Many people have urged Magellan to change it in a firmware upgrade and they do not seem to be willing to move on that.

 

http://www.mtgc.org/robertlipe/exploristwiki/ has a lot of extra info

Thank you very much. I was hoping that someone had figured out an easy way to use the geocache files. It seems like such a waste to not use the geocache feature and just use the POI's...

 

Thank you for the link. I will check into it.

[+Knight2000]

Thank you for that link. Here are some other links that were interesting/helpful. (For anyone searching this thread.)

 

http://www.gpsfaqs.org/faqs/magellan/explorist/exploristxl/

http://www.mtgc.org/robertlipe/

 

I was hoping for a fix or idea to deal with the small files for geocaching mode. I will just use POI's as they are essentially the exact same thing.

[+RRLover]

I went to the back room and dug around, . . . found the DVD that I just remembered.

60 min. rudimentary tutorial, item # on the back binding is 13558, produced by 'GPS

Outfitters Inc.'. I think I purchased it through 'Cabelas', I didn't find it particularly

enlightening, YMMV !

 

http://www.gpsoutfitters.com/DVD.htm

 

It would seem upon perusal of the site that they found another 15 min. of data to include

since I bought mine, might make a difference, but I doubt it!

 

Norm