Magellan MAP 330 Owner: Is it time for an upgrade?

[+Xenox]

I bought a Magellan MAP 330 many years ago.

 

Over the first several years, Magellan did a fantastic job of providing firmware updates. The maps improved, new screens were added and WAAS and averaging support were added. It became faster and better with each firmware revision and remained a competitive GPS receiver.

 

That was several years ago. Ever since I bought a TomTom for my car, my old MAP 330 has spent most of its time sitting in the closet collecting dust.

 

This past weekend, I dusted off the old MAP 330 and began my adventures in geocaching. I had a blast and I'm hungry for more.

 

My MAP 330 is seven or eight years old, so it seemed logical that I should consider buying a modern GPS unit. I assumed newer GPS receivers would be far better. However, when I read the user manual for the Garmin 60csx, I was saddened to see that it looked almost identical in functionality and user interface to my much older MAP 330. It has color, a higher-resolution screen, expandable memory, some gimicky games and a special "geocaching" waypoint type, but the only real GPS tracking improvements I saw were more accurate elevation and direction while standing still (via an electronic compass).

 

I had expected to see velocity and acceleration profiles, downloadable hiking trails with commentary, landmark-based position triangulation (for when GPS satellite reception is poor) -- even something as simple as an LED flashlight -- but it looks as though handheld GPSr technology has been stagnant for the past few years.

 

Is there something I'm missing? Is it worth several hundred dollars to upgrade to a new GPS -- or am I better off adding a cheap magnetic compass to my arsenal, which will probably be far more accurate?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice you may have!

 

---Xenox

[+IVxIV]

My "second last GPS" was a Magellan 315, which is even older than your 330

 

It still works great, & would still be suitable for seeking out a cache with. However the modern GPSr's have much more sensitive antennas which right there makes an upgrade a good idea. Even a "basic" modern GPSr has better sensitivity than a top-of-the-line-7-year-old machine.

 

As far as all the other "improvements" that come with a newer machine, it's up to you to decide which is useful & which is just eye candy.

[+W7WT]

Back in 2001, I bought a 330 when my Garmin45 lost signal in the woods. It was a very nice GPS and as far as just looking for caches it will probably still do the job. But I wanted more. We travel a lot and routing is essential to getting around in strange territory to find where to start looking for the cache. With your attitude, I would say stay with the Magellan Map 330. The new ones will not lose satellite coverage as fast as the 330, but if you are living where there are few trees or tall buildings you should do fine.

[Hawksnest2]

Wow... I read your post and had to double check to make sure I had not written it... I too have had a Map330 for several years... and it has been sitting in a drawer for almost 2 years... I recently dusted it off and started geocaching with my boys...

 

I noticed it was having a hard time locking on to satelites... and would lose lock fairly easy... so I made the mistake of initializing it... "don't if you havn't"... it doesn't lock on any faster....

 

the reason I say don't initialze yours if you havn't in a long time... and the biggest reason to upgrade from the Map 330... and the reason I upgraded this weekend... the WAAS satelites that are programed in the Map 330 firmware were de-comissioned in april or july of this year... so your Map 330 will not be able to provide WAAS satelite accuracy... if you havn't initialzed your Map 330 in some time... there is a chance that it recieved an update to the WAAS satelite info before the decommissioned satelites were decommissioned...

 

anyway... I bought a Magellan Explorist 500LE this weekend... I havn't really had a chance to play with it... however, I'm not super impressed yet... I was on a drive accross the state last night... and it failed to lock on to satelites from within my truck... so I need to see how it does with me just walking around...

 

if anyone has any feedback on the 500LE I'd appreciate it... OR if anyone knows how to re-program the Map 330 firmware to update the WAAS satelite info...

 

ps... there is a good discussion and info on the Map 330 in a map330 yahoo group... there is a thread that tells you how to see what satelites your map 330 is using for WAAS now... or I could e-mail it to you later ( I don't have it with me)...

 

Thanx...

[+Xenox]

Thanks for the responses!

 

I didn't have a problem with my MAP 330 losing lock while looking for caches and its accuracy placed me within 10 feet of the cache every time.

 

I'll try to get my hands on a newer GPS receiver to see if the interface is more responsive or the satellite locks more robust than my MAP 330.

 

If the newer units are 20% better in every way, maybe it would be worth an upgrade.

 

---Xenox

[robertlipe]

My first GPS was a 330. While units have come a long way since then, pairing it with an auto GPS as you have with your TomTom pretty gets you most of the benefits that matter. Things like color screens, turn-by-turn routing, more updated maps, etc. matter mostly in the car. The 330's reception is very good; not quite on par with the latest generation of receivers but in my experience in the woods it's good enough.

 

The two biggest problems with that line are that the keypads become unresponsive over time (they're sealed, so you can't repair them) and that firmware upgrades on them frequently gets them into a weird state requiring geeky intervention, though that's pretty well documented in the FAQs.

 

I just pulled mine off the rack where it's been powered of for many months. Within two minutes it had 8 sats at my desk and was using 2 for WAAS corrections.

 

They're an older unit and they won't get the lust of your peers. But if it does what you need it to do, it'll be hard to argue for an upgrade as your TomTom probably supplements it well.