Magellan Triton 1500 or Garmin Garmin GPSMap 60CSx (or Colorado)?

[mabuhr]

Hey-

 

I have a brand new Triton 1500, but am considering swapping it for a Garmin GPSMap 60CSx.

 

Uses:

- backcountry hiking

- geocaching

- driving directions

- urban foot nav

 

Ideally, I'd like support for both US and European maps (both street and topo).

 

I'm also considering waiting for the new Garmin Colorado 400t.

 

Help?

[Lodogg2221]

Hey-

 

I have a brand new Triton 1500, but am considering swapping it for a Garmin GPSMap 60CSx.

 

Uses:

- backcountry hiking

- geocaching

- driving directions

- urban foot nav

 

Ideally, I'd like support for both US and European maps (both street and topo).

 

I'm also considering waiting for the new Garmin Colorado 400t.

 

Help?

 

Whats wrong with the 1500?

[mabuhr]

Nothing wrong with it, per se. I like the fact that the Garmin can also do driving nav, but then Magellan is promising this for "early 2008". Garmin offers a comprehensive set of European street maps with its Navigator NT product, while I don't see that Magellan offers this.

[+cache_venturers]

Nothing wrong with it, per se. I like the fact that the Garmin can also do driving nav, but then Magellan is promising this for "early 2008". Garmin offers a comprehensive set of European street maps with its Navigator NT product, while I don't see that Magellan offers this.

 

Well.. The Triton is a great GPS if you do light weight activities. I have a Triton 1500 and for Geocaching it is currently near useless. It's one of the items where they do a fantastic job at building the hardware, then the software developers botch up the works.

 

On the good side:

1. It is very quick at locking on and determining you location

2. Extremely accurate

3. The display is top notch

4. Works great in wooded areas, inside REI, in my basement... etc.

5. While searching for a cache it is wonderfully quick

6. From the Map page there is a pull-up tab that can be set to two different

levels showing 2 or 4 data fields. When you select one of the data

many more data fields are displayed and you can select which data field

you want to be included on the map screen. Therefore you can

modify the data fields to suite you. I have distance to destination and

heading to destination currently on my display. Very nice!

 

On the down side:

(I considering this a beta release of the firmware, although it is not beta)

1. Downloading more that 45 waypoints (.gpx) causes performance slowdown

2. Downloading more that 45 waypoints my get a communications error

3. Synchronizing more that 100 waypoints (using VantagePoint)

causes extreme performance problems. unit is basically unusable until the

memory is cleared and reset to factory defaults.

4. The National Geographic maps provide to much graphic noise. It would be nice

to be able to have good maps without the noise.

5. VantagePoint lacks a lot of capabilities. For example the search in Geocaching

section is pre-set to specifics such as difficulty 1-2, 2-3, etc. Obviously the

developers had half-a-clue but did not quite catch on. If I want to do a quick

caching run and want the very easy caches, sorting on 1-2 will provide a few

hundred caches. Milling all those is not "quick", plus plotting them on the

VantagePoint map is useless (see 7a&7b below).

6. If you use the search of VantagePoint, you can not download only the search results.

The only option is to down load all waypoints.

7a. The topo map provided within VantagePoint has accuracy up to and including the

US Interstate system and even includes one or 2 major cities for most states.

7b. VantagePoint does not display the waypoint name on the map, you need to mouse

over the waypoint. It would be nice to option the waypoint names on or off.

8. The .gpx downloads work great but do not show the cache description, instead they

display the "hints". So if you are a non-hint cacher, then you shouldn't use .gpx

waypoint downloads (of course you are stuck at constantly loading and deleting

waypoints off VantagePoints and downloading in the Megellan format).

9. Setting the time zone is really strange. The unit has 3 different use profiles (Marine,

Hiking, and Geocaching). The time setup is within the profile. If you set the time zone

offset under hiking then change the profile to Geocaching, you must set the time zone

offset again.

10. Daylight savings time is On or Off. But this is not automatic Daylight savings time

adjustment, but the indicator is you are currently in Daylight savings time. Obviously

lazy developer staff.

11. The unit appears to have memory management issues. Based on the View Memory

usage, the system memory is in common with user memory. My guess is this is

a difficult hurtle for development and many issues associated with the unit might not

be resolvable unless they allow the SD memory card to store waypoints.

12. The touch screen is a nice idea but operation is klutzy because you must use both the

push-buttons and the touch-screen as you navigate the menu. The saving grace is that

many of the tough-screen actions can be done with your finger. If you need to grab

the stylist for the smaller touch-screens, the stylist compartment is made for left hand

access.

13. Geocaching features are missing (in comparison to a Garmin). To me the required

features for Geocaching are being able to mark the cache as found which allows the

find-next to work from the cache just found. Once a cache is marked as found, I want

that cache to be placed into a different queue so when I get back to logging I don't miss

any.

14. Support is almost non-existent. It is out-sourced and helpful only if the problem

you are calling about fits in the knowledge base the "operator" is reading through.

 

Obviously there is a LOT more wrong with the Triton 1500 than is right with it. All the same I rather

like it and I'm hoping for microcode upgrades to resolve the issues. I'm still debating on keeping the

unit or returning it, I'm still thinking about keeping it.

[mabuhr]

I'm returning my unit in favor of a Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx. The issue that finally pushed me over the edge was road nav: this thread is great for laying out how far behind Magellan is behind in this area. Also, Magellan's low refresh rate on its maps, as well as the weird way the group their mapping software products also contributed to my decision.

[+cache_venturers]

I'm returning my unit in favor of a Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx. The issue that finally pushed me over the edge was road nav: this thread is great for laying out how far behind Magellan is behind in this area. Also, Magellan's low refresh rate on its maps, as well as the weird way the group their mapping software products also contributed to my decision.

 

I'm sort of hoping someone would jump in and correct me because the unit hardware look and feel is really nice.

 

I found that the mapping was really quick, if you kept the number of waypoints to a minimum. As the number of waypoints increases the performance decreases. This is how I came up with my guess that they have a critical memory management problem in the unit. My hope is this will be resolved shortly.

 

If I keep the unit I'll likely use it in tandem with the Garmin 60CS. My wife and I cache as a team, so we normally have 2 GPSr's with us (ignoring the Nav system in the car).

[+elmuyloco5]

The magellan site has new firmware downloads that are supposed to fix the sluggish issues. Might want to try that.

[+embra]

4. The National Geographic maps provide to much graphic noise. It would be nice

to be able to have good maps without the noise.

 

I appreciate your comments, both the pro and con. Could you say a little more what you're seeing in reference to this one? Is this just for certain zoom levels?

[+3doxies]

After watching the cerebral eunuchs at Magellan wrestle with getting the Triton out the door and into their beta testers hands, we finally ordered a 60CSX last night as well. Maybe, one day, a Triton...but not soon...and only after its clearly out of beta.

[Lodogg2221]

After watching the cerebral eunuchs at Magellan wrestle with getting the Triton out the door and into their beta testers hands, we finally ordered a 60CSX last night as well. Maybe, one day, a Triton...but not soon...and only after its clearly out of beta.

 

You guys and your 60CSx's are starting to make me wish Id have gotten that instead of the Vista HCx I ordered...I guess I could always exchange it. Seems everyone is getting those! I was going to, and thinkn now I should have, since Garmin has yet to fix the slow speed problem on the HCx...oh, well, I guess I can see if I like it or not.

Edited December 29, 2007 by Lodogg2221

[+cache_venturers]

After watching the cerebral eunuchs at Magellan wrestle with getting the Triton out the door and into their beta testers hands, we finally ordered a 60CSX last night as well. Maybe, one day, a Triton...but not soon...and only after its clearly out of beta.

 

You guys and your 60CSx's are starting to make me wish Id have gotten that instead of the Vista HCx I ordered...I guess I could always exchange it. Seems everyone is getting those! I was going to, and thinkn now I should have, since Garmin has yet to fix the slow speed problem on the HCx...oh, well, I guess I can see if I like it or not.

 

Yesterday after posting I called Magellan one more time.... I actually got in touch with someone that understood the Triton, as well as the other Magellan products. He sounded more like an engineer that one of the support robots I was use to earlier in the week.

 

They are aware that there are problems and Magellan will be coming out with an upgraded release. At this time there is no schedule for the upgrade release as it is not yet out of development; some fixes are in the works, some fixes are yet to be included.

 

If you had the original Explorist, you will remember that it to came originally came with a lot of "issues". But today that GPSr line is virtually problem free. I'm expecting this to happen with the Triton... that's why I'm saying this is a keeper. Assuming there are no internal hardware issues (which I do not feel there is), the unit will be tailored and perfected.

 

On the other hand, if you expect to be Geocaching immediately and this is your only GPSr and you want to download a lot of waypoints, you might want to get another unit. If you Geocache by picking and choosing your caches, then down load only a few into the unit, this is a great little GPSr. Using this unit to find the cache is really sweet. Assuming the posted coordinates were correct the GPSr will put you right on top of the cache. Also you can change the data fields displayed on the pull-up data fields on the map page, this easy tailoring is great for both my Geocaching and Mountain biking.

 

I do not see much of a problem with the unit if it is being used for backpacking/hiking. I live in the mountains, not near the ocean so I have no clue if the unit, as it is today, would be good for Marine Navigation.

[+cache_venturers]

4. The National Geographic maps provide to much graphic noise. It would be nice

to be able to have good maps without the noise.

 

I appreciate your comments, both the pro and con. Could you say a little more what you're seeing in reference to this one? Is this just for certain zoom levels?

 

I'll mess with this some more today. We are going to do some caching to pick up a handful of the 12-days of Christmas caches being placed.

 

For an immediate answer, I found that the color density of the background map was to dark (I would like an option to lighten the map to just a faint "watermark" to a nice "Dark". The initial comment was based on my first impression.

[docgs]

Reading these posts, for once I feel happy to be in Europe where these kinds of products come out a lot later... it will be that more interesting to see which way Magellan's pricing goes, though (Garmin in Europe has awful prices compared to the US$ prices, and a GPSr from the US is considered a grey import - as if the "Global" Positioning System receiver had to be used - considering support issues - only in the country in which you normally live...)

[+cache_venturers]

I appreciate your comments, both the pro and con. Could you say a little more what you're seeing in reference to this one? Is this just for certain zoom levels?

Today I used the 1500 GPSr some for Geocaching with the NG Maps. My initial comments about the graphic noise of the maps, it appears, my comments were to harsh. Although it would be nice to allow the user the make the maps lighter, it was not at all bad. I drove (ok my son drove) to Denver so we could try the maps in areas that had a lot of streets then therefore quite a lot of graphics. The graphic noise was not bad, to dark for my tastes but not really "bad". I'd rate them as a person negative, but not a negative for the GPSr itself.

 

One thing about the maps, they are downloaded pixel graphics. As you zoom in the graphics become very pixellated. If you are into computer graphics, think about 8-bit graphics... this is about 1/4 that bad. It would be nice if Magellan could find a map provider for vector graphics.

 

I did find that if you left the unit turned on with maps loaded, then the automatic shutoff popped, the unit would freeze. To recover I needed to remove the SD memory, power-up, shut-down and re-insert the SD memory... maps back, GPSr would be fine.

[+cache_venturers]

The magellan site has new firmware downloads that are supposed to fix the sluggish issues. Might want to try that.

The unit is at the most current firmware as the unit is less than a week old and were shipped with the most current.

[+cache_venturers]

Reading these posts, for once I feel happy to be in Europe where these kinds of products come out a lot later... it will be that more interesting to see which way Magellan's pricing goes, though (Garmin in Europe has awful prices compared to the US$ prices, and a GPSr from the US is considered a grey import - as if the "Global" Positioning System receiver had to be used - considering support issues - only in the country in which you normally live...)

If you have a cell phone, I'm sure GPSr is at most second on the list!

 

I think the Triton will be a nice product once us users get done with a more proper beta than the actual Magellan beta.

[+elmuyloco5]

The magellan site has new firmware downloads that are supposed to fix the sluggish issues. Might want to try that.

The unit is at the most current firmware as the unit is less than a week old and were shipped with the most current.

 

Not trying to say that you don't have the latest upgrade, but just because you just received the item doesn't mean it's upgraded. When I bought my PSP new, I still needed to upgrade. When I bought my computer new, I still had to upgrade my software. It's worth a check at the site anyway to see if that helps. If you have the latest, well then you know you covered that option and can look for other ways to fix your problem.

[+cache_venturers]

Some more comments about using the Triton.

 

Today we took the Triton out Geocaching. The problems with the Triton slows us down a lot, but we were not out to break any records just see what the Triton could do. Wait! make that "would do".

 

1. At the first cache (90 miles from our house) the unit frooze and it took about 30 minutes to figure out how to recover.

Issue: Map on SD card when the unit timed out for the automatic shutdown. Needed to shut down, remove SD card, boot-up, shutdown, insert SD card, boot-up, select the correct map.

NOTE: I could have loaded a single map of the area, but I wanted to test the map swapping capabilities.

 

2. The logic of telling me in a nice readable font that the file is a Raster Map then in itty-bitty font tell me the map name is beyond me. The developers might not realize it, but when I select the Map menu I'm expecting all the files to be maps, so why are they telling me in the readable font that the file is a map? Duh!

 

3. Setup modifications are not saved. Therefore is you modify data fields the way you want them for Geocaching, then power-cycle the unit the changes are gone.

 

4. The previous time I used the GPSr it was so sweet! This time I could not get the data fields to accept modifications. This means I could not get the unit to display the most critical display: Distance to destination. The 60CS took us 20 feet from the cache, the 1500 took my wife to be on top of the cache (via only the map this time). When getting the distance to destination displayed, it's so nice to use.

 

5. In compass mode, the data fields can not be modified (well I could not get it to work anyway). When I Geocache this is generally the only page I use on my 60CS, the map page is something to page through. The Navigation in my wife's Toyota Preus is the map, once parked the Hand-help GPSr stays in Compass mode.

 

6. Having the .gpx hint did come in handy. Although having the description would be handy for most. If we are geocaching (on purpose vs impromptu), we normally have the computer and wireless Broadband so we can look up the cache. But, I don't think this is "normal" so having the description included would make the Triton line great for paperless caching (assuming the software items get fixed)

 

7. The Triton is a pain to connect the computer to. Do all Magellans use that flat 4-pin connector? Any engineer that breaks industry wiring standards for USB (or Firewire, or ... etc) is making the infamous ID-10-T error. I'm assuming there is a GPS cable profit center within Magellan, no engineer with a brain would do something this foolish without it being forced on them!$.

 

8. When setting a waypoint as a destination, these huge Red and Green boxes remain on the screen! I need to read the manual to see if there is any explanation what they are for and why they have to be so obvious.

 

9. I'm hoping the profile system is only about half way done. I think the concept is that after setting "Geocaching" all the data fields would be tailored for Geocaching. At this point, I have not really found what the point of the the profiles are. Well other than making you reset the time-zone offset.