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Magellan Triton 400


jststmpit

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Hi! I'm new here. Been lurking for awhile, but now that I got a GPS for Christmas, I'm hoping to join in.

 

My DH got me a Magellan Triton 400. I've downloaded the software today, but I'm afraid I did something wrong. Error messages pop up...says I'm not connected, when I am...and the National Geographic Topo Maps pop up with an error too. He said he researched it, and thought this one would be a good one for my new "hobby" , but after reading some of the negative comments about that particular one here, NOW, I'm not so sure. Maybe it's just too late to even download stuff tonight and I just can't see straight. Possibly a fresh start in the morning?

 

If anyone has this unit, that can offer me some advice, I sure would appreciate it.

 

TIA...

 

Jststmpit

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I got my 400 for Christmas too. Alas, we returned ours. We didn't get quite as far as you've gotten before it began freezing on me. I kept having to take the batteries out and reinsert to let the thing boot up. So we are on the hunt again. We're looking at Delorme pn 20, 40 and the Garmin 60csx. You might check those out if you decide to return your 400. The Delorme website is offering 50 rebates for units bought before the 31st at third party retailers. Some people replied to my post the other day and said that basically you could be happy with the 400 but you really had to work with it and tweak it. For a newb like me I knew I didn't have the knowledge base to know how to tweak it so we gave that model up. The cool thing I'm seeing from the Delorme camp is that topo and city maps are included for the US straight out of the box. Then you pay thirty a year and you have access to about a billion maps and several different types, including aerial photography sources. Their videos and other review videos I've checked out look really amazing. Just another newbies two sense. Anybody got more info? Please share.

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I got my 400 for Christmas too. Alas, we returned ours. We didn't get quite as far as you've gotten before it began freezing on me. I kept having to take the batteries out and reinsert to let the thing boot up. So we are on the hunt again. We're looking at Delorme pn 20, 40 and the Garmin 60csx. You might check those out if you decide to return your 400. The Delorme website is offering 50 rebates for units bought before the 31st at third party retailers. Some people replied to my post the other day and said that basically you could be happy with the 400 but you really had to work with it and tweak it. For a newb like me I knew I didn't have the knowledge base to know how to tweak it so we gave that model up. The cool thing I'm seeing from the Delorme camp is that topo and city maps are included for the US straight out of the box. Then you pay thirty a year and you have access to about a billion maps and several different types, including aerial photography sources. Their videos and other review videos I've checked out look really amazing. Just another newbies two sense. Anybody got more info? Please share.

 

You'll find that most of these will have a learning curve unless you buy the basic GPS units such as the Garmin Etrex models. Many questions you might come up with can be answered in the GPS section, this is where I'd post them! Once you get the hang of it, you'll be caching without much problem!

 

Just remember that you should be looking around for the cache at 30' more than relying on the GPS unit to point it out! Think like a cacher at the 30' range and look for "obvious hiding spots". The obvious part will come to you with a few finds!!

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I like the idea of the Delorme PO-40, but from what I've read I can tell I wouldn't have the patience to tinker around getting the maps I would want for a day's caching. And I shudder to think of the work involved preparing for a long trip. Yes, the maps and aerial views that Delorme offers are way cool, but the downside is they are "fidgety" to get on to the gps. Delorme is known for their focus on making nice maps.

 

I use the Garmin 60CSx.

 

I used five things last summer to plan a great set of caches we *might* do on a very flexible vacation of the east coast--16 states in all.

 

*MapSource Trip & Waypoint Manager program (that comes with the Garmin gps units)

*Topo US

*City Navigator maps for my husband's 60 CSx (and for my unit, City Select)

*GSAK

*Geocaching's Trips Along a Route

 

We wanted to be able to travel on a whim, stopping when we were having fun and moving on as the muse inspired us. I didn't want to keep spending time on the road hunting for suitable caches, either. When I was done, I had 1000 caches that we really might consider doing in my gps and PDA and all the maps we would need for the entire trip. The maps also have the general points of interest that helps travelers--gas stations, hotels, places to eat, tourist attractions and major parks.

 

I did invest some time in weeding through caches for ones I though we would really enjoy. I could have saved myself some time and just loaded all the caches as POIs (Points of Interest), but then I wouldn't have been as sure we would like the caches that popped up on my maps as we traveled.

 

We had a marvelous trip. From what I've read, I could not have done as well with the Delorme. So cool aerial views aside, the Delorme isn't quite what I want --yet. I could say similar things about the Oregon 400t (which I have also looked at).

 

For me, using the 60CSx and a PDA is the way to go right now. I need great navigation-- my husband uses his for work, as a truck driver, on tiny rural roads and major highways. If he overshot his turn (which is apparently easy to do with the PN-40 and the Oregon) it could get ugly fast. It's hard to turn around with a 53 foot tail on your wheels. I need good accuracy for caching (My back is too messed up and I am too old and out of shape to climb a hill I don't need to be on!). And I want it all to be fast and convenient to load into my gps-- I'd rather be out caching than picking and choosing maps to load or clustering up my computer with a database of aerial views that I *might* use someday.

 

But your needs may vary.

 

Lots of interesting reading in this thread.

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I bought my daughter an PN-40 for Christmas, I bought a 40SE at introduction, we spent about

40 minutes this evening and loaded all of WA,OR,ID western MT,ND, and some others I don't

remember, she did the work and I was just there for moral support. Uhhh, . . . ALL on a MAC!

It's not as difficult as some would have you believe, my daughter has had NO prior experience

loading up a GPSr, only minimal field work w/my previous Magellan XL.

W/the pre cut maps supplied, you're out the door and using it quite quickly, and learning Topo 7

can then be done at your own pace, no crunch. Turbo Cad was way more difficult, but that was

then, and this is now.

Got questions? "Those in the know" are at :

http://forum.delorme.com/

 

Norm

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Hi! I'm new here. Been lurking for awhile, but now that I got a GPS for Christmas, I'm hoping to join in.

 

My DH got me a Magellan Triton 400. I've downloaded the software today, but I'm afraid I did something wrong. Error messages pop up...says I'm not connected, when I am...and the National Geographic Topo Maps pop up with an error too. He said he researched it, and thought this one would be a good one for my new "hobby" , but after reading some of the negative comments about that particular one here, NOW, I'm not so sure. Maybe it's just too late to even download stuff tonight and I just can't see straight. Possibly a fresh start in the morning?

 

If anyone has this unit, that can offer me some advice, I sure would appreciate it.

 

TIA...

 

Jststmpit

Took my Triton 400 back to the store. I ran into the same issues, plus really extended times to load caches from something as simple as Easy GPS. My Garmin 60C takes 30 seconds to load 500 caches from my laptop. LOTS of other features come with the Triton, but the button placement was a real drag (very cumbersome). The 60C has very easy buttonology, and have used it for the last few weeks with a lot of surprises. Navigate on road to get to the area, then switch to off road to the cache.

 

Balcanthez

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I got the triton 400 for xmas too, and I love it. I think it works really well. I have no trouble with operating it at all. It also seems to be very accurate. It led me right on top of the first 2 caches I found with it.

 

I don't know who the Garmin works with importing caches but the T400 Is go for paperless caching. It adds all the info from the page and decodes hints as well.

 

The only problem with the T400 is you cannot mark caches found, and there is no icon to change it to, so that you can mark it found, HOWEVER, I found that there is a found cache icon on the unit, and there is a way to access it. I posted this in a thread in GPS and Tech about it.

 

With that, I find no reason why the T400 isn't awesome.

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