Magellan WAAS issue is solved

[+trainlove]

I can only hope that

QWERTY's & trainloves efforts have spurred an effort in the "Great non-communicators"

Mayhaps Mitac is going to really run w/the ball after picking it up, things may get interesting,

but I doubt it, we'll see.

 

Sounds like Magellan should put these boys on retainer!

 

Oh, I'd love for them to just give me a geocaching.com Premium Membership gift. LOL. Or even free mapping software, I love maps.

 

At least it's good to know that Magellan has at least one employee who frequents these forums, and has had the intelligence to release something for some products that they have washed their hands of long ago. Would I like to work for them? Perhaps not, but maybe if I could TeleCommute. And occasionally go on business trips where I could geocache states and countries I have not done yet. And perhaps be given one of their Mobile Mapper Professional GIS GPS's.

 

And yes, it's good that they have something for Explorists, since my method (so far) has yielded no solution for that model line.

Edited January 23, 2009 by trainlove

[qwert1515]

Double Post

Edited January 23, 2009 by qwert1515

[qwert1515]

And yes, it's good that they have something for Explorists, since my method (so far) has yielded no solution for that model line.

 

The "method" should work for the Explorists series (the string is in the S-Record), but since Magellan has an update it is better to use their one.

 

I can understand that Magellan would updated the Explorist for WAAS because they became legacy products in May 2008, but the Meridian series became a legacy product in December 2005, so it might take them a while longer if they do update it.

[CoyoteRed]

I got WAAS back.

 

You know, if they had only released a simple update that changed merely 2 bytes of information they might not have lost a customer. I'm now a Garmin customer. Maybe they simply didn't care.

 

Anyway, thanks for the hard work that went into finding the fix. I've got my ST Pro back receiving WAAS. I'm testing it right now to confirm I'm getting the proper corrections and again see ±0.001 repeatability.

 

~ Yea! ~

 

UPDATE: It appears to be working right. Can't tell until I try multiple samples on multiples days.

 

BTW, the WAAS birds moved to the proper places on the satellite screen all by themselves.

Edited February 3, 2009 by CoyoteRed

[+Bismuth]

MobileMapper Pro WAAS fix released 1/4/2008, eXplorist 400/500/600/XL WAAS update 1/22/2009. Maybe they will get the Meridian "official" update out in January of 2010!

 

I am not sure what this means. Sounds like "MobilMapper Pro" has released a fix for the WAAS problem with Magellan GPSrs. Is that it? I have a WAAS-less eXplorist 500 that I would like to fix. I have not been able to get it to "take" firmware upgrades so I am not sure the instructions given earlier in this thread will help me.

[+Klemmer]

Bismuth:

The Magellan MobileMapper Series are much more expensive ($2500+) semi-professional unit, sold by a different division of Magellan, also still being made (my daughter's company just bought one for her work in wilderness parks). It bears a superficial external resemblance to the Magellan Meridian Series, but are quite different electronically. I guess Magellan can't get away with stiffing their "professional" level customers like they did to their consumer customers.

 

BTW: I like your very elemental geo-name.

Edited March 2, 2009 by Klemmer & TeddyBearMama

[+vidar42]

I'm still quite new to the whole GPS thing. I have an older Meridian Platinum (grey and black unit). It says my firmware is 5.40 WAAS enabled. So....I'm asking now...is that good enough? Can I assume that WAAS is in fact enabled on my unit?

 

Just wondering as when I'm caching, I don't seem to get *really* close to the coordinates, but close enough I guess. If I can get closer, even better...

[+leatherman]

So what does the position screen show if it's not WAAS averaging?

[+leatherman]

I entered the secret menu [01]. I didn't sat 122 or 134.

[+leatherman]

So I didn't see the old sats in the secret menu. The WAAS sats on the sat screen are solid blocks. I did a cache last night and had a sold 10'EPE. I must have lucked out and had my Meridian on during the update last year.

 

Is there any problem with Garmin units? I've had my Rino in a bag for the last 4 years. However I want to use it this summer

[+TotemLake]

So I didn't see the old sats in the secret menu. The WAAS sats on the sat screen are solid blocks. I did a cache last night and had a sold 10'EPE. I must have lucked out and had my Meridian on during the update last year.

 

Is there any problem with Garmin units? I've had my Rino in a bag for the last 4 years. However I want to use it this summer

I would check to see if there are any firmware updates to be sure.

[+leatherman]

 

Is there any problem with Garmin units? I've had my Rino in a bag for the last 4 years. However I want to use it this summer

I would check to see if there are any firmware updates to be sure.

 

I hope I don't have to upgrade firmware for the Rino. I don't have a serial port!

[+TotemLake]

 

Is there any problem with Garmin units? I've had my Rino in a bag for the last 4 years. However I want to use it this summer

I would check to see if there are any firmware updates to be sure.

 

I hope I don't have to upgrade firmware for the Rino. I don't have a serial port!

A Belkin USB to serial interface is inexpensive and well worth the money. However, that being said, turn it on and see what birds it updates from. It could be there is already a built in process to take care of that.

[+leatherman]

So are these birds more powerful? My coords seam very accurate and steady.

 

Better signal strength?

[+TotemLake]

So are these birds more powerful? My coords seam very accurate and steady.

 

Better signal strength?

I suspect with each generation, the signal quality will be better.

[+Knight2000]

Excited about this new fix so I bought a couple Meridians.

 

I suppose I am missing something. I did not alter my firmware but rather downloaded the altered firmware from the Yahoo group. (Meridian GPS.)

 

I had changed the firmware yesterday to 4.02 which is from the Magellan site.

 

I renamed the appropriate file FIRMWARE.HEX and put on SD card. Nothing happened. I hooked it up to the PC cable and started the update. (The downloaded 4.06 WAAS version.) It seemed to go wonky so I used the option that the screen on PC said I could do and canceled. The unit got stuck in upload mode. I disconnected and removed the batteries.

 

It didn't seem to do anything. The upload had not started. I cleared the memory and tried again. It said it was complete.

 

I let it sit outside and it almost immediately got a signal. The w's were on the SE side. I let it sit for about 20 minutes but nothing seemed to happen except averaging.

 

I did what was suggested here by qwert1515:

After uploading the new firmware you can reset the memory by holding the "Nav - Goto" keys and press the power button to bring up the hidden menu, and then enter 30 (Clear Memory) and press enter.

 

I did this and sat it outside at with a clear view of the SW. It sat for an hour and nothing seemed to happen. It would average but never said WAAS. Occasionally the w's on the bottom right would stay solid but not shaded.

 

Any ideas what the heck I am missing? Should it say WAAS? Should the W's move?

[+Knight2000]

I did what was suggested here by qwert1515:

After uploading the new firmware you can reset the memory by holding the "Nav - Goto" keys and press the power button to bring up the hidden menu, and then enter 30 (Clear Memory) and press enter.

It looks like I quoted the wrong thing. Sorry.

 

I used the latest firmware from Magellan and altered it per the instructions. It took a while to get a lock but now it is done.

 

Thanks to both of you. It's a shame that Magellan didn't care enough to take care of this. We are all fortunate that you figured this out.

 

Thanks again.

[+Teese]

Eternal thanks from the last cacher on earth to realize that WAAS was missing on my Meridian Color (or to see this old thread). Followed the recipe, tweaked the latest firmware prior to uploading, and all went like a charm. Happy as a clam.