Triton 400-- JUNK?

[+Tek_guy and Countrygirl48]

I don't have any problems with my T400; starting seems kinda slow, it does start

 

Well I'm not going to mess with the wait of trying to contact magellan and send it back for a replacment. I now understand why the Triton series got the reviews that it did if many of them got out with these type of problems. I really wanted to give Magellan a chance seeing how many of you are enjoying this unit, but I'm not willing to give up that much of my time to wait and get a working unit. I'll stick with my DeLorme unit until Magellan can redeem themselves perhaps with a future model that actually works. Taking this back to Wal Mart in Independence, MO if anyone else wants to give it a go.

[S.B.]

As I stated before the main porblems I have with this unit are the non-interfacing with the service pack 3 when using WidowsXP? I'll wait to get the patch from Magellan and then attempt downloading VP.

Steve

[+cliptwings]

After reading this line, I just had to pick up a T400. Walmart was all out, so I bought the Adventure Pack from Ebay for $149. After a couple of days of fiddling around, I am really impressed with this thing! Acquisition time is very quick, even inside my house. VP and Topo! Explorer setup really wasn't a problem as long as you READ the instructions. I wasn't impressed with the Topo! maps, but with a little help from the JungleGhost website, I was making and installing MY OWN topo and aerial maps in no time.

 

I guess the bottom line (for me) on this unit is that it demands a lot more attention to detail then the Plug-and-play Garmins. But with a bit of study, and by browsing the Triton forums, you get quite a capable little receiver. It just has to be a labor of love.

[+trainlove]

Also saw the Triton 1500 on sale at Walmart today for $199 with NG TOPO...

Wow, If I were not so Magellaned out I would consider this. Especially since I once saw a 1500 at a Walmart and on the back of the unit it actually said Mobile Mapper. A true GIS gps that one can make your own maps for using their MobileMapperPro program.

 

Others have told me I was dreaming, they are completely different beasts.

[+Tek_guy and Countrygirl48]

After reading this line, I just had to pick up a T400. Walmart was all out, so I bought the Adventure Pack from Ebay for $149. After a couple of days of fiddling around, I am really impressed with this thing! Acquisition time is very quick, even inside my house. VP and Topo! Explorer setup really wasn't a problem as long as you READ the instructions. I wasn't impressed with the Topo! maps, but with a little help from the JungleGhost website, I was making and installing MY OWN topo and aerial maps in no time.

 

I guess the bottom line (for me) on this unit is that it demands a lot more attention to detail then the Plug-and-play Garmins. But with a bit of study, and by browsing the Triton forums, you get quite a capable little receiver. It just has to be a labor of love.

 

I think that, when working, this could have been a very nice, easy to use geocaching unit. It has a great, sharp and crisp color display, and geocaching friendly out of the box. My problems didn't have anything to do with a learning curve or reading the instructions. My unit was faulty. I could not power down and power back up later without it being locked up. Also I was unable to access all of the menu functions, specifically when trying to adjust profile settings. I would have liked to have a working unit to evaluate, however with the high number of complaints I have seen on various websites for these, as well as people having to wait an unusually long ammount of time for RMAs, I'm not willing to wait that long. The wal-mart return policy on these is only 15 days, but it took less than 1 day to discover several bugs with my specific unit. I still love my Magellan eXplorist 400, and I'd be willing to give Magellan another chance if they release a new line of units that don't have the problems the Triton line has exhibited. Good luck to all of you who purchase one. Maybe I was unlucky and got a lemon.

[+LostMontanan]

Now you know why they are priced the way they are.

[+SkellyCA]

Mine works great!

 

Maybe they just dumped their rejects on Wally World?

[S.B.]

Mine works great!

 

Maybe they just dumped their rejects on Wally World?

 

What computer system are you using and does it have the service pack 3 installed?

Steve

[+supertbone]

100 is a great deal. I know I have seen the 200 for 100 recently and the 400 for 150. It looks like they may be clearing out of them.

[+Tek_guy and Countrygirl48]

Now you know why they are priced the way they are.

 

Apparently, LOL. The guy at Wal-Mart in Independence, MO said that they are a clearance item and will not be getting any more to sell. Apparently the one I bought was the last one at that store. However the store in Belton, MO had several units, but the 400's were not clearance priced, but the 1500's were at $199.

[S.B.]

After reading this line, I just had to pick up a T400. Walmart was all out, so I bought the Adventure Pack from Ebay for $149. After a couple of days of fiddling around, I am really impressed with this thing! Acquisition time is very quick, even inside my house. VP and Topo! Explorer setup really wasn't a problem as long as you READ the instructions. I wasn't impressed with the Topo! maps, but with a little help from the JungleGhost website, I was making and installing MY OWN topo and aerial maps in no time.

 

I guess the bottom line (for me) on this unit is that it demands a lot more attention to detail then the Plug-and-play Garmins. But with a bit of study, and by browsing the Triton forums, you get quite a capable little receiver. It just has to be a labor of love.

 

Since you think your intelligence is so far above everyone else's here would you mind giving this ignorant child a link to the Triton forums, please? HEHEHE

Steve

[+SkellyCA]

Mine works great!

 

Maybe they just dumped their rejects on Wally World?

 

What computer system are you using and does it have the service pack 3 installed?

Steve

 

XP Pro, SP3

[S.B.]

SkellyCA, HUH, yours appears to be the exact same as mine except it's a Pro series? Maybe Magellan is full of horse hooy and has no idea what's going on? I just called and talked to them again with nothing has been done on this patch, they told me about! I'm getting very impatient with them.Z I've only talked to one tech there who I could understand easily. They all sound South East Asian?

Steve

[+ricstone]

After reading this line, I just had to pick up a T400. Walmart was all out, so I bought the Adventure Pack from Ebay for $149. After a couple of days of fiddling around, I am really impressed with this thing! Acquisition time is very quick, even inside my house. VP and Topo! Explorer setup really wasn't a problem as long as you READ the instructions. I wasn't impressed with the Topo! maps, but with a little help from the JungleGhost website, I was making and installing MY OWN topo and aerial maps in no time.

 

I guess the bottom line (for me) on this unit is that it demands a lot more attention to detail then the Plug-and-play Garmins. But with a bit of study, and by browsing the Triton forums, you get quite a capable little receiver. It just has to be a labor of love.

 

Since you think your intelligence is so far above everyone else's here would you mind giving this ignorant child a link to the Triton forums, please? HEHEHE

Steve

 

i don't think he ment any thing bad about your intelligence. Here is your link to the Triton forums though http://www.tritonforum.com/forum/index.php...d321f9911048a91

[+oversens]

Also saw the Triton 1500 on sale at Walmart today for $199 with NG TOPO...

Wow, If I were not so Magellaned out I would consider this. Especially since I once saw a 1500 at a Walmart and on the back of the unit it actually said Mobile Mapper. A true GIS gps that one can make your own maps for using their MobileMapperPro program.

 

Others have told me I was dreaming, they are completely different beasts.

 

I just bought the 1500 3 days ago from Walmart for $199. The Triton 400 was $196. As it is my first GPS, I am still learning to use it but found my 1st "GPS-assisted" geocache today using it. My box, manual, etc say nothing about Mobile Mapper though... Fairly easy to load maps and GC info. However, if anyone knows how to directly download from geocahing.com onto the 1500, it would make things ALOT faster and easier.

[vagabond]

Also saw the Triton 1500 on sale at Walmart today for $199 with NG TOPO...

Wow, If I were not so Magellaned out I would consider this. Especially since I once saw a 1500 at a Walmart and on the back of the unit it actually said Mobile Mapper. A true GIS gps that one can make your own maps for using their MobileMapperPro program.

 

Others have told me I was dreaming, they are completely different beasts.

 

I just bought the 1500 3 days ago from Walmart for $199. The Triton 400 was $196. As it is my first GPS, I am still learning to use it but found my 1st "GPS-assisted" geocache today using it. My box, manual, etc say nothing about Mobile Mapper though... Fairly easy to load maps and GC info. However, if anyone knows how to directly download from geocahing.com onto the 1500, it would make things ALOT faster and easier.

 

Either hand key it in or use vantagepoint

 

I also saw the 1500 on sale at wallyworld for 196 it was red tagged which is clearance

[+sleddogs2]

Good luck with Triton.

All I can say is RUN from Magellan. I can't belive the company that had such a pioneering lead in hand held GPS has fallen to worst of class. I have owned 6 magellans. from merideans, explorists 500 and XL, roadmate, and my latest Triton 500. I must say the Triton, Vantaqe Point, and their convoluted approach to propriatary and S/N encripted maps and software make this product such a pain that I stopped using it. I am afraid to even sell it at a garage sale as someone will ask me to get it set up. Follows is an excerpt from a letter I sent to every magellan email contact i could find on their web site. Not one response. Not even an acknologement. Magellan ??? Run away !!

 

Memo to Magellan

...I upgraded again to a Triton 500, Vantage Point, Accuterra Great lakes map and National Geographic TOPO! I guess I expected an upgrade not a severe backward step!!! After a number of months trying to get used to the new products let me share my list of mistakes your design team has made with the new line. Multiple Geocaching tries and a solid week of using it while hunting this fall has left me frustrated. I honestly believe your development people have not even personally attempted to use the product in the way customers would use it or they would have discovered at least a few of the following significant flaws.

 

Triton 500

- Most outdoors persons do occasionally wear gloves. Did you ever think about that when you made the buttons so small and hard to push that they are near impossible to use. The power and light buttons are impossible to press even with thin gloves on. When below 0 degrees F, the rubber over molding is so stiff you can hardly press it in at all. By the way I could operate my Explorist 500 with snowmobile gloves on at – 20 F.

-The Joystick is horrible. It is so tiny that a center push is tough to feel differently from a push on the outside ring. Unless you use your thumb nail you can’t work it accurately. With gloves, impossible.

- Menus.”‘We don’t need no stinking menus”. This must have been a design objective. What were you thinking? You took a well organized series of menus that you could easily go into and back out of and scattered them about many different screens. On some screens the menu changes if you are navigating or not. Many menu items are missing from the past entirely. Some menus you get to by pressing the page button. Hint, save the memory space for fancy menu graphics and give us a real and logical menu system.

- Battery Life. Horrible for all kinds. I have tried alkaline, lithium AA’s, and rechargeable NmHi. 4 hrs at best and worse yet when cold.

- Electronic Compass. It has never been accurate. 90 degree off or more is common and inconsistent with every use. I have recalibrated while hunting so many times I have resorted to once again carrying a $5.99 magnetic compass.

- Altimeter and barometer are a nice touch but even the old Meridian had a trend graph. Just a number here doesn’t help much unless you have hidden a pencil and note pad on the Triton somewhere that I haven’t found yet.

- Size matters. Last I have heard, electronics were getting smaller. So why is your newest larger and heavier than the Explorist it replaced. My Blackberry with free GPS map and Geocaching should be more like it.

- 100’ smallest zoom scale. In the days of WAAS and excellent repeatability, having only a 100’ maximum zoom makes this a poor GPS for Geocaching.

- SD card. Great idea for memory but not having a open file structure for .gpx or even old Explorist formats or map send file versions makes the functionality absurd. If you had the best software of the class you might take a proprietary position but you are not an I Pod. It is bad enough that your schemes to protect your maps make functionality for multiple device people a pain. Now, we must go thru multiple software steps and migrations to even get old way points and geocaches loaded. After finally getting old waypoints loaded, I find out that Windows can’t see or use them on the SD card. What were you thinking?

- USB cord. It is a good thing it is easier to connect as it is the only way to interface with the unit. Using the marvelous new web based tool Vantage Point is a special experience. Let me share.

 

Vantage Point

- There is so much missing here that it is nearly an impractical tool to use. Unfortunately you made the new Triton devices not compatible backwards to use Map Send products.

- Using Vantage point with my Explorist 500 actually somehow deactivated previous maps from Map Send Topo 3D. Map Send S/N protection logic said I could not load maps to a new device. I tried to solve this problem long ago with your customer non-service and that was an unresolved issue. I learned from a GPS sharing site to just give up. Your team’s recommendation was to buy a new Accuterra map. Kind of sneaky. Plug in and oops, you must now spend money on an upgrade. So, now I had to buy a Accuterra map for my new Triton and my old Explorist. I will not connect my other 2 Explorists for fear they will lose map functionality as well. That makes them now somewhat useless then as well.

- I have spent hours trying to get tracks from the GPS onto the new software tool. I guess you didn’t suspect that users might want to print them? Save them? Manipulate them?... I couldn’t even figure a way to get a data file to load into a mapping program like Topo USA or even to migrate backwards to Map Send.

- I have downloaded all the updates so far. The web based tool to do this is a great idea. As far as using windows standard looking and intuitive menus, well you missed here almost as bad as with the Triton itself. Library, Journal, Connect, when even well experienced GPS users don’t know what they mean I guess we can at least give you creativity points.

- How about a simple fix. Update Vantage point to the old the Map Send functionality and tools and guess what, problem solved.

 

Accuterra

- I would have expected a topo map that cost $69 to download would have a little more detail and topo data. The elevation lines are so far apart that I thought it wasn’t a topo map when I looked at it.

- Some road names are missing. Topo detail like shading, swaps, etc is missing. Lake shoreline accuracy and detail is poor.

- After a number of times of trying to contacting your customer service via the web, I had to eventually contact Accuterra company (your supplier) to get your customer service to fix a bug that removed water from the map when zoomed in. This made the 2 versions I had purchased for my Triton 500 and Explorist 500 useless. When you finally fixed it I re-downloaded it. Once again your copy protection schemes made this a many hour exercise.

- While I soon recognized that Accuterra maps were marginal at best, I liked the idea of the interface with National Geographic detail maps. Or so I thought.

 

National Geographic TOPO!

- While not your product, they are obviously new at this too. Their interface to your GPS product is almost as bad as your Vantage Point. At least the latest update made the map transfer several steps easier.

- It seems as though every time I have opened TOPO! A new update was available. While I am glad they are fixing the deficiencies, their readiness and your readiness to launch was poor.

- National Geographic is always known for the highest quality maps. Why then are scanned image maps of so poor quality when downloaded to the Triton. Both Topo and aerial views are barely legible at 300’ scale. Zooming in further the map disappears. Detail topo maps that you can’t zoom in close are useless.

 

Good luck with Triton. I just purchased a Delorme PN40

[+Rockin Roddy]

since it connects to VP now, you should be able to connect to the Nat Geo TOPO's

 

Install Nat Geo and the maps on your computer

Close Vantage Point

Open Nat Geo

Connect your GPS to the computer, turn it on

Click the Handhelds

Click Magellan Triton Inport-Export

Select the area on the map; The red rectangle is what will be exported; you can resize and move it around; before exporting, zoom in all the way; You'll have to play with it to get used to it

 

Hope you have better luck with NG maps than I did. I uninstalled, and reinstalled them, and never could get the maps to work. Little red box...? Mine never did have that. I actually like the gpsr though. DH says we can't keep both though (BTW...I bought a Delorme Pn-20 earlier this week, so the Triton is going back). The maps on the pn are wonderful. I haven't figured out how to add gc's yet, but anything that picks up the gas station and side road street names in my little 1 traffic lite town, has to be powerful!

 

Jststmpit

 

CONGRATS on the PN-20! If you need any help, go to the DeLorme forums, there's plenty of helpful people there!

 

http://forum.delorme.com/

[S.B.]

I'm thoughly disgusted with Magellan and their customer service in India. I never got a straight story out of anyone there. Nobody there seems to know what's going on with their GPSs or software for the Triton 400s. I also agree with the many problems with VP software for their GPSs, they just give stories for whatever the customers complaint is and put you on hold for several minutes at a time!

Never again!!! I'm done with Magellan.

I already owned an older Garmin and never had this kind of problems??? Garmin's manual leaves nothing to guess work.

Steve

Edited January 28, 2009 by S.B.

[+Bismuth]

Magellan sent me a free Triton 400 as a "consolation prize" for my eXplorist 500 which had lost WAAS capability. I was extremely unimpressed with the Triton for many reasons and mostly I have continued to use the eXplorist.

 

However with the most recent firmware upgrade they really seem to have improved the stability and performance of this GPSr.

 

1. It has not locked up since the upgrade (previously this was a regular problem)

2. It seems to acquire satellites quickly now and the receiver is quite sensitive.

3. The accuracy is impressive. I tested the Triton recently at some surveyed points along a hiking trail. I'll try to embed a photo.

4. Still has all the physical problems - screen is difficult to read, especially in direct sunlight, buttons are hard to push and virtually impossible to use if you are wearing even thin gloves.

5. Navigating from screen to screen is tedious.

5. Turning the Triton "off" seems to only put it in some sort of standby mode. It still uses power and will drain the batteries in a week or two. So whenever I stop for the day I've got to remove the back and take the batteries out. I have heard there is special combination of buttons to push that really does turn it off.

 

Verdict? It was free, it's working pretty well now. I'll keep it. I'll probably never by another Magellan though.

Edited February 17, 2009 by Bismuth