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Lowrance Endura Out&Back


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Where did you order yours from? Nice to see places are finally getting the new Enduras! Someone mentioned yesterday Bass Pro Shops are starting to stock their shelves with them now.

 

When you get it take it outside ASAP & tell us how readable the screen is in various lighting conditions! "Outdoor visible touchscreens" are apparently a difficult product for manufactureres to create :D

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Ok - its here!! About 20 minutes ago.

 

First off - it is just a tad bit bigger than I expected. Its a bit heavier than my Colorado 300. Batteries go in behind a very garmin etrex like cover. The bottom has a USB port and the sd slot with a rubber cover. Powered up quick and locked onto the sats within just about 45 seconds.

 

The initial basemap is far more detailed than a Garmin but still lacking many local streets. It does have some POI's loaded as nearby gas stations and motels popped up.

 

The combo touch screen/button interface is easy enough to be fairly intuitive to use. A backlight comes on with each button press for 15 secs but can be adjusted in the settings. Without the autobacklight up and running - the screen is every bit as dim as my Oregon 200 without backlight. :D

 

Loaded up a few caches - very easy - just drop the GPXs into the [drive:]\gpx folder while it is hooked to the PC.

 

Off to try those....more later.

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Loaded up a few caches - very easy - just drop the GPXs into the [drive:]\gpx folder while it is hooked to the PC.

 

StarBrand - Are you able to choose which GPX file the Endura reads from? Or are all the caches in the GPX files thrown into one big list?

No - It seems to lump them all onto a list. However, the unit has some built-in filter funchtions. You can choose to display only the ones that meet criteria including size, type, difficulty, terrain, found status, by distance away, by name, by code.

 

That is a nice feature!!

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Ok - Geocaching went well.

 

I went off to 2 of my own hides to see how it did (didn't want to blame the unit for a DNF!) It led me to both of them with ease. The arrow on the compass screen is HUGE and seemed a bit out of place but easy enough. I had an EPE of 14 feet and the unit said I was 10 foot away on one and 12 foot away on the other when I was on top of the cache. Entered a fieldnote "found" on both. Geocaching screens are easy to read and have complete info. I hope you can customize the colors a bit however. A bit annoying going in and out of menus to see the logs and hint and descriptions but not much worse than the Oregon interface.

 

First major annoyance is that it continues to show the same closed cache box icon after marking as found. However - it no longer shows up in the list of nearby caches.

 

It is very overcast here today so the screen was particularly hard to read without the backlight outdoors. I have set the backlight to a 1 minute timeout as it is much more practical than the default 15 seconds.

 

Second major annoyance is an easy way to toggle the backlight on without also triggering some function or menu to come up. (maybe I just need to try all possibilities.)

 

Final was a Geocache I had not found before - had to abondon the hunt due to muggles right near ground zero.

 

I have also turned off the POi icons on the map as they were very numerous and distracting on the map display.

 

So far so good......more to come.

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Loaded up a few caches - very easy - just drop the GPXs into the [drive:]\gpx folder while it is hooked to the PC.

 

StarBrand - Are you able to choose which GPX file the Endura reads from? Or are all the caches in the GPX files thrown into one big list?

No - It seems to lump them all onto a list. However, the unit has some built-in filter funchtions. You can choose to display only the ones that meet criteria including size, type, difficulty, terrain, found status, by distance away, by name, by code.

 

That is a nice feature!!

 

That's a nice touch. Different icons for cache types?

 

screenshots!?!?! :lol:

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Anybody know what the international map support for these will be? Will it be better than DeLorme, which is my main issue with going for a PN-40... not that I'll probably ever leave, but if someday I got a chance to go to another country it would be nice to have good maps, even if not routable.

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Without the autobacklight up and running - the screen is every bit as dim as my Oregon 200 without backlight. :lol:

 

Just to clarify, how does the Endura's screen compare to the Oregon's when outdoors in sunshine? To me, this was always the deal breaker for the Oregon -- the screen is just too hard to read outdoors in sunlight -- it can be "done," but it's not "comfortable," and the Oregon's backlight makes practically no difference in this situation. Is the Endura basically the same in this respect? The 60CSx is simply WAY better in this department, but I like the feature set of the Endura (and Oregon) better, so I've been eagerly awaiting some hands-on Endura reports to see how the screen compares.

 

Any feedback on this would be really helpful.

 

Thanks,

 

Larry

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When you get it take it outside ASAP & tell us how readable the screen is in various lighting conditions! "Outdoor visible touchscreens" are apparently a difficult product for manufactureres to create :lol:

For the last year I've been working on the development of a few new aerospace products using touch screens. Sunlight readability is far more critical for these products. I can tell you it's not difficult to make a good sunlight readable display but the necessary additions add considerable cost to the device. It's easy to absorb that cost on something costing thousands but not so easy on something costing a few hundred. It may be awhile before one of these touch screen handhelds has a considerably better display.

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Without the autobacklight up and running - the screen is every bit as dim as my Oregon 200 without backlight. :lol:

 

Just to clarify, how does the Endura's screen compare to the Oregon's when outdoors in sunshine? To me, this was always the deal breaker for the Oregon -- the screen is just too hard to read outdoors in sunlight -- it can be "done," but it's not "comfortable," and the Oregon's backlight makes practically no difference in this situation. Is the Endura basically the same in this respect? The 60CSx is simply WAY better in this department, but I like the feature set of the Endura (and Oregon) better, so I've been eagerly awaiting some hands-on Endura reports to see how the screen compares.

 

Any feedback on this would be really helpful.

 

Thanks,

 

Larry

With no backlight, the endura screen is very comparable to the Oregon in outdoors contions (thus far). Sorry....

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For the last year I've been working on the development of a few new aerospace products using touch screens. Sunlight readability is far more critical for these products. I can tell you it's not difficult to make a good sunlight readable display but the necessary additions add considerable cost to the device. It's easy to absorb that cost on something costing thousands but not so easy on something costing a few hundred. It may be awhile before one of these touch screen handhelds has a considerably better display.

Could you shed more light, pun intended, on these techniques and why the extra cost? What are the tradeoffs?

 

I know my Nuvi uses resistive touchscreen (unreadable in sunlight), I think a iPhone uses capacitive touchscreen, I think their are others.

 

Thanks

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For the last year I've been working on the development of a few new aerospace products using touch screens. Sunlight readability is far more critical for these products. I can tell you it's not difficult to make a good sunlight readable display but the necessary additions add considerable cost to the device. It's easy to absorb that cost on something costing thousands but not so easy on something costing a few hundred. It may be awhile before one of these touch screen handhelds has a considerably better display.

Could you shed more light, pun intended, on these techniques and why the extra cost? What are the tradeoffs?

 

I know my Nuvi uses resistive touchscreen (unreadable in sunlight), I think a iPhone uses capacitive touchscreen, I think their are others.

 

Thanks

That discussion could become quite lengthy and I don't want to hijack Starbrand's thread (I want to hear more about the Lowrance as well).

 

I'll just say this. The Nuvi's and other GPSr models do use resistive touch screens. Resistive screens are inexpensive, durable, and have simple interfaces. Unfortunately each layer that makes up the screen is very reflective and that total reflectivity is as much the cause of poor readability as brightness. The reflectivity can be reduced by adding anti-reflective coatings to the front and rear surfaces of each layer in the screen, adding a circular polarizer layer, or optically bonding the screen directly to the display. Each of those processes add cost in varying degrees. Capacitive touch screen technology is really gaining momentum but is too much to go into here.

 

Sorry Starbrand. Back on topic, I'd like to hear more about the Lowrance's accuracy and receiver performance in tough conditions as soon as you get the opportunity.

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Hi,

 

Very interesting. I have three questions:

 

1.- Where did you buy it? All online stores I know doesn't still have it in stock.

 

2.- Can you store up to 20 000 points in a only one trail/track ?

 

3.- Did you buy topographic maps too (MapCreate) ? From what I can see, it seems that there are not maps that would work with it. Endura uses microSD cards and MapCreate only supports SD cards.

 

Thank you very much!

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A few notes....

 

The screen is really really dim without backlighting. You really need to be at the right angle to see the screen well. Every bit as dim as the Oregon.

 

WAAS has locked in on numerous time - so no problems there.

 

Battery life - first set of batteries with frequent backlight use (energizer alkaline) lasted about 12 hours.

 

Took it out under some very heavy tree cover - the aout&back had no problem at all keeping a lock. My Colorado 300 also had no problems but the Oregon 200 lost signal a few times. Looks real good there. The track it recorded was a bit noisy but not too bad. Trackback feature work well to lead me back to Jeep.

 

A few annoyances:

  • track up/track north setting is lost between power cycles
  • random odd long pauses between pages on occasion (30 seconds or more)
  • base map quirkiness
  • getting to options on map screen requires a screen click before seeing button
  • Geocache icons do not change after find

I am starting to like a few things about this unit - like the geocache filter options.

 

Leaving on Vacation - more to come....

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:D When the battery gets low a red led near the front bottom starts blinking. Sounds like a good way to polish off the remaining power!!

While it does seem a little overkill as a low battery indication, a blinking LED consumes very little current.

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OK, after using a friends Oregon for my last geocaching finds (gotta keep remembering to upload my finds), I made the leap and bought an Out&Back today over lunch from the Bass Pro near my house.

 

They actually had both the Out&Back AND Safari on display in the case but I couldn't bring myself to make the leap to $349 when I don't really need a 3-axis compass or altimeter. Taking it out geocaching this evening to see how well it works. I did have the sales guy walk me through the geocaching application and it seems very similar to the Oregon and the iPhone application (that my wife has).

 

Will try to post screen pictures if I can.

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To me, this was always the deal breaker for the Oregon -- the screen is just too hard to read outdoors in sunlight -- it can be "done," but it's not "comfortable," and the Oregon's backlight makes practically no difference in this situation.

You must have used a different Oregon than I. I have a 400t and I have no problems seeing the screen in sun or shade. Those comments confuse me. :anitongue:

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To me, this was always the deal breaker for the Oregon -- the screen is just too hard to read outdoors in sunlight -- it can be "done," but it's not "comfortable," and the Oregon's backlight makes practically no difference in this situation.

You must have used a different Oregon than I. I have a 400t and I have no problems seeing the screen in sun or shade. Those comments confuse me. :anitongue:

I've used Colorado & Oregon units, with the correct angle, they may be workable, but didn't work out good on handle bars for me.

The Garmin Dakota 20 has lower resolution, maybe it will be better in that respect, also has 3-axis compass.

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To me, this was always the deal breaker for the Oregon -- the screen is just too hard to read outdoors in sunlight -- it can be "done," but it's not "comfortable," and the Oregon's backlight makes practically no difference in this situation.

You must have used a different Oregon than I. I have a 400t and I have no problems seeing the screen in sun or shade. Those comments confuse me. :anitongue:

 

It's the same unit -- it's simply a difference of opinion about what is "unacceptable." Let me put it this way: I don't think you'll disagree that compared to reading printed material (i.e. a magazine), the Oregon's screen is "harder" to read in sunlight. Put a magazine next to the Oregon in sunlight to see the difference -- THIS is the "type" of difference I'm talking about. By this I mean that the Oregon is just not as "obviously" readable as the magazine -- it takes more "effort" in the same way that reading a book by candle light takes more "effort" that reading the same book in a well-lit room. You could argue that you have no problem "seeing" the text in candle light, but what I'm saying is that it's "easier" to read with more light. This is how the Oregon strikes me -- it takes a higher amount of "effort" to read it in sunlight which in my opinion is extremely annoying.

 

Larry

Edited by lalittle
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It's the same unit -- it's simply a difference of opinion about what is "unacceptable." Let me put it this way: I don't think you'll disagree that compared to reading printed material (i.e. a magazine), the Oregon's screen is "harder" to read in sunlight. Put a magazine next to the Oregon in sunlight to see the difference -- THIS is the "type" of difference I'm talking about. By this I mean that the Oregon is just not as "obviously" readable as the magazine -- it takes more "effort" in the same way that reading a book by candle light takes more "effort" that reading the same book in a well-lit room. You could argue that you have no problem "seeing" the text in candle light, but what I'm saying is that it's "easier" to read with more light. This is how the Oregon strikes me -- it takes a higher amount of "effort" to read it in sunlight which in my opinion is extremely annoying.

 

Larry

 

Probably should stay on "topic". The Or/CO screens have been discussed to death.

 

Star, any more updates on the usage of the endura.

 

Woud love to see a typical find-a-geocache set of screenshots.

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I have the outback. I am loading the .gpx file from the pocket queries. If I have more than one querie and there are duplicates I am unable to avoid them showing twice. Can't use GSAK as it has no compatible export file. Any ideas or substitutes?

 

Not sure I understand. GSAK exports in the GPX/LOC format.

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I have the outback. I am loading the .gpx file from the pocket queries. If I have more than one querie and there are duplicates I am unable to avoid them showing twice. Can't use GSAK as it has no compatible export file. Any ideas or substitutes?

 

Duplicate post

Edited by Indotguy
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I have the outback. I am loading the .gpx file from the pocket queries. If I have more than one querie and there are duplicates I am unable to avoid them showing twice. Can't use GSAK as it has no compatible export file. Any ideas or substitutes?

 

Not sure I understand. GSAK exports in the GPX/LOC format.

 

The file still does not load into the endura however, even in the gpx format like the exported pocket querie file does.

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Ok - a few addtional notes.....sorry - I really enjoyed my 11 days of vacation and didn't have time for the forums but am back now...

 

After using the out&back over the vacation, I've come to really not like several aspects of it.

  1. Battery life is lower than expected - in field tests, I get about 8 - 10 hours on my rechargeables and freqent but necessary backlight use.
  2. if your GPX files have dups - they show up on the unit as dups
  3. the font used for geocache description is to short and squatty looking - hard to read in some situations.
  4. color scheme is not customizable as is difficult to read in some conditions
  5. compass arrow when navigating to a cache does not update frequently enough - had me doing the drunken bee dance from .2 miles out on 2 caches.
  6. It is a bit bulky to carry

What I DO like is:

  • Cache filtering functions - very useful and very nice when caching with kids
  • useful icons for geocaches - tell at a glance what you are after
  • trackback after finding a cache
  • logging the find and notes are easy on the unit

More screen shots coming.......

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