transfering cords onto magellan 500?

[hoplesshunter]

I everyone. I am new to this whole thing. A friend of mine got me hooked about 2 weaks ago. Since then I bought a used Magellan explorist 500 gps. The problem I am having is how to download the cordanitans from the website to my gps without having to type them into the gps by hand. I know this is probley a dumb qustion and everyone will tell me I should have got a better gps or somthing, but that is what I have so please help me out with it. Thanks.

[jholly]

I everyone. I am new to this whole thing. A friend of mine got me hooked about 2 weaks ago. Since then I bought a used Magellan explorist 500 gps. The problem I am having is how to download the cordanitans from the website to my gps without having to type them into the gps by hand. I know this is probley a dumb qustion and everyone will tell me I should have got a better gps or somthing, but that is what I have so please help me out with it. Thanks.

 

As I understand it you either type the co-ordinates in or load PQ's into vantage point and then download the waypoints to the magellan. I believe maggellans have a proprietary protocol and there are no specs to interface with the magellan. You can't download from the website because magellan has not provided Groundspeak with the necessary software like Delorme and Garmin has.

[+bittsen]

I everyone. I am new to this whole thing. A friend of mine got me hooked about 2 weaks ago. Since then I bought a used Magellan explorist 500 gps. The problem I am having is how to download the cordanitans from the website to my gps without having to type them into the gps by hand. I know this is probley a dumb qustion and everyone will tell me I should have got a better gps or somthing, but that is what I have so please help me out with it. Thanks.

 

I started out using a Magellan.

I used to download the LOC file from the cache pages but then learned of GSAK and Pocket Queries (premium membership needed).

Load a pocket query into GSAK and then send it to the GPS. I also added a small workaround to allow me to see the container size in the Magellan.

[+Da Beast]

i have the 1500 triton and it came with map soft ware called vanage point and with that i could copy and paste to the map program then send to my gpsr , i am not sure if vantage point is compatable with the 500 though, you might be able to download vanagepoint from the magellan website

[+Da Beast]

forgot to add that if you do get vantage point and it does work i would not upgrade because when i did my gpsr stopped communicating with my computer, and i had to download the previous version from another web site

[vagabond]

To start out you do not want to use vantagepoint it's to darn slow.

If I remember correctly the exp uses GIS files so you cannot load LOC or GPX files to the unit, the

files have to be converted. GSAK will do that it's also free but after a certain amount of time you get a nag screen, Magellan has a program that will do it also .

If you received a data cord with the unit hopefully it will still work attach it to the explorist with the cord

running down the back, it will attach either way but you will not get the connection if the cord is running up.

when you plug in to the puter you should see a screen showing file transfer, NMEA Data comm, and power only

hi lite file transfer you should then see internal memory and sd card if you have a sd card in the unit. Better to have a sd card as they will hold all your info such as caches, maps, routes, and so on. On the cache page you can have many files but each file will hold only 200 caches.

Hope this helps

[+narcissa]

I cached with an eXplorist 500 for ages, and I loved it (right up until I left it on the roof of my car in North Carolina ). If you want some one-on-one help, feel free to send me a message privately and I'd be happy to get you going.

[+GeoCraig]

I also have an eXplorist 500. It's my favorite unit. I use GSAK. Open Pocket Query results with GSAK, then in GSAK do an Export to the 500. I export them as POIs instead of Geocaches because you can do 500 at a time. Exporting as Geocaches has a 200 cache maximum. Be sure to connect the cord to the unit with the cord running down the unit, not toward the top.

 

One very nice thing with the 500 is that you can upload as many PQs as you want into the unit.

 

Please let me know if you need any more help.

 

Craig

[+GeoGeeBee]

If you get hooked on geocaching, you'll want to become a premium member so you can get Pocket Queries. The combination of PQ's with GSAK that many have recommended is awesome.

 

In the meantime, get EasyGPS. It's free. You can download .LOC files from geocaching.com, and use EasyGPS to load them into your Magellan. It won't be as easy nor as powerful as the PQ/GSAK combo, but it's easier than entering coordinates by hand and it's free.