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BETA TESTING Magellan eXplorist 610


Kealia

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I was lucky enough to receive an eXplorist 610 about a week ago and have been playing with in when I can to test it out and provide some user feedback.

 

I wanted to provide a place here to share some thoughts and answer any questions that people may have about the unit. I've used it a couple of times, and most recently on a hike and a few caches in Yosemite so my comments to-date are somewhat minimal, but here goes - (keep in mind that this is prototype hardware and beta software at this point)

 

First off - the screen is bigger than the eXplorist GC because of the lack of buttons (it's a touch screen). The screen isn't overly sensitive, but responds nicely to the touch and is pretty readable in the sun. Much like the GC in those regards.

 

The built in camera ROCKS. Here are a couple of shots that I took with it:

 

(The haze is from a nearby fire, not an issue with the camera clarity)

hetch.jpg

 

signhd.jpg

 

After you take a picture you can save the picture to your tracks, attach it to a waypoing or attach it to a cache. I *assume* the latter will allow you to upload it with your Field Notes to GC but that needs to be confirmed.

 

Marking a waypoint is easy. There's a dedicated button on the side of the unit for that and the screens are simple:

shot00001jv.png

 

From this screen, you touch the coordinates and then can edit them, or you can choose OPTIONS to bring up this screen:

shot00002cn.png

 

TOPO MAPS = NICE!

Here's a shot of the topo map in an area of Nisene Marks (State Park near me):

shot00000oz.png

 

And here are a couple of screenshots of the hike I did in Yosemite up to Sentinel Dome:

 

shot00012wd.png

 

Screenshot of the trip summary:

shot00013ld.png

 

Please post your questions here and I'll do my best to update as frequently as I can (as I'm sure others will who are part of the program).

 

The unit has an electronic compass this time around - I figured that would be asked soon.

 

So far, I love it although there are a few minor (and expected) quirks to be worked out.

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Thank you for that.

I am convinced that I will trade in my GC for this one.

The track logging and summary look very nice. That is what I am most interested in.

First questions:

When you attach a photo to a track, how do you export? I assume that you can export this in a KML format file for Google Earth viewing?

2nd:

In the GC, when you add a waypoint, it gives you 4 choices: Current Location, POint on Map, Coordinates, Projection. Similar?

Thanks.

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When you attach a photo to a track, how do you export? I assume that you can export this in a KML format file for Google Earth viewing?

 

I'm actually talking with Magellan about this. As you can see by the screen shot below the pictures are tagged with coords at the right spot - they are the boxes on the trail at different locations. When I first copied the file (GPX) and tried putting the pictures into GpicSync for geo-tagging and sharing it, the location didn't transfer over which is odd because the NAME of picture contains the coords. It's obviously just not doing whatever is needed to write to the EXIF (??) portion of the picture. (I may have that terminology wrong, I'm going from memory).

 

I've shared this feedback and the desire to have the pictures useable in EveryTrail, GoogleEarth, etc. so I don't think this will take long to rectify.

 

shot00014x.png

 

In the GC, when you add a waypoint, it gives you 4 choices: Current Location, POint on Map, Coordinates, Projection. Similar?

 

You can either use the shortcut I showed above, or you can go to this screen which IIRC mimicks the GC:

shot00012bv.png

 

Finally, this screen allows you to customize shortcuts to 9 buttons (the bottom three in this shot are un-assigned as I've already set some):

shot00014d.png

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Ok, thanks for the info. Yes, I use and like GPicSync often. I assumed that the photos would be tagged in the EXIF data.

 

So far, I like the screens that I see, tracking, maps. Looks like it could be a contender....

 

Battery type choices, battery life are my next concern.

 

It is not enough that a unit takes AAs. It has to like the low voltage of NiMh (problem with my PN-30m, and a digital camera I own.) My eXplorist GC seems to do well on 2 AA NiMh, but these new units have more stuff.

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I didn't see an option to set the battery type like with the GC but I don't think I've seen every screen yet either.

 

I only used a cheap pair of Kirkland AA's and got about 6 hours IIRC. But to be fair, that was playing with the unit the entire time so the backlight was almost always on.

 

Hoping to hear back from them soon with some of my questions, but since I know I got this product VERY early it may take a while. Even with that, I couldn't resist opening a thread to talk about it :)

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do you have any screens of the geocaching parts?

my gf is on her 3rd GC and well i like parts of it, but parts i do not like at all. i ended up with a 62s for myself.

i do like the info provided on the caching side. where you get the d/t, size, trackables, name, distance, bearing.

is it similar?

 

any and all screens are appreciated.

 

does it have the smart arrow and does it hinder performance as it does on the GC. many users have turned it off saying it helps performance.

some have also turned off auto zoom on the GC for the same reason.

 

how about and sluggishness when moving around on map or zooming?

 

Monty

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I didn't see an option to set the battery type like with the GC but I don't think I've seen every screen yet either.

The interface isn't terribly intuitive in this regard...But if I were a gambling man, my money would be on

 

Four Dots to get to main menu. Screwdriver/Wrench (the option that looks like it's fallen out of the menu box...) ->settings->power->and then choose from Lithium, Rechargeables, and Alkaline.

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do you have any screens of the geocaching parts?

my gf is on her 3rd GC and well i like parts of it, but parts i do not like at all. i ended up with a 62s for myself.

i do like the info provided on the caching side. where you get the d/t, size, trackables, name, distance, bearing.

is it similar?

 

any and all screens are appreciated.

 

does it have the smart arrow and does it hinder performance as it does on the GC. many users have turned it off saying it helps performance.

some have also turned off auto zoom on the GC for the same reason.

 

how about and sluggishness when moving around on map or zooming?

 

Monty

The geocaching screens are identical IIRC. I don't have my GC right now to do a side-by-side comparison, though. I will try soon.

 

I really like the topo map screen shot. I also like the fact that the coords show up at the top of the screen. That is one of the complaints I have about my old Magellan Explorist 500.

 

Thanks for the review.

They show when you touch the screen to bring them up. Otherwise, the entire screen is the map/dashboard, etc. I like the fact that the screen is completely used for the map/tracking but you can easily bring this up.

 

I didn't see an option to set the battery type like with the GC but I don't think I've seen every screen yet either.

The interface isn't terribly intuitive in this regard...But if I were a gambling man, my money would be on

 

Four Dots to get to main menu. Screwdriver/Wrench (the option that looks like it's fallen out of the menu box...) ->settings->power->and then choose from Lithium, Rechargeables, and Alkaline.

Will try that tonight. May need to make a shortcut to that one since I use different batteries often.

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One thing I liked about the old explorist was you could save waypoints on the SD card and place them on seperate folders. Could you do that on this unit. I also liked the rechargable battery. It was nice to be able to plug it in and let it charge. Is there any options for this?

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hello maybe small offtopic - i bought explorist 610 and i have really pain times to find navigate to coordinates as on garmin oregon for example..

 

i guess that right way is create new wpt and put there coordinates but ! i can change settings to see right gc coordinates format for example

N 50° 01.450 E 014° 13.500 but if i want change coordinates where i want to navigate to : there is only this format 50.0126 14.40867 :-(

 

is there some way how to change it please ?

 

sorry for maybe stupid question as i am beginner with magellan

 

thanks !

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hello maybe small offtopic - i bought explorist 610 and i have really pain times to find navigate to coordinates as on garmin oregon for example..

 

i guess that right way is create new wpt and put there coordinates but ! i can change settings to see right gc coordinates format for example

N 50° 01.450 E 014° 13.500 but if i want change coordinates where i want to navigate to : there is only this format 50.0126 14.40867 :-(

 

is there some way how to change it please ?

 

sorry for maybe stupid question as i am beginner with magellan

 

thanks !

 

Try going to the tools menu tools>settings>Navigation>Primary Coordinate Type> Then you can select how you want your coordinates to be displayed. Or, when you're entering the waypoint try clicking on the tool icon and then change the coordinate system to Degree, not Degree/Minute.

 

David

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hello maybe small offtopic - i bought explorist 610 and i have really pain times to find navigate to coordinates as on garmin oregon for example..

 

i guess that right way is create new wpt and put there coordinates but ! i can change settings to see right gc coordinates format for example

N 50° 01.450 E 014° 13.500 but if i want change coordinates where i want to navigate to : there is only this format 50.0126 14.40867 :-(

 

is there some way how to change it please ?

 

sorry for maybe stupid question as i am beginner with magellan

 

thanks !

iv e had that problem\

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I'm trying to get used to it - I'm downloading a bunch of caches to the unit and I want to change their names (put the town location in the title) - How do I change the title?

 

I understand this unit can also take he Navionics maps - Going to try to get my hands on one so I'll be able to boat with it and mark fishing spots, depths etc.

 

I also can't seem to find the way to clear a route.... Not all of them, just one.

 

Did anyone find the night mode to be really dark? - I couldn't read the map - turned it off.

 

Should I update the firmware on it - Mine is v.6.06 (will it wipe out my caches I stored on it?) How do I do it?

 

It really sucks the batteries eh...

 

Thanks!

Doug

Edited by Stagger_Inn
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