Magellan eXplorist 710

[+clm428]

Hello,

 

I just recently got into the wonderful world of geocaching. Although i am no stranger to the outdoors i have never used a gps device before. When i started i used my android phone. And although it was great for most caches, it started wigging out when i was under a dense canopy. At one point i stood in spot for over a minute and watched as i was "moving" further and further away up to 800ft from the point i was at. I eventually had to use satalite view to figure out the location of the cache in the deep woods. I did some research and was leaning toward the 710. It was a bit pricy so i decided to go to a store and check one out. From the web site REI said they carried them. But the store i went to didn't carry them in stock. Looking at the garmins i thought it a pain to have to pay additional money for the "better" maps. And yes i know there is a way around it, but keep in mind i was trying to avoid the hassles. So i finally decided to just bite the bullet and buy the 710. the full price of the 710 was around $550, but they are having a deal on amazon for about 420, which is cheaper than the 610 version.

 

I found it very easy to get familiar with, i have only used it for one weekend and keep in mind i am a novice and never used a gps device before. Within a short span of time i was able to figure out how to create a pocket querry and download that to my device. And create a route option and download that as well. The first real test was the next day when i went to elk neck state park and got a few caches deep under canopy. I walked right up to where it said the cache was and turned to my friend and said it should be right here, turned around and it was right below me and i was almost stepping on it. I still had excellent reception too.

 

Some of the features. It has camera, a mic, and speakers. It has an alarm that vibrates when you get within a close distance of your cache, or the spot you are aiming for. It comes loaded with 1000 caches in memory, personally i found this to be useless and deleted them all. Afterall why would i be interested in a chache 300 miles away. It would be different if they were local to your area. the menus were easy enough to navigate and for the most part the menus are laid out in an easy and logical manner. A few things took me awhile to figure it out but nothing overly difficult. You can download to your device all the info for the caches including the last 5 logs. The print is small but its on a 3" screen so that is expected. It is a touch screen and you should use a firm touch when using it, or you could accidentally pull stuff up you didnt intend to. Some have suggested a stylus and i have noticed there is a belt clip pouch you can get with a stylus attached. It shows the track you have taken which is nice and it offers you a backtrack feature that will allow you to retrace your steps that you have taken so far. It also allows you to mark your car location as a waypoint with a quickbutton.

 

Runs off of 2 AA's and it comes with two lithium batteries. I have read that some ppl got batteries that had no charge, but mine were new and apparently fully charged. I used them for about 4 hours or so and noticed i was still showing fully charged batteries. I haven't had the chance to put them to the test yet. It also has a slot for a micro sd card. Do yourself a favor and save some money on those. Seen the 4gb one for 15 at most stores, i got one for 9 at wal-m store the sandisk version. if you want to save more go to amazon and get it for under 7.

 

One annoying feature i have found so far, and i just havent figured how to turn it off yet, is that after a few min of inactivity the demo tape starts to play and after killing that i find myself back out on the menu. I can get back to my current map easy enough, but its just annoying. I have set the sleep timer to 15 min, but that doesn't seem related. I haven't had the time to look into it but if anyone knows how to shut that off, that would be great, thanks. Sometimes the compass will lag by a second or two so i tended to over correct for my course, but once you get used to it its not that big of a deal and it was only now and again.

 

So far i have found this to be very user friendly and well worth the purchase. So far its kept me on track reguardless of terrain, canopy, or human error. It is a bit heavy but easy enough to carry around, it also feels to be very sturdy and solid construction. Hopefully someone will find this helpful, and i will update this thread when i get a chance to use it more.

 

clm428

[+BellisClan]

Hi,

 

Just bought a new 610 for my birthday. After using a Garmin Etrex HCX for many years this GPSr is a breath of fresh air. Took me a while to decide between the 710 and 610 but the price was the big decider, and the 610 still has a camera, voice recorder and speakers. I agree with your comments on how easy it was to pick up, seeing as it does a lot more than a basic GPSr and the paperless caching mode is great......just the ticket when outdoors, however I still carry my Garmin as well, just whilst I am getting used to it. I tried using my fingers to access the menu and screen but they are not slim enough so use a cheap plastic PDA stylus (£2 for 3) which I have attached to my lanyard, much easier/faster than my fingers!!!!!!

 

With regards to the Demo mode, I managed to turn mine off with the following;

 

Access Menu (Bottom left corner), Tools Menu, Scroll down and Tap on the Stop Product Demo button.

 

Hope this helps.

[+michaelnel]

I hope you really enjoy your new GPS. http://www.exploristforum.com has lots of very knowledgeable folks who are really into the eXplorists. You might want to check it out.

[+clm428]

Thanks for the tip, ill try that when i get home, currently at work and having withdrawls. And thanks for the forum address

 

clm428