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Magellan firmware updates on web site


embra

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I observed three shutdowns this weekend on 5.12. Like M-Class (who has a ST Pro, so he wouldn't be on 5.12) all were on the compass screen. All were within a fraction of a second of changing to that screen. All had the same symptoms: the reverse video line at the top was displayed, the compass rose never was drawn, the unit just flatlined for about 10 seconds and then POOF, back to the power-up screen.

 

I filed a bugreport on Magellangps.com but about 20 minutes later, the reports are coming back to me today...

 

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quote:
Originally posted by Rattlehead:

MyMeridian works with the 5.12 firmware. You just need to make a change in the MyMeridian.ini file. Change the "All data" line to "All data is provided".


 

Kudos, all I had to do was change the "All data" line to read "All data is" and it picked it up with no problem.

 

Still haven't had any shutdown problems, and my proximity alarm works fine. But I'm a bit nervous now, as I'll need to upload again after doing the "MyMeridian" bit. Hopefully everything works out okay.

 

We don't stop playing because we grow old...we grow old because we stop playing!

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I upgraded my SporTrak Pro's firmware from 4.06 to 5.0. It is much faster now drawing maps - really noticeable, even using the highest level of detail. The GoTo-menu-thing already mentioned is a little different. I had no problems with the update and am glad I did it.

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I updated my Platinum with out any problems, although I also had to do the complete compass calibration.

 

Took it out to a couple known caches near the house and all seems well, the compass needle might be "bouncing" around a little more then before while I'm moving, but when I stop, it points exactly to the cache (on Go To).

 

So far so good.....

 

____________________________________________________________

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

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quote:
Originally posted by M-Class:

Am I the only one who didn't have to pull the batteries after the update to 5.0?? After the update, my ST Pro shut down properly without needing to pull the batteries. Of course it doesn't work properly now either, so...

 

As far as my shutdowns, my first one occurred after 1.5 hours of use. The next one was after 5 minutes of use, and the third was after 15 minutes of use. All three shutdowns occurred when I was within 100' of the goto I had selected (perhaps there is a connection with my malfunctioning arrival alarm?). I was on the compass screen every time as well.


 

I didn't have to pull my batteries.

 

I too have noticed random shutdowns but had originally attributed it to a 35mph bounce off the top of the jeep. But now that I think about it, it did start happening after I had upgraded to v5.12 and not before.

 

One thing I am noticing, my shutdowns happened while doing rapid button navigation from map to menu, changing a setting and back to menu before the map has a chance to refresh on the screen after the setting has taken place.

 

Cheers!

TL

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After the "MyMeridian" personalization, uploaded 5.00 to my SporTrak without any problems. I didn't bother to Clear the memory, like Magellan recommends, and didn't have to pull the batteries this time to re-boot.

 

Everything is working great. Definitely faster "re-draws", and like I said earlier the base map seems a bit more accurate. The extra steps in the "GoTo" is a PITA, but I think the worst feature is the light coming on whenever there is an alarm.

The last thing I need when my batteries run low is for the unit to turn it's backlight on and use even more juice. And if I'm caching during the day, when I get within 100' and the alarm goes off, I won't even realize the light is now on, since it's daylight. The Magellan software engineer who came up with that idea should be shot!

 

The "total distance" for multi-leg routes is a really nice feature, wish they also had a similar ETA/ETE of the same type (for multi-leg routes). The "Departure-Destination" and the "Position-Destination" course lines are now a different line-type, which is also nice.

 

Still no shut-downs, so far so good.

 

We don't stop playing because we grow old...we grow old because we stop playing!

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quote:
Originally posted by Keith Watson:

What is the difference between the arrival alarm and the proximity alarm?


For the Meridian, I believe they are the same thing.

 

As far as 5.12, I haven't yet gotten it, but I think I will. The light coming on for the proximity alarm is kinda weird, although I can see it's usefulness while utilizing DirectRoute. I don't use the proximity alarm currently, so it's not going to be an issue.

 

As far as the extra button-presses to get a user-waypoint as a GOTO, who the heck thought of that?

 

Jamie

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> What is the difference between the arrival alarm and the proximity alarm?

 

Actually, I believe they are different:

 

The Arrival Alarm will beep when you get within the specified distance of the waypoint. For example, I have it set so that at 100ft it will beep. After that alarm it wil do nothing unless I get back outside that 100 ft distance and come back in on the GOTO.

 

A Proximity Alarm is like a game of hot and cold. As you get closer to the GOTO'd waypoint the alarm will beep faster. Should the distance increase, the beeping will slow down.

 

Kordite

ph34r my l33t kl1n90n 5k1ll5.

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quote:
Originally posted by Kordite:

The Arrival Alarm will beep when you get within the specified distance of the waypoint. For example, I have it set so that at 100ft it will beep. After that alarm it wil do nothing unless I get back outside that 100 ft distance and come back in on the GOTO.

 

A Proximity Alarm is like a game of hot and cold. As you get closer to the GOTO'd waypoint the alarm will beep faster. Should the distance increase, the beeping will slow down.

 

_Kordite_

_ph34r my l33t kl1n90n 5k1ll5._


Yup, that's it in a nutshell.

 

We don't stop playing because we grow old...we grow old because we stop playing!

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quote:
Originally posted by Jamie Z:

As far as the extra button-presses to get a user-waypoint as a GOTO, who the heck thought of that?

 

Jamie


What I'm guessing. The Direct Route info/functions are going to be on different maps. Maybe like saving one map with POI and one without POI.

When you select GOTO you can open/load a map with routing.

Sort of like creating/loading maps to the GPS V with or without routing info.

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I loaded 5.12 on my MeriGold. Install went smoothly.

 

I first experienced the arrival alarm issue as well. On subsequent use, it seems to work as intended.

 

Issues for me . . .

1. As others have noted, setting a GOTO is cumbersome. Not only are user waypoints now second, "Cache" is first.

 

2. The destination line appears similar to a railroad line. I have not been able to find a way to make this a solid black line. I find it difficult to see on screen. Has anyone gotten around this?

 

Fro.

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quote:
Originally posted by Keith Watson:

What is the difference between the arrival alarm and the proximity alarm?


 

With the arrival of the proximity alarm, the arrival alarm differs by not working (in my case anyway).

 

It seems my arrival alarm issue is fairly isolated to a particular configuration, but the power downs are an issue across the board. I see others are noticing the speed increase on the ST maps, so I guess I'm not crazy. I've sent my support email to Magellan and am reflashing with 4.06. I hope 5.01 comes along soon and provides some fixes.

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I upgraded my Sportrack Pro to 5.00 firmware and i'm very glad.

 

With 4.06 version i had problems with taking time to find satelites (some minutes), so i changed to te 4.03 version and it takes about 30 to 60 seconds to find more than 2 sats. With the 5.00 is faster!

 

Now i can distinct better the goto line with some roads.

 

I like the first position of detailed maps when pressing the goto button for access to the data base.

 

I see that the version of the main map is the same, i can't see that is more detailed than before.

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Odd...

 

I got a response from Magellan regarding the support email I sent them. They responded saying that no problems have been reported to them with the new version 5 release and they would forward it to engineering. I just about fell out of my chair when I read that email... no problems have been reported... yeah right! Certainly somebody here has reported the version 5 power downs!

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I have 290 hours (12 days) on my meridian since I updated it (October 10). In that time I have not experienced any unusuall shut downs.

 

The only problem I have is the waypoint allways seem to reappear, even if I have them turned off.

 

you can access the number of hours you use your unit with the code number 1, then look at sat number 120, or 122 (waas sats). It will then display the lengeth of time that it has been looking for for that satelittle. This only applies if you can not get a lock from one of them (120 (e) is 3 degrees below the horizon where I am at, so that is where I get my time).

 

Wyatt W.

 

The probability of someone watching you is directly proportional to the stupidity of your actions.

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Took version 5 out again today...

 

Today the arrival alarm worked (sort of). I say 'sort of' because it behaves differently than previous versions of the software. With previous versions the alarm would keep going off until you acknowledged it by pressing enter. With this version it only made four quick short beeps (maybe about 1/2 second) then turned on the backlight and stopped beeping. I almost missed it because it was so quick. I do not like it. Now, why it has taken until today for it to go off at all is strange... if it will keep working is the question that I'm wondering about. I had no power downs today, but I was only using the GPSr for about 20 minutes. I suspect one would come like they have been if I left it on long enough.

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quote:
Originally posted by phantom4099:

My meridian did this at first. You have to calibrate the compass. When I did the first calibration I had to do the advanced version (my meridian asked for it to be done, otherwise it is code 21).

 

Wyatt W.

 


 

I upgraded my MeriPlat earlier this week and went out caching today and found the compass not working (North is always up). I came back here to check if anyone else was having problems. So I want to calibrate the compass now. Can someone tell me how to do this - ie. how to access code 21. I've never had any problems with this unit so I have never had to access codes before.

 

Thanks. ~Dolfun

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icon_cool.gif Downloaded 5.12 about a week ago, haven't had any problems. Although I don't care for all the button pushing to get the user waypoints. I have noticed that the map screen refreshes much faster now. so some pluses and some minuses. Did 15 caches this morning never had less then 9 full sats except when I walked under the freeway overpass

 

All who look are not lost

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quote:
Originally posted by Dolfun:

quote:
Originally posted by phantom4099:

My meridian did this at first. You have to calibrate the compass. When I did the first calibration I had to do the advanced version (my meridian asked for it to be done, otherwise it is code 21).

 

Wyatt W.

 


 

I upgraded my MeriPlat earlier this week and went out caching today and found the compass not working (North is always up). I came back here to check if anyone else was having problems. So I want to calibrate the compass now. Can someone tell me how to do this - ie. how to access code 21. I've never had any problems with this unit so I have never had to access codes before.

 

Thanks. ~Dolfun


 

You shouldn't have to go into the secret menu section. Go to Menu/Setup/Compass Calibrate and it will take you through the extra gyrations. I think this version step requires it according to my experience and others that I have read.

 

Cheers!

TL

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;)

 

After installing 5.12 over 2 weeks ago I have to report no problems, although I do not use any alarms. Love the refresh rate on the mapscreen.

I have noted when I unplug from external power the back light is on, so I have to remember to turn it off, although I do have it set to the minimum time on it would more then likely turn off by its self.

I just hope they change a few of the things we have complained about in this ver. when they come out with the next firm ware

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I've tried updatint to 5.0 on my ST Pro. I use VPC with mac just fine for everything else. When I try to get the firware to upload I get an initial error message of "unknown version: proceed anyway" then when it connects to the GPS it tells me there is something wrong with the upload file. Could it be the way Stuffit (the mac equivalent of winzip) un zips the downloaded zip file?

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Problems now cropping up with my ST Pro and 5.00. After a few hours of non-use: when I turn the unit on, it will start up normally. But after a minute or two, the sat screen will go blank (satelites disappear;the rest, including sat strength bars, are still there), and then it will refuse to get a position lock. It takes 2-3 re-boots to finally get it to work properly. I'm starting to consider going back to 4.06.

 

And of course, the Magellan software "expert" who decided that the backlight should come on whenever there is an alarm should be shot and thrown into the woods with no coordinates given! When I use it in my vehicle, often it is at night with the 12v cord, so I have the backlight set to stay on. Which means that when I am caching during the day, it comes on when I get close to the cache, and it's hard to tell if I've turned it off or not. If not, it quickly drains the batteries. At least my old GPS315 had a small icon showing me that the backlight was on.

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About the time this was all being discussed before, the great forum uselessness and disappearence occurred. I haven't really gotten around to see if anything new has happened in this thread until now... it appears not much. I figure I should give an update on my situation:

 

After a couple more times back and forth with Magellan regarding the issues, I was informed that my only option was to send the GPSr in to them fore repair. Quite honestly, I didn't see the point in sending in my GPSr hardware for what amounted to a software issue being experienced by multiple people... all they could do would be to send me a new GPSr which I'd likely just experience similar problems with. I wrote them back telling them that 4.06 works fine for me and I'd just simply reload 4.06. Other than the faster map updates, the only 5.0 feature advantage seems to be DR, which if the software has this many problems I don't need it anyway. I hope others have had better luck than I at getting past first level support and actually speaking to someone capable of understanding the problem better.

 

For what it is worth, I fully intended to reload 4.06 after that, but I haven't yet done so. Ironically, I haven't had a single shutdown since my last dialogue with Magellan, so this problem may not be as frequent as I originally thought. I'm humorously blaming it on sunspots now.

 

The inconsistent alarms and the new auto-backlight 'feature' annoy me enough that I've shut off all of my alarms entirely.

 

Anybody else have updates on their software bug situations?

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I experienced two shutdowns on the Thanksgiving weeked. I banged Magellan's gong a while ago on the shutdown thing and, as they did with you, they suggested sending it to them for study. With holiday travels (and cynicism that we've pentetrated the "oh, your unit must be broken" patrol) I've elected to not send mine in until after the holidays.

 

So maybe we're contributing to the problem by not providing them with units & configurations that are known to trigger this.

 

Have the rest of you that have experienced this filed reports? Complaining here will presumably do less good than complaining to http://www.magellangps.com/en/support/request.asp . I filed a report on the backlight problem and never got past the "it's supposed to work that way" stage with them. Maybe if even 20 users filed similar reports, we could at least make an impression that if it's supposed to work that way, it's a bad idea and SHOULDN'T work that way.

 

I like their products, but I'd like them a lot better if they'd quit assuming I was an idiot...

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.....I filed a report on the backlight problem and never got past the "it's supposed to work that way" stage .......

If you set the backlight timer low, it will turn out after the alarm, right?

 

I have had nothing but good results with version 5.12 on my Color Meridian.

The even do parks better, and boulevards are now in color and not just B&W.

 

My only real gripe is not the firmware upgrade, but how the autorouting in DirectRoute permanently changes your data field settings on the map page, to fields I never use. And the orientation to TRACK mode.......

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.....I filed a report on the backlight problem and never got past the "it's supposed to work that way" stage .......

If you set the backlight timer low, it will turn out after the alarm, right?

 

Yes, but now that it thinks the light is on, the first keypress after the timeout gets "eaten" to turn the light back on. This means both you have to look at the unit more to see which keypressese were eaten and any keypresses through the day will turn the light back on.

 

Even if you don't use DirectRoute but just use the external power as mentioned above, you'll be subject to this. Once you rip the unit out of the cradle, you'll get an "external power lost" alarm (which isn't configurable, sigh) and now your backlight is on and in that same weird state.

 

My only real gripe is not the firmware upgrade, but how the autorouting in DirectRoute permanently changes your data field settings on the map page, to fields I never use.  And the orientation to TRACK mode.......

 

Like you, I find it really annoying that a street route hijacks so many user settings on the map screen. (I mentioned it in the review.) I plan to take my review mentioned above and turn it into a bug report one of these days.

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I recently picked up a SporTrak Map gps. It was pre loaded with ver 3.03. I haven't had any problems at all. I downloaded the 5.0 upgrade but I think I'm going to stay away from it. Sounds like nothing but problems. On the other hand, 4.06 sounds like a winner. Should I go for it as an upgrade?

Edited by Finler
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Am I the only one who didn't have to pull the batteries after the update to 5.0?? After the update, my ST Pro shut down properly without needing to pull the batteries. Of course it doesn't work properly now either, so...<BR><BR>As far as my shutdowns, my first one occurred after 1.5 hours of use. The next one was after 5 minutes of use, and the third was after 15 minutes of use. All three shutdowns occurred when I was within 100' of the goto I had selected (perhaps there is a connection with my malfunctioning arrival alarm?). I was on the compass screen every time as well.

(SportTrak Map) I did the update as the instructions described. Didn't have to pull the batteries, haven't had a shut down since. All works just fine with mine. Funny how some have the problems. Guess I just have a superior unit.. ;)

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If you don't have DirectRoute and you don't have a Meridian with an SD card that won't work otherwise, I can think of nothing compelling in 5.x over 4.06.  In fact, the user interface is sufficiently less annoying in 4.06 that I'd recommend it over 5.x if those two conditions don't apply to you.

It may have been coincidence, but on the Snolympia Cache Machine I noted my MeriPlat with the current fw upgrade placed me closer and more accurately at the caches. It was commented a couple times by others that were chasing the same caches they should follow me due to my greater success. I hadn't noticed this kind of accuracy before with 4.06. In fact, there was a person there that had received a new MeriPlat, but I suspect with 4.06 installed and their EPE was almost double mine at the same location. I know there's some variation to be expected, but that's fairly significant.

 

Other points to note:

Acquistion seems to be better handled in places I previously had trouble.

Tracking seems to be closer to the map.

 

With both versions, I have experienced unexplained and what appeared to be intermittent shutdowns. I recently noted the intermittent shutdowns occur when I get within 2 miles of a major runway approach lane where the big lights are installed on girders above the homes and happens when I'm approaching from the North, but not from the South. I intend to track this down as time allows.

Edited by TotemLake
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I just bought Mapsend Topo for my Magellan SporTrak Map unit. It came with a firmware update CD. I went from ver. 3.03 to ver. 4.04 and noticed that the receiver appears less sensitive now. Before upgrading I was able to use the receiver indoors. Now I have to exit my residence in order to get a fix on my position. In addition the elevation appears to be off. I hope this wasn’t a bad move on my part. Has anyone else experienced this problem? And is ver. 3.03 still available? You don’t suppose someone would intentionally cause our receivers to be less sensitive do you? Or maybe just less actuate in certain areas? (The truth is out there.) :lol: Am I just being paranoid? Or is SA back?!?!?!? I can’t locate my coffee table! ;)

Edited by Finler
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I just bought Mapsend Topo for my Magellan SporTrak Map unit. It came with a firmware update CD. I went from ver. 3.03 to ver. 4.04 and noticed that the receiver appears less sensitive now. Before upgrading I was able to use the receiver indoors. Now I have to exit my residence in order to get a fix on my position. In addition the elevation appears to be off. I hope this wasn’t a bad move on my part. Has anyone else experienced this problem? And is ver. 3.03 still available? You don’t suppose someone would intentionally cause our receivers to be less sensitive do you? Or maybe just less actuate in certain areas? (The truth is out there.) ;) Am I just being paranoid? Or is SA back?!?!?!? I can’t locate my coffee table! :lol:

I wouild check the Magellan web site to see if you have an update available to take you beyond your "current" 4.04 version. I found the 5.14 for the MeriPlat worked much better than the 4.xx series.

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