VISOR GPS MODULES

[Guest Cache-potato]

2001).]

[Guest Lobster]

I'm very new with all this but I did some research before I bought my Magellan GPS Companion for my Visor Deluxe. Here are some of my observations.

1) All GPS units for palm devices are "new", i.e. only been available for about 7 months. This means that they are not mature products. I read lots of reviews, there is a newsgroup but I've misplaced the name. It had lots of messages re this topic. I'll post it Monday after I get back from work where I left the address.

2) The major difference between the Geode and the GPS companion is obviously price $289 v.s. $149. But the Geode has a feature that no other Palm GPS offers: slots for on board memory expansion (up to 64 Mbytes on the Geode, still will need to buy memory cards) My understanding is that Geode doesn't have this working yet. I've loaded the eastern part of Massachusetts and most of Rhode Island and only used 2.5Mbytes. A workaround, if memory is a concern is to buy a memory expansion card load that with extra maps and shuffle maps between the visor and the expansion memory.

3) Also the Geode software as best I can tell and from what the reviewers are saying is that for street addresses you can't "find" an address to highlight and to track to. I can speak from experience, the Magellan unit can do this type of search.

4) Another reason I picked the Magellan is that when the maps are visible the street names are visible. On the Geode S/W no street names are visible, if you want to know a street name you have to tap on it.

5) I've only had my GPS companion for about a week, going to do my first geocaching tomorrow. It had no problem acquiring the satellites, works fine in the car. Tested for accuracy against a Lowrance stand alone GPS unit and was at worst 8/1000ths of a minute off.

6) I dont know if the Magellan software will allow datum selection yet, I'm worried about that.

7) Also I didn't like that none of the Palm OS GPS units have nautical maps yet. I'm hoping they will offer those in the future as they suggested. Otherwise you can buy different mapping s/w for the visor that is compatible with the Magellan.

8) It's possible to upload new firmware into the Magellan GPS receiver, they've already fixed a bug and I uploaded it.

 

I rambled, but I hope this helps.

[Guest Lobster]

Sorry, I forgot to address the topographical map question. I don't have any input on this , didn't read any reviews about the topic. I know the Magellan doesn't come with any topographical maps, just street maps of the US.