dboggny Posted July 28, 2002 Share Posted July 28, 2002 i recently picked up one of these little add ons for a palm m 500. it is very nice for city use; however, the documentation is so lacking it is very sad. this my first magellan product and it certainly will make me question whether i will buy another . at any rate, if those of you out there who have one could answer me a question, i would appreciate it. it says it is waas enabled but, i was wondering if there is a way to turn that off or is it always on? do third party navigation programs (eg cetus or geoniche) take advantage of the waas? do we know what datum is being reported by the companion (it doesnt specifically state wgs84 as far as i could find so please tell me if i missed it)? thanks for you time guys. beers will be on me for your help SR and dboggny. Oh man, my mother in law is here Quote Link to comment
+Wander Lost Posted July 28, 2002 Share Posted July 28, 2002 I don't know about the unit for your palm, but I have the Magellan for my visor. Works great! Yes the software that comes with the unit sucks! My husband has the Magellan Meridian and it is quite a bit more fully functional than the companion is. I've played around a little bit with my sisters etrex and would choose the meridian over it any day and twice on Sunday. CetusGPS is a fine program for simple navagation to a point and for marking waypoints. Beyond that it is pretty sparce. According to the website he is working on a waypoint database, but as of the last time I checked the current version only allows you to manually put in the coords that you wish to nav to. (You can't even cut and paste) GeoNiche is designed with geocaching in mind. The latest version has a text field for cache descriptions, and will even decode the hint if you want. The next version is supposed to have a feature so you can import waypoints from an outside source like easygps. Don't give up on the Magellan because the original software is sub par. I've been pleased with mine so far. If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people?? Quote Link to comment
+Team Shredded Bark Posted July 29, 2002 Share Posted July 29, 2002 I have the same unit. I don't know of a way to turn off WAAS. I am nearly certain that the WAAS corrections occur in the GPS unit itself, not in the Palm software. The unit puts out a modified NMEA output, and I don't believe that supports doing the WAAS in the Palm itself. So the output is pre-corrected, if you will, when WAAS is active. You can tell with the NavCompanion software whether you are getting a strong signal from the WAAS satellites (I believe they are labeled E and W in the sky chart). CetusGPS will indicate a "DGPS" (Differential GPS) fix when WAAS is engaged. I haven't been able to find a way to find out specifically which individual satelites are having corrections applied. I haven't noticed any accuracy problems related to WAAS when using it geocaching. I generally use GeoNiche, which does not indicate when WAAS is engaged. I try to let the GPS run in the car (usually driving Mapopolis) on the way to a cache, which should be plenty of time for it to download the WAAS corrections before I get into the trees. -- "Stay off that highway: word is it's not so safe The grasses that hide the green-backs, the amber waves of gain again" --R.E.M. Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.