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Garmin 60cs Or Magellan Meridian Platinum?


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Hello,

I am new to Geocaching. :) I have been using some borrowed equipment and am now hooked enough to want to purchase my own. I am torn between Garmin's 60CS and Magellan's Meridian ( Color or Platinum ).

I am leaning toward the 60CS, but I am hung up on what I _perceive_ to be a lack of memory in the garmin unit.

 

The Garmin has 56MB of memory while the Magellan has only 16MB, but is capable of reading SD ram cards giving it as much memory as you want to buy.

 

The Garmin has a nice screen and is a newer device(?), but is 56MB of memory enough? Is the USB interface fast enough for downloading larger maps? Would the 60CS be compatible with my Pocket PC?

 

I want to be able to geocache(!!) :( and possibly use the GPSr to find routes on trips, etc.

 

Cheers,

Danger-T

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56MB is really quite a bit. If you are loading Topo maps, it is all of Oregon and Washington, or all of Arizona and New Mexico. If you load City Select with all of its points of interest and turn-by-turn maps, your coverage will be less. I have all of the topo and City Select maps for a 60 mile radius around Houston on my 60C with room to spare.

 

If I frequently traveled to a far-off place, I might long for an SD card so that I could quickly pop in this place or that place. As it is, I have a laptop, so I can take the nation with me when I travel and load what I want.

 

Using old serial connections to load maps was a pain, but with USB, I can load my 60C in about a minute. YMMV.

 

Edit to add: Tell us where you cache, and I (or someone) will grab CS and Topo maps for your neck of the woods to give you feel for coverage in your area.

Edited by Sputnik 57
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I'm a newbie too, and was torn between the Garmin 60cs and the Meridian Color. My buddy John got the Meridian and I got the 60cs, both arriving the same day, a couple of weeks ago.

 

Personally, I am glad I chose the 60cs, it just feels better in my hand, is slightly smaller, and I think the display is just a bit better. I've played with both quite a bit, and there is not a lot of difference, except for the electronic compass and the Geocaching page on the 60cs. I like the layout of the buttons better on the 60cs, but again, that is personal preference. I also feel my display is a bit easier to see outside.

 

Having the interchangable cards in the Meridian is a plus, but as someone else replied already, 56K is quite a bit. But it would be nice to have several cards prloaded with different maps if you travel a lot. We travel fulltime in an RV and use a laptop with Delorme Earthmate for that, so it was not a deal breaker for me.

 

I have noticed that John's Meridian usually seems to acquire satellites a second or two faster than my 60cs. Again, no big deal, this isn't a race for us. One thing I don't like, and it has nothing to do with the operation of the Meridian itself, is having to hit a button to accept the agreement to not hold Magellan responsible if I fall off the edge of the earth or run into a tree while playing with the GPS every time I turn it on. It's just a minor irritation and something some bean counter in an office must havve decided was needed for a liability issue, but those kind of things just irk me.

 

Both units seem to take us to the exact same place at the same time, so there is no advantage with one over the other that I can see in terms of accuracy. If I had never held and played with the 60cs, I would have been just as happy with the Meridian Color.

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Both units have advantages and disadvantages, and they're both quite similar in some ways.

 

First, the Meridian is a 3-year old GPS. While it still runs with the big dogs, its performance is being surpassed. The 60cs is bright-shiny new.

 

Autorouting. Both units will autoroute, and although I've used neither, I understand that the Garmin autorouting system is better than Magellan. This is owed mostly to the Meridian auto-routing being a retroactive feature. The Meridian was *not* an autorouting GPS when it first came out.

 

Memory. The clear winner here is the Meridian. 56 megs might well be more than enough for you, but it's still fixed memory. The SD card memory of the Meridian is extremely flexible and allows for virtually unlimited storage. By the way, the 16meg built-in Memory of the Meridian is for the base-map only. You MUST have an SD card to use maps.

 

Color. Meridian doesn't have it. 60cs does. Is it important? That's up to you, but I bet it sure is pretty.

 

Batteries. Again, the Meridian shows its age here. The battery life for 2 AAs is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12 hours for the Meridian. The 60cs will run over 20 hours, I understand.

 

Price. I haven't checked recently, but I think the older and less sought-after Meridian is quite a bit cheaper than the fairly new 60cs. This is something you might consider.

 

Antenna. I can't comment on the 60cs antenna, but the Meridian line has a well-earned reputation for great reception.

 

There are other features such as electronic compass and barometer that I'm not too familiar with, so I'll withhold comment.

 

Both units are great. You can't go wrong. What it comes down to is your intended use. Will 56 megs be enough for you? For me, that would be too limiting. For others that's more than they'll ever use. Do you want color? I haven't used a color unit and my B&W Meridian Gold suits me fine. I bet if I used a color GPS though, I'd be happy with it. Size and weight might be a factor, too. The Meridian series are a bit big.

 

Jamie

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I had a Magellan Sportrak and liked it a lot, but the "boomerang action" gave me whiplash when compared to my 60CS. Because of that, I can't use a Magellan anymore, mostly because I usually cache with some other competitive folks that getting there "first" between the couple of us is the goal. If I were caching by myself, or with other Magellans it wouldn't be such a big deal.

 

They're very nice GPS's though!

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Sporttrack is not Meridian. I have never had backlash (boomerang) on my Platinum. I have gone with a few people who use the 60CS, and we all stood on top of the cache at about the same time, within a few seconds. BTW, Between the Meridian Color, Garmin 60CS and the Platinum, I like the screen on the Platinum better. But then I am biased. The deal maker for me is the changeable memory. Card readers are fast, and when uploading 128 MB of map to it takes just moments. Plus, with this memory getting cheaper, you can get a GB card for about $100 (with searching) and put darn near the whole US, or have both the Direct Route map and Topo map on the same card.

 

The fact that a 3 year old unit hangs with the best brand new units is saying a lot. I have not lost connection even under thick trees or narrow areas, and the Direct Route on the Platinum has worked flawlessly every time I have used it, taking me from door to door over a 700 mile trip.

 

Danger-T, you are just going to have to decide after testing out my Meridian Platinum. Just let me know...

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Sputnik

I will be geocaching in Southern Indiana and Kentucky. I would like to use the street maps to get the general vicinity of a cache and then maybe use the topographical map if I have to go into the "wild".

If you can give me the memory stats on these areas, that would be great!

 

From what I have read on these forums, what I want to do is possible.

I don't remember the post, but I think I have read something here about the 60CS allowing you to load map "segments" for a road trip?

 

Thanks,

Danger-T

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Danger-T, you are just going to have to decide after testing out my Meridian Platinum. Just let me know...

We were out this past weekend and one of the guys had the Platinum. When we were at "zero" it still showed him 50 or so feet away. The longer we stood there, the closer it got to "zero". Nobody with the Garmin experienced that, regardless of model. When I used the Magellan, and my buddies used Garmin, we'd more or less "split" the caches. Sometimes I'd get there first, sometimes they would. Now that the tables have turned a bit (I have a Garmin, one has a Magellan now), it's the same. So it's not always that you'll experience this, but the "slingshot" or "boomerang" is pretty well-documented, just do a search for either of those codewords.

 

It's not enough to make the Magellan GPS a bad choice, but for some it's a deal breaker. Deckyon is right though, you should see if you can try both and see what feels right to you. You asked for opinions, and there isn't any "right" answer. There are a lot of great things about both units (my how I long for a the compass in the Platinum that doesn't have to be held level!)

 

:blink:

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Loading map's into my 60CS is fast and easy,besides 56mb is a lot of memory. You should be able to fit the area's you want in with no trouble. I have most of NY,and big parts of Penna. and Mich. along with small parts of Ind. Va. and Maryland in the 60 CS with 20mb left(all topo).

I also have a older Magellan 330. I have topo maps for both it and the 60CS and like the Garmin maps better.

Best bet is goto a store and play with both . See which one feels better to you. That is something no one here can tell you.

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Well I have a platinum and really want to get a 60cs but I am a slave to the memory. I have a 512 SD card and most of the western half of the country in maps. But the big plus is all the waypoints. I travel within 6 states on a regular basis and keep all the caches for the cities I visit loaded. So no matter where I am I have a map and caches. I only wish it was a bit smaller.

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Sputnik

I will be geocaching in Southern Indiana and Kentucky. I would like to use the street maps to get the general vicinity of a cache and then maybe use the topographical map if I have to go into the "wild".

If you can give me the memory stats on these areas, that would be great!

 

From what I have read on these forums, what I want to do is possible.

I don't remember the post, but I think I have read something here about the 60CS allowing you to load map "segments" for a road trip?

 

Thanks,

Danger-T

Danger-T

 

I just grabbed all of the City Select maps for essentially all of Kentucky and for Indiana as far north as Terre Haute. I had memory to spare, so I also grabbed all of the Topo maps for the same area (except a few maps that straddle the Kentucky-Tennessee border). The total was 55.6MB.

 

You might leave off the maps east of I-75 and throw in Cincinnati.

 

For grins, I made a circle bounded by I-57 on the west, I-70 on the north, following I-74 over to Cincinnati, down I-75 on the east. Following the Kentucky border over to I-24, and I-24 back up to I-57. All of the City Select maps for that area are 34.6 MB. The Topo maps for the same area are 20.7 MB. (Note that the map borders don't exactly follow these roads, so the boundaries are approximate.)

 

I hope that gives you feel for coverage. Let me know if you have a more detailed "boundary" you would like me to test.

 

You can load maps in segments that aren't contiguous. For example, you can load Lexington, St. Lewis, Denver and LA and then take a road trip. The 60C will autoroute on the loaded maps, and then seamlessly switch to the base map for areas in between. You then have turn-by-turn and autorouting down side streets to a hotel at your stop-over spots, and freeway directions in between. At the hotel in St. Lewis, you can as the 60C to show you the nearest Denny's or ATM and get instant turn-by-turn directions. Pretty slick.

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The only thing I find to be difficult with the 60CS I use now, is the compression of «tracks» when I save a trip. I do not have this problem when I use the Active log without saving it.

But because I use my GPS mainly to produce maps of the trails I walked, I would like differentiate tracks of different days of trip, (tracks, routes and waypoints). Actually, I use a palm do do it and I find it complicated and hasardous to use my PDA for a week long in the trails.

javascript:add_smilie(":blink:")

 

Is it possible, with the Platinum, to save traces (and Waypoints) on the SD card and to begin a new one on the unit itself ?

 

Jacques

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Is it possible, with the Platinum, to save traces (and Waypoints) on the SD card and to begin a new one on the unit itself ?

Yes. You can save complese sets of both waypoints and tracks to the SD card and bring them back onto the unit at any point. I use this wo keep my personal waypoints seperate from my Geocaching waypoints.

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What no one has mentioned is that with the Meridian you can store waypoints onto the SD card and have them broken down into small easy to manage files organized by location or even cache type, this makes it very easy to to look up a cache that you want to look for. If you have several hundred caches loaded in your memory if ca a very long tme to look one up.

 

You can also store a much larger map in the Meridian because of the SD card. Not that you need it but it can be handy to have.

 

Another nice feature about having the larger memory in the SD card which I just discovered, two days ago I triped over my Data cable and broke it (100% my fault) at least I have over 2000 caches stored in my on my SD card and moat all of Ca, and Nv as far as maps.

 

Re Topo maps. Magellan map send topo includes street names, Garmid does not nclude street names,

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I beg to differ but yes You can get the Meridian in color.

Of course I knew that.

 

The title of the topic says "Platinum," but now I see that the OP's message includes the Color as an option.

 

Yes, the Meridian Color is an option. On that note, on must take more into consideration the battery life. Again, not from personal experience, but from reading other people's personal experience, but I understand that the battery life of the Meridian Color is much shorter than that of the 60cs.

 

Also, I've come to understand that the Meridian Color screen is not as nice as the 60cs screen.

 

The Meridian Color does have an external antenna jack, though.

 

Jamie

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Sputnik57,

 

Thanks very much for your help! I appreciate your time. ;)

 

Each of the memory examples you give uses almost the entire 56MB of memory. If you fill the available memory with maps, is there any space left to upload geocache coordinates to the unit? Or are those stored separately?

 

You can load maps in segments that aren't contiguous.  For example, you can load Lexington, St. Lewis, Denver and LA and then take a road trip.  The 60C will autoroute on the loaded maps, and then seamlessly switch to the base map for areas in between.  You then have turn-by-turn and autorouting down side streets to a hotel at your stop-over spots, and freeway directions in between.  At the hotel in St. Lewis, you can as the 60C to show you the nearest Denny's or ATM and get instant turn-by-turn directions.  Pretty slick.

 

How detailed is the base map? Does it show street level my area (Georgetown IN 47122)?

I guess what I am really asking here is:

If I go with the 60CS, do I have to spend another chunk of cash, right off the bat, for the mapping software just to get started? OR will the included base map be enough to get started?

 

Thanks,

Danger-T

Edited by Danger-T
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If you fill the available memory with maps, is there any space left to upload geocache coordinates to the unit?  Or are those stored separately?

Map memory is completely independent from track, waypoint and other memory. If you fill the map memory, you still have room for all the other stuff.

 

How detailed is the base map?  Does it show street level my area (Georgetown IN 47122)?

 

I don't have my GPSr here, but will check when I get home and try to post a screen shot of beautiful downtown Georgetown IN. Maybe someone here can do that sooner.

 

Also, anyone have a 76C or 76CS to post a comparison? The base map on those units is supposed to be better. Reportedly, the 60C has 64mb of memory, with 8mb dedicated to the base map, while the 70C has 128mb of memory, with 13mb dedicated to the base map. That's where the weird 56mb and 115mb numbers come from.

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Danger-T.

 

The basemap on the 60C shows Georgetown, but no streets. In fact, it shows I-64 and US 150, and no surface features between them (other than town names) . It looks like you're going to need CitySelect or Topo to get roads that are helpful to you. I'll still try to do a screen shot of those maps when I get home.

Edited by Sputnik 57
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Do the Garmin US topo maps have streets, roads and their names included?

 

One of the other posts here says it doesn't, :unsure: but the description of Mapsource US TOPO says it includes:

Highways, roads, hiking trails, snowmobile trails, backwoods trails, elevation contours, point elevations, summits, some bathymetric contours, geographic names, churches, and schools

 

Which is it? :lol:

 

Cheers,

Danger-T

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Here are four screen shots of the same area near Tomball, Texas

 

Topo map at .8 miles:dd091dfc-141c-49aa-80e5-552e1880cfe1.jpg

Topo map at 800 feet:d1f66d14-f715-4168-a9cb-c909b177b98c.jpg

City Select at .8 miles:ca22ea5e-3ece-4eb8-8100-154d51263bb8.jpg

City Select at 800 feet:28b7f98a-7bfb-477e-98c5-7ecf45259f23.jpg

 

The topo map has some road lables when you are zoomed out ("Spring Creek" and "FM 2976"), but little road detail close in, switching to features ("Pate Cemetery"). City select simplifies the map when zoomed out, knowing that you can get lots of detail by zooming in. Many roads in topo, especially in rural areas, are labled simply "road" if you move the cursor of them. Rumor has it the Magellan topo maps have more road lables, but I've never seen a side-by-side comparison.

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The 60CS has much better Tracklogging and more accurate Trip computer info.

 

The Platinum has a better compass and the ability to use large memory cards.

The 60C has better tracklogging at 10,000 breadcrumb tracklogs, and

the 60C has a better Trip Info Screen.

 

If you are a traveler, you can get a Platinum.

Wish I still had my Platinum GPS.

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