*some* Explorist 600 Info

[+BeerHound]

Just called LeBaron's regarding the Explorist 600 and the Magellan Rep happened to be there. Now I am just getting into Geocaching and am planning on buying my first GPS soon. Since I travel a lot I would also like a unit that does mapping so the 600 sounds quite interesting. I need something portable, large map memory, and I would like Goecache functionality built in.

 

According to the rep:

 

- it will not be released until mid-March timeframe.

- He believes you can use standard AA batteries as an alternative to the rechargeable battery pack

- PAtch antenna (no mention if it is more sensitive than the other explorists).

- no external antenna connection

 

That being said he has not seen one yet so this info may not be completely correct. THe external antenna issue could sway me to another unit. How does the Explorist series perform in a car? Can the explorist connect top a PDA, laptop, or LCD monitor?

 

I am also considering the Garmin 60CS.

 

Cheers,

BeerHound

[+embra]

Especially if you are starting out and don't have an existing investment in proprietary map software, the 60CS available now and a 600 six to eight weeks or more away could persuade *me* too. (I've got a lot of Mapsend software and a Meridian to hold me in the meantime).

 

Interesting possibilities; thanks for passing them along. Although it depends on your needs, I wouldn't necessarily be dissuaded by the lack of an external antenna jack. I've never felt the need for such a thing with my Meridian, and if it did arise a re-radiating antenna could cover that base.

 

The explori out so far (100-300) have no computer connectivity, so we don't have existing data for your last question. I would *expect* that the 400-600 should connect to a laptop just fine.

 

As a side note, I ran into an explorist 200 at Costco last weekend. They're *little*--well, compared to the Meridians, anyway. I guess they're about the size of an eTrex...nice pocket size. I had read the specs, of course, but until I saw one it hadn't struck home how much smaller these units will be. The buttons were half the size of the Meridian buttons; it was hard to tell in a blister pack, but I'm uncertain how easy or hard it will be to do one-hand operation. I've gotten used to the Meridian's size, and it will take some adjustment to down-size.

[+JohnnyVegas]

Especially if you are starting out and don't have an existing investment in proprietary map software, the 60CS available now and a 600 six to eight weeks or more away could persuade *me* too. (I've got a lot of Mapsend software and a Meridian to hold me in the meantime).

 

Interesting possibilities; thanks for passing them along. Although it depends on your needs, I wouldn't necessarily be dissuaded by the lack of an external antenna jack. I've never felt the need for such a thing with my Meridian, and if it did arise a re-radiating antenna could cover that base.

 

The explori out so far (100-300) have no computer connectivity, so we don't have existing data for your last question. I would *expect* that the 400-600 should connect to a laptop just fine.

 

As a side note, I ran into an explorist 200 at Costco last weekend. They're *little*--well, compared to the Meridians, anyway. I guess they're about the size of an eTrex...nice pocket size. I had read the specs, of course, but until I saw one it hadn't struck home how much smaller these units will be. The buttons were half the size of the Meridian buttons; it was hard to tell in a blister pack, but I'm uncertain how easy or hard it will be to do one-hand operation. I've gotten used to the Meridian's size, and it will take some adjustment to down-size.

 

If your are just getting started, why do you think that you need an external antenna?

 

There are very few cases in which an external antenna is going to help you find a cache. I started selling GPS gear before the first gulf war. Whenever I had a customer ask about a external antenna I told them try to GPS for a few weeks without one. In all those years I only had two customers decide they needed external antenna both of them were driving Hummers, the windshield on the Hummer is at a 90 degree angle, this places the GPS under the metal roof. the roof blocks the GPS signal. Today GPSr are much more sensitive than older models, the older models of GPSr only had two channel receivers which made it very hard for them to maintain a lock. The reasons that manufactures place external antenna ports on GPS receivers is for those cases in which a receiver is place in an area that will block the satellite signals. I have found plenty of geocaches without the need of an external antenna, as a matter of fact I know some cachers that have found thousands of caches without an external antenna.

 

The Magellan has some features that Non of the Garmins have.

 

As far as Memory, with the Magellan meridians and the new Explorist you can increase the memory on your GPS with a std, SD memory card. With the Meridian you can store your waypoint on the memory card in small files if you would like to, In my Meridian gold I have around 3,000 waypoints stored. These are in files of 80 to 100 caches, each file is for a different city that I cache in. If I want to look up a geocache I just bring up the file for the city I am in and I only have through the caches for the city, sure a Garmin may hold up to 1,000 caches, but do you have any idea how long it would take to go through that many when looking for one. Now the file can also be sorted by cache type, or difficulty or terrain, how ever you would like to save them. I have not used the new Explorist, but my guess is they will offer the same features. It does say in the description they have a file system built into them.

 

The one thing I see people not do when they compare Garmin and Magellan is look beyond just the GPS.

As far as TOPO software, Magellan’s map send TOPO includes all street names, Garmin map source TOPO only has names of major roads. Also with Magellan the while running map send TOPO the GPS will display a terrain projection of the course in front of you, Garmin will not do this.

[+JohnnyVegas]

The buttons were half the size of the Meridian buttons; it was hard to tell in a blister pack, but I'm uncertain how easy or hard it will be to do one-hand operation

 

I had a chance to handle the 100, 200 and 300 at a trade show last summer. I do not recall a problem with the buttons, as you said, they are kind of like a small Meridian, I spent most my there time telling the Magellan Reps that Magellan droped the ball big time by not having a data port on the 100, 200, 300.

Then I went to the Garmin both I told them Garmin was droping the ball by not having a GPS with and SD card slot.

[+BeerHound]

I guess my thoughts around the external antenna is more for when I use the GPS in a car for navigation using the Magellan mapping software. I just assumed that when the GPS is in the car it would have a difficult time keeping a lock. Of course if this is not true please let me know.

 

Also what exactly is a re-radiating antenna. IF I had to guess I would say it takes GPS signal and retransmits the signal on an attached transmitter. Is this correct?

Cheers,

Beerhound

[+JohnnyVegas]

 

I guess my thoughts around the external antenna is more for when I use the GPS in a car for navigation using the Magellan mapping software.  I just assumed that when the GPS is in the car it would have a difficult time keeping a lock.  Of course if this is not true please let me know.

 

Should not be a problem, I have had my Magellan meridian gold mounted on by dash for two years with out a problem.

 

Also what exactly is a re-radiating antenna.  IF I had to guess I would say it takes GPS signal and retransmits the signal on an attached transmitter. Is this correct?

Cheers,

Beerhound

 

Yes, you would have an antenna oustide your car or truck with a peice of coax running to another antenna inside the re transmitts the signal to your GPS

[+Marky]

There is a slight problem with using a patch antenna GPS for car navigation. The problem lies in the fact that the GPS needs to be level (horizontal) for optimum GPS signal reception. Meridians and Sportraks work fine in a car because they want to be oriented vertically. I would assume that 60CS's would work fine as well.

 

--Marky

[+Team GPSaxophone]

We have an Explorist 200. Besides the lack of computer connectivity, the buttons are below the screen. I don't have really big hands, but it's hard to hold onto the GPS and press the buttons at the same time.

[+Milbank]

- He believes you can use standard AA batteries as an alternative to the rechargeable battery pack

 

You would think at this point in the game he would know for sure.

 

I think the only thing that would keep me from trying one would be if they did not take AA batteries.

[+JohnnyVegas]

- He believes you can use standard AA batteries as an alternative to the rechargeable battery pack

 

You would think at this point in the game he would know for sure.

 

I think the only thing that would keep me from trying one would be if they did not take AA batteries.

I would rather use Li Ion rechargable batteries that can be switched out as needed, Up until now this has not been possable with any GPS.

Li Ion:

Fast recharge-Small one should charge in a little over 2 hours

No Memory - You do not have to run them down before you charge them

Long Battery life for there size

If I could put a Li Ion in my meridian gold I would

[+leatherman]

I guess my thoughts around the external antenna is more for when I use the GPS in a car for navigation using the Magellan mapping software. I just assumed that when the GPS is in the car it would have a difficult time keeping a lock. Of course if this is not true please let me know.

I have the Meridian Color with an external antenna jack. I have not seen a reason or situation that would need an external antenna. Every hand held GPSr that I have seen works very well on the dash of a vehicle.

 

I guess a Motor home or in a large boats cabin, you might need better access to the sky. However that is very specific. I wouldn't make my choice of GPSr on something so insignificant.

[peter]

Li Ion:

Fast recharge-Small one should charge in a little over 2 hours

No Memory - You do not have to run them down before you charge them

Long Battery life for there size

If I could put a Li Ion in my meridian gold I would

The first two points hold true for NiMH AA cells as well. I charge mine in about an hour and some charge in 15 minutes. Certainly no need to discharge fully with any reasonable smart charger (which is mandatory in any event for Li+ cells).

 

I don't remember the exact shape of the Meridian's battery compartment, but it's possible you could use the Li+ RCR-V3 cells in it. It's a lithium ion cell that's shaped about like a pair of side-by-side AA cells and has a diode to drop the normal 3.7V of Li+ chemistry to 3.0V for compatibility with devices designed for normal AAs. I'm thinking of getting one for my eMap if my current NiMH cells ever wear out.

 

That's what I'm still hoping might be the lithium ion cell in the new eXplorists - it would allow the unit to safely recharge the cell internally since it would know it has a rechargeable cell, but would also allow the user to substitute standard AA cells whenever that might be needed.

[+Dernel]

Having seen a Explorist 200 recently, the shop assistant put 2 x standard AA cells into the unit.

 

Based on the case molding being the same..i would assume the 600 unit will be the same.

 

Cheers,

 

Dernel

[+leatherman]

http://www.magellangps.com/en/products/ms_compatibility.asp

 

Here is something new. I've been watching for them to fix the link for the 600s user manual. However they replaced it with this.

When I first looked at this chart I thought it was kind of stupid. Why make a full page chart just to show that the 100-200-300 didn't use any of the map software, and that the 400-500-600 did use all of the map software.

Then I noticed that the North American Directroute version was 2.00f.??

I've only seen 1.00a, and there are no updates on their site. No reference of NA TOPO.

[+embra]

The 2.0 "upgrade" doesn't seem to merit the jump in numbering. It appears to only be an incorporation of the XP SP2 patch that can be downloaded from the site for 1.0. There are apparently no new features, and no update of the maps. I think we can go back to thinking it's a stupid chart (I've been watching for that manual, too...doesn't look like it's coming any time soon).

[robertlipe]

While I was reading/closing other tabs, Embra stepped in with the bulk of my answer, but I'll add that this actually IS in the FAQ, albeit not in the one that's in Embra's signature, but it is in mine.

 

So it looks like a stupid chard and a stupid version bump.

 

[ Insert linky link to Magellan "what were you thinking" thread here. ]

Edited February 3, 2005 by robertlipe

[+Searching_ut]

I would rather use Li Ion rechargable batteries that can be switched out as needed, Up until now this has not been possable with any GPS.

Li Ion:

Fast recharge-Small one should charge in a little over 2 hours

No Memory - You do not have to run them down before you charge them

Long Battery life for there size

If I could put a Li Ion in my meridian gold I would

I’m just the opposite, and avoid rechargeable lithium’s whenever possible. To begin with, lithium Ion, or LiPo batteries have a fairly short lifespan, and the clock starts ticking at the date of manufacture. Even if you treat them really nice, in normal light duty use they loose about 10 percent of capacity per year, generally though, they deteriorate much faster. They’re quite sensitive to excess heat, and can even become dangerous if mistreated by doing something like leaving it charging while in a closed up car during the summer, or charging at too high a current. (I personally know of an individual who’s car was destroyed when he left his cell phone plugged in and charging on a hot summer day and the Li-ion battery caught fire.) It’s not as practical to keep backup batteries as it is with many other types of battery because of the relatively fast rate of deterioration.

 

As for the Fast Recharge: Lituiums are in fact far less forgiving than Nicad or NiMh batteries, and have to be charged quite a bit slower. With good electronics, and a high quality battery you can get away with charging at a rate where the battery is fully charged in about an hour, but you’ll shorten the life expectancy of the battery somewhat by doing so. With Nicads or NiMh, you can get away with up to a 5 C charge rate with quality equipment, or in other words recharging the battery in less than 15 minutes, provided of course you use good equipment to charge and monitor the battery.

 

No Memory: NiMh are memory free as well. While lithiums don’t have a memory, they also don’t like to be fully discharged, and work best if recharged after only partial discharges. (You shouldn’t store them fully charged however as they deteriorate much faster when fully charged with the deterioration rate going up rapidly with temperature) The electronics in devices designed for lithium batteries shouldn’t let it discharge too far, and at the same time won’t allow you to try and recharge it if it does discharge too far (They sometimes catch fire if you try and recharge them after they’ve discharged almost all the way, thus the circuits designed to reject the battery if the individual cell voltage is below a set value, generally 2.5 volts)

 

Long Battery Life: Lithium batteries do have a great size/weight to capacity ratio, and can also be built in odd shapes and sizes, which make them quite good for some applications. They are also a great boon to the manufactures as by nature of the battery type they are virtually always built as proprietary devices. Since the proprietary design often means high profit margins, throw in the relatively short lifespan and they are quite the boon for the manufactures, but in my opinion far from a good choice for an application like a handheld GPS. Given the far more forgiving nature of NiMh batteries and the considerably cheaper capacity to dollar ration and they are a far better choice.

[+steameng8]

I just got a Explorist 300 two days ago and have no idea how to use it. I have also ordered a Explorist 600 from GPSCity. I had an Accura MDX with the Navigation screen and now want to go hiking more and try geocaching. Maybe by the time my 600 gets here, I will be able to report on what it does and how well. I did buy a 512 SD Memory Card for it and and now need to find a good price for the Topo Map Software.

I have had a Sony Digital Camera and think the lithium batterys were great for fast charge and long lasting betwwen charges and long lasting without wearing out for about three years.

[+GOT GPS?]

The lithium Battery in my Sony Digital 8 camera, has lasted a very long time, whereas my lithium battery in my Nokia Cellphone has lost alot of capacity in the year that ive owned the Nokia 6340i cellphone. When those are left ON all the time the batteries can lose capacity over just a few months.

 

As far as Rechargables you can try the latest 2500mah NiMH rechargables.

 

I have a Digita camera that says that Lithium batteries will create too much heat, and they say not to use them.

[+BeerHound]

Lets not forget the environment. Geocachers by nature are usually somewhat environmentally conscious (at least thats me perception) so rechargeable is always good.

Cheers

BH

[+leatherman]

Lets not forget the environment. Geocachers by nature are usually somewhat environmentally conscious (at least thats me perception) so rechargeable is always good.

That position is very ironic. Especially since rechargables are made of heavy metals. Which are toxic waste, and can not be placed in a landfill. They do result in less material going into a landfill, however they inevitably must be disposed of.

The more ubiquitous they become the more chances ignorant users will dispose of them in our landfills. Which can contaminate water supplies.

[+JohnnyVegas]

I just got a Explorist 300 two days ago and have no idea how to use it. I have also ordered a Explorist 600 from GPSCity. I had an Accura MDX with the Navigation screen and now want to go hiking more and try geocaching. Maybe by the time my 600 gets here, I will be able to report on what it does and how well. I did buy a 512 SD Memory Card for it and and now need to find a good price for the Topo Map Software.

I have had a Sony Digital Camera and think the lithium batterys were great for fast charge and long lasting betwwen charges and long lasting without wearing out for about three years.

This might be of help, when I was selling GPS gear I would tell my customers to just learn one function at a time. Trying to learn all the functions of a GPS at the same time can be a bit of a chore.

 

Learn how to mark your position as a waypoint (Location) . I have note used an explorist but with other Magellans you hold the GOTO button down utill you get a screen that will have a Waypoint number at the top of the screen, at this point you highlight SAVE and this save you position as a waypoint.

 

Then learn how to look it up and GOTO it. To due this push menu and highlight USER. next scroll down and highlight the waypoint you just created and push enter and you are on your way.

The GPS should get you to within 10-30 feet of the location most of the time.

 

After you have tried this a few times, learn how to create a Waypoint (Location).

This the same as marking your position as a waypoint, but when you hold down the GOTO button and the screen changes, before you push save hightlight the coordinates on the screen and push enter, then scroll through the coordinates with the touch pad changing them as needed, when you are done push enter and then save the new steetings.

[+JohnnyVegas]

throw in the relatively short lifespan and they are quite the boon for the manufactures, but in my opinion far from a good choice for an application like a handheld GPS. Given the far more forgiving nature of NiMh batteries and the considerably cheaper capacity to dollar ration and they are a far better choice.

 

I have been using Li Ion for several years on my hand held ham radios. I have gottem plenty of charges out of mine, I have only gone through one of them and that was after about five years of being charged three times a week, that is 780 charges. I do not consider this a relativly short life span. A new battery for this radio is around $40.00, from an after market vendor.

 

It’s not as practical to keep backup batteries

All I can say is this is nonsense, I always have back up batteries.

 

With good electronics, and a high quality battery you can get away with charging at a rate where the battery is fully charged in about an hour, but you’ll shorten the life expectancy of the battery somewhat

Read waht you posted here "With good electronics, and a high quality battery"

If you are shortening the life of the battery you are not using Good electronics or a high quality battery. Keep in mind, it is not recomended taht Li Ion rechargable batteries be charge in a charger that is not made fo Li Ion and using the wrong charger can damage the battery.

 

They’re quite sensitive to excess heat, and can even become dangerous if mistreated by doing something like leaving it charging while in a closed up car during the summer, or charging at too high a current.

 

Your words can even become dangerous if mistreatedany thing when mistreated can be dangerous, why blame the battery. If you are using a cahrger made for a Li ion battery you will not be running a current that is to high.

 

(I personally know of an individual who’s car was destroyed when he left his cell phone plugged in and charging on a hot summer day and the Li-ion battery caught fire.

 

At some point in time people have to take responsibilty to doing stupid things, why blame them selves for being idiots.

[peter]

That position is very ironic. Especially since rechargables are made of heavy metals. Which are toxic waste, and can not be placed in a landfill. They do result in less material going into a landfill, however they inevitably must be disposed of.

The more ubiquitous they become the more chances ignorant users will dispose of them in our landfills. Which can contaminate water supplies.

This is certainly a problem with both lead-acid and NiCd rechargeables, but almost all of the rechargeable AA and AAA cells that I see these days are NiMH which pose less of a disposal issue. Still better to recycle them, but the same is true of non-rechargeable AA cells like alkaline-manganese and zinc-carbon - and one would use hundreds of times as many of those

[peter]

throw in the relatively short lifespan and they are quite the boon for the manufactures, but in my opinion far from a good choice for an application like a handheld GPS. Given the far more forgiving nature of NiMh batteries and the considerably cheaper capacity to dollar ration and they are a far better choice.

 

I have been using Li Ion for several years on my hand held ham radios. I have gottem plenty of charges out of mine, I have only gone through one of them and that was after about five years of being charged three times a week, that is 780 charges. I do not consider this a relativly short life span. A new battery for this radio is around $40.00, from an after market vendor.

 

Sounds like you did fairly well with that particular Li+ cell, but still no better than I've done regularly with NiMH cells. And a new set of NiMH cells for my GPS receiver is only $5 and available at any WalMart/Target/etc. Advantage: NiMH.

 

It’s not as practical to keep backup batteries

All I can say is this is nonsense, I always have back up batteries.

 

My digital camera, flashlight, VHF radio, and GPSr all use AA cells so when I go on a trip it's easy to take along a good supply of charged NiMH cells for these devices. Even if I miscalculate and don't have enough I can make do by switching cells between them; e.g. if I'm lost I'd rather have a working GPSr and skip taking extra pictures. But with the trend toward unique Li+ cells for each device I'd need a separate supply of spare cells for each item. And with typical costs per proprietary Li+ cell being around $40- $60+, this becomes a major expense and inconvenience, especially since those spare cells don't have an indefinite shelf life. So I agree with 'Searching_ut' that it's more practical to carry backups for devices that use standard AA cells. Advantage: NiMH.

 

Read waht you posted here "With good electronics, and a high quality battery"

If you are shortening the life of the battery you are not using Good electronics or a high quality battery.

 

Not true. There is a tradeoff between the convenience of fast charging speed and creating internal heat in the cell that shortens its life. For some applications, such as RC models, the benefits of a faster charging time are sufficient that a moderate reduction in cell life is acceptable. Enthusiasts in that hobby generally use excellent chargers and batteries, but it's still recognized that there is a compromise between speed and lifetime.

 

... any thing when mistreated can be dangerous, why blame the battery.

 

Because the Li+ chemistry is well-known to be susceptible to catching on fire if the charging current isn't kept closely controlled.

 

Given that we're dealing with relatively inexpensive consumer-level chargers, they won't have the necessary redundancy and multiple sensors to always fail safely in the event of a circuit malfunction. Although such charger failures are rare, it's still better if the consequence is just a destroyed NiMH cell rather than a Li+ cell that starts a car or house fire. Advantage: NiMH.

 

Li+ cells have some significant advantages, particularly the high energy/weight ratio and ability to operate in cold weather conditions. But they also have drawbacks - particularly when designed in proprietary packages.

[+JohnnyVegas]

Because the Li+ chemistry is well-known to be susceptible to catching on fire if the charging current isn't kept closely controlled.

 

You cannot charge a Li ion battery in a cheap consumer charger, being that they are proprietary they will not fit into them. Again, some idiot might try to rig a charger to charge Li ion battery, but this is not the fault of the battery, it's the fault of the idiot.

 

Also, Li+ Chemistry has advance, early problems with fire were just that, early problems, the technology has advanced over the years and the fire problem is no loneger an issue. Of course, you still have to figure in the idot factor.

 

I agree Battery cost can but an issue, proprietary NmHi can alsot be very expensive, Icom has a Nmhi battery that sells for about $100.00, the radio that it fits into is about $120.00. While the li ion battery in my radio from Yaesu sells for $40.00 - $60.00.

 

My Li Ion batteries are used in ham radios which draw a lot more current than any GPS and sive is a real issue, A NmHi battery for a ham radio is about 3 time larger than a Li Ion battery of the same perfomance.

[peter]

You cannot charge a Li ion battery in a cheap consumer charger, being that they are proprietary they will not fit into them.

Sure you can. All the devices we're talking about here, like the eXplorist 400/500/600, the Quest, typical VHF & 2m radios, are consumer-level electronic devices and the chargers that they come with for their proprietary Li+ cells are cheap consumer-level chargers. As long as everything is working right they should be safe to use. But the risk of a malfunction causing extraneous damage is still greater with Li+ chemistry than with NiMH.

 

As to the high cost of proprietary NiMH designs, I fully agree. My main objection to the trend toward Li+ cells is that they're almost all proprietary physical designs and therefore tend to be expensive, non-interchangeable between devices, and hard to find (even impossible in the case of some discontinued products). As I said before, I'm still hoping that the new eXplorists may use the standard RCR-V3 Li+ cells which would remove my objections since then one could use other AA cells when necessary.

The safety issue I'd be willing to accept to get some of the advantages of Li+ but would still exercise a bit more caution with that type of cell.

[+Searching_ut]

I have been using Li Ion for several years on my hand held ham radios. I have gotten plenty of charges out of mine, I have only gone through one of them and that was after about five years of being charged three times a week, that is 780 charges. I do not consider this a relatively short life span. A new battery for this radio is around $40.00, from an after market vendor.

 

That's actually remarkable for a Lithium based battery. Just based on the way lithium batteries deteriorate over time, I would expect you would have lost at least 30 percent of the batteries capacity over 5 years, depending on how cool the conditions where that the battery was maintained in. In addition, I've been responsible for overseeing the maintenance of hundreds of batteries for radios and test equipment, and can't remember a single one of the older style Li-ion batteries holding up in a useable way to that many charge cycles. From what I've seen, a Li-ion battery cycled on an approximately 3 time per week cycle will have lost enough capacity to be basically worthless after about 2 years max, far less in very warm climates. You got quite lucky. NiMh and nicad both tend to do better for both shelf life, and cycle life, although they have quirks that don't make them necessarily maintenance free.

 

Also, Li+ Chemistry has advance, early problems with fire were just that, early problems, the technology has advanced over the years and the fire problem is no loneger an issue. Of course, you still have to figure in the idot factor.

 

I haven't heard of any significant advances in the last few years that make the batteries less volatile. They have however improved the electronics and learned more about the batteries enabling the charging circuits to be designed to make fires less likely, but you still hear about them quite often. Originally, the thought process was that you could run lithium batteries down to 2.5 volts per cell without problems, which they have since learned significantly reduces battery life, and could result in fires under certain circumstances when you try to recharge them. They've also added circuits to monitor individual cells rather than just the whole pack, which has probably reduced the fire problem more than anything else has. It's far from eliminated however. Personally, having seen the way a lithium cell blows in person, I now watch them close while charging, and wouldn't consider leaving one on charge unattended. While they may be idiots, people who charge a lithium battery that has been dropped, or leave their device plugged in and charging while in a vehicle on a hot summer day still run a significant risk of a quit impressive fire. I’m not saying you should be afraid of them, just aware that when the battery, or charging system does fail it can be a considerably more exciting event than what you’ll generally get with other types of batteries.

 

My Li Ion batteries are used in ham radios which draw a lot more current than any GPS and sive is a real issue, A NiMh battery for a ham radio is about 3 time larger than a Li Ion battery of the same performance.

 

When lithium Ion cells first came out this was very true, now however, if anything the weight/bulk to capacity advantage probably goes to NiMh, which have been improving rapidly in the last couple years. For a given capacity, I think NiMh has always held the advantage when it comes to high current applications, an area Lithium technology had problems with until very recently. (NiMh was also at a significant disadvantage in this are when compared to NiCad) LiPos still have a significant weight and size advantage, and in the last few months have reached parity or even an advantage when it comes to discharge rates, but I'm not sure they would be a good choice for a consumer level device.

[+leatherman]

Come on, what happened to the TOPIC?!

All of this irrelavant battery info doesn't change the point that rechargeables SUCK!

[+JohnnyVegas]

Come on, what happened to the TOPIC?!

All of this irrelavant battery info doesn't change the point that rechargeables rule!

[+Greg2dot0]

Just pre-ordered from TigerGPS.com.

 

TigerGPS.com

 

$347.93

 

According to the page, it's expected in early March. I guess we'll see.

 

Battery?....who needs 'em?

[BC_BiGFooT]

I just bought a Magellan eXplorist 100 online from gpscentral.ca for $129CDN. It is excellent. Doesn't have the features of the 600, nor the colour screen. But we are very happy with it. It picked up an accurate signal even under the canopy. I would definately recommend the Magellan eXplorist series of GPS. We didn't get the carrying case, but we should have. Now I have to put in an order for that too.

PS. We saved $38 at gpscentral over purchasing it at RadioShack, and the shipping was only $12 and took 1 day.

[+steameng8]

I asked aobut the new eXplorist 600 and received the follwoing Email notes about Price, Release Date, and the Battery:

2/14/05:

Thank you for your interest in our upcoming release of the new eXplorist series. Below is the expected dates of release and the Suggested Retail Price. I would suggest that you check our website frequently to verify the releases of eXplorist 400/500/600.

 

Model Number

Expected Release Date

Suggested Retail Price

eXplorist 400

May 2005

$349.99

 

eXplorist 500

March 2005

$449.99

 

eXplorist 600

April 2005

$499.99

 

We do not have an expected date of release of the manual. Usually once we start shipping out the units, the manuals are available for download.

 

Jesse Campos

Thales Navigation/Magellan Products

Customer Support Representative

 

(866) 339-0488

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2/16/05:

The unit has a special battery pack and no other batteries would work with the unit. This battery is rechargeable and has an estimate lifespan of 14 to 16 hours with the back light off.

 

JW

Magellan Technical Support

(800) 707-9971 USA & Canada

(909) 394-5000 Outside USA

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I have been learing how to use my new eXplorist 300 for two weeks($119). I want to be ready when my pre-ordered 600 gets here. I just received the MapSend Topo 3D today. The price on the 600 was to be $449 as stated on the Jan 5 release memo, now it seems like it might be $499. The Pre-order may lock in the price at a lower $.

[+embra]

I still haven't decided if I'll buy a backup Li-Ion pack, but I may have found another alternative. This link is an example of an external battery pack taking 4 standard AA's (I would use NiMH, natch) with a USB connector that can be used to recharge electronic devices using USB (or with their adapters, other things like PDAs). It's another darn device to carry along, but it's cheaper than a Li-Ion spare and lets me use my stock of NiMHs.

Edited February 21, 2005 by embra

[+CompuCash]

My Magellan Sportrak Pro is great. I keep it in the water bottle pocket of my belt pack. Often forget to turn it off. I put the pack in the back seat of my Explorer upsidedown in the bottle pocket - makes it easy to grab the strap 'on the run' and see what it it doing. So when I take it out at the next cache I am usually amazed to find it that it kept track of the trip to the next cache and has 3 or 4 satalites locked. Usually not at full strength but that does not matter as long as they are locked.

 

I am really pleased with it. I can put it in the console in the front and keep a lock while my wife has her Legend up against the window trying to tell me which way to drive as needed.

 

I'll save my battery info for the proper topic.

[Doctor Tiki]

Accuracy problems!

 

Explorist 100 is giving me guff. It's off by about 100 meters consistantly over the last week. I just bought it. Any ideas? Faulty unit perhaps?

[+JohnnyVegas]

It sounds like you may have to change the Map Datum. Is it set for WSG84?

Got to the Setup menu and then check the datum your GPS is set for.

[+EScout]

Does anyone know the pixel resolution of the 500 and 600 models? I have not seen it anywhere.