So Where Are The Explorists 500 And 600??

April 18, 2005

Explorist 500 User Guide

I just posting to the Explorist Yahoo Groups Files sections the 117 page User Guide. I have no idea why it wasn't included with the unit or why you can't access it from the Magellan website, but Steve in Tech Support e-mail it to me.

It is clear that the folks in Tech Support have not been trained for the release of the 500 or 600. The qualityof the info I have been getting is a crap shoot.

Hopefully this User Guide will address some of the questions I have been having.

Here is the URL for the Guide:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eXplorist/files/

5.3k · April 18, 2005

Woo-hoo! Thanks for rembering your buddies!

Edit: well, we'll need some patience. I'm getting a message that the group has exceeded its download limit (is this for the day?)

Edited April 18, 2005 by embra

April 18, 2005

500 User Guide

Perhaps the Yahoo Groups site isn't the best place to download the Guide. Does anyone have another idea.

I'll be happy to send it to individuals as long as I have the time to do it or until we come up with another solution.

April 18, 2005

Here is an alternative site to download the eXplorist 500 User Guide at

http://rapidshare.de/files/1324628/eXplori..._Guide.pdf.html

April 18, 2005

The Guide has been posted at the URL listed above.

http://rapidshare.de/files/1324628/eXplori..._Guide.pdf.html

I tried it out and it works just fine---the timer before downloading is a little annoying, but hey, it's free.

5.3k · April 18, 2005

Yep, I am now information sated. Got to cozy up for a little light reading tonight.

For those who may not have experience with this service, go to the bottom of the page and click the "Free" button. Go to the bottom of the next page and wait until the countdown timer elapses and provides you the actual download link.

5.3k · April 18, 2005

The Guide has been posted at the URL listed above.

http://rapidshare.de/files/1324628/eXplori..._Guide.pdf.html

I tried it out and it works just fine---the timer before downloading is a little annoying, but hey, it's free.

Yuck...the forum software munged your URL by substituting the "..." in the middle of the address. Can you repost the name of the file??

http://rapidshare.de/files/1324628/eXplori..._Guide.pdf.html

5.3k · April 18, 2005

For some reason not obvious to my eye, SwissTeam's link works while GeoCraig's doesn't.

5.3k · April 18, 2005

For some reason not obvious to my eye, SwissTeam's link works while GeoCraig's doesn't.

Yep...I see that now. I'm downloading as I type. Thanks for the help.

5.3k · April 18, 2005

Boy, that manual covers the issues with the data cable and the file structure. There would be a lot less complaining in here if they would have just burned that onto the CD

April 18, 2005

Boy, that manual covers the issues with the data cable and the file structure. There would be a lot less complaining in here if they would have just burned that onto the CD

Yup. I don't even own the 500 yet, but they really did do a disservice by not including the manual. Snapthefrog's experience is a stellar example.

I, also, had success with the 1st link posted, but not the 2nd. Not sure why.

Almost all the basic info is the same as my 200, but there is a lot of new info to read there re: the file system and the geocache manager.

It's interesting that this (500) .pdf manual is almost exactly twice the size of the 200 manual.

April 18, 2005

First off, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for posting the link to the instructions.

Secondly, WTF is wrong with Magellan? Why wasn't this included in the box. Hello? Didn't any at the corporate office think this might be important?

I'm biting back a giant rant.

2.3k · April 19, 2005

Thanks for the link to the manual. I had figured most of this out already. I did learn that standard waypoints (user set POIs) can have a 20 character (and spaces) waypoint name, instead of the 8 characters on the older Magellans. The Geocache waypoints can also have the 20 characters.

5.7k · April 19, 2005

Thanks for the link to the manual. I had figured most of this out already. I did learn that standard waypoints (user set POIs) can have a 20 character (and spaces) waypoint name, instead of the 8 characters on the older Magellans. The Geocache waypoints can also have the 20 characters.

Yeah, but I just tried creating a waypoint in MSTopo3D and it still has the 8 limit (unless I missed some place to relax that limit.)

--Marky

P.S. I'm pretty tired of waiting for TigerGPS when other companies have been shipping for over two weeks. Lucky for them, I am too lazy to order with someone else.

5.3k · April 19, 2005

P.S. I'm pretty tired of waiting for TigerGPS when other companies have been shipping for over two weeks. Lucky for them, I am too lazy to order with someone else.

Switch to REI, Marky. The difference in price will be given back to you as REI dividends (or whatever they call that membership rewards thingy).

April 19, 2005

P.S. I'm pretty tired of waiting for TigerGPS when other companies have been shipping for over two weeks. Lucky for them, I am too lazy to order with someone else.

Switch to REI, Marky. The difference in price will be given back to you as REI dividends (or whatever they call that membership rewards thingy).

The REI dividends are great, especially if you buy a lot of stuff from them. I have about $25 worth left from last year, so if I buy the 500 from them it brings the price down that much more, plus I'll get dividends next year based on THIS sale, further reducing the effective price.

Edited April 19, 2005 by jacques0

April 19, 2005

Switch to REI, Marky. The difference in price will be given back to you as REI dividends (or whatever they call that membership rewards thingy).

Sorry, but sale items are not eligible for the dividend, and the eXplorists are all on sale.

Every year, we strive to pay you back 10% of your eligible REI purchases with a dividend voucher good for more REI gear. The more you buy, the bigger the refund! This is mailed to you each March as part of your dividend notice.

To ensure you receive credit for your purchases, present your REI member number with every purchase. (Purchases not eligible: sale/clearance items (prices ending in $._9 or $._3), gift cards, certificates, services, fees and travel. Purchases made with credit cards other than the REI Visa card earn a refund of 2% less.) Learn more about the member refund.

5.3k · April 19, 2005

Switch to REI, Marky. The difference in price will be given back to you as REI dividends (or whatever they call that membership rewards thingy).

Sorry, but sale items are not eligible for the dividend, and the eXplorists are all on sale.

Every year, we strive to pay you back 10% of your eligible REI purchases with a dividend voucher good for more REI gear. The more you buy, the bigger the refund! This is mailed to you each March as part of your dividend notice.

To ensure you receive credit for your purchases, present your REI member number with every purchase. (Purchases not eligible: sale/clearance items (prices ending in $._9 or $._3), gift cards, certificates, services, fees and travel. Purchases made with credit cards other than the REI Visa card earn a refund of 2% less.) Learn more about the member refund.

Guess I should have bought a Legend, huh?

5.3k · April 19, 2005

That why I don't bother with being an REI member, I only buy stuff when they have it on sale.

5.7k · April 19, 2005

One nice thing about getting mine so much later is that you guys will have a nice FAQ together and I won't have to do as much to figure out what to do. Plus, maybe the ones in the "second batch" will have fewer hardward problems with sensors, etc.

--Marky

April 19, 2005

tubemonkey...Thanks for correcting me. I probably should have suspected that would be the case. I've just never run up against it.

Oh well, it's still a good price, regardless.

April 19, 2005

Woo-hoo! Thanks for rembering your buddies!

Edit: well, we'll need some patience. I'm getting a message that the group has exceeded its download limit (is this for the day?)

Anyone has a german version of the explorist 500 guide ?

5.3k · April 21, 2005

My Explorist 500 was only getting 4 birds today and an accuracy of 68 feet, but I was inside a movie theater :laughing:

April 22, 2005

just got my explorist 600 last night and its wonderful. I had the sportrak color and this explorist is better in most comparsions. as others have noted I do missed the customizable screen with all the labels on it such as epe,etc. but to make up for it the base map is much more accurate than the one in the sportrak color. in city my epe as 20-23ft doing 70mph then as I get out of the city limits it dropped to 16 then in the middle of no where I was getting b/t 13ft and several times 7ft. I so use to the official gps language epe,waypoints,etc. the new word for epe is accuracy,poi now for waypoints,etc. just something to get use to. the new color is screen is so much better there's no comparsion.

April 22, 2005

My Explorist 500 was only getting 4 birds today and an accuracy of 68 feet, but I was inside a movie theater

I have a USB adapter for my car outlet, so I've been just leaving my 500 connected to the external power. I left the GPS on and put it in the console box between the front seats while I had an appointment. When I came out, the GPS still had a good lock on 7 sats. I'm impressed.

5.7k · April 22, 2005

When I came out, the GPS still had a good lock on 7 sats. I'm impressed.

But was it charging? I still haven't seen the final word on whether the unit can charge while turned on. It's not a deal breaker for me, as I don't use my handheld GPS for car nav, so could turn it off while in the car and just have it charge, if that is necessary.

--Marky

April 22, 2005

When I came out, the GPS still had a good lock on 7 sats. I'm impressed.

But was it charging? I still haven't seen the final word on whether the unit can charge while turned on. It's not a deal breaker for me, as I don't use my handheld GPS for car nav, so could turn it off while in the car and just have it charge, if that is necessary.

--Marky

It will charge in the car while the GPS is on with a 12V-USB adaptor but you have to reverse the power cord from the normal down position to the up position. The problem with that is that the cradle only accepts the cord in the down position. I'm hoping their 12V cord will have the pin connections reversed so it will work. It would appear that power to the two pins at the bottom of the GPS put it in External Power mode (charges when off but not when on). Power to the top two pins on the GPS puts it in charging mode and it will charge when the GPS is on. On the supplied cord, power only goes to the bottom two pins regardless of whether it's USB or wall wart connected.

Does this make sense? I'm still trying to figure out the best way to keep it charged on the road

April 22, 2005

I think I read somewhat that it only charges from the USB when the unit is OFF. Without reversing the cord, I've left it plugged in to the USB car adapter overnight and it was fully charged in the morning.

The USB car adapter I am using is to recharge my Palm. Seems to be working great for the GPS.

April 22, 2005

I think I read somewhat that it only charges from the USB when the unit is OFF. Without reversing the cord, I've left it plugged in to the USB car adapter overnight and it was fully charged in the morning.

The USB car adapter I am using is to recharge my Palm. Seems to be working great for the GPS.

Reverse the cord and it does charge when on:

2.7k · April 26, 2005

Happy times! I've got my eXplorist 600 now. In Canada!

I used mine to download some waypoints (USB Down) and then switched the USB mode to "Power only" and crashed the unit. Had to yank the battery. I don't think it likes having the mode changed while it's connected.

5.3k · April 26, 2005

There must be something going on with the crash. I can go back and forth between data connection and power only on my 500 without crashing. What's your OS?

5.7k · April 26, 2005

Reverse the cord and it does charge when on:

That whole reversible connection is a design mystery to me, and none of the support techs at Mag seem to know much about when it should be one way or the other. All I know is that it's weird. Weird I say. But who cares, since my tigergps order status page still says ON HOLD (I didn't want to dissappoint Embra by not complaining.)

--Marky

5.3k · April 26, 2005

Ahhhhh... :anibad:

(another day of Marky's suffering = another day I'm glad I changed *my* order. Once he gets his delivery I'm going to develop 600 envy).

2.7k · April 26, 2005

Well it wasn't changing the mode that made it crash. This time all I had to do was yank the cable before I turned it off. OS is WinXP. Other than that, which I can work around by turning the thing off before I unplug -- I love my 600!!!!

5k · April 26, 2005

I wanted to point out that the Explorist will also charge while the GPS is turned on with the cable in the down position. You have to use the plug in the Y-adaptor, but the wiring is there.

As I said in another thread, the ideal 12v cord would both power or charge the unit with a switch.

Jamie

April 26, 2005

Happy times! I've got my eXplorist 600 now. In Canada!

I used mine to download some waypoints (USB Down) and then switched the USB mode to "Power only" and crashed the unit. Had to yank the battery. I don't think it likes having the mode changed while it's connected.

Where did you buy yours? I pre-ordered from www.gpscentral.ca and they don't expect to recieve their e600's before may9th?

2.7k · April 27, 2005

Where did you buy yours? I pre-ordered from www.gpscentral.ca and they don't expect to recieve their e600's before may9th?

I ordered mine from GPSCity.ca back in early March.

Played with Direct Route NA tonight. What an awesome piece of software on the 600.

April 27, 2005

But who cares, since my tigergps order status page still says ON HOLD (I didn't want to dissappoint Embra by not complaining.)

--Marky

Marky:

I too had an Explorist 600 on pre-order with Tiger GPS. Last Thursday I called customer service to inquire about the status and the rep said they had about 60 units on hand, but were told by Magellan to send them all back because "...about half of them might have defects." He went on to tell me that if I cancelled my order and went with a competitor who claimed to have one in stock that I might be risking getting a defective unit. (I ended up cancelling, ordering from GPS City. It arrived the next day and it seems to work fine.)

I'm not sure what all of that means, but you may want to consider calling Tiger GPS yourself to find out EXACTLY what the deal is.

I am a brand new member and this is my first post. Please pardon any posting ettiquite faux pas.

Social Runner

5.7k · April 27, 2005

I am a brand new member and this is my first post. Please pardon any posting ettiquite faux pas.

Social Runner

Welcome! That was one of the best first posts I've seen. Thanks for the great info. I had a feeling that this was happening, and I don't mind waiting until the non-recall version gets delivered. Hopefully, Embra can cope with my constant complaining until they start delivering them.

--Marky

5.3k · April 27, 2005

"...about half of them might have defects."

Interesting...I wonder what this might be associated with. We've heard a report or two of some units locking up at the end of data transfers. Anyone who has seen that or other odd behavior may want to give Magellan a call to check it out. Thanks for passing that information on, socialrunner (and welcome to the forums!)

Hopefully, Embra can cope with my constant complaining until they start delivering them.

Marky: the Harold Stassen of prospective 600 owners. (Seriously, I am starting to feel your patient pain)

Edited April 27, 2005 by embra

April 27, 2005

mine locked up twice yesterday and one time it couldn't even lock on to the birds. so I tried everything,took the battery out, turned it off and on,even reset everything via clear memory still didn't lock on to the birds. finally I did reset via the secret menu"hold down world button and press power" then dial in number 32 and then turn it back on

volla birds being tracked again.

the 2 times it locked up on me I was messing with the communications menu.

hope it helps...

5.3k · April 27, 2005

That's a bit odd that the secret menu clear memory all seemed to fix things if the clear memory all from the menu didn't...my understanding is that they are two ways to invoke the same action. Ehh.

When you say it locked up, do you mean it froze? Couldn't change between screens or navigate menus? Or just that it lost position lock and couldn't get it back again?

I've not seen anything like that so far on my 500. With that rumor of units with unspecified defects, I'd be inclined to give Magellan a call with your experiences to see if they regard them as normal or associated with these "defects." I find it interesting that you've had two kinds of things happen that appear out of the ordinary to me.

Edit: spelling

Edited April 27, 2005 by embra

April 27, 2005

the screen locked up unable to change anything and none of the buttons would do anything. it only does it when i change the menu's really fast.

as for the clearing the memory, yes that was strange. when it couldn't find the birds. the start up screen didn't show the moving satellites. once I reset via secret menu , the moving sallites on start up screen returned. it was very strange, I'm going to hold out to see if I can figure it out for a while.

good luck

Edited April 27, 2005 by flir67

2.7k · April 27, 2005

This 'locking up' business will probably be a firmware fix. Seems like a software glitch to me. All the 'sensors' on my 600 work great, it's just when I muck with the USB cable that I can get it to crash - and not every time.

This type of thing is almost to be expected for early adopters.

April 27, 2005

This 'locking up' business will probably be a firmware fix. Seems like a software glitch to me. All the 'sensors' on my 600 work great, it's just when I muck with the USB cable that I can get it to crash - and not every time.

This type of thing is almost to be expected for early adopters.

very true, all my sensors work fine , I agree I think its just a firmware, mine locked up with or without the usb. but as you say we are all early adopters of the newest technology, so I'm keeping mine and living with it for now.

5.3k · April 27, 2005

Well, I'm glad that things are working well for the most part, and you've got the pioneer philosophy to draw upon. It's also the case that if there *do* turn out to be things needed beyond firmware fixes, one would only want to have to send it in once. So holding out untill any/all bugs emerge is prudent.

...I know a certain GPSBabel programmer who will find the lockup on pushing buttons too fast of interest...great interest...

Edit: If you haven't done so, I would at least send an email to Magellan to report your experiences. They will pay more attention to something if they know it to not be an isolated incident.

Edited April 27, 2005 by embra

2.7k · April 27, 2005

Good point. I've fired off my support request to Magellan.

Now my major question is --- can I find a 12V car adapter / spare battery anywhere in Toronto area (preferred) or Canada. I've got a 24 hour geocaching marathon coming up and 17 hours of battery isn't going to cut it.

I've checked with LeBaron, and it's even in their catalog but their staff don't respond well when I enquire about it. I believe it was P/N 730387.

5.3k · April 27, 2005

I wish someone in at Thales/Magellan would learn to touch type on these things so they'd quit shipping products that crash for the rest of us that do... (Yeah, that's bitter mumbling of a certain GPSBabel guy based on a year and half of a Plat crashes.)

If you can't find a dedicated Magellan cable, look at cell fone shops or the PDA corner of your office/computer store for a USB converter.

Something like:

http://cellphoneshop.net/usbchcawicil.html

From this thread, I'll admit that it's not clear to me if the unit will charge while powered on (with the cable in either orientation) from USB power.

Oh, and knowing approximately what an RMA costs a hardware company, I'd suspect that this lockup that toasts the units gets attention quickly.

Edited April 27, 2005 by robertlipe

2.7k · April 27, 2005

I know it will charge from USB power. I've done it twice now from my laptop. Don't remember the cable orientation I used, but I know it worked.

I'll take a look for the universal, I prefer the Maggie branded cable as I have a vehicle mount and taking the USB cable in and out would be a pain. Not the end of the world though.

5.7k · April 27, 2005

I know it will charge from USB power. I've done it twice now from my laptop. Don't remember the cable orientation I used, but I know it worked.

I'll take a look for the universal, I prefer the Maggie branded cable as I have a vehicle mount and taking the USB cable in and out would be a pain. Not the end of the world though.

From what I understand, Maggie hasn't released the P/N for the cable yet, and is only shipping them as replacements for damaged cables. I'm hoping by the time I FINALLY get my 600, these parts will be available. For now, I'll just have to get by with my old standby Sportrak Color.

--Marky

So Where Are The Explorists 500 And 600??

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