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So Where Are The Explorists 500 And 600??


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Posted

thanks for that link to the explorist user manual, i wish it would have shown a rear view and shown the power connection and the battery compartment.

 

I started a new thread to post pics of the explorist500

Posted (edited)

The CD contains the User Manual as seen at the previous link provided, then the Conversion Manager to upload maps (as many as you want), either onto the 8MB GPS memory or your SD card and last but not least the Geocache Manager where you can type in all the cache info, eg. Cache ID, Name, Owner, Lat., Long., Type, Difficulty, etc. ... you get the Idea. Unfortunatelly, you can not download that information direct from geoaching.com but have to copy paste.

 

There is one button at either side, left side for light, right side for turn on/off. Backside sealed compartment, inside a slider that pops up for inserting the SD card, on top of that the battery, which accoring to cust. supp. should last 18 hrs. without lights on. Spare battery can be bought for $40.

 

The connector for data and charging is just above the batt./mem. compartment which screws on to contacts on the back of the GPS, similar to the Sportrak, but much smaller. GPS can be charged either via USB or wall.

 

Since I just got the 500 a few hours ago and is still charging (4 hrs. initiall charge recomm. bevor using) I have not turned it on yet.

Edited by SwissTeam
Posted
and last but not least the Geocache Manager where you can type in all the cache info, eg. Cache ID, Name, Owner, Lat., Long., Type, Difficulty, etc. ... you get the Idea. Unfortunatelly, you can not download that information direct from geoaching.com but have to copy past.

Ro-o-o-bert! Whaddya think? :)

 

SwissTeam, you got a few dozen people at your elbow for the next few hours, methinks.

 

No Users Reference Guide, huh?

Posted (edited)
and last but not least the Geocache Manager where you can type in all the cache info, eg. Cache ID, Name, Owner, Lat., Long., Type, Difficulty, etc. ... you get the Idea.  Unfortunatelly, you can not download that information direct from geoaching.com but have to copy past.

Ro-o-o-bert! Whaddya think? :)

 

I think Magellan should have hired or at least consulted with someone with geocaching experience...

 

(And I think that a users manual that has a section "Turning the receiver on" that comes after

three sections that obviously require the unit to be on does not fill me with warm fuzzies.)

 

SwissTeam, please populate a 'Geocache Manager' file with as much data as you can and send it to me privately.

Edited by robertlipe
Posted

Fed Ex delivered mine at 10:30 am but I had to work all day. It is being charged as I type. In the mean time I loaded the software and began to look at the "manual"

 

Geocache Manager is simular to GSAK, but stipped way down. It is how to transfer waypoints to the GPS. Does not have ANY type of filter feature, which personally I love about about GSAK. Has a cool old world map background that makes it harder to read than GSAK's spreadsheet type view. No custom Options. Have to unzip PQ prior to loading

 

When charged will have to see if can load from GSAK or will have to load through Magellan's Geocache Manager. Will also try straight to SD card and see if that works.

 

Also cable connection is like the old but smaller. Much smaller.

 

Buttons are very small and might be a problem for large hands. Worse yet Old Eys will have trouble seeing which button is which.

 

But it gives a pretty picture.

Posted
Have to unzip PQ prior to loading

If it will take a gpx file, it sounds like you could export a filtered file from GSAK and import it into GM.

Posted

Exacttly what I was thinking embra, but it adds a step. It does take .gpx .loc .geo When the crew comes to the house with GPSs in hand ready for me to load the days caches it is nice to get the Magellans and do them then do the Garmins all from GSAK. Now if some have to go through Magellan's software for some . . . lets just say there are caches out there to be found.

Posted

My explorist 500 got here a day early :) Loading maps and waypoints into the new explorist is a bit differant than loading them into the older magellans. I was able to load a Topo map and a few sets of waypoints.

 

With the new explorist you have to save your maps to the Hard drive first,

then you use the Magellan Conversion Manager to send them to the GPS. I did not try using my card reader because mine is broken, besides the transfer is very fast when loading into the GPS anyway.

 

I did call Magellan regarding load limits on the SD card with the explorist, there are none, if you have a 1GB SD card you can load it with on large map.

 

As far as GPX files, I loaded some PQs into mine today by draging and droping them into the explorist file. I was also able to load a set using the geocache manager. The Geocache manager list GPX LOC and GEO files and includes a lind to geocaching.com :laughing:

 

There is no AA battery option. The screen is very bright, and very sharp as far as resolution.

 

While the buttons are small the Expolorist 500 is easy to use in one hand, at least for me. I like the placement of the power button on the right side near the top, the takes more force to turn on the GPS so it would be hard it to get turned on by accident, the backlight button is on the opposite side and it would also be hard to change the brightness by accident.

 

I was going to post some photos but I have net been able to get a clear photograph with my little dig camera :) , I guess I will have to dust off one of my Nikons. :huh:

 

It is going to take me some time to figure out all the functions in this GPS, I guess tommorow I will have to feild test it :)

Posted
Some answers, - no AA batteries, it's an ICON - supposedly long life and rechargable in the unit.

Great! :laughing: So much for hoping that Magellan would get it right the first time. I knew they'd end up doing this. Is it asking too much to have Li-ion's shaped like 2xAA? What's it going to take for a company to have -- AA, SD, TFT, USB -- all in the same unit? Garmin has 3 of the 4 (AA, TFT, USB) and Magellan has 3 of the 4 (SD, TFT, USB).

 

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to keep using my Legend for the local stuff and keep relying on AAA maps for my road trips. I was so hoping for a handheld I could use for both cross-country car navigation and hiking.

 

It looks like the next move belongs to Garmin.

Posted

There is a voltage problem, LiIons put out 7.2 volts, if you were to put to AAs in you would only have 3V or 2.5v with a rechargable. Hardly enough to run the gps for any period on time let alone to maintian the brightness of the screen. The brightness of the screen is one of the reasons I am having trouble getting a good photo.

AAs would also add to the size of the GPS, the LiIon battery is very small.

Posted

Forget the pics of the screen take pics with it off, I want to see the rear connections, battery compartment etc.

 

I thought I read that the unit could be charged through the USB port, if that is so, how can that be because there's typically only 5v available from the usb. There was also mention that you could put together a 4xAA battery pack with a series diode to charge the LiOn battery, I believe the thinking was the LiOn battery would be 3.6 volts, now that it is really 7.2v can we not use a 9v battery with a couple diodes in series to recharge on the fly? I'm just thinking of a way to charge the LiOn Battery when I do my annual 3 day canoe trip.

Posted

Thanks for the info on the Li-ion. They should've gone the Garmin route and used 2x AA instead. Lot's of battery life and they're available everywhere.

 

Li-ion's have their place (cell phones and other urban gear), but they don't belong in field gear. AC outlets tend to be a bit sparse out on the trails. Besides, if the battery dies (and I've had that happen before), you now have a paperweight until you can get a replacement; which I might add, is extremely unlikely in a small town. As far as carrying spares, they're too spendy.

 

I'll wait until someone gets it right. :laughing:

Posted

FINALLY!!!!!

The first pieces of useful and factual information on an explorist 500...

All hail to JohnnyVegas :)

I'm dying to hear of your report on field-testing the device!!

Awesome that one can load one giant,big,huge,enormous map on a 1gb card...pretty soon the 2gb will be selling for a nice price and before you know it you can load all of the world into your GPSr...

I wonder how long it takes before the battery runs out...(this sounds like the only shortcoming for the explorist because,like tubemonkey says,these things are made for the outdoor and I must yet encounter a tree in which I can put a plug up his a**)... :huh:

other than that......sounds really sweet.....

Keep that info coming,O great JohnnyVegas!!!!

And lets have some pictures while your at it!!! :laughing:

Posted (edited)
It is 3.7 volts, that what I get for staying up untill 3 AM, now its almost 4AM I must be nuts

Yes....you probably are!!!! :)

 

(but you're also doing us a HUGE favour!!!) :laughing:

Edited by Raoul
Posted

Wow, that is teensy! Thanks for posting the photos.

Dammit, I just bought a Sportrak color (which I like) and now they've got a USB & SD unit. The idea of a 1gb mondo mapload appeals to the completist in me. I wonder with 1 or 2gb if you could load the entire US DirectRoute AND Topo maps... :laughing:

Posted
Wow, that is teensy!

Hmm...

 

I haven't seen or handled a Kennedy dollar in several years... unfortunately it's a very poor point of reference for me.

 

Looks good so far though. Thanks!

 

Jamie

Posted
Wow, that is teensy!

Hmm...

 

I haven't seen or handled a Kennedy dollar in several years... unfortunately it's a very poor point of reference for me.

I appreciate the reports and the photo giving us a look at the backside, but I can't help think that there's something a little wacky about the sizing. I recall the Kennedy as a 50 cent piece (not that denomenation makes any difference) that was maybe an inch and a half in diameter. That makes the unit look to be, what, 2 inches? The specs say 4.7 inches.

 

I'm going to go with a hypothesis that in pushing to file his 4 a.m. photoreport that JohnnyV took the photo at an acute angle rather than a straight down 90 degrees...resulting in an interesting optical illusion.

 

...or maybe there was a 3 inch coin that never made it into my hands. :laughing:

Posted

I wrote Magellan and asked some questions about the 500 and here is the reponses I got.

 

(Did unit come with charger and what kind)

* It comes with a charger for the LI batt that connects to the unit

 

(In regards to a charger plug for the car)

* In the future they will have one as for now we do not have one

 

(Questions about the maps)

* Map send direct is an upgrade to Map send streets, now you have turn by turn routing unlike before

 

(Question of the SD card was proprietary like some/all Garmins use)

* You can use any brand of sd card and a map region can not exceed 64mb

 

They also sent a 17meg power point about the Explorist line which I am working to post on my website.

 

Tim Cahono

Team Cahoon

MiGO Member

Posted
I wrote Magellan and asked some questions about the 500 and here is the reponses I got.

 

(Question of the SD card was proprietary like some/all Garmins use)

* You can use any brand of sd card and a map region can not exceed 64mb

Oh great this is in direct conflict with what someone else quoted Magellan as saying thier now mapsize limit. Wonder which it is.

 

That said...

 

Wow the info coming out about this is really cool. I think I am going to have to start saving money because I think this is pretty much everything I want in a GPS. Since it has a external batter port, it should be real easy to create a AA pack that charges the unit during the night on hikes solving the only reservation I might have about the unit.

Posted

I don't think we'll have to be too creative, Dan. Something like this should work with the USB plug (and there are adapter cables if needed).

 

I have to say that the solar charging alternatives from ISPSolar mentioned above look interesting, too...although I'm more interested in them from an emergency power source standpoint to keep around the house.

 

I'll be curious to see how the hours from recharging with one of these 4xAA setups compares with just biting the bullet for a spare Li-Ion pack.

Posted

So it'll populate GM data from a PQ. Good. That contradicts the earlier reports but makes much more sense.

 

Unlimited region size. Yay! I hope they improved the firmware to limit search results and sort them sensbily. I really don't want to see every "main street" on a 1GB map.

 

In the early days of announcements, I had hope they were going to use RCRV3 (best of swappability and rechargeability) but those hopes are now dashed.

 

Like Embra, the proportions on that foto were recoginizably "wrong". I'm assuming the battery isn't really 1/3 the size of the coin. :-) Still, it's helpful to see the back. Knowing how important the shielding and fixed capacitance of the USB connectors are, I'm most intrigued by this connector. I'm also a little bumed that it appears to be Another Proprietary Cable. (Garmin got this one right: the "C" series uses a relatively common USB fitting on the back of the units.)

Posted

I would bite the bullet and buy a spare Li-Ion pack and have a solar cell to keep one charged and swap out when needed. If all else fails the sun will shine (at least once and a while here in Ohio) to get you up and running, hic et ubique!

Posted

Any complaints about the lack of AA's are foolish.

 

Spend a few moments to open your mind to possibilities:

 

http://store.sundancesolar.com/index.html

 

solar panels

dynamos

battery packs

 

If you sacrifice a little immediate convenience to figure it out, you get:

improved convenience

saved$$

ability to stay out as long as you want

 

You also have a gasoline powered generator with battery storage (car) available to you for charging, instead of leaving your campsite to run to the overpriced store for batteries....but you will still want to get an icecream....but now you can buy 3 icecreams.............................. :rolleyes:

 

You are now more free, take advantage of it!

Posted
Some answers, - no AA batteries, it's an ICON - supposedly long life and rechargable in the unit.

Great! :rolleyes: So much for hoping that Magellan would get it right the first time. I knew they'd end up doing this. Is it asking too much to have Li-ion's shaped like 2xAA? What's it going to take for a company to have -- AA, SD, TFT, USB -- all in the same unit? Garmin has 3 of the 4 (AA, TFT, USB) and Magellan has 3 of the 4 (SD, TFT, USB).

 

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to keep using my Legend for the local stuff and keep relying on AAA maps for my road trips. I was so hoping for a handheld I could use for both cross-country car navigation and hiking.

 

It looks like the next move belongs to Garmin.

How long do you hike? Most hikes I take rarely go more than 8 hours. Usually, it's more like 2 to 4 hours. I just don't see this being an issue at all. Once I'm back in the car, the GPS is charging back up as I drive to the next cache.

 

There is a really good reason for not allowing standard batteries. That is the 'charge in the unit' capability. It is really a bad move to allow standard size batteries in units with this feature. It would be a support nightmare with the number of people slapping in alkalines in there and then blowing them up because they are trying to be charged in the unit. I'm guessing that I will be happier with the LION battery pack than my current NiMH batteries, which I have to remove from the unit all the time.

 

I'm sure there will be some complaints about it (the LION battery pack), but I would guess that if you took a poll of a large cross section of geocachers, you'd find that the use case where one battery pack won't suffice is less than %1 of all geocachers.

 

--Marky

Posted
Any complaints about the lack of AA's are foolish.

Not really.

 

60C -- 2x AA = 30 hrs

Legend C -- 2x AA = 36 hrs

Explorist 500 -- Li-ion = 17 hrs

 

And I'm gonna run around the back woods with solar panels, dynamos, or battery packs? I don't think so. Not when I can slip a 4-pack of AAs in my pocket and be gone for days. Also, just how many miles would I have to hike in search of a car?

 

Some of us use our GPSrs out in the boonies where power sources are non-existent. Exotic batteries have no place here.

 

Magellan almost got it right; just like Garmin almost got it right. Unfortunately, almost right doesn't hack it. Until someone combines AA, SD, TFT, USB in a handheld unit, I'll continue to use old technology (Legend) and AAA maps.

Posted (edited)
And I'm gonna run around the back woods with solar panels, dynamos, or battery packs? I don't think so. Not when I can slip a 4-pack of AAs in my pocket and be gone for days. Also, just how many miles would I have to hike in search of a car?

You make some good points, although I still say that 99% of geocachers will never user their GPS on an overnight adventure. Only about 0.01% of all the geocaches require an overnight stay. I know, I'm picking percentages out of a hat, but of the 5327 caches that are within 100 miles of my home only two require an overnight stay (or a mountain bike). That's only 0.004%, so I feel I'm being somewhat generous by assuming that there are more in other areas.

 

Obviously, this isn't the unit for you (unless you change your mind and think that maybe a AA charging mechanism would work for you). I do think it sounds like a kick butt unit for most geocachers though. :rolleyes:

 

--Marky

 

Edit: I think 2 out of 5327 is actually 0.4%. So how about: less than 1% of the caches required an overnight stay.

Edited by Marky
Posted
How long do you hike? Most hikes I take rarely go more than 8 hours. Usually, it's more like 2 to 4 hours. I just don't see this being an issue at all. Once I'm back in the car, the GPS is charging back up as I drive to the next cache.

Days ... 2 or 3, sometimes longer. There is no car around and I've yet to encounter a tree with an AC outlet.

 

If Garmin would've slapped an SD slot in either the 60C or the Legend C, I'd have gotten one; and I would've been one happy camper. Unfortunately, they didn't. So I waited to see what Magellan was going to counter with. When they released the 100/200/300s using AAs, things looked promising. Now that we know for sure that AAs are incompatible with the 400/500/600s, I'm left out in the cold.

 

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy that many of you are pleased with the Li-ion route Magellan took; but for some of us, it's a deal breaker.

 

I'll continue to wait ... and wait ... and wait ... :rolleyes:

Posted (edited)
Any complaints about the lack of AA's are foolish. 

 

Spend a few moments to open your mind to possibilities:

 

http://store.sundancesolar.com/index.html

 

solar panels

dynamos

battery packs

 

I love the concept of solar chargers and additional battery packs, etc. but I REALLY love just being able to pop a new pair of CHEAP rechargable AA's(or AAA's for my old PDA) while walking thru the woods to the next cache.

 

My previous bad experiences with proprietary batteries leave a very poor memory. I have an older IPAQ that has sat DEAD for a couple years. Apparently if you forget to place it in its charger when not in use it KILLED the proprietary $ 75.00(and thats if I replace it myself) or more battery. It was replaced once under warranty then it DIED again after I set it on the desk before I went out of town for a couple weeks and it died again. What a piece of @%#&$. Yes, I'm an idiot for letting it happen a second time but if had just sucked the life out of some rechargeable AAA's I'd still be able to use it.

 

My other general experiences with most of the rechargeable-ONLY devices in my life are that they never seem to be charged when you need them. I know I'd be heading out the door in the morning for the latest cache then remember I didn't charge the GPS up the night before, or left it in the car on all night, whatever, then your just SOL. No thanks.

 

I bought an Explorist 100 a couple weeks ago when FRY's had them for $ 60.00. What a deal. I purchased it as a backup and for my wife as we allready have a Meridian. This thing ROCKS for caching(expect for manually entering waypoint which she just does on the way to caches while I drive). It is SO much quicker than the Meridian and she now finds a majority of the caches while the Meridian is just settling in. I'm so impressed with its performance that I'd by a 400 just for the PC interface but WILL NOT as long as a propietary battery is involved. Just my opinion.

 

The back of the 100 case looks just the same as the 500's except the battery compartment is set for AA'a(thanks goodness). The 100 has the space marked on the case where the interface SHOULD be. Too bad it isn't there - it would be perfect.

Edited by maleki
Posted (edited)

@TubeMonkey:

I'm totally on your side!!! :rolleyes:

And how about this......just because this is the GC-forum doesn't mean that everybody who uses a GPS,uses it to go geocaching for 2,4,6-or so hours a day....

I think there are a lot of people out there who use their GPS for a variety of other things...(think about army,rescue work,mountaineering and so on).

So if you're out for a couple of hours,you don't care about taking solar backup-systems or fuel powered generators??(yeah,right!!) but for some people every ounce counts!!!

And then for the mileage.....personally I like to take walks for 10+ hours and go out camping when ever I get tired,without the convenience(??) of a car,and make no mistake about it,because there are a lot of people who like to go out walking all day...

I have a Garmin 76c and with 4 AA batteries I can go on and on and on and......well you'll get the idea!!!

 

Edit:Sorry if I sound negative about the explorist 500....apart of the battery "problem",I think it's a wonderfull device!! :unsure:

Edited by Raoul
Posted

Thanks you very much JohnnyVegas. Now that you have confirmed everything I wanted to know about the power and data connections I will be placing my order for the 600. I guess one last questions would be, will this unit accept maps from "MapSend Streets & Destinations Canada"?

 

Being from canada that coin means nothing to me though. At first I thought it was a dime LOL but after reading the post through I figured it wasn't and it measures about 1.5" but I agree the unit does seems very small and is probably an optical illusion. Maybe use a ruler next time for us folks outside the US LOL. much appreciated thanks for the info and pics

Posted

Regarding the battery issue:

The internal battery is a 3.6V Li Ion rechargeable. I am assuming the charging is through the USB cable like my PDA. I can plug this cable into my computer or laptop, into a wall wart with a USB port, or a cig lighter adapter with a USB port. These ports provide the 5V needed to charge a Li ion battery such as those in PDAs and Cell phones.

 

The wall warts and cig lighter adapter plugs are very cheap. I just picked up a handfull of new Belkin cig plugs with USB at a swap meet for $1 each.

 

The way to charge in the field is with a small plastic box that holds 4 AA batteries. This should charge the GPS 3 times, since it charges PDAs 3 to 4 times. You can get these with a USB port, or made specifically for a device. You can use alkalines or NiMH bats in the box.

Posted

This almost sounds like a good solution,but....

When I'm out with my Garmin and it has run out of battery power (and believe me,that takes a long,long time) I can put in a fresh pair and I'm of again.

How long does it take for the explorist to come to a complete charge???(providing you don't want to run around with a battery-pack bunglin' on your GPS) :rolleyes:

Posted
There is a really good reason for not allowing standard batteries.  That is the 'charge in the unit' capability.  It is really a bad move to allow standard size batteries in units with this feature.  It would be a support nightmare with the number of people slapping in alkalines in there and then blowing them up because they are trying to be charged in the unit.

However, it has been done before. I have an old Lowrance Eagle that uses this very idea. Its battery compartment accepts both AA's and a special battery pack developed by Duracell. The GPSr and pack were designed with an interlock to prevent charging of the AA's. Joe and Jack still post a review of it from eight years ago. FWIW:I don't know about GPSr's, but Li ion batteries are being used more and more in digital cameras because their higher capacity allows for a more compact, and flexibility of, design.

 

reidster.

Posted
This almost sounds like a good solution,but....

When I'm out with my Garmin and it has run out of battery power (and believe me,that takes a long,long time) I can put in a fresh pair and I'm of again.

How long does it take for the explorist to come to a complete charge???(providing you don't want to run around with a battery-pack bunglin' on your GPS) :rolleyes:

I don't know about charging times for the Explori (SwissTeam mentioned a three-hour initial charge, but that may be specific to first time and/or official charger requirements), but when I used one of those 4xAA packs to charge my PDA it would take a couple of hours. That might be doable recharging a spare pack while using the primary, or I could imagine recharging a single pack overnight for use the next day.

 

That sounds feasible for a 2-3 day trip, but I am planning a 10-day hike in May. This would be one scenario in which solar recharging might be the ticket. However, for my needs this is so exceptional I'm more inclined to limit my use of GPSr to taking a few fixes every day as needed, but not leaving it on for hours at a time. Personally, I don't really need to have it on continuously.

 

I can appreciate that some want, need, and demand a more satisfactory solution. But after some initial skepticism I think I am coming around to the argument that Marky and JohnnyVegas have been making that most people will find the LIon batts an improvement and not a step backwards.

Posted (edited)
You make some good points, although I still say that 99% of geocachers will never user their GPS on an overnight adventure.  Only about 0.01% of all the geocaches require an overnight stay. 

Not to beat a dead horse, but I think you over-analyzed and missed the point on this one. While there might be a few caches out there that require an overnight commitment, most people do more than one cache during an outting. Personally, I go out and cache all day which doesn't leave much light to go with a solar option.

 

I'm just thinking of all the times I've been out in the field when I suddenly get the low battery warning. I can just see myself now out in the middle of nowhere with a proprietary battery...my first thought would be "Sh*t!" followed by "What direction is my truck???" Not the kind of excitement I go for.

 

A few on this thread have mentioned home-brewed AA battery packs. I recall someone using an Altoids container to house 4 AAs in order to recharge an iPod. I'll have to look for the link to that one. Carrying something like that would hopefully be enough to get you out of the woods...assuming the thing runs while it's being recharged.

 

Hwy

 

PS: Thanks for the pic...altho it's wacky indeed! Using the coin as a reference, the pic looks like it's sized to scale...altho something weird is going on there. :rolleyes:

 

PPS: I found the links. Here's the altoid battery pack...except is has a firewire connector instead of a usb. You can build it with usb connector tho:

http://ipod.hackaday.com/entry/2645310329796286/

 

This link shows you how to do it with a 9volt and a usb connector: http://ipod.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270029372/

Edited by hwyman
Posted

Batteries...the next generation

 

I ran across this article tonight (link below). Sweet, eh?

 

Toshiba's New Battery Recharges In One Minute March 30, 2005

 

 

 

Toshiba announces a new lithium-ion battery -- the type used in virtually all laptops -- that recharges 60 times faster than current batteries.

 

TechWeb News

 

 

Toshiba on Tuesday announced a new lithium-ion battery -- the type used in virtually all laptops -- that recharges 60 times faster than current batteries and loses less than one percent of its capacity after 1,000 recharges.

The new battery can be refilled to 80 percent of capacity in one minute, Toshiba claimed, significantly less time than the one-to-four hours needed for lithium-ion batteries now in use.

 

According to Toshiba, the secret's in the negative electrode. "Nano-particles prevent organic liquid electrolytes from reducing during battery recharging," said Toshiba in a statement. "The nano-particles quickly absorb and store vast amount of lithium ions, without causing any deterioration in the electrode."

 

The Japanese technology giant said that it expected to put the new batteries into play in 2006, initially in automotive and industrial applications. One use, Toshiba said, would be within hybrid vehicles, which store power generated when, for instance, the car decelerates.

 

Toshiba said it would move the new batteries into consumer electronics applications, such as laptops and cameras, at a later date.

 

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showA...908618&tid=5978

Posted

I saw the link to that the other day on DPreview. It would be something else if it turned out to be true. Similar claims have been made almost consistantly for the last several years regarding batteries, but tends to rarely hold true in the end. The 1 percent drop after 1,000 chargings would be quite the improvement being as how current Lithiums tend to loose around 20 percent by 300 to 500 hundred cycles in moderate use. The ones I use in my RC planes are doing real good if they last 75 cycles or so, which is kind of painful being as how they cost over $80 each.

Posted
I guess one last questions would be, will this unit accept maps from "MapSend Streets & Destinations Canada"?

 

As far as I know, only Maep send direct route and Topo 3D work. the card I am using has one of topo map on it that I use in my meridan gold, it wont load on the explorsit, When you creat a map for the explorist you have to include the GPS Serial number

Posted

Anyone know if GSAK or EasyGPS or any of the other fine waypoint managment programs will work with it or do you need to use the Magellan software only?

Posted

For the Canadians, the Kennedy half-dollar is about the size of a twoony.

I'm in the same boat with the charger, my car lighter never worked... I should probably get that fixed. But still, I hike more than I geocache, and for safety purposes you should be able to run this thing longer than 8 hours.

I really like the USB+SD angle, and I love my Sportrak... but extra batteries in your pocket is always reassuring.

Posted
Anyone know if GSAK or EasyGPS or any of the other fine waypoint managment programs will work with it or do you need to use the Magellan software only?

Well since someone reported it will take GPX files, worst cast you could export a GPX file from GSAK into it.

Posted

Hi all,

I posted (with a little help) some pictures of the explorist 500 on the other thread. (explorist 500) One of the pictures has it next to a ruler so you can see the size. Another is pictured with a SportTrak Pro to give you some idea of size. Unfortunately it has to be replaced by Magellan since it won't communicate with my pc. Expecting a new one this weekend.

-- carol

Posted (edited)

The Magellan Geocache Manager software supports GPX, LOC and GEO files.

I have uploaded the Geocache Managers's mask and populated it with a few caches, which I downloaded from geocaching.com as LOC file. So, here it is ....

 

http://rapidshare.de/files/1077812/magella...anager.doc.html

 

Here is more of the same page all to the right side. You also see the manual entry mask.

 

http://rapidshare.de/files/1078043/magella...ager_2.doc.html

Edited by SwissTeam

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