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Explorist 500

Muddler

By Muddler
in GPS technology and devices

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Muddler

+Muddler

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I see where some of the retailers show the Explorist 500 as "In Stock" Has anyone got their hands on one yet? I am wanting to know some of the final production specs. I have handled the E-300 and really liked its size and the clearity of the display. I wanted to hear from a user about the display in bright sunsight, the Batteries it uses (can you use 2As), the Antenna type (patch or qual) and have you compared it to another GPSr.

 

Muddler

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Milbank

+Milbank

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Posted

JohnnyVegas,

Do you have one?

 

The li Ion battery is repalceable

 

Replaceable with 2 AA's?

 

I would also like to know how the memory works.

 

When you search for a waypoint can you search the memory card and what's loaded into the gps at the same time.

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Stunod

+Stunod

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JohnnyVegas,

Do you have one?

 

The li Ion battery is repalceable

 

Replaceable with 2 AA's?

 

I would also like to know how the memory works.

 

When you search for a waypoint can you search the memory card and what's loaded into the gps at the same time.

According to Magellan, the Li-Ion batteries are NOT replaceable with AA's.

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JohnnyVegas

+JohnnyVegas

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I have a 500 on order.

 

I have not got any information re AAs

 

Edit to add: I am not concerend with using AAs in the explorist, I use a Meridian Gold to get to the cache are and then I use a hand held to find the cache, the only time I use the Meridan is if I am just doing a couple a cache in a day or if i a just going for a FTF. I have never had a need to run a handheld for more that 4 or 5 hours at any one time, I am retired so I just don't even go outside utill my 12 nooon berakfast ;) Even if was to only an Explorist 500 it would be hooked up to my trucks 12 volt outlet anyway.

 

As far as the memory and the SD card my guess is the it will include features in the merideans. With the Meridian you have to load the waypoints you want to work with from the SD card. When you are done with them you just delete them form I guess what you could call the currnet memory in the GPS, this does not delete them from the memory card. In order to delete them from the SD card you have to access the memory card. When you load them onto the GPS they go to the GPS memory, not the card, to save them to the card you first have to access the card andthen you have an option to save current waypoins and routes to the card. You can also load maps and waypoints onto the card with a card reader, I have not tried loading waypoints onto the card because it only take a few seconds going direct to the Meridain, with the USB conection on the expolorist the card reader may no longer be needed anyway.

 

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.

 

My guess is that the explorist work in much the same way. The first thing I plan on doing is checking out the geocache manager.

Edited by JohnnyVegas
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Muddler

+Muddler

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I am seeing more and more sites showing the Explorist 500 as being " In Stock" Is there anyone out there that can answer questions about the E500, based on having used one? Up until now I have been using a borrowed GPS and this will be my first purchase. I really hate to only rely on the advertising Hype. Let the rest of us know what you think if you have your hands on one of these new babies. As I said earlier I have handled the E300 in a store and really like what I saw but this was hardly more then a touchy feelly thing and not an actual field test.

 

Muddler :ph34r:

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Muddler

+Muddler

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They are pretty small, I will admit that. But I did not have any real problems in using the e300 that I played with in the store. I have used an older Magellan Green up to this time, which has a pretty good size group of keys. But I really liked the palm size of the E300 and as I said it was not a problem. I wear a large to extra large size glove and was able to get the job done.

 

Muddler :ph34r:

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EScout

+EScout

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Posted
The buttons still look too small on ALL of the Explorist line for all but the daintiest hands to me...

 

I handled a 100 and 200 in a store today for the first time. Yikes!!!! the buttons are supper small and it looks like it will be difficult to use one handed like I do with my Meridian. Not happy about this.

 

I am expecting my 500 next week and will post some initial observations.

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Muddler

+Muddler

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I tried the "one hand" manipulation of the keys while holding with the same hand because that is how I operate the Magellan Green I am currently using. I cache with a walking stick and hate to stop so I can use both hands. I didn't have any real problem using the E300 I tested and think that it will become easier as I practice with it. It seemed just a little awkward at first but its just different from what I am used to using. The keys are small but there there was ample space between the keys to switch between screen and not hit the other keys. What I found was that because of the small size it was actually easier to hold the E300 in my hand and manipulate the keys without feeling like I may drop the unit.

 

Cheers

 

Muddler

 

:huh:

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briansnat

+briansnat

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Posted (edited)
f 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.

 

About 5 seconds. You don't have to go through all the waypoints to find one. Just key in the name and it goes directly there. Actually you don't even have to key in the entire name because as soon as you hit the first letter all waypoints beginning with that letter pop up and the list gets pared down with each additonal letter entered.

Edited by briansnat
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Milbank

+Milbank

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About 5 seconds. You don't have to go through all the waypoints to find one. Just key in the name and it goes directly there. Actually you don't even have to key in the entire name because as soon as you hit the first letter all waypoints beginning with that letter pop up and the list gets pared down with each additonal letter entered.

 

Thats one thing I really like about my Legend.

 

The Explorist 100 will only let me scroll through the whole list of waypoints (POI) or bring them up with the ones closest to me listed first.

 

I'm hoping the Explorist 400,500,600 let you search waypoints like the Etrex's do.

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jacques0

+jacques0

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Milbank...Are you sure you can't go right to the POI desired? When you're at the Menu>>Points of Interest screen, move the joystick right or left, then click on it. In the explorists that changes the search option from "Nearest" to "Alphabetical". Now, you can enter the 1st couple letters of your poi then click Enter to bring up the poi you're looking for. Review page 7 of the basic manual that came with the unit. Page 28 of the downloadable .pdf manual mentions the alphabetical search, but then fails to talk about it (shame, Thales!).

 

Bear in mind that the POIs are named by default as POI001, POI002, POI003, etc., unless you've named them something distinctive like "Car", "Camp", "Cache3", etc.

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jacques0

+jacques0

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QUOTE 

Page 28 of the downloadable .pdf manual mentions the alphabetical search, 

 

 

Where are you downloading the manual?

 

Go to this link

 

After playing around a bit, I've found that you're correct in that the alphabetical search function does not work for "My Points of Interest", but only for POIs on the background map (in the 200). When in the alphabetical mode, it simply arranges "My Points of Interest" in alphabetical order, but does not present the keyboard screen to allow the user to quickly locate a specific POI.

 

For the background map, you can search for POIs. I apologize if I misled anyone with my previous post.

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