Problems With Sportrak Color

[+PleasantOne]

Hello everyone,

 

I got my husband a Sportrak Color for Christmas, and we've been having problems with it. The current location on the map always shows us as being off by about 250 ft. My husband called Magellan, and they told him to recalibrate, and if that didn't work, to do an extended recalibration, which he did... neither helped. I called back, and they told *me* they thought it was the map software... basically that their old mapSend Tpop sucked and we should pay $150 for the new one and everything would be hunky dory again...

 

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Or has anyone had similar problems? The mapsend software worked just fine on our old GPS unit... it's only been on the color unit (which I did buy used) that we've had a problem.

 

I'm all for wiping the memory and then recalibrating again and reloading the map, but hubby doesn't think that will help at all?

 

As an aside, I must say, they have horrible customer service... the "less than 5 minutes" wait turned into more like 20, and the people answering the phones are very rude and won't let you get a word in edgewise!

 

Ashley

[+oltimer]

Thats why I Have a Garmin 60 cs. My son has alot of problems his Sportrak. He said the same about their customer service

[+Stunod]

It's probably the maps. It's not uncommon for the maps to be 250' off. I have both MapSend Topo (the "old" one) and DirectRoute...DirectRoute had been almost perfect with road placement...The old topo was off in many areas.

 

edit: just re-read your comment about your old GPS working just fine. Have you compared them side by side to see how they track on the maps?

Edited March 29, 2005 by Stunod

[+CompuCash]

they told me the same thing - pretty common knowledge I think - BUT it is only some areas that are really off - bad since you obviously are in one of those areas.

 

The BASE maps are ok - it is the old map software - if you bought that software and are downloading maps then that is likely the problem.

 

Fortunately I got the MapSend Direct Route which is the newer and more accurate mapping software.

 

cc

[+gpsjeep]

Hi Ashley,

See how your North reference is set up. Be sure that it's set to Magnetic North.

A friend of mine had the same problem with his magellan GPSr and it showed him being off about 250 feet. He found that his unit was set to True North. He then changed it to Magnetic North and then everything was fine. Although as Stunod had said, it could be the map as well if your using the old mapsend topo. The roads in that program have been known to off a bit.

 

Good luck and I hope this helps.

-Jeff

Edited March 29, 2005 by glassdude

[+katguy]

You ought to be able to tell if it's the unit itself or just the map for the area by taking the unit to a nearby benchmark and seeing if the coordinate numbers are in agreement. If so, the GPSr itself is working fine and you just have the misfortune of living in an area where your maps have bum information. If the numbers do not match up and you have good satellite visibility (5-6 with strong signal) then you ought to have a pretty good case for unit malfunction. Alternately, you could make a "do it yourself" benchmark by using another GPSr or three as references.

[+MafiaBoss]

I have the SportTrak Color & the DirectRoute software (v. 2.00f) & have not had any real problems with accuracy.

 

The DirectRoute software has the NAVTEQ map data which is the same as used by Yahoo Maps, Mapquest, Microsoft Street & Trips, Hertz Neverlost, etc

[flir67]

the sport trak color in my old unit was off. I thought it was the reception but now I just got the explorist 600 and the new basemaps are incrediably accurate. I have no clue how you would update the base map on the built in one.

 

my friends all joked with me that one time we were at ocean isle beach,nc and the new gps unit said with were 100' out in the ocean.