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Explorist 500/600 Review


embra

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I'm happy to provide a link to a review of the Explorist 500/600 that I've been working on with Jack Yeazel at GPSInformation.net recently.

 

Those familiar with the units may spot some things where we don't quite get it right; please drop us a note for any feedback you have.

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Good Review there MAX

 

Of all the reviews on www.gpsinformation.net , this one is quite different.

 

The 500/600 are very nice, but require a bit of patience to learn how to use it without locking them up, so it's best to use External memory instead of Internal memory where you can lock the GPS up. Almost need an Explorist 101 workbook, to study the operation of the Explorist 400/500/600.

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Good review Max :lol:

 

I was wondering if someone had tested GpxSonar with the Explorist?

 

GpxSonar can export waypoints to the SD card in the format that the Meridians expect and I'm wondering if this feature still works on the Explorist?

 

I do not own an Explorist and have no access to one either so any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

-Fabien.

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Thanks for the kind words. Those viewing the page will discover what I look like under all those ferns. :lol:

 

My Explorist 600 should be arriving today and I was wondering if I should got pick up a SD Card reader and transfer the files onto that instead of using the Explorist itself to transfer the files to.

I wasn't sure if your musing was rhetorical or an actual question, Justin. I'll assume it's a question to be on the safe side and suggest that you wait and see if the card reader is necessary or not. Since I already have a 2.0 reader, there have been a few times that it was quicker to take the card out of the explorist, transfer a large map file or two, and put it back in. For POIs and smaller map files, it's easiest to just use the explorist.

 

GpxSonar can export waypoints to the SD card in the format that the Meridians expect and I'm wondering if this feature still works on the Explorist?

The format is the same; the explorist just requires a .upt suffix on the file to recognize it as a waypoint/POI file. But I think the USB only communication is a problem, right? Have you been able to get GpxSOnar to talk to a 60c?

 

I'll be happy to mention GpxSonar as a PocketPC alternative if it proves to be compatible. (I'm a Palmist, so I've not been able to play with it).

Edited by embra
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The export does not take place over USB. Instead, you need to take the SD card out of the GPSr and insert it into the PDA. GpxSonar write the waypoints directly to the SD card that's in the PDA. All that is left to do is to insert the SD card back into the GPSr and use the SD Utils to load them into the Mag's user's database.

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Oh! Well that sounds doable. You would just have to ensure that .upt is at the end of regular POI files, and you would have something useful. Hardcoding the usual destination folder (or saving the last used path) might be appreciated.

 

Getting GPX fields into Geocache POIs would be a bit more of a venture...Robert figured out how to get GPSBabel to do the format transition; once the format is done then it just requires a .gs at the end of the file for the explorist to recognize it.

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embra: Nice review; well done.

 

The only thing I would change is the part, near the beginning, where you state that the unit "appears to have a patch antenna". I don't have the 400/500 specs. right in front of me at the moment, but the owner's manual for the 200 clearly states that it DOES have a patch antenna. The 400/500/600 do also, right?

 

Nice job!

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I have been very impressed with the Explorist 500 so far. The only quip I have had is that some very large States I have had to break into two pieces to make sure that I can enable Auto-Routing for the entire state. Other than that, I have had good acquisition form the Sats. Hopefully Ill never get lost again.

 

I also wanted to let anyone in the KY region know that I haven't had any issues with the Unit in Downtown Lexington, and Downtown Louisville. I only lost Sat connection one time for about a minute, not really sure what the cause was, but it hasn't had any hiccups since that one time.

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