Explorist Updates Coming From Magellan?ii

[+sledgehampster]

Funny, now the updates are gone. The eXplorist update and MapSend Manager are gone completely. Looks like Thales/Magellan is not gonna change. Still waiting for backlight/alarm resolution on my MeriGold... 1 step forward (DirectRoute) , 2 years back (500 waypoint limit even if using 1G card!!)

[+JohnnyVegas]

2 years back (500 waypoint limit even if using 1G card!!)

What, I have about 3,000 waypoints in my explorist 500.

[+maleki]

Someone took some heat for that goof I'd imagine - but then again they don't seem to care. Unbelievable - vaporware in action.

[+sledgehampster]

2 years back (500 waypoint limit even if using 1G card!!)

What, I have about 3,000 waypoints in my explorist 500.

You can only download 500 waypoints to the GPS at once, and only 250 of them can have comments. That is the limit I speak of.

[+DocW]

You can only download 500 waypoints to the GPS at once, and only 250 of them can have comments. That is the limit I speak of.

its only 200! just 200 with comments.....

[+JohnnyVegas]

If you load them onto the SD card and keep the files to 200 or less you can have as many as you want. This is such a none issue.

In my exlorist 500 I have geodache file for Sacramento ca, placerville, Rancho Cordova, San Francisco, Woodland, Roseville, Rocklin, Elk Grove, San fancisco, Petalume, Vacaville, Santa Rosa, San Diego and Folsom. I also have a file for my caches.

 

I also have POI files broken down in catagory such as Mulit cache legs, Waypoints for planed caches.

 

Changing the active file up takes about 30 seconds, I just times how long it takes.

Besides, thinks about it, why would anyone need more than 200 caches loaded at a time.

 

Add in the ability to load files broken down into cache types or even rattings.

[+EScout]

If you want a file of 500 waypoints, use GSAK to create the waypoint names, taking advantage of the 20 characters. You can put in the name of the cache, difficulty, terrain, type, size, recent finds and more.

[+sledgehampster]

I guess my real point is that Magellan doesn't listen to their customers. To heck with fixing old releases, just release new units and hope it all goes away...

[+user13371]

...my real point is that Magellan doesn't listen to their customers....

Yup - you should buy a Garmin or Lowrance instead. Edited December 1, 2005 by lee_rimar

[+Jhwk]

Funny, now the updates are gone.

After posting the original, and stewing on it for a while, I had decided the Maggie was prepping the site for the updates. Kind of like putting in a place holder for the new updates. Maybe they found out that we found out and loaded the old page back in to hide their evil plot. One can only hope for an early x-mas gift from magellan - right?

[+JohnnyVegas]

I can only guess that the page was pulled because the update was not completed. I would rather see them pull an update that may have a problem then leave it posted. It could be that someone at magellan loaded the page by mistake.

Edited December 2, 2005 by JohnnyVegas

[Dosido]

I sent in my 'complaint' email regarding the Explorist and lack of firmware updates via the web.

This is the 'response' I got:

 

Dear Magellan Customer

 

At this point in time we are working on a Firmware update but I am not user if the projection feature is added 

probably sometime at the beginning of the new year we may have news

 

FB

Technical Support Engineer

Thales Navigation

 

I seem to note a bit of wishy-washiness here - I think it might be the words 'probably', 'sometime' and 'may have' all in the same sentence that gave me that feeling...

[+D0T-C0M]

If you load them onto the SD card and keep the files to 200 or less you can have as many as you want. This is such a none issue.

In my exlorist 500 I have geodache file for Sacramento ca, placerville, Rancho Cordova, San Francisco, Woodland, Roseville, Rocklin, Elk Grove, San fancisco, Petalume, Vacaville, Santa Rosa, San Diego and Folsom. I also have a file for my caches.

 

I also have POI files broken down in catagory such as Mulit cache legs, Waypoints for planed caches.

 

Changing the active file up takes about 30 seconds, I just times how long it takes.

Besides, thinks about it, why would anyone need more than 200 caches loaded at a time.

 

Add in the ability to load files broken down into cache types or even rattings.

I do have an issue that geocaches are dropped without warning when transfering them to the GPS, When travelling I like to have just one big file loaded which I can search for the nearest cache or not have to fumble with files to load the proper caches for the area I'm in not to mention the added hastle of updating all these files as new caches are added and old ones are found.

 

One question is, how do you setup up pocket query to size your caches in individual 200 cache files? Do you do it based on radius location or do you input a different physical location in the pocket query? Just wondering how you divide your 200 cache files so that they dont overlap nor miss any in between

[+embra]

One question is, how do you setup up pocket query to size your caches in individual 200 cache files? Do you do it based on radius location or do you input a different physical location in the pocket query? Just wondering how you divide your 200 cache files so that they dont overlap nor miss any in between

I think this would be rather difficult to do through PQ settings, but it's fairly easy with GSAK. I selected strategic center points for each of several filters, playing with the distance setting so that the total count within each filter is well below 200. Using a macro to switch between the saved filter settings and write each one as a gs file to my 500 takes a single click (once everything is set up).

 

There *is* overlap of my caches, such that one cache may be in two or even three filter/files. But in practice this is not a problem. When I go caching a select a file that covers the area I am in, switching to a file of an adjacent area if I run out of caches in the direction I am working towards.

 

It would be a pain if I had to update multiple files manually, I suppose, because I found a single cache and wanted to make sure I didn't accidentally keep carrying it. But updating the status in my main GSAK database and clicking on the macro to update all my gs files is pretty simple to do.

[+Jhwk]

em,

 

Have always wondered this, and you are probably the best to ask... How would I set up GSAK to spit out a POI file that I could dump to my eX600.

 

What I would like to do is have 450 caches in a file versus ~190. Is it possible? Seems like we should be able to cheat the system and have nearly 500 points in separate POI files versus the 200 we are limited to as a .gs file. All I want is an icon I can chase on my screen - I have cachemate for all the other info I might need.

[+EScout]

You can activate a .gs file with 200 caches and activate a standard waypoint file (POI) of 500 caches for a total of 700 that will show on the map screen.

 

Use GSAK to generate the POI file (Explorist). Take advantage of the 20 character name of EXplorist POI waypoint names to include a smart name (make it 6 to 8 characters), difficulty, terrain, container, type, in the name.

[+Jamie Z]

em,

 

Have always wondered this, and you are probably the best to ask... How would I set up GSAK to spit out a POI file that I could dump to my eX600.

 

What I would like to do is have 450 caches in a file versus ~190. Is it possible? Seems like we should be able to cheat the system and have nearly 500 points in separate POI files versus the 200 we are limited to as a .gs file. All I want is an icon I can chase on my screen - I have cachemate for all the other info I might need.

I'm not embra, but I do occasionally play him on TV.

 

To have GSAK spit out ordinary POI files for your Explorist, go to File-->Export-->Magellan Explorist and SD card

 

On that box there is a dropdown. Select Explorist POI.

 

Remember that only 200 of those points will display data in the comment field.

 

Jamie

[+embra]

Looks like my work is done here..

[Dosido]

I too use GSAK to dump multiple geocache files to the Explorist - mine are all done with macros now, but here's how I do it:

 

I have my home as my center point in GSAK - the file I use the most is 'closest 200' - this has, amazingly the closest 200 unfound caches.

 

Next I split the rest of the 1829 caches by direction using the GSAK filters - I segregate them into South-Southwest, West-Northwest, North-Northeast and East-Southeast.

 

When you export from GSAK, in the upper right corner of the diaglog box, you can select the waypoints exported: "Generate Waypoints from xx to xxxx"

 

It gives you the total number of waypoints, so the first file starts with 1 to 200, the second 201 to 400, 401 to 600, etc until I've reached the total number of waypoints listed for that particular direction.

 

Then when traveling, I just switch between directional files - it's easy to see where one file starts/ends when zoomed out on the map screen of the Explorist.

[+sledgehampster]

Seems this topic has run it's course.