Magellan Meridian Obsolete?

[+NoFear]

I dusted off my old Magellan Meridian Gold GPS today & it still powers up, but has not found more than 2 satellites. I know Magellan considers it obsolete, but is it no longer able to work at all possibly due to changes in the overall GPS technologies?

 

I'm running the las=test firmware that is about 10 years old.

 

Thanks for any info anyone can provide.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

It should still pick up the required satellite signals for the Global Positioning System (GPS), but it probably won't pick up GLONASS, the Russian equivalent, or other navigational support systems.

 

That would make it obsolescent rather than obsolete. It'll still work -- just not... shall we say, as well as newer units.

 

How long is it since you had last used it? Using your profile as a guide, I estimate nearly 13 years!

After a very long down-time, it may require a looooong time to acquire signals and generate a new satellite constellation. Perhaps upwards of ½-hour or longer with a clear, unobstructed view of the sky (that would include blockage caused by your body).

 

Unless something is drastically wrong with the unit, it should ultimately work as it did before. Boot it up, set it down -- away from trees, buildings, you or anything else that may block signals) and leave it sit undisturbed for ½ hour or so.

There are still folks using Meridian units out there. Make sure too, that you use BRAND NEW batteries, preferably lithium or alkaline.

 

Patience...

[+Team Lucky]

Yes, they still work, pretty well I might add.

[robertlipe]

Yes, it's obsolete. The company that made it has been bought and sold a couple of times; getting answers from the current owners on that product is nearly impossible.

 

That said, it still basically works. If it's been off that long, you should prepare to enter your current position (state) and - just as importantly - the current day AND YEAR. Set it with a clear view of the sky and expect it to take many tens of minutes to regain its bearings.

 

The one thing that doesn't work is WAAS. Those SV's were moved several years ago and assigned new IDs which were hard-coded into that device instead of read from the almanac. In the magellan meridian yahoo group there is an unofficial "fixed" firmware to add this back, but until you have it working, don't even try too many variables at a time.

 

It's also worth mention that model works poorly with any SD card you can buy today. 2002-era GPS is more happy with 2002-era cards. Oh, and getting Mapsend to work on contemporary OSes involves ritual sacrifice. It's all covered in that group - in fact, that's about the ONLY thing discussed in that group any more as most people have moved on. Still, we regularly watch people put tens of hours and many, many dollars in cables and serial adapters and buying used mapsend from shady places trying to keep these viable. MeridPlat was my second unit, so I have a soft spot for it, but it's thoroughly entered "classic car" mode at this point.

 

Good luck.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

Ah, the Meridian...my favorite unit of all time. I have one Marine, one Green, one Yellow,one Gold, two Colors, and about 8 Platinum. I used the Platinum until I went with the 62S a few years ago because I wanted paperless. The case, buttons, and superb 3 axis compass as well as the units flexibility have yet to be equaled. Only the Platinum had the 3 axis compass and as said the units prefer older, slower SD cards which can be found on Ebay....I bought a bunch of 2G and put one in each unit. A 2G will hold detail maps of 48 states generated by Mapsend and you can make copies and put them on 100 units if you like....in addition the unit will hold millions of caches.

Really the Platinum along with a Sony Clie or Palm M500 was a great way to cache.....I could load the units and be gone for months and never need a computer. I think the last firmware was 5.40 and once installed all my Meridians were fine with the 2G card and all behaved the same.

Books can be written and I think Robert has.......What a unit !!!

[robertlipe]

I've written more than a little, but not quite a book. Like Bamboozle, I found thousands (back when that was hard...) with a Merdiain and Palm/OS, but I can't say I really miss "the old days".

 

Still, helpful resource may include:

 

http://www.mtgc.org/robertlipe/MeridianFAQ/

http://bevhoward.com/Meridian.htm

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Magellan_Meridian/conversations/topics

 

Bev tends to update his more and is still pretty active in answering questions. He seems to enjoy fighting things like Mapsend on Windows 8. I've pretty much stepped out of those groups as these units are so far in the past at this point. It's over a hundred GPSes ago to me. :-)

 

As a nit to something posted above, the maps are only not copy-protected if they're the really ancient ones based on the free Census BureauTiger date. The newer products which used data licensed from (Navteq - which has also been bought and sold) are copy-protected and bound to the device. But they're much better maps and the DirectRoute product and some of the newer Topo strains offered turn-by-turns on a handheld that was much better, IMO, than the GPS V, which was the only other handheld at the time really offering that trick.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

I've written more than a little, but not quite a book. Like Bamboozle, I found thousands (back when that was hard...) with a Merdiain and Palm/OS, but I can't say I really miss "the old days".

 

Still, helpful resource may include:

 

http://www.mtgc.org/robertlipe/MeridianFAQ/

http://bevhoward.com/Meridian.htm

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Magellan_Meridian/conversations/topics

 

Bev tends to update his more and is still pretty active in answering questions. He seems to enjoy fighting things like Mapsend on Windows 8. I've pretty much stepped out of those groups as these units are so far in the past at this point. It's over a hundred GPSes ago to me. :-)

 

As a nit to something posted above, the maps are only not copy-protected if they're the really ancient ones based on the free Census BureauTiger date. The newer products which used data licensed from (Navteq - which has also been bought and sold) are copy-protected and bound to the device. But they're much better maps and the DirectRoute product and some of the newer Topo strains offered turn-by-turns on a handheld that was much better, IMO, than the GPS V, which was the only other handheld at the time really offering that trick.

 

 

Thanks for the links and everything you've written regarding these units over the years....I've printed out your articles as well as others and put them in a binder thats now about the size of a phone book.Not being a high tech person I read everything I could get my hands on and did field testing.....then there was EasyGPS, Spinner, Plucker, and GSAK to learn. Over the years I created quite a following for the Platinum and probably purchased , both new and from Ebay, over a dozen units for friends, relatives, and geocachers even doing some by mail....I would buy the units, upgrade the firmware, add a 2G SD card, supply instruction, etc all for free and the love of the Meridian Platinum.

Regarding finding caches the Platinum outperformed ( IMO by a small margin ) our 60 CSx and Oregon 450 but I think our 62S units are about as accurate and certainly more sensitive in locking on to sats.

Edited May 11, 2015 by BAMBOOZLE

[+NoFear]

Thanks for all the replies and info. I did finally get it to lock in. I'm also going to look into the firmware fix. It's not like I don't have other units, but I like the Merdian alot and I enjoy the tinkering to keep classic equipment running. Maybe it's just my sentimental side.

 

Thanks again!