GPS - 2 Position pages

Author

2 Position pages

Clyde

2007-06-12, 4:33 am

I have an old Magellan 4000XL which has a feature that I truly love --
viz., 2 position pages -- a primary and a secondary one -- that you
can toggle between using the arrow keys.

What that means is that you don't have to work down to the setup menu
to change your coordinate system from UTM to Lat/Lon, and then retrace
your way back to the setup menu to return from Lat/Lon to UTM. You
just use one press of an arrow key to go from one system to the other.

I place a very high priority on having 2 position pages -- does anyone
know if any current hand-held GPS receiver has that capability, and if
so, which one that might be?

Thanks,

Clyde

Jack Erbes

2007-06-12, 7:33 am

Clyde wrote:
> I have an old Magellan 4000XL which has a feature that I truly love --
> viz., 2 position pages -- a primary and a secondary one -- that you
> can toggle between using the arrow keys.
>
> What that means is that you don't have to work down to the setup menu
> to change your coordinate system from UTM to Lat/Lon, and then retrace
> your way back to the setup menu to return from Lat/Lon to UTM. You
> just use one press of an arrow key to go from one system to the other.
>
> I place a very high priority on having 2 position pages -- does anyone
> know if any current hand-held GPS receiver has that capability, and if
> so, which one that might be?
>

The Magellan Meridians had one page called the Position screen that is
probably similar to what you describe. That screen displayed your fix
in lat/long or whatever coordinate system selected from the setup up
menu at the top of it. If you pressed the right or left cursor pad
while on that page, the data in the center of that screen (date, time,
and fix/WAAS status) changed to display your fix in UTM coordinates.

So on that, you could see the lat/long and UTM locations at the same time.

That was a feature that was added in one of the software updates, I
don't think it was ever described in the manuals.

I have a 6000XL, the Meridians were a great leap forward from those.
The difference in speed was simply breathtaking at first. And having an
SD card for map storage was wonderful.

Jack

Clyde

2007-06-12, 10:33 pm

On Jun 12, 5:31 am, Jack Erbes <jac...@midmaine.com> wrote:
> Clyde wrote:
>
>
>
> The Magellan Meridians had one page called the Position screen that is
> probably similar to what you describe. That screen displayed your fix
> in lat/long or whatever coordinate system selected from the setup up
> menu at the top of it. If you pressed the right or left cursor pad
> while on that page, the data in the center of that screen (date, time,
> and fix/WAAS status) changed to display your fix in UTM coordinates.
>
> So on that, you could see the lat/long and UTM locations at the same time.
>
> That was a feature that was added in one of the software updates, I
> don't think it was ever described in the manuals.
>
> I have a 6000XL, the Meridians were a great leap forward from those.
> The difference in speed was simply breathtaking at first. And having an
> SD card for map storage was wonderful.
>
> Jack

Thanks for the response, Jack.

The Meridian does seem to be what I'm looking for. But in checking
Magellan's home page, I find that about all they offer now is the
eXplorist series, and I don't know if they offer the "toggle
advantage."

Does Magellan still make the Meridians? I can't find hide nor hair of
'em on their website.

It's not for lack of trying: I called Magellan, but I could only talk
to someone whose expertise seemed limited to the particular eXplorist
he knew (each eXplorist model seems to have it's own tech group -- so
you're screwed if you want someone with some general knowledge of
which features various Magellans have). Plus, the guy I talked to
didn't quite seem to understand what I was after.

I've tried reading a couple of on-line manuals from Garmin and
Magellan, but again, no luck.

Which is why I decided to ask here -- if anyone out there is really
into GPS receivers and their features, I figure they probably lurk or
post here.

Thanks again,

Clyde

Jack Erbes

2007-06-13, 10:33 am

Clyde wrote:

<snip>
> Thanks for the response, Jack.
>
> The Meridian does seem to be what I'm looking for. But in checking
> Magellan's home page, I find that about all they offer now is the
> eXplorist series, and I don't know if they offer the "toggle
> advantage."

The Meridians are discontinued now. And I don't know if the eXplorists
do the toggle thing on not. The eXplorists lost some of the Meridian's
pages and navigation features. Also, I was not going to be able to
continue to use all of the three Magellan optional mapping softwares
packages I had (BlueNav (marine), DirectRoute (street and highway), and
Topo 3D (topo) with an eXplorist. All in all the newer model was going
to be a downgrade from the Meridians for me.

I took a serious look at the hardware and software features between the
Magellan and Garmin lines and moved on to a Garmin GPSMAP 76Cx. I had
to add two software packages (marine and street/highway) to the Garmin
to get back to where I was but I was head and shoulders above the
eXplorists on both hardware and software.

The 76Cx has the SiRF III chip set, a better display, faster processor,
better battery life, uses better batteries, etc. And the software
features were a very good basemap that included full autorouting on all
major national highways, an excellent marine navaid database and tide
tables.

The 76Cx does more routes with more waypoints, better track histories,
and a bunch of other things too. I have no regrets about the shift.

There are still some Meridian features missing from the Garmins but I
attribute that to Garmin's general stupidity at reading what consumers
like and want. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the
Meridians. I'm not sure it I'll ever own another Magellan but I buy on
needs and features when I buy and I also tend to keep things for a few
years or more if I can.

Magellan has changed ownership in the last year or so, I'm not confident
that they are going to survive much less get competitive with Garmin.
I'd like to see them do it just to keep some competition around.

> Does Magellan still make the Meridians? I can't find hide nor hair of
> 'em on their website.

Nope, they're done making them. If you look on eBay you'll find them
around used and the prices are pretty attractive. I still have a
Meridian Marine and a Meridian Color and am holding on to them for now.

> It's not for lack of trying: I called Magellan, but I could only talk
> to someone whose expertise seemed limited to the particular eXplorist
> he knew (each eXplorist model seems to have it's own tech group -- so
> you're screwed if you want someone with some general knowledge of
> which features various Magellans have). Plus, the guy I talked to
> didn't quite seem to understand what I was after.

Magellan has moved some or all of it's support operation to India or
Pakistan, did it sound to you like that may have been part of the
problem? I am not a bigot in any sense of the word but I am realistic
about things like tech support that do or do not work as well as they
used to.

> I've tried reading a couple of on-line manuals from Garmin and
> Magellan, but again, no luck.

They have so many products and their pages are not easy to discern
details from. I have spent a lot of time on them and can usually dig
out most of the details or info I want. But I also rely heavily on the
opinions and inputs from owners on alt.satellite.gps.garmin.

> Which is why I decided to ask here -- if anyone out there is really
> into GPS receivers and their features, I figure they probably lurk or
> post here.

I'd continue to read this group and also alt.satellite.gps.garmin and
alt.satellite.gps.Magellan. For good objective (no one is selling
anything) reviews of Garmin and Magellan hardware, here are a couple of
good sites to start with:

http://gpsinformation.net/

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/

Jack

Clyde

2007-06-13, 12:33 pm

On Jun 13, 8:30 am, Jack Erbes <jac...@midmaine.com> wrote:
> Clyde wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>

[ . . . ]
[color=darkred]
[color=darkred]
> Nope, they're done making them. If you look on eBay you'll find them
> around used and the prices are pretty attractive. I still have a
> Meridian Marine and a Meridian Color and am holding on to them for now.

Thanks -- I found both a Gold and a Platinum on eBay, both reasonably
priced. If my priority is to have the toggle feature, and only one
has it, I'd try for it. If they both are "toggle-able", which would
you recommend?

>
> Magellan has moved some or all of it's support operation to India or
> Pakistan, did it sound to you like that may have been part of the
> problem? I am not a bigot in any sense of the word but I am realistic
> about things like tech support that do or do not work as well as they
> used to.

Yes -- alas, part of the communications problem I experienced did seem
to be one of language.

>
> They have so many products and their pages are not easy to discern
> details from. I have spent a lot of time on them and can usually dig
> out most of the details or info I want.

[ . . . ]

> I'd continue to read this group and also alt.satellite.gps.garmin and
> alt.satellite.gps.Magellan. For good objective (no one is selling
> anything) reviews of Garmin and Magellan hardware, here are a couple of
> good sites to start with:
>
> http://gpsinformation.net/
>
> http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/
>
> Jack

Right.

Thanks again, Jack. I really appreciate your suggestions.

Clyde

Jack Erbes

2007-06-13, 3:33 pm

Clyde wrote:

<snip>
>
> Thanks -- I found both a Gold and a Platinum on eBay, both reasonably
> priced. If my priority is to have the toggle feature, and only one
> has it, I'd try for it. If they both are "toggle-able", which would
> you recommend?

Those should both be fully toggleable, you can study them a little here:

http://gpsinformation.net/mgoldreview/mag-plat.htm

http://gpsinformation.net/mgoldreview/mag-gold.htm

The Platinum is the Gold with a compass and barometer built in. I think
having those adds a little workload for calibration and use and a small
additional drain on the battery. But they would nice to have if you
needed them. I never felt I needed them as I used them mostly with a
compass around and on or near the ocean. GPS elevations were always
info enough for me.

> Thanks again, Jack. I really appreciate your suggestions.

You're more than welcome. Feel free to email me if I can help, I think
I still have some of the Magellan firmware update CD's around if you get
to looking for firmware updates or anything and can't find them.

Jack

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