Magellan GPS - eXplorist 400 & DirectRoute?

Author

eXplorist 400 & DirectRoute?

Evan Platt

2005-12-09, 2:48 am

Hello all.. Just picked up a Xplorist 400 - I've had DirectRoute from
when I had a Meridian Gold a while back.

I had a Region saved (well, almost all of California - I have a 266 MB
SD card.)..
I ran the conversion on the region file, and it seemed to transfer
fine.
But now when I hit GoTo, select a waypoint, it gives me basically a
straight line route - as if I were 'flying' there - not turn by turn.

I set in the preferences to "Land". But that's the only thing I see
that looks obvious.

Am I missing something painfully obvious? I've read the manual, and
can't see what I missed.

Thanks.

Evan
--
To reply, remove TheObvious from my e-mail address.

Jack Erbes

2005-12-09, 5:49 pm

Evan Platt wrote:

> Hello all.. Just picked up a Xplorist 400 - I've had DirectRoute from
> when I had a Meridian Gold a while back.
>
> I had a Region saved (well, almost all of California - I have a 266 MB
> SD card.)..
> I ran the conversion on the region file, and it seemed to transfer
> fine.
> But now when I hit GoTo, select a waypoint, it gives me basically a
> straight line route - as if I were 'flying' there - not turn by turn.

On the Meridians, when you have a DirectRoute secondary map selected and
hit Goto, there is a choice on the type of route. The choice does not
appear if no secondary map is loaded or if the secondary map is not a
DirectRoute map.

> I set in the preferences to "Land". But that's the only thing I see
> that looks obvious.

Check to see that you have a DirectRoute secondary map loaded.

> Am I missing something painfully obvious? I've read the manual, and
> can't see what I missed.

I'm interested in the eXplorist series, don't own one though. Let us
know if you figure this out.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

Evan Platt

2005-12-09, 5:49 pm

On Fri, 09 Dec 2005 08:42:07 -0500, Jack Erbes
<jackerbes@adelphia.net> wrote:

>On the Meridians, when you have a DirectRoute secondary map selected and
>hit Goto, there is a choice on the type of route. The choice does not
>appear if no secondary map is loaded or if the secondary map is not a
>DirectRoute map.

Under Preferences, Active Setup, I have Background Maps set to
"BASEMAP", and Detail Maps set to my map.
I don't see a way to turn off Background maps. Is this the map you're
refering to ?

>Check to see that you have a DirectRoute secondary map loaded.

If the above is correct.. I don't know...
--
To reply, remove TheObvious from my e-mail address.

Evan Platt

2005-12-09, 5:49 pm

On Thu, 08 Dec 2005 20:34:58 -0800, Evan Platt
<evan@theobvious.espphotography.com> wrote:

>Hello all.. Just picked up a Xplorist 400 - I've had DirectRoute from
>when I had a Meridian Gold a while back.
>
>I had a Region saved (well, almost all of California - I have a 266 MB
>SD card.)..
>I ran the conversion on the region file, and it seemed to transfer
>fine.
>But now when I hit GoTo, select a waypoint, it gives me basically a
>straight line route - as if I were 'flying' there - not turn by turn.
>
>I set in the preferences to "Land". But that's the only thing I see
>that looks obvious.
>
>Am I missing something painfully obvious? I've read the manual, and
>can't see what I missed.

God, I'm an idiot. When you do a GoTo, select STREET ROUTE, not point
to point.

I could have sworn that's what I selected (point to point) on the
Magellan Gold I had a long time ago, but obviously not.

In the corner for me.
--
To reply, remove TheObvious from my e-mail address.

Jack Erbes

2005-12-10, 5:49 pm

Evan Platt wrote:
> On Fri, 09 Dec 2005 08:42:07 -0500, Jack Erbes
> <jackerbes@adelphia.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Under Preferences, Active Setup, I have Background Maps set to
> "BASEMAP", and Detail Maps set to my map.
> I don't see a way to turn off Background maps. Is this the map you're
> refering to ?

The basemap is the built in mapping, you want that to be there. The
basemap cannot be turned off.

And the Detail map (what I called the secondary map in my post) would
your CA map file generated with DirectRoute. For the Meridians, that
file would *.img name.

If I understand the process for the eXplorists, the Conversion Manager
application looks for and finds the *.img detail map file and that is
then converted and saved to the SD card as a *. imi file. The path to
the file on the SD card is \Detail Maps\*.imi

Then, with the SD card back in the GPS, you would see and could select
the *.imi file you uploaded.

>
> If the above is correct.. I don't know...

The most apparent change with the detail map loaded and selected would
be the additional street level detail when you zoom in closer. If
you're seeing that, your map is loaded and working. If you remove the SD
card (or turn off the detail map if that is an option), the additional
detail would be lost.

As I read the eXplorist manual more, I am beginning to wonder if that
model does not have the all the same capabilities that the Meridians
did. I had sort of assumed that the higher grade eXplorists would do
the same things that the Meridians would. Like allowing you to use
autorouting when you were using a DirectRoute map for a Detail Map.

With a DirectRoute map selected on a Meridian, when you pressed the Goto
key, it offers you the choice of a Direct Route or a Street Route. If
you are not getting that option (and I don't see it mentioned in the
manual) then it looks like the eXplorist offers only direct routes and
will not autoroute with DirectRoute maps.

When autorouting on the Meridian, the planned route was shown as
highlighted road segments at closer in zoom levels and as a straight
line (like a Direct Route) when zoomed out.

So now I'm thinking that, in some ways, the eXplorist is considerably
different than the Meridians. Or may be even arguably less capable than
the Meridians.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

Jack Erbes

2005-12-10, 5:49 pm

Evan Platt wrote:

<snip>
> God, I'm an idiot. When you do a GoTo, select STREET ROUTE, not point
> to point.
>
> I could have sworn that's what I selected (point to point) on the
> Magellan Gold I had a long time ago, but obviously not.
>
> In the corner for me.

Okay. You don't need to be that harsh on yourself though. It really
enhances my self esteem when you do things like that. :> )

And you can ignore my last post assuming that the eXplorist would not
Street Route. We are all learning here, this is all going into my
considerations for my next GPS.

At this point I am considering a future purchase of the eXplorist XL and
I certainly don't want to give up any of the capabilities that I have
now with a Meridian Color. Nor do I want to lose the ability to us the
DirectRoute, Topo 3D, or BlueNav software packages.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

Robert Lipe

2005-12-16, 2:48 am

On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 08:21:23 -0500, Jack Erbes <jackerbes@adelphia.net> wrote:

> And you can ignore my last post assuming that the eXplorist would not
> Street Route. We are all learning here, this is all going into my

The explorist (210|400|500|600|xl)
are extremely similar - even down to
implementing most of the same defects - as the Meridian, SporTrak or
even the 330. So rest strangely comfortable in the knowledge that most
of your knowledge applies.

> At this point I am considering a future purchase of the eXplorist XL and
> I certainly don't want to give up any of the capabilities that I have
> now with a Meridian Color. Nor do I want to lose the ability to us the
> DirectRoute, Topo 3D, or BlueNav software packages.

See the FAQs at http://www.mtgc.org/robertlipe for details, but DR and
T3D are largely the same across the models. You might lose a little on
things like waypoint projection, but if it's not there already, firmware
upgrades may return that to you.

Check the s/w compatibility page to verify that your s/w will work.
Struggle with your conscience about the 'one receiver per purchase' thing.
Be prepared to give up external antenna. It's the most flagrant hardware
thing I can chink of on Mericolor that's absent on XL.

Jack Erbes

2005-12-16, 5:49 pm

Robert Lipe wrote:

<snip>
> Check the s/w compatibility page to verify that your s/w will work.
> Struggle with your conscience about the 'one receiver per purchase' thing.
> Be prepared to give up external antenna. It's the most flagrant hardware
> thing I can chink of on Mericolor that's absent on XL.

That compatibility chart shows compatibility is limited to the 400 and
up models and only for DR and T3D at this time. The chart does not have
the XL on it yet. I'm guessing the XL will be the same as the others.

The lack of BlueNav compatibility will take the XL out of consideration
for me.

As it happens I have not had occasion to use an external antenna on the
Color yet. I've never had any problem with maintaining an adequate sky
view in pockets, backpacks, on ATVs, and in cars and boats.

And I don't have any struggles with my conscience. I use any MapSend
products I own with any compatible GPS receiver that I own. I don't
give any data away, I am never using the MapSend data in more than one
GPS unit at a time. My view is that I am only using it on one receiver.

I also have BlueNav, the copy protection scheme on that is a little more
draconian with unlocked SD card and single filename. But my BlueNav
unlocked SD card will work any of the three Meridians I own and I've
used it with every one of them at one time or another. Again, it it
only in use in one place at a time.

I've have a work around so that I can take up to six BlueNav charts with
me on a boat deliveries as I cross from one chart to another. I really
find it hard to believe that Magellan thinks that I would travel with
both a PC and a handheld GPS and upload a new chart to my single
unlocked SD card each chart crossing.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

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