Magellan GPS - New Explorist can't find satellites

Author

New Explorist can't find satellites

GoBruins

2006-03-02, 2:48 am

hi all,

just picked up a new 210, and upon startup, it struggles to find a measly
two satellites, and they're poor signals at that. i understand that the
first time you start it up, it can take some time to lock sats, but i've
left i alone out in the open for 20 minutes straight, with no luck. my old
315 is having no probs finding sats, and even the lousy eTrex Legend (which
i got rid of due to poor sat reception, ironically) had no such problems.
did i just get a lemon?

thanks in advance.

roger

2006-03-02, 2:48 am

run through your setup again make sure date and time are correct.
"GoBruins" < adventureforth@gmail
.com> wrote in message
news:wlsNf.62090$PL5.3388@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com...
> hi all,
>
> just picked up a new 210, and upon startup, it struggles to find a measly
> two satellites, and they're poor signals at that. i understand that the
> first time you start it up, it can take some time to lock sats, but i've
> left i alone out in the open for 20 minutes straight, with no luck. my old
> 315 is having no probs finding sats, and even the lousy eTrex Legend
> (which i got rid of due to poor sat reception, ironically) had no such
> problems. did i just get a lemon?
>
> thanks in advance.
>

adventureforth@gmail.com

2006-03-02, 5:48 pm

thanks for the reply. i had no idea the right time and date would
impact satellite reception.

okay, tried inputting the correct time and date, and still getting no
love :(

roger wrote:[color=darkred
]
> run through your setup again make sure date and time are correct.
> "GoBruins" < adventureforth@gmail
.com> wrote in message
> news:wlsNf.62090$PL5.3388@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com...

adventureforth@gmail.com

2006-03-02, 5:48 pm

just spoke to a Magellan tech supp person. we determined that the unit
was faulty. they did right by me, though. they're going to overnight a
new unit to me

Pieter Litchfield

2006-03-02, 5:48 pm

Thanks for posting an outcome. So many people will ask a question, then
never share the resolution of the problem. Sorry to hear of your problem,
but glad the techies worked with you on it.

To get the first position fix, or to get one after significant time or
distance (with the unit off) has passed, it is often necessary to use the
"initialize" function from the setup menu of any GPS to begin. This will
allow you to enter a date and time as well as an approximate position
(country, state or city). Once this is done, the GPS should get and display
an initial position fix within about 20 minutes. Just leave it somewhere
the GPS can "see" a fairly clear horizon in all directions - away from
buildings, trees, canyons, etc. If you don't move it, hat helps too. If
after 30 minutes it still does not have a fix, it's probably defective. I
guess that was your experience.

< adventureforth@gmail
.com> wrote in message
news:1141310328.683393.145300@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> just spoke to a Magellan tech supp person. we determined that the unit
> was faulty. they did right by me, though. they're going to overnight a
> new unit to me
>

adventureforth@gmail.com

2006-03-03, 5:48 pm

yes to the procedure. after the initial setup, it was left alone to
'find itself' in an open area for probably 30+ minutes, and it was
struggling mightily to pick up two feint bars.

i should get the replacement unit today. it's raining here in today,
but i'll try to report on the new unit once i get my hands on it.
preliminary reports seem to indicate that the eXplorist should
outperform the eTrex Legend handily in terms of satellite reception
(although i've heard good things about the new Garmin 'x' Sirf chips).
that wouldn't be difficult to do - my old Magellan 315 could do that.
the biggest diff between the two magellans seems to be the amount of
information. the eXplorist seems to have been stripped of a lot of the
navigation screens. sure, some of the screens and info on the 315 was
redundant, but i would have liked the option of deactivating them
myself. anyhow, being a backpacker, the primary concerns is sat
reception under cover, followed by the ability to download Topo maps.

adventureforth@gmail.com

2006-03-05, 11:48 pm

well, i didn't receive anything on friday from Magellan, so out of
desperation, i picked up a Lowrance iFinder Phd. the unit is pretty
big, especially when compared to the eXporist and eTrex line. i don't
know if it's the answer for backpacking, due to the bulk of the unit.
in terms of performance, the thing fired right up and found satellite
lock pretty quickly. over the weekend, i took it to a slot canyon where
the eTrex Legend wouldn't have had a prayer of getting a satellite
lock, and to my surprise, the Lowrance was able to stay locked the
whole time. even my old Magellan 315 had trouble there in the past, and
it was way better than the eTrex in terms of sat acquisition.

i also liked the fact that the Lowrance uses SD cards to store data,
but that leads me to my next dilemma. i use National Geographic Topo!,
and i'd been able to use both the Legend and the 315 to upload/download
waypoints in the past. but this is where the iFinder had me knashing my
teeth. how on earth can i use the iFinder data with topo programs other
than Lowrance's own Mapcreate? this is driving me crazy. i hate the
fact that all the GPS manufacturers shackle their products with
proprietary maps, interfaces, data file types, etc. AARGGGHHH.

Jack Erbes

2006-03-06, 5:48 pm

adventureforth@gmail
.com wrote:

<snip>
>..but this is where the iFinder had me knashing my
> teeth. how on earth can i use the iFinder data with topo programs other
> than Lowrance's own Mapcreate? this is driving me crazy. i hate the
> fact that all the GPS manufacturers shackle their products with
> proprietary maps, interfaces, data file types, etc. AARGGGHHH.

Check out GPS Utility - that can be tested in a trial version and
according to the receiver compatibility page here:

http://www.gpsu.co.uk/gpsrecs.html

It says it works with "Lowrance/Eagle possibly with minor limitations".

I registered GPSU a couple of years ago and now never use anything else
to handle waypoint, route, and track interactions with the several
Magellans I own.

If you have raster topo maps (like the free USGS DRGs) you can display
your GPS data over those. GPSU is a very capable software and its
developer, Alan Murphy, is very interactive with and helpful to users.

Jack

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

adventureforth@gmail.com

2006-03-07, 5:48 pm

thanks for the suggestion.

using GPSU, i was able to read the .usr file, and then convert it to a
..txt file. then, i stripped out the extraneous stuff. then i was able
to import the data into National Geographic Topo! Ugh - a lot of work.
and going the other way around is going to be no fun either, i imagine.
because of the bulk of the Lowrance unit, i don't want to buy the
Lowrance Mapcreate topo software yet. it may just be too big for
backpacking, and, i still want to field test the eXplorist 210 before i
make a final decision.

Jack Erbes

2006-03-07, 5:48 pm

adventureforth@gmail
.com wrote:
> thanks for the suggestion.
>
> using GPSU, i was able to read the .usr file, and then convert it to a
> ..txt file. then, i stripped out the extraneous stuff. then i was able
> to import the data into National Geographic Topo! Ugh - a lot of work.
> and going the other way around is going to be no fun either, i imagine.
> because of the bulk of the Lowrance unit, i don't want to buy the
> Lowrance Mapcreate topo software yet. it may just be too big for
> backpacking, and, i still want to field test the eXplorist 210 before i
> make a final decision.

So you can't download the data from the GPS and save it from GPSU in a
file format that NG Topo can open or use? That's too bad.

For my Meridians, I download and save the data in *.txt format files.
Some times I edit the data and upload it back to the Meridians again.

When I save tracks, routes, and waypoints to the SD card in the
Meridians, I get a small text file that, although easily opened and read
with Notepad, has all the data in a proprietary format that is much less
readable and harder to understand than the GPSU text files.

So GPSU saves me a lot of time and trouble in getting the data and
letting me store it a easily read format. And I can also use GPSU to
change the data to other formats so I can send it to other brands or
models of GPS receivers and applications (Seaclear, MapSend BlueNav, etc.).

Jack

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

GoBruins

2006-03-08, 5:48 pm

okay, got the new unit today. upon firing it up (and w/o any user
input), it found and locked a 3D position in a little over a minute.
subjectively, i really like how the 210 feels. the quality 'feels' to
be better than the Lowrance and the eTrex Legend, and i like how it
fits the hand. the reception seems to be pretty darn good. it manages
to consistently find satellites indoors, and can often achieve 3D lock.
this is better than the Lowrance unit, which was more spotty. i like
the USB interface a lot. the unit is seen as a drive in Windows, which
should make send/receive of maps much faster and straightforward. i'll
test this later and report back.

LinkBot