Magellan GPS - OK to use Euro eXplorist 500 firmware in a North American eXplorist??

Author

OK to use Euro eXplorist 500 firmware in a North American eXplorist??

Jim Townsend

2007-03-29, 3:33 pm

I was looking at the support page on the Magellan site at:

http://www.magellangps.com/support/

I first entered 'eXplorist series' in the 'Product Family' box and
then 'eXplorist 500 North America' in the 'Select a model' Box.

That takes you to the support page where they offer pdf manuals
and a firmware upgrade. The firmware upgrade is v 2.03 (This is
what I currently have installed in my 500)

I went back to the support page and entered 'eXplorist 500 Europe'
in the 'Select a model' box. The support page for this selection
provides no PDF manuals but you can download an upgrade, the European
firmware upgrade shows as v 2.57

I see the European upgrade provides 3 new screens with things like
speedometer dials, a jumbo text display and a fancy tracking display.
It also installs a 'Velocity Made Good' selection that you can add to
the displays like you can with ETA, Time to End, Bearing, Distance etc..

See the link below for images of what this European firmware provides

http://www.magellangps.com/support/...600_4257_rn.asp

Is it OK to upgrade a North American eXplorist to this European
version? Will it effect the accuracy of the US unit?

Has anyone ever done it?

Mike Schnierle

2007-03-29, 10:33 pm

I have a North American 600. I have applied the Euro update. It seems to
work fine. The only glitch I have found is that it defaults to km instead
of miles. You can go into the menus and change the distance measurements to
miles or feet as you want.

"Jim Townsend" <xjwt@mts.net> wrote in message
news:130o0g5304sfvd1
@news.supernews.com...
> I was looking at the support page on the Magellan site at:
>
> http://www.magellangps.com/support/
>
> I first entered 'eXplorist series' in the 'Product Family' box and
> then 'eXplorist 500 North America' in the 'Select a model' Box.
>
> That takes you to the support page where they offer pdf manuals
> and a firmware upgrade. The firmware upgrade is v 2.03 (This is
> what I currently have installed in my 500)
>
> I went back to the support page and entered 'eXplorist 500 Europe'
> in the 'Select a model' box. The support page for this selection
> provides no PDF manuals but you can download an upgrade, the European
> firmware upgrade shows as v 2.57
>
> I see the European upgrade provides 3 new screens with things like
> speedometer dials, a jumbo text display and a fancy tracking display.
> It also installs a 'Velocity Made Good' selection that you can add to
> the displays like you can with ETA, Time to End, Bearing, Distance etc..
>
> See the link below for images of what this European firmware provides
>
> http://www.magellangps.com/support/...600_4257_rn.asp
>
> Is it OK to upgrade a North American eXplorist to this European
> version? Will it effect the accuracy of the US unit?
>
> Has anyone ever done it?
>

Jim Townsend

2007-03-29, 10:33 pm

Mike Schnierle wrote:

> I have a North American 600. I have applied the Euro update. It seems to
> work fine. The only glitch I have found is that it defaults to km instead
> of miles. You can go into the menus and change the distance measurements to
> miles or feet as you want.

OK Thanks. km is no problem cuz we're stuck with that in Canada :)

I was worried that it might screw up some not-so-obvious things
like removing the WGS84 option from the Map Datum selection or
changing the basemap to European countries and streets.

I find it baffling that the European firmware has SO much more
that the North American version. There's a huge difference.

It's like North American customers are second class citizens :-)

[color=darkred]
>
> "Jim Townsend" <xjwt@mts.net> wrote in message
> news:130o0g5304sfvd1
@news.supernews.com...

Jack Erbes

2007-03-30, 7:33 am

Jim Townsend wrote:
> Mike Schnierle wrote:
>
>
> OK Thanks. km is no problem cuz we're stuck with that in Canada :)
>
> I was worried that it might screw up some not-so-obvious things
> like removing the WGS84 option from the Map Datum selection or
> changing the basemap to European countries and streets.
>
> I find it baffling that the European firmware has SO much more
> that the North American version. There's a huge difference.
>
> It's like North American customers are second class citizens :-)

Magellan is under new ownership.

Tech support went to Pakistan or India or somewhere over there.

They have probably laid off all the U.S. employees that knew anything
about customer support.

The people (person?) that took care of software development is probably
gone too.

There is no info on the Euro update about it's release date, scant
details about changes, no history of changes. Maybe a U.S. release with
the same or similar updates is pending?

They have a newly designed web page that was implemented just before the
time of the change in ownership. It sucked at implementation and has
not gotten any better, maybe even has gotten worse.

I think we're seeing a company that is in its death throes.

Too bad, I really liked them when they were still in the game and had
their heads out of the sand...

Jack

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

Mike Schnierle

2007-03-30, 12:33 pm

One thing I should mention is that the update changes the menus somewhat.
Everything is still there, but sometimes in another place. Probably the
most important is that "Active Setup" is now Active Map. WGS 84 is still
there, as is the NA basemap. I would still backup the basemap before
starting. One problem you might encounter after the update is the compass
being inaccurate. Some members of the Yahoo eXplorist group reported that
problem. If you get it, you have to do a full recalibration, the
instructions for which are as follows:

- Go to hidden menu selection (see this site for an explanation of how to
access the hidden menus: http://rhamphorinkx.newmail.ru/sf.htm)
- select menu 22 (clear sensor calibration)
- Answer Yes (even if it says its a bad idea)
- restart the unit
- go to compass calibration
- you now have to do the advanced calibration, it takes longer and
you have
to do many things with your unit, eg. set it to nearly every axis
and let it
collect data.
- finally, the normal calibration comes up

BTW, I wouldn't call you "stuck" in Canada. Canada is one our favorite
vacation destinations. We visit whenever we can.

"Jim Townsend" <xjwt@mts.net> wrote in message
news:130or32r1klb132
@news.supernews.com...
> Mike Schnierle wrote:
>
to[color=darkred]
instead[color=darkre
d]
measurements to[color=darkred]
>
> OK Thanks. km is no problem cuz we're stuck with that in Canada :)
>
> I was worried that it might screw up some not-so-obvious things
> like removing the WGS84 option from the Map Datum selection or
> changing the basemap to European countries and streets.
>
> I find it baffling that the European firmware has SO much more
> that the North American version. There's a huge difference.
>
> It's like North American customers are second class citizens :-)
>
>
etc..[color=darkred]
>

John B. Coarsey, PE

2007-04-10, 10:33 am

"Jack Erbes" <jackerbes@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:jPidnUunYuFknZD
bnZ2dnUVZ_oOknZ2d@ad
elphia.com...
> Jim Townsend wrote:
>
> Magellan is under new ownership.
>
> Tech support went to Pakistan or India or somewhere over there.
>
> They have probably laid off all the U.S. employees that knew anything
> about customer support.
>
> The people (person?) that took care of software development is probably
> gone too.
>
> There is no info on the Euro update about it's release date, scant details
> about changes, no history of changes. Maybe a U.S. release with the same
> or similar updates is pending?
>
> They have a newly designed web page that was implemented just before the
> time of the change in ownership. It sucked at implementation and has not
> gotten any better, maybe even has gotten worse.
>
> I think we're seeing a company that is in its death throes.
>
> Too bad, I really liked them when they were still in the game and had
> their heads out of the sand...
>
> Jack
>
> --
> Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at adelphia dot net)

Jack, what Garmin would you recommend as a Explorist 600 replacement. I have
a 600 with a 2 gig card and Mapsend Directroute US 2.0 loaded as regions for
the US. I would be looking for something with similiar capabilites.

Thanks,
> (also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)

Jack Erbes

2007-04-10, 12:33 pm

John B. Coarsey, PE <jcoarsey wrote:
> "Jack Erbes" <jackerbes@adelphia.net> wrote in message
> news:jPidnUunYuFknZD
bnZ2dnUVZ_oOknZ2d@ad
elphia.com...
>
>
>
>
> Jack, what Garmin would you recommend as a Explorist 600 replacement. I have
> a 600 with a 2 gig card and Mapsend Directroute US 2.0 loaded as regions for
> the US. I would be looking for something with similiar capabilites.
>

Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx, 60CSx, 76Cx, or 76CSx.

Those models all have SiRF III chip sets, use exactly the same software,
and have different physical shapes and button locations. There only
difference in the features is that the CSx models have a magnetic
compass and barometric altimeter in them.

Amazing processing speed and sensitivity on the receiver, sharp and
brilliant display (much better than a Meridian Color), good on
batteries. You can make it through a longish day on two alkaline AA's.

I never had a eXplorist 600 but I looked at them. I found the 76Cx
display to be about the same size but to have better resolution and
brightness.

The navigation features are good too. It will do multiple destination
autorouting on the roads on the base map so you can travel North America
on main roads as it comes out of the box. And have full control of
routing as you do that. Add City Navigator (CNNA) and you have street
level detail and autorouting. The mapping data in CANA is more current
than DirectRoute 2.0 for sure.

Also included in the purchase price and preloaded is a MarinePoints data
base. That has fixed and floating marks and tide tables. The navaids
database is good enough that, even though it has no soundings or bottom
details, I would have no reservations about using it in a pinch for
navigation on known to be safe routes in familiar waters.

The MapSource application for the PC that comes with CNNA will give you
a good route planning capability, much better than the MapSend thing in
my opinion.

I miss a few of the features that were on my Meridian Color but have no
regrets on the changeover. I miss the Meridian card utilities and being
able to store and load waypoints and routes to and from the microSD
card. I liked the "highway" page on the Magellan better than the one on
the Garmins. Some of the details of the way routes and route data are
displayed are better on the Meridians, but I've not found anything that
I did with the Meridian that I cannot do with the 76Cx.

The 76Cx is superb on recording track data. You can go for days or
weeks at a time, collecting detailed track data, and it will all be
saved to the microSD card for later download, review, and use.

Use the Product Comparison link (upper left side) from this link and you
can get a list of all the features on the models mentioned and see the
differences:

http://www.garmin.com/outdoor/products.html#basic

I think the 60/76 "x" series models are the best handhelds on the market
at this time. I have City Navigator, U.S. Topo (100k resolution), and
BlueChart marine mapping on mine all the time on a 2 GB card. It puts
me pretty much ready to go anywhere and do anything with street level
detail for the Eastern half of the U.S. (CNNA), topo detail for the
NorthEast (U.S. Topo), or on the water from Cape Sable to Cape May
(BlueChart).

Shifting to Garmin was expensive in that I had to buy both the GPS
receiver and new software but I think I'll get at least several years of
use out of it all before I have to consider any upgrades. Garmin lets
you use a software on two receivers so I use my CNNA for the 76Cx and
also on a StreetPilot 2610 dash mounted unit.

Magellan has failed to compete with Garmin on hardware and software,
they lost me fair and square and will have a hell of a time getting me
back in the fold now.

Jack

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

2007-11-06, 10:33 am

I just updated my NM Explorist 400 to the EU upgrade, worked great, looking
forward to using the new screens. My NM 500 LE wouldn't take it though.Don't
forget to back up the hidden files though because you get the European
background after the flash.

"Mike Schnierle" <mike.schnierle@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:pICdnQAjWo3M3pD
bnZ2dnUVZ_tWhnZ2d@co
mcast.com...
> One thing I should mention is that the update changes the menus somewhat.
> Everything is still there, but sometimes in another place. Probably the
> most important is that "Active Setup" is now Active Map. WGS 84 is still
> there, as is the NA basemap. I would still backup the basemap before
> starting. One problem you might encounter after the update is the compass
> being inaccurate. Some members of the Yahoo eXplorist group reported that
> problem. If you get it, you have to do a full recalibration, the
> instructions for which are as follows:
>
> - Go to hidden menu selection (see this site for an explanation of how to
> access the hidden menus: http://rhamphorinkx.newmail.ru/sf.htm)
> - select menu 22 (clear sensor calibration)
> - Answer Yes (even if it says its a bad idea)
> - restart the unit
> - go to compass calibration
> - you now have to do the advanced calibration, it takes longer and
> you have
> to do many things with your unit, eg. set it to nearly every axis
> and let it
> collect data.
> - finally, the normal calibration comes up
>
> BTW, I wouldn't call you "stuck" in Canada. Canada is one our favorite
> vacation destinations. We visit whenever we can.
>
>
> "Jim Townsend" <xjwt@mts.net> wrote in message
> news:130or32r1klb132
@news.supernews.com...
> to
> instead
> measurements to
> etc..
>
>

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