Electronics : Magellan eXplorist 400 Handheld GPS |
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Rating:
 - difficult to useThe display is nothing like what is pictured on the web site. The sharpness, black and white, just isn't there. It does not come with a printed use manual. It does have a manual on a CD if that's the way you like to study a use manual then go for it. Rating: - Ugh...Nice product. However, I haven't been able to get the thing to work with my Windows Vista computer. Customer service is based out of India... heavy accents but nice people. Brandon Rating:  - What is and ain't in the box - surprise, y'all!Needed this to find some survey markers on some land I just bought. It came 21Mar2007, I unpacked it, and surprise, NO AC CHARGER IN THE BOX, only a piece of paper to mail in for a "free" AC charger. This despite Amazon saying there's an AC charger in the box and the box itself saying there's an "AC Cable" inside (as well as a "USB Cable"). What IS in the box is: 1 Explorist 400 1 oddball "USB to Magellan GPS non-standard connector" with a doodad half way up to plug in power supply from a real AC adaptor. 1 Lithium Ion Battery 1 battery carrier doodad which accept 3 AAA batteries and fits where the Lithium Ion battery would go IF you could ever charge that sucker up. 2 manuals and a "Read Me First" sheet all of which assume you have a proper AC adaptor and make no mention of the doodad which accepts the 3 AAA cells. 2 CD's, one with software and one with maps you can't use unless you buy an "unlock" from Magellans website. A piece of paper to mail in for a "free" AC adaptor that connects to the oddball USB cable half way up. Also, on the box (underneath a peel-off sticker) and not properly in it, is a coupon code and instructions for getting 3D Topo maps of the continental USA at a big discount(apparently Magellan doesn't think Alaska is US territory). Got on the phone with Magellan, berated the customer service rep, and was promised a "free" charger via UPS in a week or so (not good enough for me because I needed it NOW to do what I need in enchanted New Mexico before leaving next week). I put 3 AAA's in the battery carrier doodad, installed that instead of the Lithium Ion battery, hit the on switch and the thing lit up. Next step, connect the USB cable plug one standard end into laptop and clamp the oddball 6-contact connector on the other end to the GPS unit. This connector is NOT foolproof and CAN be clamped on 180 degrees out of proper alignment. Found that out when the laptop wouldn't find the GPS unit. The cable goes backwards from the direction a mouse cable goes, back under the unit instead of out away from your hand, even though there's a catch on the connector which might (but does not) engage a recess on the GPS unit when you connect the cable like a mouse would like it's cable connected. Admittedly the manual DOES show how the cable should properly (but not obviously) be connected backwards from how a mouse cable would be. Finally got the thing to communicate with the laptop. File transfer works fine, with the usual "your GPS unit (or camera or cell phone or whatever) appears as an external disk drive" behavior. Bought the unlock for the 3D topo map at the discount price from Magellan over the web for the discounted $9.95, subsequently discovered the map software expects a COM serial connection and doesn't recognize the Explorist's perfectly good presence at the end of the USB wire. Put that problem away for later. Whomped up some coordinates for survey stakes from county maps, USGS maps, USGS aerial photos, Google Earth sat-photos, etc, etc, starting from township corner on the USGS map and matching trees on the USGS aerial and the Google sat-photos to locate the corner in Google Earth. Measured from the township corner to locate a slew of lot corners in Google Earth. Went to transfer the coordinates to Magellan GPS data files and found that the Magellan files use a quirky coordinate encoding. Here's a sample file: ------------ $PMGNWPL,3551.817,N,10638.598,W,0002411,M,JOE'S GRAVE,,a*17 $PMGNWPL,3551.827,N,10638.629,W,0002398,M,DAVE'S CHAIR,,a*5B $PMGNCMD,END*3D ------------ Turns out the algorithm is 100 times the degrees plus the minutes expressed as a decimal number, so "3551.817" means "35 degrees 51.817 minutes". I put together a spreadsheet to convert degrees-as-decimal-numbers to the Magellan format and after some cut-and-paste fork and file switching I had a nice rectangular array of property corner location-estimate POI's showing on the Explorist 400 screen. Drove ~100 miles to the property area (Buckman, NM) and zeroed in on the township corner with the GPS unit within 10 feet LIKE A CHAMP!!! Found another survey marker, then the AAA batteries (depleted by hours of experimentation and learning exercises) went south and the display locked up and the buttons stopped working. Put in fresh batteries, pushed the on button, NOTHING! Howled at desert sky and cursed Magellan roundly. Enlisted the help of Paul the friendly hippy hermit, the ONLY resident of Buckman, NM, and with his magnetic compass and knowledge of the land, pacing off distances, we found some more BLM survey markers. As daylight waned Paul went one way and I went another midst the cactus and the pinon trees. Sat down, checked the batteries in the GPS unit, reversed them (the battery carrier is NOT marked with polarity indications) and IT CAME BACK TO LIFE with no data loss!!! Paul hollered he had found a marker 2 lots away from my lot. I marked it's coordinates with the GPS unit, set the cursor to the estimated true location of the NW corner of Lot 180 of Section 31 of T19NR18E township, and the GPS unit took us to the old (1961) BLM marker (hiding under a Pinon tree with no flagging or lathe to keep it company, just south of where I estimated the night before) within 10 feet! BINGO!!! I am currently trying to figure out whether the Lithium Ion Battery can be charged using the power provided by the laptop through the USB cable. The unit's batery charged indicator says the thing is connected to external power when the USB cable is hooked up. So far the results are inconclusive, I'll check again in the morning. (Checked in the morning - the thing CAN be charged off PC power via the USB cable! See my comment to this review.) In summary, what is in the box is not what you may expect, you may get a unit with no charger, lots of stuff is NOT covered in the manuals, the battery indicator ALWAYS says 100% when running on AAA cells and polarity is not marked on the AAA carrier, the built in base map shows only major roads (freeways, etc), and the map software Magellan sells/unlocks is not obviously compatible with USB devices (although there may be a way to solve this, just not an OBVIOUS one). OK, given all of that, when you get the hang of it, this thing works very, VERY well. As long as the battery lasts, anyway. Rating: - Not as functional as some others out thereI bought this GPS because my Magellan Sport Track Pro was crushed. Long story. This unit is easy to use, and it has most functions that most people will want to use. It does have a few minor issues that most people will not have a problem with, but I do not like. First of all you can set only set the elevation, distance and speed to either metric or U.S. On my sport track pro you could set speed to MPH, distance to km and elevation to feet. I can think distance in km, but not elevation. Some maps have the elevation (index countour lines) in feet and others in meters. It's pretty simple to change back and forth, but I like the option of setting elevation to what map I am using, distance to km and speed to mph. No matter what GPS unit you use with whatever map software you should ALWAYS have a "real" map if you are going off the beaten path. The second issue with this GPS is it has a rechargeable battery. For most people who are out for a day hike this is not a problem. I may be away from any electrical power source for days on end. I like to be able to throw a couple of fresh AA batteries in and keep going. You can not do this with this GPS. On a positive note battery life is excellent and as stated should be more than enough for a day hiker. Using SD cards the memory is only limited to the storage capacity of your card. This is a great feature for downloading maps and saving waypoints. You will never have to worry about storage space. The only con to the SD card is you have to remove the back and put the card in a slot under the battery. Not a major problem, but it does take a minute if you want/have to change cards. The unit is rugged and waterproof. I would suggest getting a screen protector (you can buy ones for a PDA and cut them down) because the screen will scratch if you are careless. If you want to use this in your vehicle you will need a charger/power cable. You can get one here on Amazon, but you will also have to use the cable that comes with the unit. The only cigarette power cables I have seen plug into the cord that comes with the charger/USB cable for your computer. That cable has a USB plug that you do not use unless it is connected to your computer. You wind up with about three feet of useless USB cable hanging on your dash. Magellan needs to come up with a different power cable. I am going to sell mine and get one that uses regular AA batteries. Because this unit is rechargeable I only give it three stars. Rating:  - Accurate and reliableI owned an explorist 100 before and wanted to upgrade. I love the 400 and have had no problems. I mainly use the gps for geocaching and it has great accuracy and has no problems tracking satellites. I recommend any new buyers to get familiar with the product and read the manual before installing software. I do have the new mapsend software on its way since I bought the defective version produced in november 2005. That was my fault but I called customer service and they were willing to send me the new CDs. I know the customer service is not the best but if you are patient then you should have little problem. They were hard to understand but I got over that and we solved the problem. So far I really like this product. I have stuck with Magellan for a few years now and I love it. The accuracy is unbeatable. I can't wait to try out the new mapsend software.
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