Re: Magellan Explorist GPS

Danny Colyer wrote:
I wrote:
Before reading the manuals, I was leaning slightly towards the
Garmin. I've now read the Magellan manual and am satisfied that the
Magellan is an excellent choice. I just need to read the Garmin
manual and decide whether it's a better choice.

By the time I went to bed last night, I'd decided to order the Garmin
Venture Cx.

I'd also determined (or so I thought) that the only difference between
the Venture Cx and the Legend Cx (the next model up), apart from the
colour, is that the Legend Cx comes with a USB cable and SD card, the
Venture Cx doesn't.

I thought there had to be more to it than that, so I checked again
what comes in the box and noticed that the Legend Cx comes with
Garmin's Mapsource Trip & Waypoint Manager software, the Venture Cx
doesn't.

I believe the differences are:
Case colour,
lack of SD card (standard cheap item on aftermarket),
lack of cable (standard cheap item on aftermarket),
lack of MpaSource Trip & Waypoint manager.


The difference in price is about the same as the cost of
buying the software separately. Is it likely to be worth buying the
Legend Cx just to get the software, or are there (as I suspect)
alternative ways of doing the same things?

MapSource is Garmin's tool to transfer data in form of maps, waypoints,
routes and tracks between GPS and Computer.

Its OK, and it includes an export to GoogleEarth function.
But its expensive for what it is.
If you were to purchase any of Garmin's mapping products, I am pretty
certain they include Mapsource (otherwise wouldn't work).


There are free alternatives such as GPSUtility which will cope with
Waypoints, Routes and Tracks (but not maps).
Any of the "OS Map on your PC" tools, such as Anquet, MemoryMap, Tracklogs,
etc. includes tools which upload/download tracks, routes and waypoints (but
critically not maps).


For map uploading, its either Garmin's MapSource (probably the more
"friendly") or SendMap which is part of the Cgpsmapper range of tools used
for DIY map authoring (reverse engineered, so definitely not supported by
Garmin, and a few mailing list comments suggest its wise to clear the SD
card before sending it back under any warranty repair).

There are fairly simple registry hacks to allow public domain maps to be
seen, loaded and managed within Mapsource (I have about five different sets,
each with dozens of map components)




Before anyone suggests that I buy the Venture Cx, then get the
software separately if I decide later that I want it, I prefer the
colour of the Legend Cx. That's the best reason I have for deciding
before I order the GPS whether I want the software.


Just do a reality check on the pricing.
Things are creeping up again from the Magellan alternative. (I know I'm one
who has said the Garmin is probably the better featured device).


I am assuming you are running Windows.
Garmin's Macintosh support isn't very good.


- Nigel


--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/


.

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