VisorCentral.com - Is the Magellan this bad or did I get a defective unit?

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-- Is the Magellan this bad or did I get a defective unit? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=17686)

Posted by nysebull on 08-18-2001 02:08 PM:

Is the Magellan this bad or did I get a defective unit?

I recently purchased, and have since returned, a Magellan GPS springboard. I know you are supposed accept some degree of error with the maps, but it seemed like I was always a couple of hundred yards in error. And I could never set a waypoint, walk away, and walk back the the exact same spot and have it match up. An example of this is, I sit on my front steps of my house(unit shows 3D fix), I mark it as waypoint1, I walk to the end of my driveway, mark another as waypoint2, walk back to my front steps, sit in same spot and it says that I am 12 feet away from waypoint1, which I just marked 3 minutes ago. It was the same spot!! Is this the kind of accuracy these GPS units give? Is the HandyGPS or GEODE any better? Or did I just get a bad Magellan unit?

Posted by knoppi on 08-19-2001 09:41 AM:

same problems here! standing at a crossroad, the companion says this crossroad is 36! yards away ...

i�m looking for the geode too, but the threads about the geode are really friggin�...

but this doesn�t matter, all i want to know is, can i use third-party software with the geode and whats about the mmc cards ...

Posted by nysebull on 08-19-2001 01:35 PM:

Most, if not all 3rd party software WILL NOT work with the GEODE. If the software connects via a serial connection looking for NMEA data streams, it won't work with the GEODE and most Palm GPS software works that way. The mmc cards need palm os drivers and Geode hasn't delivered them yet.

knoppi, maps will probably always be a problem, but can you mark a waypoint, go away from it and come back to it and have it tell you that you are on the same spot?

Posted by knoppi on 08-19-2001 09:01 PM:

nysebull,

in the data sheet of the geode a nmea v2.2 is supported?!
my favourite maps are digimap and mapviewer. both works with the magellan and nmea data stream!

tomorrow i�ll test your problem with the waypoints and post it.
which map software do you use?

Posted by nysebull on 08-19-2001 09:45 PM:

It may put out NMEA data but it does not send them thru a serial connection

From the Geode FAQ:

quote:
The Geode GPS Module connects to a Handspring Visor handheld computer via the springboard bus, and not a serial connection. At this point, most applications that are "NMEA compatible" require a serial connection, that is, they look for data from the serial port and therefore will require modification to work with the Geode GPS Module.

I will be interested in the waypoints test you do. Anybody else try this?

Posted by knoppi on 08-19-2001 10:00 PM:

whats the official accuracy magellan gives for the companion? 10 yards? i lost the description somewhere under my desk ... **** ... on their website there is no information about the accuracy ...

nysebull, what software do you use? ... i wnt to test it with yours.

Posted by nysebull on 08-19-2001 11:08 PM:

I was using the waypoint section of NAVcompanion. The accur. of the Comp. is 10 to 15 yrds, but you should be able to mark a waypoint and return to it and be told you are there.

Posted by knoppi on 08-20-2001 09:28 AM:

nysebull,

i tested the same way. mark waypoint1,walk along my driveway, mark wp2. when i reached wp1, the companion says i�m in a distance of 3 meters to wp1. and once again, back to wp2. now the companion delivers a distance of 11 meters??!!

i switched to route, back to wp1, turning on the alarm checkbox. EXACTLY! by reaching wp1 the alarm tone, but have a look at the screenshots! a distance of 8 meters in nav2 and 7 meters in plot!?

try to route from your waypoint1 to waypoint2 with the alarm checked.
you should have the same effect. by reaching your wp1 or wp2 the alarm sounds, but the navcomp app says you are xx yards away.

Posted by dampeoples on 08-24-2001 03:51 AM:

GPS accuracy

Even the stand alone handheld units deliver accuracy worse or about the same as these, they do have a new system, called WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) that delivers better accuracy by means of using a land based station that has a fixed position to help eliminate many errors and I have seen accuracy as close to 6Ft with mine, too bad none of the Springboards I know of have this kind of accuracy...

Posted by dredhead on 08-24-2001 05:08 AM:

Re: GPS accuracy

quote:
Originally posted by dampeoples

Even the stand alone handheld units deliver accuracy worse or about the same as these, they do have a new system, called WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) that delivers better accuracy by means of using a land based station that has a fixed position to help eliminate many errors and I have seen accuracy as close to 6Ft with mine, too bad none of the Springboards I know of have this kind of accuracy...

WAAS is available with the Geode, if memory serves. However, even before they were having all their delivery problems I didn't consider the price - double that of the GPS Companion - to be worth the accuracy.

Think about it, guys. In practical application of your GPS, how important is it that you find your front steps? If you end up 15 feet away from your mailbox, do you think you can figure it out from there? When you're driving and you find the little X is closely paralleling, but not quite exactly on top of a street, can you make the logical leap to assume you may in fact be on the street and not actually driving through people's lawns?

I use my hopelessly inaccurate Magellan for business travel (coupled with Vindigo to find a place to shop or eat, or with MapCompanion to find my hotel) and for pleasure travel (find squiggly road on map, use mapsonus or mapblast to get the co-ordinates of where many squiggly roads meet, mark a waypoint, pack a bag and hop on the 'cycle) with great success.

No, there's nothing wrong with your Magellan. It's as precise as it can be with older technology. It's also as precise as it needs to be. If you're out hiking, and you marked your campsite as a waypoint, I'll betcha even 45 feet away is close enough to spot a tent.

I know that in the digital age we're all getting used to no fuzziness - on/off, yes/no, and black/white. Relax, be a little analog, and enjoy the grayscale.

__________________
...the patron saint of the easily amused...

Posted by nysebull on 08-24-2001 02:21 PM:

My "front steps" was an example of how bad the position recall is in the Magellan. I wanted to see if I could use it to track distances and use it on the golf course. The inaccuracy of 5+ yards is going to really screw up the choice of which club I might use. I was going to see if I could get away with just marking waypoints on my favorite courses and use the much cheaper Magellan, instead of spending $399 for the SkyGolf unit.

Posted by poei on 08-30-2001 04:48 PM:

The accuracy is important to me too. I have the Geode and tried the same experiment of returning to a point marked on the map. It was accurate to within 2 meters. I use the Geode to mark fishing holes and 30 meters makes a big difference.

Regarding the idea of having the GPS snap to a street, it may still put you 30 meters to far up or down that street. Also, that doesn't help when I'm hiking and trying to find a deer trail that I followed in.

Geodiscovery is in corporate limbo and there is currently no support, but I would still pay the extra money for a superior product. From what I've read, it's sleeker, more accurate and even more dependable than the Magellan. I'm hoping Geodiscovery will pull through their tough times. This is easily my favorite module for the Visor and if they can add the enhancements they promised (MMC support and better NMEA support), it will be even better!

My 2 cents,
Poei

Posted by VTL on 08-30-2001 08:12 PM:

The Geode may or may not be more accurate - it should be, based on the hardware and specs, but I haven't actually done a field test to determine if it is or isn't.

However, the Geode is not "sleeker" (at least not in a meaningful sense) or more dependable than the Magellan. It looks cooler (I think James once said it had a StarTrek kind of look to it), but it's bigger and significantly heavier than the Magellan. I get far fewer crashes with my Magellan than my Geode, and the Magellan lasts longer on its batteries than my Geode.

Just my two cents.

Posted by Clanggedin on 08-31-2001 02:20 AM:

The only springboard GPS available that has WAAS is the SkyGolf GPS. It looks like a reworked Magellan, but it is WAAS enabled. Magellan has no plans on enabling WAAS on their GPS springboard at this point.

There is a huge discussion about the SkyGolf GPS over at the http://www.geocaching.com message board.

Posted by nysebull on 09-04-2001 01:26 PM:

Clanggedin, where is the discussion?

I went to geocaching and could not find the discussion you mentioned, any tips on where it is?

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