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Registered: Feb 2002
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Posts: 15 |
 off-topic (kinda) was Re: gps deal
quote:
Originally posted by bbman84
Now if I can only get the unit to get a solid satellite fix...
this review says:
quote:
What I have found so far is that this is an amazingly sensitive receiver. It would maintain a fix deep inside my house with no windows and a second floor overhead.
is this reviewer talking about the same magellan gps companion you and i recently bought? in my living room, with a second story overhead and big windows all on one wall, i couldn't get anything. i stepped outside and couldn't get anything. i walked out into the middle of the street and couldn't get anything. (well, i was getting the white-barred signals the whole time, but no black bars.) i thought the unit was defective, so i exchanged it for a new unit. (the first unit appeared to be a return anyways as the batteries were already in the unit and there was some dust/grime on the unit's casing, so i thought maybe it had already been returned as defective and accidentally got resold to me.)
the new unit had the same exact behavior. i decided i would take it to work with me and see if it worked out on the open road. after a few minutes of driving it finally started working, but even then, initially, it was constantly flipping back and forth between 2D and 3D. but even that finally cleared up after a few more minutes and getting out onto a large divided 7-lane (3 lanes in each direction with a turn lane in the center median) road.
i originally thought it would be cool to find out the coordinates/elevation of my home, but as i can't get a link even standing in the street outside of it, i guess it's just a pipe dream. i guess the big trees and two story buildings obstruct too much of the sky, even though it's a pretty wide street (wide enough to have cars parked long both curbs and still enough room for both directions of traffic to pass eachother easily) with wide yards on both sides.
oh, how's the software and accompanying maps? i'm using mapopolis and their basic maps as that's what i was using and accustomed to before buying the gps unit. i need to try out the gps map software, but i haven't taken the time. my fear is that some of the maps will be out-dated as i think i remember them being a year or two old on the cd (by looking at the files' time-date stamps), and i don't remember seeing any updates on the magellan website (though there's an update for the gps' firmware; but oddly the update is to version 1.1, but my gps unit already reports version 2.0). probably not a big deal as most roads/streets don't change once they're built, but got to watch out for the new developments.
as i run linux 99% of the time, i was impressed that the gps software & maps didn't require some stupid windows-only helper/installer/conduit, but are palm-native prc/pdb files intuitively laid-out on the cd in self-explanatory subdirectories. now if only the help file came as a platform-neutral pdf, instead of a windows help file.
anyways, i'm content with the unit's performance (as i will mainly use it when traveling on the open road, not to survey houses or while hiking in wooded forests) and with what i paid for it ($85 office depot clearance - $50 rebate = $35) as that's still a good deal, much better than the $150 original price. (could anybody justify that original price for casual/personal/non-business use?)
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03-07-2002 02:44 PM
Thank You!
gps deal
Yes it's worth it
).
firmware updates
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