My GPS just arrived

[JConley]

I bought a Magellan Meridan Color, and this thing is really sweet! It has about 9 menu screens, and from my initial testing, it is very accurate. If I walk two steps, it tells me how fast I went in tenths of a MPH. I have always wanted a GPS, and being over in the Desert gave me the excuse to buy one. The color screen is also nice. Believe it or not, the dust storms over here can be so bad in areas you have to shoot an azimuth to find your tent. The basemap that came from the factory has the major cities in Kuwait and Iraq, which was nice. (not that many people will need this feature, but it is a pretty complete worldwide basemap)





I have not had the chance to play with it too much, but I can say I am 4. 7 miles from the gulf, and 88 miles from Iraq. One of these days I hope to take it on a run to Bagdad.



I also got the complete US street level detail CD so this will be nice to use in the Ram. If you are looking for a nice GPS, I am pretty impressed with this model.



John

 

[MDW]

Cool

 

[The patriot]

Cool John.

I bought a Magellan Sportrack map a month ago. I'm still amased at how I to can walk a few steps and it will clock me.

I dont have the color, or nearly as much map detail as youre sounds like.

I have the mapsend topo software in my computer... . one of these days I'll figger out how to load it into the GPS. :{

You doin OK over there?

Take care.

Eric

 

[JConley]

Patriot. .

Use the serial cable to transfer the data from the software to the GPS. I have a 256 Meg memory chip for loading street level detail. Loading street level detail for Texas only needs about 35 Meg, so I can load a ton of data with 256 Meg. The only problem is the connection between the GPS and the PC is a 9600 Baud serial connection. It would take forever to load 35 meg of data over a 9600 baud link, so I am looking into how to download the data directly to the memory chip. That, or I would need to plan on downloading the data 3 days before I need the GPS.



One other feature is it tracks my path as I walk with the GPS. Its sensative enough that I can see where I started walking on the other side of the street. Pretty cool (yes it is a new toy, and I am entertaining myself)



Since you asked, things are going pretty good over here. We are at max capacity in this camp, so it is crowded to say the least. We are working on the plan to start sending people home, so that should start in a few weeks for some lucky people. We got a break in the weather! It was about 109 a few days ago, and for the next few days the temp is going to be in the 90's during the day and 60's at night.



We just moved into tents yesterday!! We have been sleeping/staying in open bay warehouses for the last 2 months, and it was an experience to say the least. Everything I own is covered in at least one layer of dirt. The tents have AC, so we have a place to escape the heat and the dust storms. We also have some privacy living in the tents. I have a few pictures, and I will post them in a few days.





Talk to ya later.

John

 

[The patriot]

Thanks John.

I have the cable hooked up, and the software installed in the puter (did a full install) and the puter wont detect the GPS.

I may have to send it back, I believe I've followed the directions properly. ??

Mine dont have nearly that much memory. I think it's 64MB?

Eric

 

[JConley]

I had the same problem with my GPS. Play around with the Baud rate. The Mapsend software would only go up to 19200. If you have the GPS setup to download at any rate faster than this, the software wont see it. If all else fails, set the GPS for 9600 baud, then tell the mapsend software to autodetect.



It worked for me. Now I use 19200 baud. I am going to look for an updated version that will support a faster download. My laptop and the GPS will support a much faster data transfer



John