Sand Man (SA) replied:

You know its quite funny if you have a sense of humour.

At the 4WD Show in Adelaide last October, the sales reps had a copy of topographic maps running on a laptop to demonstrate the capabilities to the potential buyers. If they could load it then, why can't they give their customers similar capabilities now?

I own a Magellan Meridian Platinum Marine whiz banger GPS.
I also purchased a copy of DiscoverOz (non-topo) software.
I also purchased a copy of Australia's Great Dessert Tracks software.

Now all these products work quite well, but after playing around with OziExplorer and what it can provide, I'm NOT going to spend more money on upgraded software with Magellan. The stuff I have is sufficient to keep me from getting lost when using the GPS as a stand-alone unit.

The CD, or DVD version of topographic maps, when it became available, was supposed to have been offered as an upgrade at a lower price.

$400 for a SD version?.........In their dreams.

Member - Fred L (NSW) replied:

Hi Dandman, I read somewhere that the CD is available for the USA version. No use to us. By the way would u recommend OziExplorer. It probaly wouldn't hep me with the TOPO maps though. All I want to do is be able to enter all my POI's on a PC and then download that to the GPS. That would mean having to buy more maps though - even though I am very happy with the MapSend TOPO maps.
Cheers

Member - Fred L (NSW) replied:

Hey Sand Man - sorry about the typo. I hope u didn't spew!!!

The Explorer replied:

I suspect the main reason for not producing the CD is to prevent people copying it/uploading maps to multiple GPS units as was easily done with DiscoverAus. Having the SD card encripted maps prevents (I assume) people copying them and using them on other SD cards/GPS units....so the only way to get the maps is to pay for them - fair enough I suppose. The level of detail on Magellan maps is very good for a hand held GPS and worth the expense if you get around a bit. Hopefully the software will still be half useful as well.
Cheers
Greg

Peter1 replied:

This situation with the topo upgrade makes me really mad, I only purchased the Explorist 500 from the Brisbane trade show based on the assurances given that the new upgrade on Cd was only 3 months away, its now 9 months, now it is never. I spoke to a representative from the ACCC who stated that I should put my complaint in writing to them because given the wording on the voucher plus the verbal assurances given a the show He believes I would have reasonable grounds for a misrepresentation case again them he also said to forward the letter to office of fair trading in South Australia as well. If they get enough complaints they may investigate.

geocacher (djcache) replied:

Hi Fred & others,

I love my Meridian Platinum, and I'm really happy with my DiscoverAUS (original) & GDT stuff.

I had a brief look at a mates DiscoverAUS Topo today - mad bugger bought the SD card - and I have to say it's not worth the upgrade.

That all said, these days, OziExplorer is what I now use for mapping in the vehicle. I run a bluetooth GPS by Haicom on the dash and the iPaq hx4700 sits neatly in a RAM mount by the A pillar.

The mapping, routing and waypoint capabilities of OziExplorerCE are far superior. I have no shortage of maps for Victoria and have it covered at about any resolution I could find useful. It integrates seamlessly with Ozi on my laptop - just save a waypoint, route or track file onto either the CF or SD card and pop it in the iPaq. Voila!

I use the iPaq for running OziCE for mapping, MS Internet Explorer for cache notes & Windows Media Player (with a Belkin Tunecast) for MP3 music transmitted to the stereo. It does all three simultaneously. If I'm on a long trip I set up the shortcut buttons by the keypad to take me to those three programs.

I also have on a separate 128meg SD card the Navman software. When I'm somewhere I don't know I can punch in a destination and it will take me there. Interestingly when trying to go straight through Adelaide from Port Pirie to Victor Harbour I told it to find me the quickest route - then Lynne asked why we weren't taking such & such route (A13 or something as that was where we were going to end up according to the Navman), being a good husband and not wishing to have an argument I took her route. Ended up in an industrial area with dozens of lights, parked cars obstructing one of the two lanes etc. etc. Time to destination was going up and up. In the end I had the argument and defended the technology, followed it's redirections back to the intended route and it was heaps faster. Just better roads for bulk traffic. SWMBO got over it after a lengthy silent period. She didn't often navigate before that, and hasn't offered since.

Anyway, I digressed. The Meridian Platinum has now been relegated to out of the car portable use for geocaching. Which it does extremely well, especially with the electronic compass.

If you don't mind technology and are a little au fait with computers go the PDA and wireless GPS option (dc power lead powers the PDA). It's far better, and if you decide you want topo maps load the topo maps if you decide you want non-topo like Vicroads load that. Plenty of people here have stuff to trade. If no ones got what you want your local plan copy place with a big scanner will scan your paper map of the area you want in one pass (big file but you reduce that) then you can calibrate it in Ozi and convert it for OziCE.

The cost to set it up depends a little on how you do it but this is what I did:
hx4700 iPaq $750
DC lead for iPaq $30
Haicom Bluetooth GPS $260 ish
(one of just a very few pocket PC with a 640x480 VGA resolution screen)
RAM mount $80 (roughly - twist lock suction base)
2Gig CF Memory card for maps $300+ (prices are dropping all the time)
512Mb SD card for MP3's $60ish
Software. Depends what you end up using but Ozi & OziCE can be bought in the shop here.
Maps - whatever you can buy or scrounge - I prefer the latter.

Here's an example from a recent trip.


There's an add in for the hx4700 to run at true VGA if you want too. Makes the buttons pretty small but the maps are unreal.

Magellan/NEXT are the biggest pack of liars. In the years I have been using their gear I got five different release dates for topo, all of which passed without product, promises of upgrades that were too good to be true (price more than doubled) and they obviously lie to their retailers cos Gaz bought the SD that I was looking at today in the last day or so and was still told he'd get a discounted version of the CD version when it comes out in a few months.

At this rate they might as well give their business to Des from Ozi or Garmin, cos that's what they'll do. The platinum won't play MP3's and autoroute either.

Dave