GPS through ebay

Nick,
When you say Aussie spec Magellan colour what is this
thanks

Aussie spec means loaded with the Australian Basemap as standard, rather than the USA basemap.

The Aus basemap is useless anyway, you will need DiscoverAus map software as well as the GPS.

I bought my Magellan colour from the US, US spec, and then picked up Discoveraus also on Ebay. At the time the Aus retail for what I got, with mounting cradle, PC cable, etc was $1800 and the total cost from USA was $650. discoveraus was $180 odd on top.

No Warranty, but I was happy with the $1150 saving.

The Aus prices are now a bit less of a RIP-OFF than before, but you can still do well importing one.

I wanted the Aus base map model,for no reason other than I live in Australia not America and it ended up not costing any more anyhow.
I brought a Magellan Meridian(yellow one)off ebay with DAST, vehicle mount, data cords, sd card, card reader for $600.Kept all the gear and resold it on Ebay for $450.$150's not to bad for all that and on top of that the Magellan Meridian Color for $400.

Hey John, Is yours an explorist, if it is are you running Oziexplorer through the Magellan?

Magellan Meridian Colour Blaze and I have run OziExplorer on the laptop through it as I also have run a Bluetooth GPS too. I haven't run Ozi on the PDA through the Magellan, only the Bluetooth. I have Tom Tom on a separate SD card, also for the Bluetooth so far.

My PDA mount has a port into the side of it to take a serial connection but I seem to have misplaced the book with the pin placements. Then I could use the Magellan into PDA. Thing is it would be an emergency situation as it isn't as good acquiring satellites as the Bluetooth one.

Magellan's warranty was and I thought still is international.

They fixed my ebay Platinum under warranty though it came from the states.

Something may have changed.

The difference in price is predominantly that the US gov't doesn't sell the mapping data for the basemap to the company to generate the basemaps as they figure it was paid for by the US taxpayer who shouldn't have to buy what they have already bought.

The Australian gov't aren't as enlightened so Magellan have to buy it off them. Therefore we pay for it twice.

At least that's the way a Magellan stand staff member from Next explained it to me.

Dave

Dave,

I'm not sure if the GPS was bought from a Magellan dealer in the States - may have made a difference. I've bought a few gadgets from Next Destination, including GPS and bits, nothing but praise for them.

Usual no affiliation etc etc.

Tim - Stratford.

I agree Tim. Their support was great. I think my ebay guy is a dealer. They did ask who they came from.

They fixed it and returned it in a week which was outstanding. They also offered to put the Australian base map on my Platinum for $300.

I declined.

Dave

Dave, the basemep I had on my earlier Magellan had Cairns out West of Brisbane. It was only having the Streets and Tracks loaded that was any good and had any detail. Really good geography obviously in Magellan's basemap.

Dave - Magellan warranty only extends to first owner .....so you must buy off an authorised dealer for warranty to be valid - if thats an authorised dealer in the US selling on ebay thats fine - warranty will be honoured for 1 year (if you have receipt). If you purchase of some one on ebay (or anywhere else) who has purchased from an authorised dealer and is on-selling gps (despite it still being brand new and unused) it is effectively second hand and warranty is void.
Cheer
Greg

I wondered about that Greg. I never asked specifically.

The first came from a marine shop that ran an online store also. I'm guessing that the last few I bought may not have been covered but the first one certainly was. Though I recall the guy in california saying he was a licensed dealer once, but never seemed to get anything other than the ebay receipt.

At the price you could buy 2 1/2 units here anyway so it wasn't like it was a huge issue.

The issue of the original basemap is valid though they fixed the "Cairns Deviation" I believe.

We had issues in Vic as the gov't data here was different to other states.

All the localities on streets and destinations were out with no pattern that could be corrected. It turned out that they marked the geometrical centre of the region that the town boundary defined. As a result all the town POI's were all over the place by several km and usually anywhere but in the town.

I haven't looked at Topo but I dare say they wouldn't make that mistake twice. They copped a fair bit of grief over it.

Dave

Hello - I assume you are talking about get moving map working ie nmea data input - Is this right ? - or cant you get any communication whatsoever (ie for waypoints etc) ? NMEA communication and data communication are two different issues as different methods are used to connect. One issue people have with connecting for moving map is identifying com port in use so that oziExplorer can be configured correctly - explorist act as modems when in nmea mode - to see what com port is in use on PC go to Settings, Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager, Modem - explorist should show up in list if connected and in NMEA data com mode - open properties and modem section will show you com port in use. I dont use my explorist for moving map so this is as much troubleshooting I can provide at this stage.
Cheers
Greg

...one more thing - In Oziexplorer configuration make sure you NMEA baud rate set to 115200 (Configuration - COM - NMEA baud rate)...the nearby upload/downoad baud rate has no effect. Also ensure you have correct settings in Configuration - GPS section ie Magellan for GPS Make and Magellan USB for GPS model....dont touch anything else.
Cheers
Greg