Magellan Meridian XL
Linda Schmidt
Does anyone have any experience with the Magellan XL hand held GPS? The
price seems pretty reasonable but I know very little about them. Is there
another brand considered better than Magellan for the money. Magellan was
the first GPS I ever heard about. Thanks for the help.
Knocka
On Sep 12, 1996 15:46:14 in article <Magellan Meridian XL>, 'Linda Schmidt
The Megellan is a good little GPS. Magellan has been building "portalbe"
GPS's longer than about anyone -if that has meaning to you? I keep one as a
back up to my installed GPS but exercise it fairly often.... is it the
best?? are there better ??? beauty is in the eye of the beholder - will it
get you from A to B as accurtely as the rest? sure will - but after that it
is strickly a case of whistles and bells , feel, personal preferance, what
you consider to be easy to use, size of your wallet, ect.... It really is
a personal thing and what you want it to do for you - not what your buddy
or someone else thinks is important .. Cheers john
Barrie Avis
In article <323892...@ulkyvm.louisville.edu>, Linda Schmidt
<lmsc...@ulkyvm.louisville.edu> writes
>Does anyone have any experience with the Magellan XL hand held GPS? The
>price seems pretty reasonable but I know very little about them. Is there
>another brand considered better than Magellan for the money. Magellan was
>the first GPS I ever heard about. Thanks for the help.
better, I was reasonably pleased with it.
Then it got broke, so 4 weeks ago I replaced it with a Magellan Meridian
XL and took it cruising. I was horribly disappointed with it.
The XL has plot screens. When you play with these in the shop, all seams
OK. But when you get 50+ waypoints in the thing, when you first select a
plot screen, it has to check round all 50+ waypoints to see if they need
to be displayed - and it does this before you get any indication that
your keypress has been accepted. You therefore sit there for best part
of 5 seconds wondering if it is going to change screens - or did you not
press the button hard enough. If you get impatient and press the button
again, and it did accept the first button push, but is still
calculating, then they correct plot screen appears, but a few seconds
later this is replaced by another screen (its now responding to the
second button push).
God knows what it would be like if you had 200 waypoints!
I got back from my cruise and immediately told the dealer I was very
disappointed with it. They suggested I contact the importer (I live in
UK to see what they thought and they admitted the XL "could be a little
slow".
Wnet back to the dealer and they said to return it and have it replaced
by any other GPS of my choice.
Following advice over the Internet, I bought a Garmin 45XL. It arrived
last night.
Haven't taken it sailing yet but first reactions are favourable.
The screen is smaller but you have much better info about satellite
recption. And you have six character waypoint names (the original
Meridian had six, but the Meridian XL has only 5 - a retrograde step in
my view. OK I know there is a sixth character still but that is taken up
by a symbol which you can use to distinguish beteween different types of
waypoint, but crazily this symbol is not significant in a waypoint
search so you cannot have two waypoints with the same name but only the
symbol different, so this extra character, actually the first, is a
waste of space.)
Another advantage of the Garmin is the bleeper is built in. With the
maagellan there is a wire output for an external alarm but there is no
info in the handbook or connection kit to tell you the characteristics
so you know what you can connect to it.
And the mounting bracket with the Garmin is infinitely superior. The
Magellan bracket is just a bit of bent aluminium sheet - and does not
fit without you nodify it yourself (same mod was needed two years ago
when I bought the original meridian so they haven't learnt).
The Garmin was UK Pounds 25 ($40?) more expensive here in UK but I think
it will be worth it.
I've been advised that the Garmin will not suffer the speed problem on
plot screen callup time, but have yet to verify this for myself - I'll
post a further note once I have found out.
And potentially a big plus for the Garmin is that you can connect it to
a PC serial port to upload or download the waypoint data.
The Garmin is certainly smaller and lighter. However it needs 4
batteries not 3 but it has battery state indication. (The extra expense
of 4 batteries is not a worry since I use rechargeables - and power it
from the boat battery when aboard. But in any case the battery life
sems, according to the manuals, to be quite a bit longer on the Garmin.
To repeat the advice I receieved over the Net - "do yourself a favour
and buy the Garmin".
Good luck
Barrie.
P.S. A little plug for the dealer who sold the Magellan to me. The are
Express Marine Services in Chichester, UK. I phoned around a lot and
they were the cheapest I could find in UK. When I said I was
disappointed with the Magellan XL they immediately made the replacement
offer - and did not withdraw it when I told them the not had been used
for 2 weeks and so was now scratched on the back from being laid on the
deckhead. And they did not even charge me for the express courier
service to deliver the new one to me!
--
Barrie Avis
J M Pereira
In article <LQMC7UAd...@avis.demon.co.uk>, bar...@avis.demon.co.uk
says...
>
>I have had a Magellan Meridian (NOT the XL) for 2 yrs. Not knowing any
>better, I was reasonably pleased with it.
>
>Then it got broke, so 4 weeks ago I replaced it with a Magellan Meridian
>XL and took it cruising. I was horribly disappointed with it.
>
delusion that they speak English. Were you kidding?
Barrie Avis
In article <51ju63$4...@sulawesi.lerc.nasa.gov>, J M Pereira
<J.M.P...@lerc.nasa.gov> writes
divided by a common language. I've been in too many meetings (in USA and
UK) where I have seen differences of *dialect* cause total
miscommunication. (For instance the opposite meanings of "to table an
item" - and when I have wanted to break the ice, when wishing to erase
something on a whiteboard I have deliberately asked" anyone got a
rubber?". And of course in some parts of the world, Durex is an adhesive
tape for sticking paper, while in UK its a condom.)
So as a result we often refer to American and English in order to avoid
the confusion.
--
Barrie Avis
Shellie T. Taylor
Had I used the Garmin 45 first, I would not have bought a Meridian XL. It
does a reasonable job, I admit, but I consider the unit itself to be
counter-intuitive and the documentation to be user hostile. Once those
two hurdles were overcome, we got along just fine!
--shellie taylor
multiple boats
Barrie Avis
When I gave an account of my further impressions of the Garmin 45XL when
I used I in the car on Saturday, I had not at that stage determined
whether it suffered from a similar speed problem to the Magellan
Meridian XL when changing plot pages, when it was loaded up with 50 or
more waypoints.
Well it does not. I loaded it up with 60 waypoints and the call up time
for a new plot page is still only a fraction of a second (and even
during that time it displays a mesage to inform you that it is
recalculating the map so you know it has accepted the key press). Very
impressive.
The more I play with the Garmin the more I am impressed with it. And not
only is it much faster, but the the user interface far better too.
--
Barrie Avis
Barrie Avis
(I tried to post this a week ago, but it seems it did not get thro - so
apologiesd if it did and this is a repeat)
>In article <323892...@ulkyvm.louisville.edu>, Linda Schmidt
><lmsc...@ulkyvm.louisville.edu> wrote
>>Does anyone have any experience with the Magellan XL hand held GPS?
and I replied:-
>I have had a Magellan Meridian (NOT the XL) for 2 yrs. Not knowing any
>better, I was reasonably pleased with it.
<SNIP>
>Following advice over the Internet, I bought a Garmin 45XL. It arrived
>last night.
>
>Haven't taken it sailing yet but first reactions are favourable.
and I promised more reactions once I had used it.
Well on Saturday I used it for the first time (in my car, rather than on
my boat).
What is better about the Magellan?
1. The screen is bigger.
2. You can change the averaging time for own speed calculations by
selecting either 0, 20 or 60 seconds (if you have a similar capability
for the Garmin, I haven't found it yet).
What is better about the Garmin? - just about everything else.
The main reason why I sent my Magellan back (long delay before you get
feedback on whether a button push to change to a plot screen had been
accepted or not) does not occer on the Garmin. I have not yet had the
Garmin loaded up with waypoints yet, but even if having it fully loaded
does cause a time delay, you get the immediate feedback of a message to
let you know the map is being calculated.
The Garmin holds more waypoints (250 rather than 200), more routes and
you can have more points per route.
The satellite status screen gives you far more information and so it is
easier to determine whether reception is OK or is being blocked. And you
can use a standard BNC cable if you want to extend the aerial and locate
it above deck.
The mounting bracket is a decently engineered swivel and tilt
arrangement rather than a bit of bent tin (well aluminium sheet).
But most of all, the user interface is far better thought out and is far
more intuitive (i.e. if you cannot remember what to do to access a
certain function, it is far far easier to make a guess and work it out).
And you have more facilities, for instance the Garmin will let you edit
details of a waypoint (name, coordinates etc) even when the point is
being used in a route - although really there is no logical or sensible
reason why you should not do so, the Magellan will not allow this.
So I havn't tried everything out yet, but already I am in no doubt that
unless and until Magellan rethink their software and make radical
improvements, I would never advise anyone to buy the Magellan rather
than the Garmin.
--
Barrie Avis
Claudio M. Schmidt
I heard Magellan was offering a free software update. They require you
send the unit back and they would upgrade the chip (or something like
that). Did you have a chance to get/try that update? According to my
info, the update was supposed to make the Meridian a lot more
"sailor-friendly".
Knocka
On Sep 16, 1996 16:10:43 in article <Re: Magellan Meridian XL>,
'J.M.P...@lerc.nasa.gov (J M Pereira)' wrote:
>'m curious. In an earlier post you made reference to Americans having the
>delusion that they speak English. Were you kidding?
years - we certainly speak a "different language".
What we speak is commonly called"American". The differences can lead to a
lot of fun (and confusion). Take a look at a British car owners manual and
you will see....when a Brit "fixes: something he does not repair it , he
renders it unmoavalbe as on fixing in place - not to be confused further
with the Texan who when fixing to do something is getting ready to get
ready to do something. In the UK getting " knocked up " and nothing to do
with pregnancy but with having some won knock on your door is the moring to
wake you. You do not walk on "side walks" but pavement. When one gets
"pissed" it has nothing to do witht an attitude but being drunk. Am sure
we could start a thread here that could go on longer than "heeling" or
"Square Headsails" :-) .... John, SV Knockatoone, Annapolis
Barrie Avis
In article <52n9cl$8...@news1.t1.usa.pipeline.com>,
kno...@usa.pipeline.com writes
>On Sep 16, 1996 16:10:43 in article <Re: Magellan Meridian XL>,
>'J.M.P...@lerc.nasa.gov (J M Pereira)' wrote:
>
>
>>'m curious. In an earlier post you made reference to Americans having the
>
>>delusion that they speak English. Were you kidding?
>
>JM, what he means is "the Kings English"
I don't actually. What I mean is English as spoken by the English -
which by definition must be English. There are many dialects here in
England and few people speak "Kings English".
But as you say, it is very different from all the many American
dialects (i.e. non-English English as spoken by Americans).
--
Barrie Avis
Dave Steckler
Barrie Avis <bar...@avis.demon.co.uk> wrote in article
<DSeJ7AA4...@avis.demon.co.uk>...
It depends on how you define the "English Language". Is it, "the language
spoken by people in England" or is it "the set of words X and rules Y for
grouping X". Perhaps it should be, "the common elements of all dialects of
the language that originated in England a few centuries ago."
But what this has to do with the Magellan Meridian XL, I don't know... :-)
--
============================================================================
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Nobeltec Corporation - The leader in marine navigation software.
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