May not help find the way, but keeps you from getting lost
Written: Sep 18 '00 (Updated Sep 27 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Inexpensive and self contained
Cons: Several design flaws, no street maps
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| bdolcourt's Full Review: Magellan GPS Tracker |
I hate getting lost. Simple fact. Moreover, as a male, I can’t ask for directions. Third point; I love toys. So when I saw the Magellan Tracker at Costco 2 years ago ($200), I knew I had to have it: a toy that would keep me from getting lost. As I have started trekking from Massachusetts to New York, I have actually started using the GPS for more than just screwing around…I’ve actually tried to use it to find my way. With that, here goes “On the Road with Magellan”
Lets be sure we all know what we’re talking about
The Magellan Tracker is a self contained 12 channel GPS receiver. It uses satellites, which send precisely timed signals, to find its location anywhere on the globe to within about 3 feet. The Magellan Tracker does not require a computer, palm, or any other device to operate. On a similar note, it is not a system like the Hertz “Neverlost” system. It does not give you directions, it does not have maps, and it has no idea that a “road” creates limits. When I refer to maps or plots in this review, I am referring to the internal map plot that is generated by the GPS by keeping a running record of your previous locations as you travel.
Construction
The Tracker is about 7 inches long, 3 inches wide and 1.5 inches deep. It is made of plastic and is covered in rubber. The screen is plastic. The antenna is a section of the device’s “nose.” The nose rotates 90 degrees and sits perpendicular to the device’s body during operation. The GPS is powered by 4 AA batteries, which are weather sealed. It can operate on only 2 batteries for short periods of time.
The GPS operation takes place via a four direction, Nintendo game pad style, button on the front panel for selection and 6 other buttons for the other functions (plus power and light).
The thing looks and is durable. It has run off my dashboard plenty of times without a problem...The screen hasn’t even scratched yet. The rubberized plastic makes it easy to hold, even when wet. The GPS usually will fit on a dashboard, but some smaller cars may have shallow dashboards and windshields that are too shallowly angled. The size makes it comfortable to hold, but it is too large to fit in a pocket. The buttons are durable. The writing has not started to come off and the rubber coating is still intact.
The screen is back lit and light has two intensities, low and high. Low is a compromise that gives more battery life, but does not do a very good job lighting the screen. High makes the screen very easy to see, even at dusk. Using the high setting can cut battery life in half.
Stupid design fault #1: The GPS can run on external power. The power cord plugs into the back of the device through a connector that makes a 90 degree turn, allowing the cord to run parallel to the GPS before plugging into the connector located in the lower 1/3 of the device. So far so good. The idiocy of the arrangement is that when plugged in to the cigarette lighter, the power cord raises the back end of the device, shifting the weight from the body to the connector. Have no fear; the connector won’t break. The problem with this arrangement, is that instead of sitting on 21 (or so) square inches of rubber, the GPS rests on 3/8 square inches of hard plastic. If you drive with this thing, it goes sliding across the dashboard every time you make a turn. I usually manage to wedge mine in next to the radar detector, but it is still a great annoyance. If you pull the power cord and let it run on battery power, it sits snuggly on the dash with out problem.
Stupid Design Flaw #2: The antenna is designed to be removed easily in case you want to replace it with a better one (such as an external antenna). To remove, you hyper rotate the antenna to about 110 degrees and it comes off. As the GPS goes sliding across the dashboard, the antenna can easily pop off, rendering the device useless until it can be retrieved (it isn’t very big). Ease of removal is a plus, though something spring-loaded would be more practical. The hyper rotation isn’t very far. The antenna can fall off with normal use if it get brushed the wrong way.
Operation
When first turned on, the GPS needs to be initialized. The menus are fairly easy to follow. The large button cycles through the choices and the enter button selects. In order to lock on to the satellites and find its location, the GPS must be within 500 miles of its last known location (or initialized point). If it is not within this limit, it will need to be reinitialized.
Stupid design flaw #3: If you turn the GPS on and it does not lock on with in 2-3 minutes, the GPS “rolls.” It has to be reinitialized and it zeros the built in trip odometer and regular odometer. I can live with zeroing the trip, but the regular odometer too? That seems odd. The GPS may not lock on for various reasons: clouds and other obstructions (it can’t see the sky) or because it was turned on while moving. Initialization isn't so easy that I look forward to it.
The GPS has quite a few navigation screens. Several are pretty useless. I only use 5 of the 9 (I've programmed the other 4 not to appear). The screens I use: Satellite screen, position screen, Speed, Map and Compass. The Satellite screen shows the expected position of the GPS satellites and which ones the GPS is receiving. It also shows how strong the lock, the expected battery life and the external temp. The position screen shows the Longitude and Latitude of where you are, the estimated probability of error of this location, time, elevation, speed (to one decimal place), and it shows heading using a sliding graphic. The speed screen shows instant and average speed via a semicircular speedometer graphic, plus bearing, heading, odometer and trip odometer. The map shows where you have been, bearing, and distance to destination. The compass is just that, a compass. It also shows speed, heading, and the sun and moon positions.
Each screen has an alternate screen that can be accessed by hitting the right or left. The only useful alternates are in the speed and map screen. On the speed screen, hitting the right or left changes the range of the speedometer. On the map, right or left changes the resolution of the map. The screen can be made to show .06 of a square mile to 60 square miles or more. At the highest resolution, the difference between pixels is feet. The other four screens are various combinations of the above screens, but with other graphics. I find them quite useless. They don’t tell me any more and they get in the way when I’m trying to use the GPS.
The most useful screen is the map. It shows a track of where I’ve been and it gives me a line, showing where I’m trying to go. The major problem is that none of the screens shows all the information I want. The map screen shows most everything I want (distance to destination and a record of where I’ve been), but it doesn’t show my current speed. When hiking or boating this may not get in the way. When driving, I don’t like having to flip though screens.
Notice, I haven’t really talked about how to make it navigate yet. You can’t use it to get anywhere until you start setting landmarks. A landmark is simply a named long/lat coordinate saved in the GPS receiver. Hitting the mark key enters landmarks. The mark screen comes up, showing long/lat of the GPS’s location when the “Mark” key was hit and allowing you to name it. Note, this action marks the place you are standing...that means you have already found it. The name can only be 6 characters and you have to select each by scrolling through the alphabet using the up/down key. Tedious...but there is no room for a keypad. You have to then select, “save landmark.” If you exit using some other key (and I have), no landmark for you. You can also edit the landmark’s long/lat if you know the location of your destination, but aren’t actually there.
After the landmark is set, you hit the “goto” button and select the landmark. The GPS will then start to guide toward that landmark. Pretty simple. If you have enough landmarks, you can designate a route that follows the landmarks as waypoints. The GPS then guides using arrows and other indicator which way you should be heading. Setting up the route can be a little tedious. Each point requires multiple key stokes. You can save the route (20 total) so that it only has to be done once per route.
There is a second way to guide. You can reverse the map the GPS has been plotting as you travel. The GPS will then compute a route, using your previous turns to return you to the starting point.
As a note, once locked on, the GPS has no difficulty maintaining the lock...so long as it can see the sky. Once the initial lock has been established it has no difficulty locking on to additional satellites that may come into view.
Stupid design flaw #4: Being able to reverse the map’s plot is cool, but the way it does it is not. The GPS takes up to 30 turns and saves them as landmarks. It then builds a route using these 30 landmarks. The reverse guidance is accurate and easy to use (if you’re watching for when waypoints come up). The problem is that you have to delete these 30 landmarks. Deleting is a several step process. It requires multiple key strokes and cannot be performed en mass. I’ll say it again...this is very tedious.
Computer Support
The Tracker GPS comes with Magellan’s Map and Track Software. This software allows you connect the GPS to a laptop via a serial port (through the same cable used for external power). The software contains a street map of the US and can provide turn-by-turn directions to a destination. The software can also compute routes and download them to GPS. Basically, everything that is a pain to do using the stand-alone unit can be easily and painlessly done on the computer…or so they say.
I never could get the GPS to communicate with my laptop. Both acknowledge the other’s existence, but they wouldn’t talk. I never bothered with tech support, ‘cause I shouldn't really be using my laptop when I drive.
The computer-based maps are pretty good. They aren’t as up to date as mapquest or mapblast. The software isn’t very intuitive. It took some trial and error before I could really select points and create driving directions. I have found paper maps to be much faster...of course I don’t carry maps for the entire continent in my car.
What it all means...
With out built in maps or an easy way to create routes, this GPS is hard to use when driving to an unfamiliar place. You can only follow a computer-generated line so far before you run into the curb. It is virtually impossible to find a location, while driving, using this GPS, if you don’t have an idea of how to get there.
It is fairly easy to use, though many of the higher functions can be complex and can require multiple keystrokes. Simple guidance can be achieved with one or two button touches. The menus certainly help, but I wouldn’t try using many of the functions with out the manual close by.
When hiking or boating, this thing is great. Since it is self contained, there is no need to worry about taking your palm or laptop with you as you travel. It gets 30 hours on a set of batteries (longer than any other on the market) and is weather proof. Using it, I know that I will never loose the camp...just follow the compass or map arrow and I will get back. Without the limitations of roads, it is simple to return to a point even if the area is unfamiliar. It really is accurate to three feet. After a trip of 190 miles, it always leads me back to the same parking space where I first set the landmark. You have no need to worry that it might "screw up" and be wrong about the location. For simple navigation, this thing is great, for the complex stuff, you might want more. Like the title says, it might not help find your way, but it will keep you from getting lost.
What it does do well is keep me from getting lost. Should I take a wrong turn or a wrong exit in an unfamiliar place, I know, using the map plot, that I can find my way back. If I have already visited a location or have it saved as a landmark, I know how far away I am at all times and which direction I need to go...very reassuring when driving in the middle of the night. Even with all its design faults, I like this GPS. It was inexpensive and provides me most of the navigational and directional information I’m looking for. For most application, simple navigation is all you really need. It doens't have all the bells and whistles of the high end GPS systems, but it costs 1/5 of some the top models. It is something to be considered for the hunter/fisher/boater or for the driver who wants a little reassurance with a lower price tag.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bdolcourt
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Member: Bram Dolcourt
Location: Valhalla, NY
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 35 members
About Me:
After graduating in Chemistry from Brandeis and a short EMS career, I'm a Medical Student.
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