Magellan Meridian Color

[Slimie]

Any thoughts on importing one of these, from the States? I've seen them advertised for less than $270 (Comp-U-Plus) or around £150. Although it will have a US basemap, Magellans website says that in the "spring" they'll have Direct Route software available for Europe and that it will auto-route when installed in the GPSR, (the US version sells for around $100), the unit takes SD cards so presumably no problems loading or carrying vast maps. Have I missed something, speaking as a GPS numpty it seems too good to be true. So it probably is, isn't it?

 

[enabb]

Been there, thought the same thing, read as much bumff as I could, somewhere along the line, I came to the conclusion that the Garmin,s had a better screen fr reading on a bike.......

Might be bollox but its what I gleaned from wot i read



HTH.

 

[BurnieM]

With Mapsend you need to create maps in 64MB chunks.
To put several chunks onto a SD card you need an SD reader/writer and as you copy each chunk you need to rename it.

So it will display one 64MB chunk. As you move onto the next chunk you need to rename it to be the current map.

I believe this is a GPS processor/memory restriction so I would guess that the DirectRoute software is similar.

The colour Meridans do have a noticably sharper screen than the monochrome units.

 

[Slimie]

Thanks for the info, what I'm really concerned about is whether I've missed something regarding the software/basemap, and the importing of the device? For $350, it seems like a really cost effective way of getting into the GPS thing.

 

[bgd]

Don't think the basemap will make any difference. You load a map onto the SD card and then choose which map to display, the default (basemap) or the loaded map.

I've only had the unit a couple of weeks (and it's my first GPS) but I like it. I use it more for tracking where I've been than actual navigation. I have used it to navigate on single track lanes in the dark and it worked well.

Think the Garmin maps are more extensive than mapsend but the UK is well covered. I noticed some French villages that are on Garmin aren't detailed on mapsend, although their location is marked. The autorouting software may change that.

On a recent trip the unit shutdown of its own accord on 2 occasions. If it happens again I'll send it in for repair. Something to bear in mind if you are importing.