Magellan Meridian ?

[firestorm]

Magellan Meridian ??
The Magellan Meridian Platinum/Color has been recommended to me because of :

1) It is robust
2) Takes SD cards
3) Cheaper than the equivalent Garmin

Any one any experience with these ?

Is the software any good ?

Is the autorouting any good ?

All I usually hear about is Garmin, no one I know has any experience of Magellan.

Cheers

 

[Slimie]

I've been looking at one of these, too. It looks like a good solution if you want to use a GPSR off the bike as well as on. However I thought that it would only autoroute with the MapSend DirectRoute software, which is due to appear in "the spring" according to Magellan's web site. Also I thing using SD cards would be an advantage over the Garmin versions.

 

[Slimie]

Been having a look around and a number of on-line sellers (in the UK) have MapSend DirectRoute Europe available from April for about £110. The Meridian gets a good press over at the Adventure Rider site.

I'd be interested to know what you choose, 'cos I'm in the same boat.

Good luck

Simon

 

[BrassMonkey]

Magellan Meridian

There didn't seem to be much follow up to this post.

I've been thinking about the same unit, for the reasons stated, but also because I also want to use it in my boat as well as bike, so wanted a unit that would suit both purposes.

Looking at the Magellan website, my understanding is that the autoruoting software for europe should be available early 2004.

Any thoughts on the suitability, or otherwise, of the units would be appreciated.

 

[Speggo]

I bought a Meridian colour last year from GPSW. My comments are:-
1. Very tough unit. Went round the Picos with me on my XT225. That includes piling into numerous rocks, mud, etc.

2. Battery life does not seem to be as good as claimed. I was getting 3-4 hours out of standard alkalines and about 6 hours out of Ni-MHs. Use of backlight makes a big difference here.

3. Very good, customisable screen layouts.

4. I also chose it because of dual use on boat, etc.

5. Wait for Europe mapsend with routing and you may get a better package price.

6. SD card & card reader make uploading map regions much quicker. Strangely, you cannot download tracks, waypints, etc. straight off the SD card. You have to use the comm port transfer, which is painfully slow, even at 115,000baud.

In summary, a good unit, reasonably priced. I'm a bit pissed I'll have to lay out another £110 for the routing mapsend software though.......

 

[bgd]

I've got the 'Color' as well and would echo Speggo's comments except I doubt I will go for autorouting, that's not how I use the machine. I don' t think the maps are quite as detailed as the Garmin equivalent, at least for some villages in France.

The big plus for me is it uses SD, as I already had one of those floating around and I can fit a lot of maps on 128k.

Battery life is significantly enhanced if you don't have back lighting on, of course then you can't see anything. I have only really used it on the bike (so far) so it's always connected to an external power supply.

The cradle seems to work well and is half the cost of the Touratech option (but it is plastic). You will need to pad out the crossbar to mount it. I used part of a cycle inner tube.

 

[BrassMonkey]

Speggo,

Thanks for the excellent feedback. Waiting on a package is probably good advise.

One question for you though. Seeing as you use for both boat and bike, as I am hoping to do, was there any compelling reason you chose the Meridian Colour over the Meridian Marine?

Rgds, Donald

 

[Speggo]

Speggo,

Thanks for the excellent feedback. Waiting on a package is probably good advise.

One question for you though. Seeing as you use for both boat and bike, as I am hoping to do, was there any compelling reason you chose the Meridian Colour over the Meridian Marine?

Rgds, Donald

Trying to remember. I think it came down to the fact that I needed it for road use initally. It worked out cheaper to buy the colour with good land based basemap than buy the marine and have to upgrade the basemap to meet my immediate need.

Haven't looked too closely into the marine chart side yet as I have been using my iPAQ as a plotter. Too many wires and reboots for my liking though, so will use the Meridian this season.