Yankee GPS's

[Vineboy]

On e-bay there are alot of GPS's for the US market going for alot cheaper (even with exchange rates) than in Oz. Can they easily be used over here or am I in for a world of pain if I buy one? I am looking at the Magellan XL.

[+dj_hansen+]

Nope, they work fine.. if it has a map base, you have to update it to an Australian one if u want detailed roads etc.

Next Destination is bound by its Magellan Contract to support your GPS, bought in Australia or not.

[Vineboy]

Thanks +dj_hansen+. What is excatly is a "Base map" and how do you change it over? I read somewhere about "secret codes"!

[wrksux]

I bought a magellan explorist 600 from the us, you have to buy the maps here i bought the discover aus topo for 400. the base maps wont work here, this means when you zoom out more than 5km on the explorist it reverts back to the base map which doesnt exist, this is no real problem for me as i have paper maps so i can plan my route and use the topo feautre on the GPS which is only viewable under 2.5km zoom on my 600.

When i bought from the US i saved 600 by purchasing it there and buying australian maps as opposed to doing it all here.

hope this helps

[festy]

I know you said you're looking at a Magellan, but if you brought a garmin in from the US you could upload the free Tracks4Australia maps which are far better than the standard base map anyway. There's also a free contour line set for the Garmin as well, but I don't know of anything like that free for Magellan.

[Ruggers]

u can change the base maps on the magellans i have the map around some where and there is secret menu that allows you to change it cant remember what it is but its like up down up down up enter.

[Ruggers]

u can change the base maps on the magellans i have the map around some where and there is secret menu that allows you to change it cant remember what it is but its like up down up down up enter.

[wrksux]

how? please PM me the details ive spoken to many people who said its difficult and almost no one has the basemaps, its something ive been looking for, for quite some time

[sir_camel]

I know you said you're looking at a Magellan, but if you brought a garmin in from the US you could upload the free Tracks4Australia maps which are far better than the standard base map anyway. There's also a free contour line set for the Garmin as well, but I don't know of anything like that free for Magellan.

Anyone got more comments or info on this? Where do you get the Tracks4Australia maps? Are they detailed?

[Bush65]

I know you said you're looking at a Magellan, but if you brought a garmin in from the US you could upload the free Tracks4Australia maps which are far better than the standard base map anyway. There's also a free contour line set for the Garmin as well, but I don't know of anything like that free for Magellan.

Anyone got more comments or info on this? Where do you get the Tracks4Australia maps? Are they detailed?

Information here http://www.gpsoz.com.au/tracks4australia/ Free version is 39MB.

[LuxyBoy]

Aren't they calibrated differently for Northern and Southern hemisperes

[festy]

Aren't they calibrated differently for Northern and Southern hemisperes

Compasses are calibrated to a region, but GPSrs aren't.

[LuxyBoy]

Nope, they work fine.. if it has a map base, you have to update it to an Australian one if u want detailed roads etc.

Next Destination is bound by its Magellan Contract to support your GPS, bought in Australia or not.

Copy of an email i sent them:

On an internet forum recently the following quote was stated:

"Next Destination is bound by its Magellan Contract to support your GPS, bought in Australia or not."

Is this correct?
If i have a GPS unit purchased in the U.S. and want the base map changed to Australian can this be done by your company?
If it is still under warranty will i incur costs for the above mentioned work; if so how much?


Wait and see what they come back with

[wrksux]

Next Destination have been nothig short of appauling when dealing with the public for both GPS units and there mapping software, its now something like 6 months overdue for the PC software for Discover Aus topo they have the worst customer care ive encounterd in a long time.

[wrksux]

Nope, they work fine.. if it has a map base, you have to update it to an Australian one if u want detailed roads etc.

Next Destination is bound by its Magellan Contract to support your GPS, bought in Australia or not.

Copy of an email i sent them:

On an internet forum recently the following quote was stated:

"Next Destination is bound by its Magellan Contract to support your GPS, bought in Australia or not."

Is this correct?
If i have a GPS unit purchased in the U.S. and want the base map changed to Australian can this be done by your company?
If it is still under warranty will i incur costs for the above mentioned work; if so how much?


Wait and see what they come back with

it can be done but they wanted something like $400 to do it, head over to groundspeak.com and there is a lot of info on GPS units and a bit on how un help full next destination is

[LuxyBoy]

reply from email sent to Next Destination:

dear sir
yes we are bound by magellan. as long as it is a legal purchase from a magellan dealer. which also applies to units purchased on e-bay from legal dealers which all warranty claims must have a letterhead stating they are a magellan dealer this can be confirmed by magellan offices.
there is only 2 dealers in australia who trade on e-bay the rest are back door importers and all units are deemed 2nd hand

we are the only place that can load the australian base map and there is a cost involved $299-00 plus postage.
that also includes units under warranty

I can't see how they justify the charge when it is as simple as a firmware upgrade 5mins max
Still save $200 buying from the US and then getting it updated

[wrksux]

I forgot to add im in the process of finding people who I believe have been mislead by next destination regarding DIscover Aus Topo Maps. They said a CD and software for PC would be made available very soon, this was last October (05).
Now straight from the horses mouth a rep in WA has said they couldnt find a way to stop piracy so they wont release it for 6 months, this was in january and still no sign of any realese soon.
Now I bought the maps becuase I wanted to use them on PC aswell i could have bought another product but didnt becuase this one would do all i wanted and work with my GPS, im now waiting for a reply about them misleading myself, the public and others with the product but suprise suprise the person dealing with it is on holiday for another 2 weeks. if you can avoid all dealings with next destination

[Vineboy]

Thanks for the useful tips esp' customer backup. I'm going off Magellan. This PC thing would make me angry too. Garmin are looking better. What about Tomtom?
Cheers,
Andrew

[wrksux]

Garmin are a better product Imo even though i own a magellan but at the time it was the only one that could accept Sd cards which i think is a must becuase it not only allows for detailed map expansion but also a large memory of trips and tracks, as well as custom markers