Magellan MapSend Lite V2 for Explorists

tank47 · Post by **tank47** » 17 July 06 8:56 pm

Just received this in an email from Nexdestination.MapSend Lite V2, the new Magellan compatible GPS to PC viewing software is now available from http://www.nextdestination.com.au/news/#46 and itÃ‚â€™s FREE!
With MapSend Lite V2 you can view your Magellan certified preloaded SD card maps stored on the big screen of your PC!

The Explorer · Post by **The Explorer** » 18 July 06 12:39 pm

Had a quick play - uses installed mapsend products as layers - so if you have DiscoverAus, Great Desert Tracks and the old Mapsend WA (for example) you can switch between them all (you can not have more than one on at a time). You can also load an (explorist) basemap as a background. It has file manager for exchanging files (waypoints etc) to/from GPS (meridian or explorist) but you can not "cut" maps and upload - you still need to use the proper DAST program for that (or buy the Topo SD card).

Cheers
Greg

GIN51E · Post by **GIN51E** » 18 July 06 11:11 pm

What can i say but this is a fantastic little bit of software, i'll give a few examples for those who are unsure if its worth it and i'll point out a couple faults.

First i started off by installing the program then loading my Discover Aus maps into it so it now works just as my Mapsend Discover Aus one did.

except i now have a couple of extra features. With my old Discover Aus if i wanted to view caches i had to run my PQ through GPSBabel so i could load them onto the Map

Now with this new Mapsend i can load the PQ directly into Mapsend so it will display all cache icons on the map.

(sorry for the lack of icons other than Traditional but this is my found PQ)

Then once the caches are loaded you can even run your own search through all of the caches, you can then load just those search results directly into your GPS.

When you move the pointer over a cache it gives you all of its details, Active or Archived, last found, placed etc.

You can also click on links at the bottom right which will display the cache description, hints (which comes up with a warning saying you shouldn't read the cache hints before looking for the cache and asks if your sure you want to view the hint) also a link which will take you straight to the GCA page listing.

If you load a GPX file which containes the additional cache waypoints it also displays them.
(although don't bother uploading to the GPS as the additional waypoint is missing a name so it wont be displayed on the gps, yet if you get a PQ you can load the additional wpts into the GPS as a points of interest file so they will be displayed and you also wont mix them up with caches)

although one bad feature which i hopes will be fixed during the beta testing is the printout of the map doesn't display the cache name, as with the old program i had to load my caches in as a wpt file which meant when i printed out a map of an area i had all the cache names or ID's on the printout so i could quickly look at the map, work out what i was going to go after next and look it up in the PDA and GPS, this program still does it with wpts but sadly doesn't place a name next to the cache on the printout which is a big issue if i was making a printout of planned caches for the day.

The other problem is it doesn't understand GA GPX files it is very limited with the information it displays and due to the fact it only displays a ID number and no Name, when you load the caches into the GPS the GPS wont display them because they are missing a name Entry.

so only a couple of negatives but otherwise its everything Discover Aus was except been enhanced with Geocaching features reducing the amount of work i need to do before running out the door to find them.

It is also meant to have a great feature where if you load the Discover Aus Topo maps into it then you can view the maps in 3D which would be pretty cool.

rogainer · Post by **rogainer** » 18 July 06 11:13 pm

I have been waiting for this software since I bought Discover Aus topo 6 months ago. 
They have done a pretty good job - it is great at last to be able to get full potential out of all the data on the SD card and see a large area on the PC screen and even print your own topo maps out if you want. 
I particularly like the 3D viewing mode they have added - lots of fun spinning around your area of interest. Overall, A fairly major revamp of the software. Interestingly, they have ditched the import/export excel file and added GPX support instead. I quite liked the Excel file - I used it very recently in some custom mapping I was doing.

GIN51E · Post by **GIN51E** » 19 July 06 12:46 am

Next Destination site seems to be down,

so visit this link if you wish to download the program
http://www.magellangps.com/products/map ... RODID=1717

Grank · Post by **Grank** » 19 July 06 7:15 am

GIN51E wrote:Next Destination site seems to be down,

so visit this link if you wish to download the program
http://www.magellangps.com/products/map ... RODID=1717

TFT - answered my question why I kept getting redirected to some "reynolds" site everytime I tried the link in the Next Destination email and couldn't even google it.

stickler · Post by **stickler** » 22 July 06 6:17 pm

Finally, the software I have been hanging out for a year has arrived! Looks good and I may be able to ditch Oziexplorer once and for all. Geocaching will now be even easier!?

arthurking83 · Post by **arthurking83** » 22 July 06 9:56 pm

I emailed Nextdestination the other day and they responded in quick time, about the fact that you can't view the DAST topo mapping if you own a Meridian (on Mapsend Lite).

It only supports explorist imi file types, but Nextdestination reckon they are working on the issue and may have a solution soon (they said give us a week)

Even so I would have thought it should still work with DAST v1 regardless of map file format?
(nope that don't work for me either

)
It must read the generated imi files stored in DAST 'export' directory??

stickler · Post by **stickler** » 29 July 06 9:52 am

Tool doesn't seem to work on Dis Aus Topo when clicking over roads and tracks etc. (works on the GPS but not the software).

Any ideas?

GIN51E · Post by **GIN51E** » 29 July 06 12:12 pm

stickler wrote:Tool doesn't seem to work on Dis Aus Topo when clicking over roads and tracks etc. (works on the GPS but not the software).

Any ideas?

when the mouse goes over a road etc look at the bottom left of the screen and it should say what the mouse is over

stickler · Post by **stickler** » 29 July 06 12:26 pm

Thanks for the reply, and yes the road/track name is highlighted in the bottom left, but I understand that when clicking the road, you then get the vertical profile?

GIN51E · Post by **GIN51E** » 29 July 06 12:36 pm

i can't answer that as i don't have Topo

GIN51E · Post by **GIN51E** » 02 September 06 8:52 pm

One mistake i made today was this morning i opened up a PQ of where i planned on heading today, sifted through all the caches and selected just the ones i planned on finding, quickly saved the caches to the computer so i didn't loose them all and went off and did some other work, came back to see i actually saved the file as a .gs file which is ok as i wanted to transfer them over to the GPS but i also wanted to send them to my Palm,

so i reopened Mapsend and loaded the .gs file and resaved it as a GPX file so i could load it into Cachemate. yup all worked out very well until i was out in the field and went to look up the caches and found i didn't have any cache descriptions on the Palm because they were all lost when the file was originally saved as a .gs file

at least they were all traditionals that i was looking for.

Geocaching Australia

Magellan MapSend Lite V2 for Explorists

Magellan MapSend Lite V2 for Explorists

Query re "Elevation Profile"

Re: Query re "Elevation Profile"

Elevation Profile Tool