eXplorist 500 LE North America Update to 2.57

by RoyS
(Sacramento, CA, USA)

I just updated my 500LE North America with the 2.57 European update this past weekend. I followed the instructions letter by letter, backing up everything first. I must say that after six months of good use with this GPS, it's as if I just bought a whole new unit. The additional customizable screens are amazing. Now I know why the Meridian owners lamented the loss of their screens when they moved over to the eXplorist.

Now on my fitness walks and bike rides, I can get speed, average speed, distance, direction and time on one screen and set up the GPS to display just that screen and the map screen (if I want) with one push button swap from one screen to the other and back. No more running through 4-5 screens to look for 2 pieces of information.

Some web pages say you will lose WAAS, but I still have it after my upgrade. The upgrade loses the basemap, but I simply reloaded it from my computer after the restart and everything came up fine. Accuracy with my Mapsend Topo 3D created regional maps still seem to be fine and a bike ride around my neighborhood confirmed everything worked out well.

The only other setting I had to change was that the units which defaulted to km/kph and I simply changed it to miles/mph to suit my use.

Be sure to read and follow the instructions and be very wary if you don't have the right firmware/serial number. If you have the wrong ones, I would simply skip the upgrade and live with what you have rather than risk bricking your eXplorist which has happened to some other poor folks.