Magellan eXplorist 500LE North America

by RoyS
(Sacramento, CA, USA)

I was not in the market for a GPS, but back in March while waiting for my wife and kids to show up at Wal Mart (there was a NASCAR show car in front and my kids are big fans), I browsed over to the sporting goods section and saw a bunch of GPSs on clearance. The eXplorist 210 was $40, etrex Legends were $30 and this eXplorist 500LE NA was $49. Needless to say I jumped on it. It also had a tag to purchase Mapsend Topo USA for $9.99 so I sprung for that also. I figured that if I didn't like it, I could easily recoup my money by reselling it on ebay.

I will certainly not be getting rid of this for a long time. I have found it very useful on many occasions that I didn't know I would have uses for it.

I used it to easily relocate my parked car after going to an air show with 100s of acres of unmarked parking.

I use it on fitness walks (5+ miles/day) to keep track of pace and distance. I have the 500LE in a little belt loop bag, the kind usually used for compact cameras. This makes it very easy to pull out and check periodically.

I've used it to track photo shoots. Since it logs time and location, I found software to match the GPS log to the photograph timestamp and can correlate them on a map.

I've also used it to track several plane trips across the country. It's fun to track the plane rides going up to 37k ft and 500+ MPH. Peeking at the GPS as you go across the country is a great way to know where you are and how far you still need to go. I used to use my Garmin c330 for this, but the 500 is much smaller and easier to sit next to the window for a good track.

MapSend Topo USA works very well for loading detailed maps of sections of the US. IT DOES NOT CONTAIN HIKING TRAILS. Don't buy this if you think you are getting USGS detailed maps. OTOH, in conjunction with a USGS topo map, you will be as well equipped as a Boy Scout with a compass :). You can use MSTUSA to plot a trail following a USGS map in conjunction with the computer. You can then load it into the 500 and you will be good to go. You should never go on a hike into an unknown area without a paper map anyway (at least that's how I was raised). You can put the entire detailed map of the USA (in sections) on a 2GB SD card which fits in the GPS under the battery. It takes several minutes to render the map on the computer, several more to convert it to explorist format and several more to load it via USB 1.1 onto the 500. You can load it via your own 2.0 card reader, but then you'll have to disassemble the 500 to get to the card holder.

LiIon battery is good, the included AAA holder is very fragile and AAA's only last for a few hours, so use them only as a last resort. Get a spare battery and charger on ebay and you will be good to go.

Another warning: Mapsend Direct Route may work in a pinch for navigating around in a car, but it doesn't come close to an auto GPS by any means. The screen is way too small, there are no voice or audible prompts and focusing closely to the 500 screen back to infinity while driving may be dangerous. The same goes for trying to street navigate with a laptop running GPS software, it gets old very fast. For the price, get a low end GPS like the Garmin c330 or some other dedicated auto GPS. Use the right tool for the right job.