DeLorme Earthmate GPS Receiver

Other products by DeLorme

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001XE07
• Item model number: AE-001505-201
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #59,641 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description
Never Get Lost Again! The Earthmate GPS Receiver is a high-performance, easy-to-use link to the satellite navigation technology of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Earthmate and a laptop PC will show your location on detailed Street Atlas USA maps. An arrow shows your position in real time on street-level maps, so you always know where you are and where you need to be. Earthmate features a durable housing with a moisture-resistant seal and is designed to withstand a wide variety of road conditions. Unlike many other GPS receivers, Earthmate can be powered by four AAA batteries. This is especially important when using Earthmate with handheld or laptop computers in a car where available power is already being used.

Manufacturer Description
Earthmate is a high-performance, easy-to-use receiver that links to the satellite navigation technology of the global positioning system (GPS). Plus, Earthmate features the latest Rockwell technology and is fully integrated with antennas and serial cable. Earthmate comes with Street Atlas USA 6.0 to show your location on street-level maps. Earthmate shows your position on the map and moves with you as you travel. Earthmate also provides your speed, direction of travel, elevation, latitude, and longitude. It updates these values and your position every two seconds.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

118 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works great you always know where you are, October 31, 1999

By	Walter ([e-mail]) (St. Francisville, LA) - See all my reviews

I purchased this for $199 at on of the large computer stores. I was not listed on here at the time. The thing works great but eats batteries. Go to the manufactures site after you buy it and order the power adapter for the thing for $29.00 or get both adapters for $39.00 that's what I did. I travel alot and use it everyday. Takes me to the middle of nowhere turn by turn and does not miss.

58 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My first impression: Great!!, August 12, 2000

By A Customer

I was very interested when I learned that there were products that allowed the integration of a street map atlas with a GPS and laptop computer. Sounded like an excellent tool for travelling. After exploring a number of options on the Web, it appeared that the Delorme Earthmate with Street Atlas USA was the way to go, although I read as many bad reviews as good. The price was certainly reasonable and I decided, why not? I must say that after two days of seeing what this thing can do, I am truly impressed. The Street Atlas was a breeze to set up and I love the feature that allows you to copy regions to the hard drive, so this thing will run sans CD. The included Earthmate GPS amazed me for its diminutive size and good construction, as I appreciated the inclusion of the rubber feet and rubber stripping around the unit. Within 5 minutes the GPS had initialized and I became a green dot on the map showing my neighborhood. I immediately jumped into the car and wathched my progress on the screen as a friend drove me around town. The accuracy amazed me. Then I got serious to see what this unit could do. If I had to make a negative comment, it would have to be the lack of instructional material. Two (tiny) booklets come in the package that do little more than explain the setup. There is a tutorial built into the program, but it did not have the same functionality as a reference manual. However, if the lack of documentation is helping to keep this package at this steal of a price, then I'm all for it. After three-and-a-half hours of playing, I had a good handle on all of the features of the software and was ready to plan my first trip. There is a great deal of information available on these maps, including restaurants and lodging and services available off the various exits on the highways. You can enter the name of a restaurant, and Street Atlas will locate it for you on the map. You can then take the laptop/GPS combo in the car, and it will give you real time verbal instuctions as you are driving. Pretty cool! Some of the "points of interest" were not in the right spot on the map, and some were long gone, but I can't fault the software for not knowing that the pizza place at the shore went out of business six months ago. All in all, it is a package that appears to do what it is designed to do. Whether or not it is practical in the long run to have all this equipment running in the car (you can swap the laptop for a smaller device) has yet to be determined, but my first impression is actually beyond my expectations.

93 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Delorme Customer Support is NON existent, December 19, 1999

By	Vance Jochim "vjochim" (Mount Dora, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Delorme Mapping Software Customer Support is EXTREMELYpoor

Ireally looked forward to using this product, but my experiencetrying to get support indicates not to ever buy their products because you can never get any technical support if a glitch does occur.

I purchased a Delorme software mapping package titled Street Atlas USA ver 7.0 bundled with a GPS Earthmate device. Also purchased a Map N Go software from Delorme that added AAA points of interest information to the map database.

After installing the second package, you could not see the maps, only the points and any trip lines, but no streets or names or city names, etc. I was never able to get it to work for my trip to test how it worked for a business application.

Here are all the efforts I had to go thru to try and get the software and hardware to work on my NEW Compaq laptop - which never did result in fixing the software, so I returned it because I could never get any one from Tech support to even answer my memo, etc.:

I read their really THIN manuals which were little booklets inserted in the CD-Rom jewel cases, and they were no help.

I visited their website and could not find any tech item related to the problems I had. They seem to rely on simple lists of most frequent questions, and do not have decent way of researching problems.

I tried calling their tech support number which is NOT an 800 number, and they are located in Maine (and I am on the West Coast). Their hours are normal "business day hours" on the East coast and no evening or weekend hours. I waited on hold for 10 minutes, but the generic hold message said that wait time averaged 20 minutes, which is TOO long for a new customer, especially when the average may not be met when you call.

Thus, I sent them an email.

I did NOT receive an answer, but received an 'Automated" standard troubleshooting 15+ page document for me to wade through. When I sent the question to one of three addresses they said you could use for "follow up" it was RETURNED by the web, no addressee known.

Delorme tech support is non-existent, and since their software does not work, I have returned it and the GPS unit and will never buy any product from Delorme in the future - this is NOT an easy company to get customer support from. Do NOT buy their products because you can't ever get any help within a reasonable time. If your time and phone call expense is zero, then maybe you can wait them out, but I cannot.

Vance Jochim Certified Lotus Notes Developer - was looking at this product to bundle it with a corporate Lotus Notes application, but will never consider Delorme again.