Customer Reviews

Magellan GPS Companion for Palm V/Vx

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I got the Magellan GPSCompanion from my wife for Christmas. Wow! It fits so easily over my Palm V, the software loads easily, what a great idea! I travel a lot on business, and looked forward to using it to navigate in a way similar to the GPS Units in rental cars. Match made in heaven, right?

Well almost. Two software packages come with the unit; NavCompanion and MapCompanion. One allows plotting, waypoints etc. like a first generation GPS unit. The second has maps, but the two don't speak. Kind of a cruel joke... Also, the documentation for both programs is practically non-existent, so you learn by doing.

MapCompanion doesn't provide directions, only markers for where you are and where you need to go. Combine this with a small monochrome display on the Palm, and things get unworkable pretty quickly. Also, the software calculates distances to destination in a straight line; great if you're orienteering straight over mountains and can walk across lakes, slightly less useful for those of us who travel by car.

I also tried the unit in on a flight to see if I could track our speed, direction, and position, but couldn't get a signal fix from my window seat, even at 30,000 feet. OK, no big deal on this one, but wouldn't it be fun?

Travelling several hundred miles results in the unit taking several minutes to acquire a fix, and actually it isn't that much faster even at home. In terms of accuracy, standing in one spot and setting the waypoint function several times over the course of about 30 minutes gave readings up to 200 feet different; pretty neat but well outside the 13 or so feet advertised.

However, when all is said and done, I'm sure that better software will come, or may already be available in the aftermarket. This will greatly improve the unit's practical utility, but it sure is a neat toy, even if only to tell you within a couple of hundred feet how far you are from your desk from your gate at the airport in Chicago!

I purchased the Magellan GPS attachment for my Palm Vx two weeks ago and, overall, have been very impressed.

The GPS attachment itself is very compact and attaches with no increase in the Palm's footprint, though it doubles the Palm's thickness and the antenna does stick out a few inches. While very stylish, one caveat is that the unit no longer fits inside the Palm's hard-case when the GPS unit is attached - so it's back to using the flimsy screen cover that came with the Palm.

Satellite acquisition time usually takes between a minute and three minutes: this is a bit longer than car or boat based systems, but not unreasonable given Magellan unit's size and price. I've been able to track satellites while driving and hiking, though bridges and heavy tree cover caused some loss of signal strength.

I was initially concerned about the quality of the Magellan unit, as it feels very light (the body is a converted Palm modem case). Also, the unit's `clip' that attaches to the small hole in the back of the Palm was slightly mis-aligned and I had to bend them a bit to make the GPS attach to the Palm. However, the GPS has survived a few drops and dings, so it appears sturdy enough for use on the go.

Battery life is better than I would have expected: usually about 8 hours with the 2 AAA batteries. The documentation says that the unit turns itself off after a few minutes of inactivity, but it would have been nice if there was a `on/off' light just to be sure.

The provided software works well, but is fairly sparse, given the capabilities of the Palm. The NAV Companion software is very cool: it displays speed, direction, satellite signal strength, etc. as well as tracking waypoints and mapping routes. I haven't made much use of the Map Companion software, but it allows you to see your position on downloadable maps. The maps are fairly large, so if you have a Palm V, you may be pressed for memory space. I've also been using the GPS with the Vindigo city guide software with great success.

The Magellan GPS unit is basically identical to the Rand McNally Streetfinder GPS unit also sold on Amazon (Magellan manufactures both units). The Rand McNally unit received TERRIBLE reviews; however, most complaints were about the Rand McNally software NOT the GPS unit itself. Actually, the Rand McNally version is only $20 more and comes with a car power adapter and car mount (which cost quite a bit more if purchased on the Magellan website), so the Rand McNally version might be a good alternative if you plan to use it in the car - though I wouldn't install the lousy Rand McNally software!

It works much better that I expected for such a compact unit. The maps are great, they cover any corner of the US and then some: (Porto Rico, Hawaii, Guam, Alaska). It's not as good as my wife's $2000 car navigation system, but for the price, hey, it is a good substitute, and I can take it with me anywhere. The map program has a little pointer (tracking indicator), you set your destination, and it will keep you on course till you reach it. It gets the fix and keeps it even if you have it on your lap. It's easy to use but, definitely, at first I was a bit confused. Only after reading its manual I fully realized that to get the satellites I had to set the correct date/time/GMT and tap Start, or I'll have to wait a long time. Only after the proper "initialization" it started to work beautifully. Duh, I wish someone had told me before.

I bought several GPS for many Palm PDAs. Overall I consider this one the best for the V/Vx for several reasons: Sleek form factor, very light, easy to clip-on/off, good battery life and external power connector, gets and KEEPS fix even when not pointed to the sky or placed on the dashboard. I am quite amazed seeing totally different comments. Furthermore the software that comes with it works quite nicely. The MapCompanion has the fastest continuous seamless scrolling of any similar programs and its maps are the most compact ones. No wonder, it is just a rebranded version of MarcoSoft's well known Quo Vadis. I even tried it thru high mountains. It did show the right altitude at all times. In New York and other cities too it worked perfectly well showing my position with an acceptable precision.

The GPS unit comes with CD ROM with help file for documentation, a set of US maps (300 Meg) and two Palm applications, NavCompanion and MapCompanion. The maps are arranged by city with State / County / directory structure and one can download these 'databases' using the hot sync install utility. The two software programs are fairly independent of each other and the Nav seems to work better than the Map program. If you want to know the takeoff velocity of the A320 flight you are on the Nav program is your choice - it works but you need to be in the window seat since the GPS signals are stopped by metal skins. When the pilot announced altitude -37,000 - the GPS matched and told me we had a nice tail wind since we were moving at 610 MPH. My many measurements of the same altitude says 30-50 feet is the typical error from day to day measurements. One of my favorite features is the waypoint - if you have ever wondered what you are looking at from the window seat, set a waypoint and later you can lookup the Latitude / Longitude values and see where you were. The Map program works very well once you get it started and setup. It automatically loads the map where you are and moves between them automatically. But I find the program is buggy (can't find the GPS sometimes) and needs improved menu items to provide the tracking / scrolling / destination options. When it works, it is very smooth and fairly accurate (30-60 feet). Overall, I think this hardware is excellent and the software will improve. I'm looking forward to the Map program talking with the address book so it can look up the address for you. It already knows the names of the streets - except when they have numbers. El Camino Real is simply 82 on the maps.

I read the Garmin manuals, then looked at this unit as add on for my Palm Vx, I liked the idea of the larger screen of the Palm, and the cost was 1/3 to 1/2 less than a stand alone unit. I gave it 5 stars because it does what it does (which may be limited for some) well.

For my use, having local maps on my PDA and finding lat/long coords on occasion, it seemed like a great buy, it has a lot to offer for the price. The mapping software alone is extensive and functional, and does not requre the use of the GPS to use it which I find handy. I would liek to see Magellan look into some software upgrades in the furure, like being able to see local road names at a scale larger than .5 miles, and maybe a large scales map at the state level showing main roads. But it works, the Map software worked right out of the box. It also connected to the GPS unit and worked fine, but placed my position on the map about 170 feet West of my true location, still not bad.

The NAV software out of the box didn't work at all, I got a Fatal Alert from memorymgr.c when I tried to use it. Magellan is not the best at self-directed troubleshooting (there is none on the supplied CD or on their web site). I did a web search and found a few nuggets on the Palm website, but nothing directly related to my problem. I figured out an upgrade to my Palm OS from 3.5.0 to 3.5.3 might help, it did not. I looked further on the Magellan website and found an undocumented upgrade to the NAV companion. Once downloaded and installed the NAV software worked fine, makes you wonder.

Basically the unit works well as a basic GPS and mapping software suite, it does the job. I would think twice before going hiking in the mountains with it, but for road navigation it is handy. For the price it is a bargin.

I am impressed by this what this relatively inexpensive unit can do. The accuracy and distance calculations are quite accurate, matching my car's speedometer and odometer. I had no problems with the software as some have reported. My only complaint is the unit is cheaply built, even though the design is pleasing. I figured...they should at least build something which the antenna doesn't wobble. The metal clip connection is also cheesy and a bit unstable. Other than poorly manufactured casing, the unit performs wonderfully.

I have used this Magellan for my Palm Vx for 5 months. The Nav software is about as good as any handheld GPS. The standard Map software is Ok but it doesn't allow for a route. I added Delorme Solus 3.0 for its mapping and route directions. Now I can't believe what this setup will do. You can down load maps from the internet with route directions complete with turn by turn directions with an alarm to alert you when to turn. You may need to split your trip into sections to go through the cities you want and also download city maps to get more detail of city streets.

Nothing is perfect but for a [$] GPS and [$] for the solus program there is not a [$] handheld GPS on the market that will compare.

I ordered this as a present for my husband, a salesman who tends to get lost but loves gadgets. He was appropriately delighted when he opened it but spent all day (in Los Angeles!) hoping it would find satellites to no avail. Technical support was not helpful. The killing blow was finding out that it does not support an exact street address--it only finds streets. That, and the fact that he would need to download maps before he got in the car each time generated a return slip. Either spend more to get a robust, stand-alone GPS or wait a year or so for the price/performance to improve.

We have really enjoyed this GPS for our palm; it works well overall, although the size of the maps takes some getting used to (the Palm does not hold many), and the segmenting of maps means you sometimes don't get everything you expect. Works well when loaded however!