A Hiking GPS                                                  05/15/25
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There   has    been   some    talk   in    telem   (local    BBS)   on
zaibatsu.circumluar.space, about  old hiking  GPSes. The thread  is on
the RETROCOMP board,  titled Garmin eTrex Venture, and  was started by
solderpunk. It  make me recall  the Garmin GPS  12, which a  friend of
mine had in the  late 90s. It was the first GPS unit  I had ever seen,
and the idea that one could  track their location using satellites was
amazing to me back then. It still is, I'm just more used to it now.

The thread  also got me recalling  that I have always  wanted a hiking
GPS that isn't connected to some privacy-robbing cell plan. So, I took
to ebay as solderpunk had done, with the goal of finding a unit in the
$20 range.  I came out with  a Magellan eXplorist 210.  After some odd
drama with  the USPS  (the thing  took a few  days to  show up  on the
tracking radar, then it sat in Kansas  City for a couple days, then it
sat  in Columbia  for two  more days  for no  apparent reason,  before
finally arriving here four days after the projected delivery date), it
is finally here.

It has a serial number starting  with 112, and had the 3.1.75 firmware
installed, dated  2005. Unit is  clean, and scratch free,  very sturdy
and easy  to hold.  One minor  complaint is, the  seal on  the battery
compartment  seems a  little too  puffy, so  the battery  cover has  a
slight gap. However, it does appear to be watertight.

Powered it  on, and everything appeared  to be working. Man,  I really
love these old LCD screens, I  wish there were more modern electronics
that used them. Using the included USB serial cable, I transferred all
the internal files  for a baseline backup, then  started attempting to
use it.  Nothing seemed  off, but  I was unable  to get  a fix  on the
satellites from my front yard. Drove out  to a wide open field not far
from here and tried again, still with no luck. I could see/track three
satellites, but it wouldn't give me a position.

There's a page online that has  some hidden diagnostic and repair menu
info, so I tried a few things  there[1], but with no luck. I connected
the NMEA feed up  and looked at it, and saw plenty  of data, but still
no fix on my position.

Read a little online, and found that some people had updated their 210
units using an EU firmware version 3.2.57 (replacing the NA background
maps  afterward). Specifically,  people with  serial numbers  starting
in  112  were  having  success.  Found the  firmware  in  question  on
GPSrchive[2]. It  installed very cleanly  (you run their  program with
the GPS connected  in file transfer mode, it takes  care of the rest),
and I was able to restore the NA maps as well.

Thankfully, things started working properly after the firmware update.
I was able to  get a 2D position and then a 3D  one. I look forward to
fiddling with  this thing  a little  more. One  feature I  was excited
about  was  that  it  is  supposed  to  show  waterways…  I  have  a
multi-night river  trip coming up  next month,  and hope to  take this
with me. You'll perhaps hear a little more about it then!

[1] https://www.gpsfaqs.org/faqs/magellan/explorist/explorist210/undocumented.html
[2] https://www.gpsrchive.com/Magellan/eXplorist/eXplorist%20x00/eXplorist%20210.html