# warning for all looking for GPS



## ccart58 (Mar 5, 2010)

just a small warning for all my friends and fishing buddy's, last year after getting my boat I decided I needed a GPS mainly for speed as I like to troll alot, I looked around a found a Magellan hand held unit at a good price, I wanted a mount unit but being disabled I just didnt have that much money for one, I got the triton hand held GPS, made by Magellan. The first time I took it out I thought this is great just for the MPH had it on for about 1 Hr looked at the screen to check the speed and saw it was so dim I couldnt read it, I new right away the battery's was going out so I turned it off and thought I must have got some bad battery's, after we got home I went and bought top dollar battery's for the unit you know $10 (aa battery's) put them in the unit and took it out fishing agian, well they did work better (lasted about 1-1/2) and of course there is no power plug in on it, So I just wanted to let all of you know you might be saving money getting a hand held unit but plan on buying stock in a battery factory to use it, I dont know how anyone could use it for hiking you would have to carry a back pack full of battery's with you! JUst thought I would pass this info on to you hope this helps you decide the unit you buy!


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## firstflight111 (May 22, 2008)

you know they make rechargable batterys now right ..


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

Thanks for the heads up. I hate stuff that churns thru batteries and I dislike rechargeable's even more. Who wants to carry around a pocket full of batteries?

May I recommend a Garmin e-trex, they are great little units and the batteries hold up reasonably well. I've had one for years.


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## freyedknot (Apr 10, 2004)

to use them constantly a 12 volt power cord is priceless.


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## Misdirection (Jul 16, 2012)

freyedknot said:


> to use them constantly a 12 volt power cord is priceless.


+1
I have a 12 volt power cord for my backup handheld. Their worth the price...

posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


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## ccart58 (Mar 5, 2010)

the triton has no place to plug in a 12volt cord!


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## Diamondback (Jul 29, 2004)

Google it and you can find them on-line. Amazon had one pretty cheap. I could not post the link for it.The power cord will screw on to the back of the unit where the 4 metal contacts are.


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## Insco (Apr 9, 2008)

It says they make a power adaptor that uses the usb port.


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## ccart58 (Mar 5, 2010)

thanks diamondback I ordered one from amozon today , my triton 400 book didnt even tell that there was a 12 volt power cord for my unit thanks agian this will help out on the unit being a battery hog!


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## Diamondback (Jul 29, 2004)

No problem. I have 2 of the units that I bought at Walmart. While using battery power the screen will go dark automatically to save on battery life. With the power cord it should stay bright because it does not have to dim to save the batteries. Did the battery indicator show that the batteries were low?
Google Magellan Triton and you can find forums where they tell you how you can load aerial photos to the unit and topographical maps.


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## ccart58 (Mar 5, 2010)

I would love to load maps of Hoover, Alum, and buckeye lake on it but I dont know how


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## ccart58 (Mar 5, 2010)

would it work if I bought a lakemaster sd card and pluged it into the magellan triton?


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## Diamondback (Jul 29, 2004)

No, that would not work and the only topographical maps that you can use that I know of is land based. I think magellan use to make a lake maps chip for the hand held GPS. You can still mark fishing spots as waypoints. Navanonics use to have a computer based program of lake maps that you could get the coordinates off of and enter them into your GPS.


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## duxsrus (Mar 3, 2011)

Can you turn the WAAS off on that model? I know you can on the Etrex models and it something like doubles the battery life. If you're just using it as a speedometer you won't need the accuracy of the WAAS system but could turn it on when you're trying to find a specific point.


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## Jmsteele187 (Dec 22, 2011)

firstflight111 said:


> you know they make rechargable batterys now right ..


Rechargeable batteries are a good way to really shorten the lifespan of any kind of electronics. A typical AA battery is 1.5 volts, where a rechargeable is 1.2 volts. Because of the lower voltage, the electronics struggle to work properly and burn out quicker.


Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


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## ccart58 (Mar 5, 2010)

I have bought the 12 plug in for the unit and also I got a holder to mount on the dash so I will give it another try this year thanks for all the help on this I didnt know they even had a power plug for this unit!


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## MassillonBuckeye (May 3, 2010)

Jmsteele187 said:


> Rechargeable batteries are a good way to really shorten the lifespan of any kind of electronics. A typical AA battery is 1.5 volts, where a rechargeable is 1.2 volts. Because of the lower voltage, the electronics struggle to work properly and burn out quicker.
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


Completely untrue. You'd think after 30 years they'd fix that fatal flaw yeah? .2v some magical unicorn of battery strength?? No. Regular batteries(non alkaline) are only 1.5v for the first few seconds of discharge. Source of this info? Think about all the devices out tere today with rechargable cells......


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## Dan44149 (Apr 12, 2011)

Jmsteele187 said:


> Rechargeable batteries are a good way to really shorten the lifespan of any kind of electronics. A typical AA battery is 1.5 volts, where a rechargeable is 1.2 volts. Because of the lower voltage, the electronics struggle to work properly and burn out quicker.
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


Um... please support this theory with scientific documentation/source of some kind?



MassillonBuckeye said:


> Completely untrue. You'd think after 30 years they'd fix that fatal flaw yeah? .2v some magical unicorn of battery strength?? No. Regular batteries(non alkaline) are only 1.5v for the first few seconds of discharge. Source of this info? Think about all the devices out tere today with rechargable cells......


Totally agree. Electronics are my profession, and this is the first I would have heard of it in all my years of schooling and experience.

Over-voltage/over-current would cause issues... but the only adverse effects you will see from under-voltage/under-current issues are the same as with "dead batteries." Now, if you were speaking in terms of electric drive motors... that would be a totally different story, and even then, you'd only see issues with the mechanical parts.


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## CaptainSteve (Mar 5, 2013)

Very helpful stuff here!


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