JUst received a new PM3 a few days ago. Played around with it in the office a little bit, looks very promising. Took it out to the field today to try out some actual locations. It froze up and wouldn't turn off. Brought back to office, removed battery, started up again, now the touch screen is completely unresponsive. I have heard that there may be a problem already with these touch screens? I guess I'll have to send it back, I'm really losing my faith in Magellan, though I want to be able to use their equipment. Looks like I'll be back to old faithful PM2.

Get a refund while you can. You owe zero to Magellan, including loyalty. Any company that requires loyal customers to send back brand new equipment for "repairs" deserves to lose its customers in droves. Any customer who remains loyal to that kind of company is a fool.

there have been similar "issues" going back to late 2005.

A really fine idea at an ideal price . . . but it must work reliably

The "ideal price" can quickly double or triple, sometimes quadruple, with lost time/earnings in "fooling" with fine ideas that are not reliable. Reliable, low-cost substitutes for the real thing are pie in the sky.

I welcome gripes based upon legitimate experience, but I distrust those that sound too much like anonymous postings by a salesman for a competing brand.

I'm not familiar with your situation, jp, and your profile is a bit shy on details. Do you (or did you) own some Magellan/Thales/Ashtech gear that didn't perform as expected?

I welcome comments here based upon legitimate experience, but I distrust those that sound too much like part-time Magellan dealers pretending to be full-time practitioners. Anyone who reads this board regularly can clearly see that a large percentage of those who post here, especially those who constantly post nothing but positive comments, are Magellan dealers or are otherwise on the take with Magellan. That's why they are so loyal.

So tell me again, what qualifies you to welcome or not welcome gripes from anyone, or to put yourself forth as god of the board to pass judgement on the identity of others and on how much detail their profiles should contain?

What details - there are none or have I missed something? Anyway Bill, I heard a rumour that some of the early units released were a bit dodgey - they slipped through the QC part. Somewhere on the Magellan site there is info on whether your unit is RoHS compliant relating to the switch & other factors. You may have got one of those. I have had more than a few of those bad units. I am up to No.5 [or Curley, Larry, Moe, or blue one, yellow one, red one etc] in a little over a 18 mths. However my dealer has been good in giving me loan units while the others were repaired - to enable me to keep working. On the up side, the more I use them, the more I like them & would still recommend them.

Another question. Take Bill Eggers, personally, out of the equation and take for instance anyone in his shoes. What do you think anyone in that predicament should do? He's bought a brand new PM3 and it totally does not work. Should he send it back for replacement and take a big chance on getting another one with those same problems? That seems to be highly probable, based on what I've read on this very board. Or worse, should he send it in for "repair"? Should he be "loyal" to the company, which evidently doesn't really give a damn about him. Or should he get his money back and buy something that he knows will work? Rather than avoid the real question by sidetracking the issue with unnecessary suspicion about posters' identities, why not just answer the important question? What do you think someone in that predicament should do?

This says it all:

"I have had more than a few of those bad units. I am up to No.5 [or Curley, Larry, Moe, or blue one, yellow one, red one etc] in a little over a 18 mths."

Five "bad units" in only "18 mths."

It is amazing that anyone with such horrible experience would keep coming back for more.

Why? That's what has me intrigued. Why?

Why, the answer is in the last line. I live in an imperfect world and accept things go wrong. How long have you been sucking on that sour lemon?

Well I can understand that things go wrong. You get a bad battery every now an then, that's something you can expect once a year or so. You have a flat tire, that happens once every few years. A customer writes you a hot check, that's rare, but it happens. Your wife bitches at you for now reason every now and then, but heck, she's a woman. You get a speeding ticket and your insurance rates go up. So yes, things go wrong every now and then. But I would say that getting five bad pieces of very expensive equipment one after another from the same company in only 18 months qualifies for being classified as a wee bit more than just "things going wrong". Wouldn't you? This is amazing, and hilarious too. checkyalater

The New PM3 can do things that were not previously possible with an L1 receiver. NEW TECHNOLOGY can create it's own set of problems. Once sorted out the payback can be extreme.

Personally I do not care for touch screens. Considering the extra cost and weight for a full keyboard, different story??

Long time Magellan users are willing to wait, since once the kinks are out, previous products have been solid and profitable to the users.

The WAAS problems appear the result of relying on the government to not change horses in mid ride.

Paul in PA

Anyone who reads this board regularly can clearly see that a large percentage of those who post here, especially those who constantly post nothing but positive comments, are Magellan dealers or are otherwise on the take with Magellan. That's why they are so loyal.

Perhaps you and I define "large percentage" differently. My impression, based upon 6 or so years of hanging out here, is that there are relatively few Magellan employees or others "on the take" (whatever that means in this context) who regularly post. I see mostly users -- some with long experience using Ashtech gear, some less familiar with the mark and its successors -- who range from embittered to enthusiastic about their gear.

I find the PM3 RTK particularly intriguing, but acknowledge that there have been some problems with the product. I want to see posts by users who have hands-on experience with them, but prefer as high a signal-to-noise ratio as possible. That's why I look askance when an anonymous newbie comes along and does nothing but bash the brand. As I recall, it was this board that was visited some years ago by an employee of Topcon or one of its delaers who anonymously hyped the advantages of Topcon products over Ashtech models. I'd prefer that we not be subject to that sort of thing again.

As for my own bona fides, I'm not a Magellan dealer, nor am I "on the take." I'm not even a particularly loyal customer: I own 3 PM2s, 1 Z-12, and 7 Trimble L1/L2 units.

I had a gripe a number of years ago about the PM2 kinematic upgrade, and voiced it here. I reached a satisfactory solution with Ashtech and moved on. I'm satisfied with my PM2s, and would consider buying from Magellan again.

However, I'm more interested in hearing about specific problems rather than generalized complaints.

maybe mr. j p will come out of the closet of anonomity and give him/her self some semblance of credibility. I too am a Magellan user of some 6 years or so, and have voiced my complaints about several products over the years. If Magellan/Ashtech/Thales hadn't taken care of my problems, I probably would not have continued to purchase their products. We also have Topcon HiPer L1/L2 units, and we decided they would be the nearest thing to our old beloved Locus units operationally. Other than the pair of (static only) HiPers, we still have a couple of original pre consumer release beta ProMark2 units that just do not want to quit. I did reload a generation or two older firmware back to them to taylor them to my needs, but they are still making us money. Our single ProMark3 unit came in trade quite a while back when we gave up our three Locus units (still can't believe I let all three go) and is used constantly as a recon unit with acad produced shape files or as a static L1 unit with the rest. Yep, we had firmware battery problems in the very beginning with 2 of our original Locus units. Both were replaced in very short order by Ashtech, and served us well for a long time. The Mobile Mapper Pro gave us a lot of grief, and possibly some was self inflicted. I am glad I stuck it out, and glad Thales stuck it out as well. That MM Pro stays in the truck, with a pole bracket and L1 antenna bagged up to use as an additional L1 unit. Most of the time the MM Pro is used for road navigation and the same shape file maps as used in the PM3, but often used to grab WAAS grade coordinates or post processed coordinates for rough points.
Our PM3 has, and does experience the infamous "clock" problem on occassions, but it ain't rocket science to easily figure out how to avoid that. Did Thales screw up in designing a unit without a simple onboard clock (what, maybe a buck fifty's worth of cheap technology)to maintain quick time acquisition that would be updated by sv transmission? You're danged right it was a screw up. But, it still is a booger that can be avoided.

Are there total lemons out there? You bet. There are remedies.

How about it mr. j p. Tell us about your personal hands on experiences. We are just a mindless audience waiting to be informed.

I'm not a dealer or affiliated with Magellan. I don't own any Magellan stock, either. I did have some hawgs one time, but they got out and went home.

I've been using Ashtech/ Magellan products for about 6 years also. I started out with three locus, woundd up with five at one time. No doubt the finest L1 unit that has hit the marker.

I've also begged/ borrowed/ leased a Z12, and currently have 3 PM 2's and 2 hiper lite + rtk system.

I also have a Mobile Mapper CE. I bought one as soon as they came out before the PM 3's were on the market. I had some problems with the MM and got a RMA and sent it in for repair while still under warranty. I got it back and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. I didn't use it a lot, mostly for recon and rough mapping, so I just dealt with it.

It finally got to the point it was aggravating to use, slow and sometimes unresponsive, so I got another RMA and sent it back in. Turns out it had a bad board in it. Even though my warranty had expired for a couple of years, they fixed it for no charge.

Ashtech/ Magellan folks have always tried to help me with questions and problems, and have always been courteous. I put a lot of stock in them, although I don't own any stock in them.

Now if I could find them durn hawgs...
terry
Modified By J. T. Strickland on 8/30/2007 at 9:01 AM

Well, I was pretty bummed out the other day after my new toy quit working. But I did as Phil has often suggested and went to the Magellan web site to request a RMA number to return it for repair. I received an email within an hour with the number and a handy address label. Boxed it up and called FedEx for pickup. Then I thought I might send an email to the dealer I bought the unit from, to confirm that this was the right course of action and to let them know about the problem.

Next thing I know, Mark Silver from iGage Mapping in Salt Lake City is on the phone. He says don't ship it for repair, they will send me a new unit immediately so I don't have to wait for it to go through the process. I spoke with Mark for nearly half an hour about Magellan and their products. He is very enthusiastic about Magellan products and the direction the company is taking under the new (Not French) ownership. I commend Mark and iGage for backing up the products they sell, I just wish there was a strong Magellan dealer like that in my region.

The new unit was shipped FedEx overnight and is on the truck for delivery today.
Now that makes me a happy GPSer!

Bill

I bought 2 PM3's last April. Easy to learn and have worked good. Manuals for machines and software are not real good, but I've got quick responses and fixes for my questions from their support folks. Dealer, Galileo, was great, providing me loaner unit when original shipping was delayed. They've saved me a bunch of time bringing control into project sites, and have even done some GIS work. We were able to map areas that had heavy canopy and in steep canyons. Areas that a Pathfinder we had wouldn't get lock. Use most exclusively for static operations, and typcially get real good data after only 15 minutes occupations for baselines typcally around 2 miles. Sure beats traversing with total station. For the price I am ecstatic with what we've been able to do in the field. Most of my work is with a total station, and the PM3's compliment it real nice.

all I know is that I'm waiting with baited breath to talk my buddy(who I talked into buying a triple set), for when I can confidently talk him into trying VRS.