Baja 540 First Glance

[adventureduo]

Well i got my pre-loaded map data SD card yesterday. Played around with it last night. I was amazed at how detailed the maps are. Plus, i was surprised to see that all the trails are pre-loaded already that we travel on around here! Mojave road was even on it! Im very impressed! Shows in full topo too!

We have a trip in August and i was wondering if the trails were loaded on it for our adventure. Yep! All the forest roads are already on it! Including small side roads and hiking trails! The thing even shows a old cabin up near our house that we usually wheel too. Pretty amazing.

Whats even more cool, is that you can look up a trail by name or nearest location. I was deep in the heart of the city and i knew what trail was closest to us.. but i asked the GPS anyways.. and up popped up the trail i knew about. Scary!

Another cool, but pretty useless thing.. is that i popped in a SD card from my camera and i can look at pics on the 5" screen! Pretty cool if you wanted to see a pic in higher res at the end fo the day.. or if you want to convert .pdf maps to .jpg you can zoom in and out! That would be wild.


So far it's worth every penney compared to the last unit that showed me as a dot in the middle of a blank screen LOL (old Garmin)

I don't know if the 276c has this much detailed information, but im very happy i chose the 540c. More to come!

Anyone else wanna share their comments? I think there are several of us now that have this unit. Im very happy so far.

 

[chet]

After seeing my dads new Lowrance boat unit I am looking at this as a future unit.

do you know if you can get Baja Mex. maps for it?

Oh another question... Not that its a huge thing but does it do turn by turn directions?

 

[adventureduo]

No Turn by turn. It's not for the average consumer (voice directions and silly arrows). It's more for us adventure type folks that can actually read a map.

As far as mexico, good question! I dont show anything listed for maps of Baja.. but i will look into it right now.. since we have a possible trip in October to Guad. Canyon. You would think, since it's called a BAJA and so many trophy trucks use it down there, That you would be able to at least get that portion of Mexico.

EDIT: I just got off the phone with adventure GPS. They said that nobody manufact. that they know of, a Baja or Mexico specific map for the Lowrance.

However, i did find this.. for Baja
http://www.bicimapas.com.mx/baja_gps_map.htm#Lowrance

 

[spressomon]

SOCALFJ,
When navigating there are many times I want to scroll around the map without disabling the GPS or flipping through menus to be able to do this. How does the Baja function in this application?

 

[adventureduo]

It handles that perfectly. You just take the 4 arrow touch pad and scroll wherever you want. Zoom in , zoom out, scroll over to Hawaii if you want! Then just hit the 'exit' key and back you are to your tracking arrow. All the while it's still tracking your every move. Shoot, you can go look at places to eat, boat docks, lakes, streams, etc and then click the exit key and it flys right back to you. I think you can even do it split screen too. Cause you can have two maps on one screen if you like.

 

[Pskhaat]

For a minute there I didn't know if there was a 40 mile longer uber-Baja race that I didn't know about...

 

[adventureduo]

For a minute there I didn't know if there was a 40 mile longer uber-Baja race that I didn't know about...

LOL!

 

[spressomon]

It handles that perfectly. You just take the 4 arrow touch pad and scroll wherever you want. Zoom in , zoom out, scroll over to Hawaii if you want! Then just hit the 'exit' key and back you are to your tracking arrow. All the while it's still tracking your every move. Shoot, you can go look at places to eat, boat docks, lakes, streams, etc and then click the exit key and it flys right back to you. I think you can even do it split screen too. Cause you can have two maps on one screen if you like.

That helps...Thanks!

 

[RAM5500 CAMPERTHING]

You would think, since it's called a BAJA and so many trophy trucks use it down there, That you would be able to at least get that portion of Mexico.

I assure you that the TT's arent using the 540c!

 

[Nullifier]

For baja maps I have them for the lowrance. I can email the file to you. It is not as detailed as the u.s. stuff but every trail we were on last year was showing up on the screen.

I have been running the 480 and I love it. all my local trails are on there as well. I do not hink mine looks up trials although I have not tried to do that. That is cool.

 

[jerdog53]

Another cool, but pretty useless thing.. is that i popped in a SD card from my camera and i can look at pics on the 5" screen! Pretty cool if you wanted to see a pic in higher res at the end fo the day.. or if you want to convert .pdf maps to .jpg you can zoom in and out! That would be wild.

I did not know it would do that but is stands to reason it could I will have to try it!

What is your mapping software and is there any compatability issues with the 540C? I just purchased a Toughbook and was wanting to get mapping software that will work with the 540.

 

[adventureduo]

Jerdog, Im not using mapping software at all. I bought pre-loaded SD Card. it has everything the Mapcreate 7 would have in detail on it... without the hassle of me trying to figure it out.

Nullifier, you have a email!

Boston, heck dude, i can't keep up with the times! Im sure they are on a huge flat screen race GPS by now!

 

[jerdog53]

I have the same SD card I was thinking I would need more....................

 

[adventureduo]

I have the same SD card I was thinking I would need more....................

Nope, it all runs off that one card perfectly. If you go into another geographic area you just pop in that card. It's pretty nice having everything ready to go.

 

[jerdog53]

So how do you plan and edit routes all on the system? I know with the SD card reader you can view what is in the card on a computer but can you put in waypoints and plan routes?