Just a little news for those who own or are thinking of buying the memorymap adventurer 3500.

After owning this handheld gps from day 1, it became evident the unit suffered some serious issues, no screenlock, problems with direction arrow when following a route, course over ground problems, sleepmode issues, the list goes on.

All in all it never gave me too many problems whilst MTB, but was a pain in the butt when mountain walking.

This unit in the past has received rightly or wrongly some adverse comments, but memorymap although not as quick as i would have liked, (there may be reasons for this)… have just upgraded this unit.
The software fixes included as follows:-

Fixed: Velocity Vector
Fixed: Course over Ground
Fixed: Backlight Timer
Fixed: Sleep mode. From Memory-Map press front panel button and select Sleep GPS Off. Puts GPS into a ‘suspended’ state to maximise battery life but allow fast resume from a single press of the front panel button. When in sleep mode GPS tracklogs will not be continuously recorded but will be automatically ‘joined’ from the last known position when resumed.
Fixed: Lock screen. From Memory-Map press front panel button and select Lock Screen. Turns off back light and touchscreen to reduce power but still records GPS position for a continuous tracklog. Press front panel button and Unlock to return to normal mode.

Now its fair to state the ad3500 at last seems a good unit to own, there seems on the whole to be universal support from members of memorymaps forum, and i myself have carried out a few tests and can confirm the software upgrade really brings out the best from the unit, the brightest screen i,ve ever owned, very stable software a joy to use.

I only post this topic for members who may own or are thinking of purchasing the ad3500 who maybe be unaware the upgrade exists.

If your thinking of researching the ad3500, try memorymaps 3500 forum, check post replies sent after 5th may 2011.

john

Have they updated the software so it’s even vaguely user friendly instead of being a rehash of their PDA stuff from several years ago?

ooh, good. I’ve just got mine back after it turned out to be not waterproof. I believer the fimrware was upgraded too. I need a better look at it…

When it worked before, it was ace.

are you employed by or related to an employee of Memory Map – it’s just your postign history seems to indicate a fairly, errm, limited set of topics and types of post.

Almost like memeory map have asked you to go back through previous adverse posts about their product and put an update on them?

Hi BadlyWiredDog,

Not really sure how the old pda style units worked, having come from garmin to memorymap. So far as, is it user freindly, well it doesn,t interface to its own software the way you think it would, its seen as an extra drive, so a little experience with windows can help, but i,m 51, not that computer savvy, but have had no problems. So nevertheless i think its quite user freindly and probably more gps than pda.

Hope that helps john

So basically it’s the same as the earlier MM unit which was, quite awful?

Have you used a Satmap Active 10 or one of the latest Garmins or the new Magellan at all? Or ViewRanger? I really think you should try one, it might change your perspective. Really.

Hi wwaswas,

Quote;

are you employed by or related to an employee of Memory Map – it’s just your postign history seems to indicate a fairly, errm, limited set of topics and types of post.

Almost like memeory map have asked you to go back through previous adverse posts about their product and put an update on them?

Unquote.

Nice try mate, i,ve fallen for that one already this week on the forum, but still what else would you have me talk about, are you interested in my recent brecon to abergavenny canel ride on our £600 mtb, (i can give details), or would you respect the fact that i know just a little about handheld units and have given up some of my time to post information about an update which maybe of interest to forum members who own the ad3500.

Pease do yourself a favour and check my posts on memorymaps forum and decide yourself if your statements true.

Thanks john

BadlyWiredDog,

Yes, i did at one point own the satmap active 10, 18 months ago, but couldn,t get on with the issues at that time.
I beleive the active 10 as become a decent unit, but again i couldn,t get on with its dimmer screen, although reading their forum that as received some attention,

The 3500 couldn,t be described as awfull, far from it, i beleive theres quite a few members on this forum that run with the ad2800 the smaller version of the ad3500, and my personal reason for buying was the amount of memorymap products i owned, if i purchased any other make i would also have to budget for extra mapping, thats expensive.

john

So far as, is it user freindly, well it doesn,t interface to its own software the way you think it would

That sounds very user friendly. I hope you don’t work for MM, cause you’re not selling it to me!

warton,

Perhaps for clarity, you could include the whole paragraph, it goes somthing like this:-

is it user freindly, well it doesn,t interface to its own software the way you think it would, its seen as an extra drive,

Perhaps you could explain to the forum why you feel its not user freindly,

Thanks john

To be honest, having bought into MM stuff already is probably the only good reason I can think of for owning their GPS. I thought the 2800 was almost viciously user hostile. I’m not knocking the hardware btw, but the OS is quite hard to use with any degree of intuition. On the 2800 there were close boxes ‘x’ marsk you cimply couldn’t reach without a pointy thing and the writing in the drop downs, drop downs? was so tiny it was almost unreadable. Does the new one still use little cascasding drop down menus?

In fairness, the 3500 is built on the strengths of the ad2800, and like you state some of the menu,s were small to say the least, theres definetely a learning curve to overcome, but its no different to any other make you use, including the most popular. everything is mucher larger on the 3500, easier to use.
As stated earlier its not my intention to get any publicity for memorymap, i,ve had issues with them myself, my intention is to inform the forum and forum owners theres now an update for the unit.

For those concerned about my employment status, feel free to look at my profile on memorymaps forum, same username as here, lol.

thanks john

Apologies John

Not really sure how the old pda style units worked, having come from garmin to memorymap. So far as, is it user freindly, well it doesn,t interface to its own software the way you think it would, its seen as an extra drive, so a little experience with windows can help, but i,m 51, not that computer savvy, but have had no problems. So nevertheless i think its quite user freindly and probably more gps than pda.

Nope still not selling it to me.

The problem is this statement “well it doesn,t interface to its own software the way you think it would” that, to me implies it isn’t very user friendly, as it doesn’t work as you’d expect it too. just saying…

Nice one warton,

But i see no difference between (connect to) as with say a garmin, or (send to) as with the adventurer 3500, they interface differently…. but which one is harder or more difficult, i think neither.

I was told earlier in the week to get my post count up, i think i,m doing alright tonight lol.

thanks john

I was hoping for some more freindly banter tonight from the biker forum, lots of comedians lol, but i was also hoping as the original topic was related to the adventurer 3500 update, what other gps units the mtb forum members were using and why.
I use my gps a lot, mtb up the brecon beacons near to where i live, i also live about 5 miles from cwmcarn and use this facility a lot,
Is a gps important to the biking community or do most mtb just preplan routes using maps or justplain headwork to ride their routes.
By the way i,m a toolmaker by trade, this helps a lot when repairing my bike, its surprising what you can design and machine or wire erode failing componants off your prized setup.

john

Garmin Oregon with full UK mapping suits my needs, I did consider the MMA but got a cracking deal on the Garmin, didn’t like the Satmap when I had a demo, also looked into the PDA running MM but they all appeared too fragile.

To be honest, GPS banter isn’t what it used to be on here. A few years ago, every second thread seemed to be people arguing the pros and cons of various navigation units – whether to use metric or imperial measures, waypoint capacity, that sort of thing.

Not sure why it’s died down. I guess it may be that it’s almost impossible to sustain that level of intensity and debate even over something as inherently fascinating as GPS.

I’m amazed that there aren’t any specialist GPS forums like this one, but for those who love GPS units. Have you tried geotrashing, it looks brilliant? Good excuse to get your unit out and play with other people’s too.

Maybe there’s scope for a GPS meet when we can all get together and play with each other’s units? It would be a great way to get to know like-minded bike navigators and get an idea of why has the most potent one.

Hi badlywireddog

I,m well up on geochaching, but not sure about geotrashing, is this a mtb pastime or walking, i kind of mix my activities with mtb and mountain walking, i never use the bike on a mountain, (i,ve seen people up snowdon going for it, the same as i don,t like walking on flat ground maybe like coastal paths.
Anyway maybe we can kick off some debate on which gps makes the grade, Here are my impressions of the ad3500, when first purchased as mentioned in a previous post it turned out to be a right stinker, lots of problems, really making it unusable as a unit, the best you could get was using it on the mtb, no screenlock meant continuous movement of the map-page, switching off without knowledge, put it in your pocket for safety and take it out and find your in france, or should i say your map page would be in france, not the best introduction for memorymaps prized unit.
Now you know some of the background, so like satmap memorymap after a serious backlash from its forum members bring out an upgrade. the update eradicated all the serious problems the forum highlighted.
So now i beleive it can hold its own against other competitors.
There are several reasons i went for the ad3500, the 2 main ones were i owned quite a large area of the country at 1-25000, these could be used directly with the unit, and secondly i previously owned the ad2800, so i was up and running without problems.
I like the unit for its simplicities, you don,t get all the bells and whistles of maybe your garmins or satmaps, just good honest route guidence, the tracking is spot on at least since the update, the screen is outstanding in sunlight, somthing that troubled me with previous units, battery life about 8 hours, but can be extended using the powersave modes, i liked my old garmin etrex hc, but when memorymap brought the 2800 out, it seemed a no brainer for me.
Some of the pro,s and con,s
Pro,s
Agood bright screen.
Fast refresh rate.
Simple to use.
In my opinion very stable software.
A full set of assesories, including bike mount, protective hard case, silicon sleeve and all chargers.

Con,s

North up only, this explains the reason the map has a good refresh rate.
Unless you cut an hole in the silicon sleeve and you put it in the protective hardcase it can turn on without notice.
Battery life, although i think is very good, will last a maximum of 10 hours in powersave mode. but will mean carrying a spare .
Interfacing with its software, i include this one because it seems some users have problems getting their heads around it, with my garmin i just sent data to the gps unit, but with the 3500 i just send to the unit using the save as command, you don,t really need a degree to do this, i personally like the way the ad3500 interfaces with its software because its so much easier to clean up any unwanted routes, waypoints and any other unwanted data, thats a little more long-winded with some other units, but for debate i,ll leave it here.

All in all i,m now happy with my unit, i was 1 week from sending it back to memorymap and was even warned and had forum replies removed from their website due to the fact i consistantly complained about an upgrade.
So it would be good to know how well the satmaps, garmins and megellans are doing at the moment.

thanks john