Meridan Platnium

I bought the MeriPlat about a week ago and love it...still learning all the features, but the unit itself is GREAT...



The MapSend Topo CD (which is the only way to upload maps to the unit) is rather shady....but also a good addition. Many streets & POI's are misrepresented.

The Meridian Platinum (MP) has all the features you would expect: GPS, altimeter, barometer, thermostat, compass, speedometer, odometer. It tracks heading vs bearing vs course. It keeps track of where you've been and has a back-track feature. It lets you download or upload routes and waypoints to/from the Topo software. It has 7 navigational screens and lets you configure what information you want to see on each of them. You can set the altimeter to trigger off of either GPS or barometric pressure (in case you are in a steep canyon and it cannot find the required 3 satellites.) All nice features.

The device is highly configurable and easy to use. The housing is very durable. (The unit even floats.) The batteries are suppose to last 14 hours with normal use. My experience was that they lasted about 10 hours.

MapSend Topo Software (sold separately)
The MapSend software looks like a 16-bit application that was developed for Windows 3.1. It's very crude, but it does the job. My biggest complaint is that the software does not contain any trails.

The GPS comes with 16MB RAM and an internal street map. You can download routes and waypoints from the MapSend software. However, you cannot download topo maps to the GPS unless you expand the GPS memory. An additional 16MB is enough to download a map region. You'll need 64MB if you want to download a topo map of the entire country (US). Without the extra memory, you can see the waypoints on your GPS, but no topo lines.

You can also download waypoints from other Topo software packages. (The waypoints download, but not the Topo map. You can only download map regions from the MapSend software. However, you can download a map region from MapSend, then download waypoints from another software pakage that supports trails.)

This is a very nice GPS unit. Simple to get started with, but advanced enough to be configured for many uses. Memory card allows you to load topos or road maps into the unit. The only problems I have experienced are: a)one battery contact cut to deep into the circuit board and shorted out the batteries. I had to alter the lead to contact a different area of the board. b)the battery compartment does not seal all the way closed without modification c)(this may not be a GPS problem) in the winter the batteries go dead in less than one hour if I don't keep the unit in my jacket.

So I really like the unit even though it has had problems.

I have had my Meridian GPS unit since they started making this model, unfortunately they have been discontinued. I have since purchased 3 newer models, and none have surpassed this one in ease and reception. I still have mine, and it is used as my primary GPS.