4 years ago i had a bottom of the line magellan 300/pioneer, it did what i wanted which was just to display lat/long for motorcycle touring it worked well under the cover of my motorbike tank-bag as all the buttons were on the front, large and needed a solid press. it also floated when dropped into the water! 2 years ago i decided i wanted a gps unit that marked a trail, (what i really wanted was a mapping gps but they weren't available for japan were i live), and after first looking at the magellan 315 i bought the garmin venturer because i thought it had more features problems... most of the buttons are on the sides and are impossible to press when it was under the clear top of the tank-bag, also the front mounted joystick was always pressed when it was under the cover the 12volt power cable contacts are in an awkward place and any pressure on the cable cuts power to the unit then my 18month old child managed to bite the top of the joystick off...this meant it could be used under the tank-bag cover but was difficult to rock around in 4 directions one day while sea kayaking with it it got momentarily submerged, i thought nothing of it but a day later the joystick functions stopped all together as a drop off salt water must have around the joystick stub and corroded the joystick contacts... i have taken the whole unit apart and tried to clean that switch with contact cleaner etc but it is only now after over a year that i have been able to get all 5 switch contacts working again i emailed garmin asking to buy a new rubber joystick (i carefully saved the sealing sellotape) but they replied that their repair policy was that all etrex repairs need to be done at the taiwan factory and are charged at a flat rate of 50% of the units price, before postage...which kind of sucks as all i need is a 1cent rubber bit i now think i would have been happier with the more rugged, more waterproof, floating magallan 315 eric e but the garmin venturer etrex works well in the car and hiking in dry conditions __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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