Review of the Lowrance Eagle Explorer GPS Receiver and the Lowrance GlobalNav-200 Receiver By Joe Mehaffey and Jack Yeazel Revision 2, April 10, 1997 We recently received a new Eagle Explorer (EE) and a copy of Precision Mapping 3.0 from Chicago Mapping for test and evalua- tion. Jack and I have been comparing the EE with the Garmin G- 12XL receiver and operating the EE and the G-12XL with Precision Mapping 3.0. Retail price of the Compass Software and Eagle Explorer GPS bundle with data cable is about US$300. The EE alone is about $200. ================================================================= This EE review was done on the Eagle Explorer with firmware revision 1.4. This firmware revision has substantial improve- ments over prior versions particularly in the area of working with moving map software packages. Lowrance advises us that older EE GPS receivers can be updated to version 1.4 firmware, but no price for the upgrade has been set at this time. First, a review of EE features and operation. The operation and feel of the EE is a bit different from the Magellan and Garmin units. The EE is about 2.25x1.65x6.75 inches, a bit thicker and longer as compared with the G-12. The case is well made and sleek in appearance. The control buttons have a nice feel and are about twice as hard to push as on the G-12. The power button is recessed to prevent accidental actuation. The EE is a com- fortable fit in the hand. Unlike the G-12, one handed opera- tion (while holding the EE in your hand) is difficult as the key- board is located on the bottom of the unit below the display (similar to the Magellan GPS-4000). The power/data connector is located at the top rear of the case. The cable plug does not have a right angle cable mold and so the unit cannot be put flat on the dash when the cable is installed. No connection for external antenna input is provided on the EE. The EE locks on SV signals quickly. From a "cold start", after a 700 mile UPS trip, it locked on in 56 seconds. After a 3 hour off time, the lock up time was 20 seconds. If the unit is turned off and turned back on in a few minutes ("warm start"), it locks typically in about 12 seconds. When we used the "search the sky" or autolocate mode, the EE took 6 minutes to lock. Lowrance give no specifications for these start up lock times in the manual. My G-12 took 16 seconds from a "warm" start situa- tion, 52 seconds "cold start" and 105 seconds in "autolocate" in the same environment. The EE and G-12 are virtually identical in normal lock time requirements. In multiple "warm start" lock experiments, which unit would lock first seemed quite random. Eagle publishes no specifications for the EE's position accuracy. Lowrance tells us that the EE's specification for position accu- racy is 100 meters with SA (95% confidence). No accuracy is specified exclusive of SA and 22 meters (95%) is specified with suitable one meter DGPS correction signals. (The comparable G-12 specs are 100 meters with SA, 15 meters exclusive of SA, and 5 meters with suitable one meter DGPS signal.) The EE operates from 4 AA batteries or from external power in the range of 9 to 16 volts DC (The manual says 5 to 16 and is in error). (G-12 spec is 10 to 40 VDC.) External current draw is about 80ma light off and 140ma light on with +12VDC power. On AA batteries, the draw is about 180ma light off and 280ma light on. (G-12, 120ma/150ma). Battery life is not specified in the EE's written specifications. Lowrance tech support suggests an 8 to 10 hour battery life for the EE with Duracell AA batteries. (My figure would be about 6.5 hours with light off). (Similarly, I calculate that the G-12 battery life is about 10 hours.) (Note: The EE uses a switching PSU. On external power, the maximum voltage rating is 16 volts. Commercial specifications on equip- ment powered from vehicle power normally have surge voltage handling capability above 20 volts with short duration tran- sients even higher.) An optional NiMH rechargeable battery pack is available with external charger for about $100. This rechargeable battery will be recharged INSIDE THE EE in two hours when the EE is connected to external power. Note: NiCad AA batteries inside the EE will NOT be charged by the EE's internal charger. The EE provides NMEA protocol 0183 ver 1.5 and 2.0. Other pro- prietary sentences are output as well. DGPS signals in the RTCM- 104 format are accepted. A setup screen permits selection of the I/O combination needed by a particular application. Note: In the feature list below, we have indicated (+) whenever we felt that the EE feature was an improvement over the G-12XL's feature list. The EE has an impressive number of features and displays that are useful. These include: Available Screen Displays and features: a) A round compass type display screen shows direction of travel (track) and has an arrow pointing to the next way- point. This screen also provides the absolute bearing, relative bearing to next waypoint, and distance, ground speed, cross track error, with reference to the next waypoint. As you approach a waypoint or destination, a small circle appears on the compass screen and moves to the center as you approach the waypoint. This page is a bit "busy", but it provides more information than the similar G-12 display. This compass display includes a "highway track" display in the center of the compass rose. There is no separate highway track display page as in the G-12. (+) (If I were going to use the highway track display to steer my boat by, I would be happier with the larger size display on the G-12.) b) A moving map (plotter) display is provided to plot your course over ground. As with the G-12, the EE plotter screen has no features except those put in by the user and the track path traveled by the GPS receiver. In addition, bearing, distance, track over ground, and speed over ground are optionally provided on this same display. Any waypoints saved in the machine are displayed on the moving map page as they come within range of the map scale select- ed. This screen has pan and zoom with zoom in/zoom out buttons on the keyboard and scales from .1 mile to 2000 (miles or other units). (G-12 provides .2 to 320.) A cursor control permits viewing of various parts of the map plot. Also the lon/lat of the cursor crossing is shown on the display whenever the cursor is active. The cursor is also used to place and erase icons and waypoints. Pressing the EXIT key removes the cursor from the screen. c) The map (plotter) screen can be configured as North up, Track up, or Course up. d) The EE provides a "grid lines" feature with the plotter which can be turned on to aid in estimating the relative locations of waypoints on the plotter screen. (+) e) The EE provides a 2000 point track trail log. (G-12 has 1024). The track log may be set to accumulate on a timed basis or on a distance traveled basis. (The G-12 offers a third option which puts in a track point whenever speed or direction changes. The G-12 seems to offer good resolution over a longer path with fewer track points with their "automatic" method.) f) The EE provides a set of fifteen "icons" which can be placed to identify a waypoint. These include an anchor, gas pump, airplane, house, fish, etc. Icons can be easily placed and removed using the cursor control. (+) g) The EE has an impressive array of fifteen "WINDOWS" that can be selected as an alternate display. These windows displays include clock, satellite status, DGPS status, UP/Down timer, ETA, ETE, BRG, DIST, TRK, VMG, Position, GS, CDI display, and other data in a variety of fixed arrangements. (+) h) The EE has an ALARM CLOCK function. Unfortunately, the EE must be turned on for it to operate, but perhaps if the EE is put in the simulator mode, the battery drain will be reduced. But.. I doubt that many will use this feature since the EE does not have an audible alarm output. When the alarm goes off, a message flashes on the screen. No NMEA message is provided to externally annunciate an alarm. i) The EE has two TIMER functions available. A "count down timer" can be set to some numbers of hours, minutes, and seconds. When the timer goes to zero, an alarm is dis- played on the screen. There is no audible alarm. A "count up" timer can be reset to zero and started. It can then be viewed to determine elapsed time. (+) j) Each of the four digital display boxes on the plotter screen (default = BRG, DIS, TRK, GS) can be reprogrammed by the user to display any of ALT, TRK, ETE, VMG, ETA, or CDI. (+) k) The EE can store up to 250 waypoints. (G-12 = 500) l) Two pushes of the WPT key will automatically save your current position as the next waypoint number in the waypoint list. Putting in a (up to 8 character) waypoint name re- quires a modestly involved trip through the menu system. (Naming is easier in the G-12.) m) A feature permits you to move all information about a way- point from one waypoint number to another. n) The EE permits waypoints to be identified on the map plotter screen in a number of ways (or not at all). They may be shown as a "number in a box", or "named" and with or with- out an icon. (+) o) The EE provides the usual ROUTE facility with a few addi- tions. Twenty different routes are provided. One nice addition permits automatic startup up in the MIDDLE of a route and the EE will select the nearest waypoint in the route in the direction of travel as the starting point. p) Editing waypoints and routes in the EE is a bit more tedious than with the G-12. There are more features provided for editing waypoints and some (like giving the range and bear- ing between waypoints while editing routes) seem useful. We think that many will find the additional features useful. q) The EE provides a "Go to Cursor" feature. The cursor is placed on the plotter screen at the desired destination location. Then the "Go to Cursor" mode is selected via menus. r) The EE with version 1.4 firmware has finally made it into the age of electronic moving maps. With the new features added in this version, it appears that the EE will be compatible with almost all computerized moving map programs including Precision Mapping 3, SA4, ME2, MS AutoRoute 5, Vista, NeverLost, NavMaster III, and others. NMEA-0183 sentences output are: GLL, RMB, APB, RMC, GGA, GSA, and GSV. Still.. we advise everyone to compare this list with Jack Yeazel's NMEA GPS receiver and Moving Map Software compatibility list before you buy software to work with ANY low cost GPS unit. All "NMEA COMPATIBLE" software WILL NOT work with all "NMEA COMPATIBLE" GPS receivers. Note: Older EEs can be updated to firmware version 1.4 for a yet to be determined price. s) The EE can operate with any one of 189 different map datums by selecting the proper map datum from the EE's map datum list. (G-12 has 107 plus user input datum). The EE does NOT have a user input datum capability which inputs scale factor plus false northing and false easting. The EE does have a Position Correction Factor (PCF feature) to permit input for offsets of an odd map datum. UTM is included. (+) t) The EE provides a Position Pinning feature which can be set ON or OFF. This can prevent the "wandering" position caused by SA when your vehicle is stopped. We feel that this feature is best left OFF since using it can cause a user to come to a false conclusion about the accuracy of the GPS receiver. u) A simulator feature provides display of simulated motion and simultaneously outputs simulated tracking data to your computer for test of mapping software, data gathering simulations and such. v) A screen back lighting timer permits setting the back light to 0, 15, 60, 120, 240 seconds or continuous. The settings are the same when the unit is on battery power or external power. The back lighting is brighter at the bottom and top of the display and is tinted green. The display at night is easy to read. Screen contrast is also adjustable on the setup screen. w) A satellite status page comes up when you first turn the unit on. It shows a "compass" display of satellite numbers (1>32) in view along with signal strength bars for each satellite potentially in view (up to 12). The signal strength bars are hollow if the GPS has found the SV and is not yet locked and changes to solid black when lock is made to each satellite in turn. Each signal strength bar is marked with the associated satellite number. On the polar plot, SV numbers are black on white when not locked and white on black box when locked. Frequently available features not in the EE: a) Sunrise/sunset display b) Battery remaining readout is in GRP-M and takes some effort to view. c) The DATE display is NOT automatically updated when SV lock occurs. The user must set the local date. Also, there is no "offset from UTC" setting. The user must manually set the local time correct to the hour, and minute to get the offset correct. We found that the time display on our sample of the EE was almost exactly two seconds slow with respect to UTC from WWV. The G-12xl display by comparison was about one-half second slow. The EE has no specification on accuracy of the time display. d) One correspondent suggested that a feature to define a NEW waypoint at a distance and bearing from an existing waypoint was needed in the EE. Subjective Observations of Performance Jack Yeazel and I have been out testing the EE on the road and in the field. The EE has worked without a flaw that either of us could find. (Exception: On two occasions, our EE spontaneously turned itself OFF while tracking. Batteries were OK. This is probably just a defect in our unit. It turned back on imme- diately when we pressed the power button.) We uploaded and downloaded waypoints, tracks and routes using Precision Mapping 3.0. We tried it out on SA4 and Delorme MapExpert, and Vista. No problems found. We compared it with the G-12XL for lock times and the ability to hold lock under various situations. We were very impressed with the EE. The EE receiver is a superior unit and performed on a par with the Garmin G-12XL in overall perfor- mance. We tried the EE and the G-12XL on the car's dash. Though the G-12XL usually indicated 1 or 2 more SVs locked, performance was essentially equal with both units. The simulta- neous computer display tracks were essentially identical through- out our testing. The EE (and the G-12) quickly responded to changes in direction and speed. At about 4mph, both units would complete a change of direction in about 15 feet. The EE (and the G-12) laid down smooth tracks on our highway maps during all tests. No gaps, jumps, etc. as was evidenced in our tests with older technology single and dual channel multiplexing re- ceivers. These are the major features we have observed in working with the EE. The EE is a well built GPS receiver and at about US$200, offers superior value for the money. The EE offers the most user programmable screens of any low cost GPS we have seen advertised. We liked the 15 user programmable screens which give users an almost totally customized display capability. We liked the option of having digital displays of bearing, distance and other parameters on the map plot screen. We also liked the fact that the user can change the contents of these digital fields on the plot display. The EE gave quick lock and quality performance under all tested conditions. The EE is rated "rain proof" but it is NOT submers- ible like the G-12XL. Lowrance stated that damage is likely to occur if the EE is submerged. No operating temperature range specification information is available. Storage temperature range is -20C (-4F) to +75C (+167F). The EE has a one year manufacturer's limited warranty. There are a number of additional features in the EE as compared with the G-12XL and as a result, there are more menus to contend with. At first, these additional menus were a problem, but we quickly learned how they worked. The size of the EE compared with the G-12 made it less a "shirt pocket" item. The 6.5 hour battery life of the EE compared with the 10 hour battery life on the G-12 will be a consideration for some. The Lowrance Global Nav 200 Lowrance tells us that the GN-200 is an upgraded EE with a) external antenna port, b) Audible alarm output (Any Alarm message can also sound an audible alarm sound.), c) Clearer display screen and d) All windows in the GRP A>N windows have programmable digital data fields. We have NOT tested the GN- 200. The GN-200 street price is reported to be about $250. We made these tests using two Toshiba laptop computers both running moving map software. The two GPS units were operated simultaneously on the dash in front of the driver (EE) and with the G-12XL on the right side of the dash in front of the passeng- er. The units were interchanged and no appreciable differences in performance were noted. The laptops were positioned so both displays could be watched simultaneously and then we drove over a course of perhaps 30 miles and evaluated the relative performance of the GPS equipment by observations including the GPS "cookie trails' on the moving map displays. Manual, Specifications and Technical Support The manual was well written and complete except for an index and technical specifications for the EE. The EE "specifications" in the catalog are a feature list and give no quantification as to battery drain, position accuracy, lock speeds, speed accuracy, operating temperature range, etc. Correspondents have told us that service for the EE is fast and reasonably priced. We wanted to provide readers with technical specifications for the unit and this information was pretty difficult to uncover. We would hope that others would have an easier time getting tech- nical questions about the EE answered by Lowrance than we have had. If anyone has any additions, questions, suggestions, error corrections or other comments, please feel free to Email Jack or Joe. Joe Mehaffey and Jack Yeazel joe@mehaffey.us Jack@FinalApproach.net.net