Jump to content

gallet

Members
  • Posts

    771
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by gallet

  1. ...have found the multitude of choices available confusing. Yes, Garmin are pretty good at that. Two questions: How much do you have to spend and would you consider a used model.
  2. Perhaps I misunderstood you. I thought you were suggesting that using the particular maps you were using were more accurate than a standard GPSr and that you used a GPSr to place it less accurately? Anyway, I have sent a PM for you to send me the file for further perusal.
  3. The obvious 'con' is that it doesn't have the ability to add more memory. As it is a discontinued model and the new ones are discounted it's hard to see what the 'pros' might be. It doesn't even have a better chipset than the basic Yellow eTrexH
  4. In my opinion, yes, they are. How come they didn't offer this wonderful choice of a Vista HC or Legend HC? Surely you must agree that the C model is a superceded model. When it came out memory was expensive, since the Cx units memory is about $10 per gigabyte. The C units are superceded. Yet garmin put their latest hi res state of the art chip in a superceded model, but only on the Venture and Summit yet they do not do this on their other models. Further the C units were had inferior battery life capabilities. It's pretty blatant manipulation for those who are not prepared to sift through all the fine points of the different models. Garmin are saying, Look we've made the VistaHCx really cheap (in the USA) and if you want it cheaper you can have the LegendHCx but if you are not going to buy either of those and you want the H chip then, we are very sorry but we are going to put the H chip in the Venture C and not the Cx so you'll have to put up with crappy battery life even if you don't want more memory" Anyone who understand what this means will not get the Venture HC, but someone new to this will not fully realise that they've made a bit of an error. If they use non rechargeable batteries they will probably run through any savings they made on the Venture HC within a year, apart from the hassle of making sure you have a spare set of batteries when you are only going for a day.
  5. There's the Almanac and Ephemeris data explained here http://gpsinformation.net/main/almanac.txt
  6. But the 'fuzziness' is already there in the searcher's GPSr is it not. Can you please post a sample of a map that you claim to use that is more accurate than a GPSr for setting a cache. I'd need to see it to believe it.
  7. It's not obvious at all that people were demanding of garmin that they put an H chip in what should be an obsolete unit. How come the Vista C was discontinued and the Legend C was discontinued, and the Cx which replaced both of them was then given the H chip, yet they did not do this in the Venture? Are you suggesting that consumers were clamoring for Garmin to put the H chip in a superceded model especially for the Venture? Consumers didn't even know the H chip was coming so how could they have been 'demanding' it? And what about putting the H chip in the basic eTrex that has the very poor waypoint input system? Are you saying customers were clamoring to only be able to name a waypoint with 6 characters? Why would anyone demand that. But most of all can you explain why Garmin are selling the Yellow eTrex and the Yellow eTrex H side by side at the same price. You aren't suggesting that consumers were demanding that they have the option to buy an eTrex with an inferior chip at the same price, surely? There are to this very day consumers who are buying the basic eTrex without even realising that the eTrex H is available at the same price. If that's not Garmin treating people like suckers then I don't know what is.
  8. They did assure me that it was recut for the C series as well. I haven't put the new shield on yet as I'm waiting for the boxwave to test first. But I measured it and it looked OK. I still thought it should be smaller though but it wasn't too large, so perhaps you have an old stock one. Just send it back then to shieldzone in that case.
  9. I used to have one. It's fine. You can download a firmware update for it. It's not important but you may as well do it. download their webupdater and it will get the latest update automatically.
  10. Garmin are so hopeless the way they make it impossible to find stuff you know exists. http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3739 Here's the test page http://developer.garmin.com/web/communicat...ontrolDemo.html http://www.takitwithme.com/
  11. Can't tell you about the Garmin cases but I can warn you off the Gilsson neoprene cases, they are really rubbish. I gave up on the idea of a case and instead went for the invisible shield to protect the screen. Whatever case you get you will never get a combination of easy button use and proper visibility of the screen.
  12. According to the Garmin product page if you check the box on those two units and press the 'compare' button, it brings up this page, where you will find your answer. Hint: compass and alimeter.
  13. dropthehammer, this might help. Check the contacts from the battery to the unit, it's just a pressure contact, not welded. While I agree that the odometer issue is a non starter, I still believe that Garmin has shown ample proof of incompetence. Most glaring is their lack of support for OSX as if it had only just come out. A few things are starting to come on line, but still can't use Mapsource. There certainly *is* a conspiracy by Garmin to trick customers, how else do you explain the eTrex and the eTrex H both being available at the same time for the same price? Another one is that they did away with the Vista C and the Legend C and put the H chip in the Cx making a HCx but they didn't do that with the Venture C, there, they put the new H chip in the crappy C model and left the Cx in production. Thus if you want a Venture you are forced to choose between crap battery life and an H chip, or good battery life no H chip and the ability to load a lot of maps, of course there just happens to be a third choice, move up to the Legend or Vista. Incompetence or conspiracy: You decide.
  14. Remember the pointer does not point to the cache it points to the compass bearing of the cache. If the cache is due West of your position then the pointer will point to W. As long as you are moving in a straight line for a long enough period of time then the compass ring that contains the 'W' will put it self in the correct spot and then the pointer will point both to the 'W' and to the cache.
  15. Aberrix Basically the 60CSx and the HCx are the same. The HCx may just have a tiny tiny edge on getting a good signal in very difficult terrain. But there wouldn't be much in it. Both models have the same electronic fluxgate compass and I'd highly recommend having it rather than not having it. The barometric altimeter is also a lot of fun. You mention that you like the 'look' of the 60CSx can't do much about that, while I'll agree it does have a more macho "I'm going to go out and hunt a few wild boar" type of look, I myself prefer the much more compact Vista HCx and single handed operation. The aerial on the HCx also works better when it is held in a horizontal position (which is how it is usually used). Regarding the screen size of the 60CSx the screen may be bigger but it is an inferior screen. At 100% brighness is is as bright at the Vista HCx is at 50%. Also note that the 60CSx screen is of lower resolution meaning that you see about 10% less map at the same scale. The screen is bigger because the pixels themselves are bigger, not because there are more pixels. In fact there are less pixels per centimetre. Before the H chips came out no one cared about the lower res screen because everyone bought it because of the more sensitive SirfStarIII chipset. But that doesn't matter any more, because the H chip is better. However it is very likely that a new 60CSx model will be out fairly soon with the same quality screen as on the Vista HCx then the size *will* make a difference. Also the HCx has considerably better battery life. Say you hold the 60CSx screen in in front of you at a distance of 12 inches, then by holding the Vista HCx screen at a distance of 11 inches makes the screens the same size but you still enjoy the higher resolution of the HCx and also the brightness too. Garmin are giving a $50 rebate on the 60CSx because they want to get rid of the stocks before the new model comes out. (just a guess) $0.02
  16. I agree to a certain extent that Garmin is suckering people. Take for example the fact that they put an H chip in the Yellow etrex. Sort of like putting a V8 in a model T Ford. Fact is that the input method on the low res b/w screens should have been buried long ago. The H chip should have gone in the b/w Venture as the basic model H. The Venture HC is a suckers model. The purpose of it is to force you to upgrade to the Legend HCx and that is also a suckers model because for a lousy $20 you can get the Vist HCx. Notice how when Garmin introducd the removable memory models (x series) they added this to the C so we had C and Cx but they did not discontinue the C. With the Legend C and Cx and Vista C and Cx they introduced the H chip and did away with the plain C models replaced by the HCx. However with the Venture C and Venture Cx you would have expected the same but tricky little Garmin put the very desirable H chip into the very undesirable C model and left the Cx model as it was. Thus leaving you with an invidious choice get the H chip in a superceded model with really crap memory, or do without the H chip and get good memory and battery life. Garmin should be ashamed of their blatant manipulation. The worst thing about the Venture HC is it's 14 hour battery life. However if your only interest is finding a cache then the best advice is to buy a second hand Venture for $70. The thing is that you don't need an H chip to find a cache because the H chips are not more accurate and no one is going to hide a cache where only H chips will work. At least not for a few years. EDIT: my latest second hand Venture off eBay arrived today and I just checked it against my HCx, gps altitude was perfect, within 1 metre of the topo maps and it picked up 6 satellites instead of 7 for the HCx but accuracy was identical.
  17. Yes that's generally true. How are you going to set coordinates with 5 metre accuracy with a map? Especially in the places where caches are usually hidden. When I have checked my position using topographic maps I find that it is only accurate to about 20-50 metres using UTM codordinates. Trying to read the lat longs with any precision off topo maps is a losing proposition. The thing is that even if you were able to set accurate (to within 5 metres) coordinates with a map then you are abrogating your responsibility by not checking the accuracy against a gps. EDIT: Unless of course you are using Steven Wright's maps. Wright: I've got a map of the USA...pause...life size.
  18. John E, I have led you to the water, you'll need to drink it yourself.
  19. Hiding a cache without checking accurate coordinates with a gps is fraudulent.
  20. it's all explained here
  21. Hold down the rocker button on the front for 2 seconds then scroll down to the lat long field and enter what you want then press OK. Or use the 'Mark' page not the 'Find' page.
  22. Don't know anything personally about the explorist but I've seen a lot of bad stuff about it, not the least of which was their customer support. Some reckon it's good though. Me, I'm really pleased with the VistaHCx, can't use mapsource yet but at least Garmin have released their communicator for mac which means I can download or upload tracks from google maps and drag and drop into google earth, which had my jaw dropping on the ground.
  23. The final UPDATE I think we have a result. There is still a bit of wierdness which I'll get to so it's worth reading this through. The new shield arrived today. First let me say it's a good fit. So we can get that out of the way, but before you all rush off and order one, make sure you order one of the C Series shields and not a VistaHCx shield. I'll explain why. This new shield I have received could still be a tad smaller in my opinion but at least it's not too big. The fit side to side appears to be almost perfect maybe a tenth of a millimetre room on each side, with .75mm on the top and bottom. This shield came in a packet marked "C Series Screen Shield", and for all I know this could have been the correct sized shield all along. Bearing in mind that they made a monochrome Summit shield that was way too big even though as we all know the normal eTrex sheild will fit the Summit. In other words what I'm saying is that they appear to cut different shields for different models in the same range when in fact the different models are all the same size anyway, ie all the b/w are the same as are the colour. Seeing as the Summit shield (b/w) is still listed, I would not be surprised at all if this is just the C Series shield that was sitting there all the time. The reason I say this is that it is not as small as I thought it would have been. So just to be safe, I would suggest ordering the C Series shield and not the VistaHCx shield. In theory it should not make a difference. If anyone does order the HCx shield anyway perhaps they can post here and say how it fits. Because I've had enough of this. But I will report on the boxwave when I get it. I'll post a new thread with a review of the Boxwave and Shielzone shields side by side. I can't say it's been a pleasant journey, we laughed, we cried, but we got there in the end.
  24. Thanks for confirming that. You are correct that I can save it with less points and usually I would but for bushwalking tracks I like to have it pretty accurate. However I will investigate the possibility of saving it as a track, which gave me the idea of trying to edit the gpx file in a text editor by just changing the <rte> and <rtept> tags to <trk> and <trkpt> tags using a find and replace. That appears to be the only difference, I'll give that a go. I've written to Garmin to see if they can add it to their next software update. Here's what it looks like if anyone is interested.
  25. There never was a Venture HCx this is part of a game Garmin are playing called "messing with your mind" the object of this silly game is to trick consumers into getting the wrong GPSr and then having to upgrade because, for example they decided that 'hey don't need to load maps and I want the H receivers so I'll get the Venture HC', then later they discover that it only has 14 hours battery life, Doh!
×
×
  • Create New...