geo climber

I'm not sure what the "OK" key is. I'm referring to the keys as described on page 3 of the "eTrex HC series owner's manual". The "Quit/Page" key should make the keypad go away and leave the waypoints ordered by name. That's how it works on my Vista HCx.

If you press the "Quit" key the keypad goes away and the waypoints are ordered by name.

Ohh, it's on the Calendar page. I got it now. Nice feature. Thanks guys!

Under the "Geocache Setup" menu there's an option for "Calendar Entry When Found", Yes/No. I have it set to "Yes", but I've never seen a geocache entry display the date I found it, which would likely be on the data page for that waypoint (cache). Am I misunderstanding what this option does, or is this another bug?

Got it, thanks. So what does "Barometer Mode" do for Fixed vs Variable Elevation, on that page?

There is a Garmin stockist in the UK that showed these in stock last night. I'm going to ring to confirm today and order one if they're in. Andy Edit: In stock & ordered. Thanks. I'm ordering one today. Should the high sensitivity receiver in the eTrex H compare favorably with the receiver in the Vista HCx? Is the big difference (2x) in battery life between eTrex H and Vista HCx due to different chipsets in the two units?

Using the automatic calibration feature combines the best of both (IMHO) under most circumstances by continually updating the barometric altitude based on the gps calculation. I normally just use this setting and forget about it, doing a manual calibration whenever things look strange or if it's important to have accurate readings. Other people prefer to do frequent manual calibrations; it's mostly a matter of preference and what you feel comfortable with. I can't find an option for "automatic calibration" on my Vista HCx. Is that a feature specific to the 60CSx?

The barometric altimeter can be set to the current gps altitude by operator command on the altimeter "Calibration" page. Other than this calibration option, the barometric altitude and gps altitude are completely separate and independent calculations.

Was the barometric pressure stable the entire time? Doesn't take much of a barometer change to drop 500' of altitude. I wouldn't conclude it's an altimeter problem unless you are positive there was no change in barometric pressure during your trip.

I'm hearing from several sources that the eTrex H will be shipping this week. Anyone have one yet or heard anything? This will be my replacement for Vista HCx for bicycle use. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=170819

I still have 2.20 firmware in mine and am not seeing that problem. I thought you could try reinstalling 2.20 as an experiment to see if that fixes it, but I just found out that Garmin didn't archive that version of firmware, so no way to backup. You could also enable the compass at low speeds to see if that stabilizes the compass arrow. What are your compass threshold settings now for speed and time? I too have had this behavior just today. Hmmm. Does anyone have a backup of the firmware 2.20 that we could roll back to? I don't see it on Garmin's site. I have my settings set to <3 MPH for >60 seconds. I may set them back to the defaults and see what happens too. I called Garmin and they said a version 2.40 is coming out "soon" to address the known problems in 2.30. They said that 2.20 was never published as a download and therefore not archived. Hard to believe but probably sadly true. So much for software configuration control. Try manually turning on the compass when you experience the problem and see if that helps. It is manually controlled by holding in the PAGE key, as I recall.

I still have 2.20 firmware in mine and am not seeing that problem. I thought you could try reinstalling 2.20 as an experiment to see if that fixes it, but I just found out that Garmin didn't archive that version of firmware, so no way to backup. You could also enable the compass at low speeds to see if that stabilizes the compass arrow. What are your compass threshold settings now for speed and time?

Nice catch! I had to get a replacement for my Vista Cx from Garmin after about 2 months of use. Old unit just plain died. Garmin replaced it quickly without hassle. New unit has 2.70 (I didn't check the old unit, but bet that it had 2.60). Had noticed that when geocaching if I paged to the compass display, I could never leave it (i.e. to go back to the map display). Did tech support give any information to your friend regarding when Garmin would provide a new firmware update to fix the problem? I'll ask her if Garmin commented on when the fix would be available. Do you need the link to 2.60? Looks like 2.70 added a lot of enhancements, except for introducing this one problem.

Be aware that Garmin makes bike mounts for two different sizes of handlebars, standard and oversized.

I do most of my geocaching by bicycle, road or mountain, and just got a Vista HCx as an upgrade from my original yellow etrex. The Vista is much more sensitive and seems more accurate, but I'm not totally happy with it for biking. The ergonomics of the buttons, particularly the rocker key on top, don't work well for one handed operation when the unit is mounted on the handlebar mount. Plus the bike mount for the Vista is much less secure than the one for the old etrex. But the feature I really miss from the etrex is the "Nearest Waypoints" screen where I can view all six of the closest waypoints simultaneously with both distance and direction for all six. Can't do that on the Vista, it only shows distance and direction for one waypoint at a time and I have to manipulate the rocker key to access the other closest waypoints. It's tremendously convenient while moving on the bike to know where I am relative to the closest waypoints. With the etrex I can get that information at a glance without stopping the bike. With the Vista I have to stop and scroll through waypoint list to see where to go next. Anyway, I'm thinking the new etrex H may be the best choice for me when it becomes available. The only downside seems to be the short battery life (17 hrs). I'll keep the Vista for it's other great features, but it's not cutting it for bike caching. Sometimes simpler is better.

Go to the Garmin website and read the FAQ on memory cards. As I recall they recommend by name the Kingston and Sandisk micro SD cards. There is a model of the Sandisk that will not work in the Garmin. Don't know about size, but for $20 why not just get the 2GB?

I figured that one out. After you power it back on, click the POWER key twice quickly, then click the ENTER/ROCKER key. Your backlighting should now be back to where you set it before the power off. I set mine at 50% and it never changes with those steps.

If your Legend is like my Vista HCx, this might work: Find->Waypoints->Find key->Delete...->All Symbols->Yes (to delete all waypoints). I haven't tried this as I really don't want to delete all my waypoints, but it seems likely to work.

I recommended to my geocaching partner that she update her Vista Cx to the latest (v2.70) firmware with WebUpdater, and she did. She then reported to me that when navigating to a waypoint, the Page key would hang on the Trip Computer page and not rotate to the next page. I found this hard to believe, but she called Garmin tech support and they said it is a know issue with 2.70, and sent her a link to restore the previous version (2.60?). FYI.

I had the same questions, and I bought the Vista HCx. My feeling was that for the extra $30 I didn't want to be sorry later that I hadn't gotten the compass or altimeter. The compass can be easily turned on/off, and the altimeter page can be taken out of rotation if you don't want to use them. I'm still experimenting with both and don't know how useful they will be long term, but for the small price difference I'd rather have them than not.

I can't duplicate this problem on my new Vista HCx. I created and deleted several waypoints and they were deleted from both map and waypoint list. I'm running version 2.20.

Whats NG topo??? National Geographic Topo: http://tinyurl.com/2tp9bq

Ahhh, but Garmin has released a way to put their maps on the GPS using a map. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...mp;hl=mapsource Not 100% yet but good progress. Progress yes, but it still requires a PC to make it work, and I don't have a PC. Now if MapSource was available natively for the Mac, I'd buy it right now.

Does that also limit the usefullness of a 2GB card for loading topo maps? I'm planning to buy a blank card for my new Vista HCx, and wondering whether to get a single 2GB card or two 1GB cards.

Just got my new Vista HCx and giving some though to getting topo's loaded into it. I run a Mac so MapSource isn't an option yet, and I was hoping for higher quality maps too. Which brought this thought to mind. Why can't a mapping GPS like the Vista be loaded with a topo map from a source like NG Topo? I realize that the formats would be different between the two programs, but what's preventing someone from developing a program similar to GPSBabel for maps, that translates an arbitrary map format into something that can be loaded into the GPS? I would think that the Garmin SDK might specify the map format, but maybe it's proprietary and can't be reverse engineered. Is the Garmin map format anything more than just a bitmap? Anyway, just thinking out loud and wondering why this hasn't happened yet.