SiliconFiend

Accuracy is different than sensitivity. I'm basing my statement on observations that the HCx occasionally acquires and holds more satellites than the 60Cx under the same conditions. Thus, more sensitive. Questions of accuracy (absolute correctness) and/or precision (repeatability) are another subject.

That's not quite accurate. Many reviewers have found the HCx to be slighly more sensitive than the 60 Cx series. The problem with the HCx is that it seems to have trouble registering slow movements, which leads to underreporting of the distance traveled on the odometer (the tracklog is unaffected). It seems to be related to the MediaTek chipset used in the HCx, but it's not yet known if it's able to be fixed via firmware.

You do have the compass turned on, right, and aren't just relying on a motion-based heading/bearing indicator? You're either doing something wrong or your unit has a more serious problem.

1 - Approx. Date Of Purchase? Early August, 2007 2 - Purchase Location? Offroute.com 3 - Unit Software Version? 2.40 4 - GPS SW Version? 2.30 5 - Unit ID? N/A 6 - Have you updated the firmware yourself? Yes 7 - Have you noticed the Trip Computer bug firsthand? No (never bothered) 8 - Does your typical usage depend on the Trip Computer function? No 9 - Have you contacted Garmin about the issue? No

The problem was a hardware bug that people hoped could be fixed by firmware. Several months and 2 updates later it hasn't. The new units appear to have new hardware - I would wait until this is confirmed and to see if that has fixed the problem. It doesn't fix the problem, and it's not known for certain to be a hardware bug.

Everyone's getting in a tizzy about a possible new chipset which Garmin was "holding out on us". That's not likely the case. What's more likely is that the chipset vendor (MediaTek?) has made a revision for some reason--fix a bug, replace an obsoleted component, whatever--and the associated firmware had to change to support the new revision. I'm a product engineer--this kind of stuff happens all the time. It's annoying busywork, but that's a big reason I have a job. I can't believe people are complaining that there is a new revision so soon. Would you have felt better if they waited for a year? Garmin has a reputation to uphold. It's highly unlikely they would release a product with known major bugs. I will grant that it's possible they judged the speed threshold cutout to be minor or an annoyance (that's how I view it), but I'm guessing they just missed it in their testing. I hate to find out about bugs from our customers--I take it personally because it's something I missed! But at some point, you have to cut off development and release the product or you'd never sell anything. The reality is, the Vista HCx is as close to bug-free as I've seen in a consumer device.

It has been verified that it does not affect the tracklog--it's a separate function. The velocity function uses the doppler shift of the GPS signals to determine when you're moving. The threshold for that velocity is too high currently (I believe 2 km/h), which causes it to not add distance moved to the odometer. It has to have a threshold, otherwise due to the vagaries of the signal it would continually add distance to the odometer while you're standing still. Garmin is aware of the problem and has improved it somewhat with the previous firmware release, but has not fixed it completely. I'm guessing it's related to the new high-sensitivity chipset (yes, I know it doesn't seem to happen with the Sirf) and it's a signal processing issue that is difficult to solve. I use mine on the trail and while the odometer is "nice to have", I don't really look at it and certainly don't rely on it (not that I could if I wanted to anyway...). Using it for a trolling speedometer would fall under a "special case" in my book--if it works for you, great; if not, it wasn't designed for that anyway (hint: it doesn't float).

Well, calling it a "serious" problem is obviously a matter of your individual needs. I would guess that most people won't even notice it. If you happen to rely on the odometer when you're walking slowly, or need to know your trolling speed, then it's the "worst problem in the world!!!". Garmin have shown themselves to be willing to fix problems in firmware, even on units that are "old" (and the Vista HCx is one of their newest). So if it can be fixed, it will be.

Okay, first let me qualify this by saying that I'm just learning XSD, and I've resisted diving into .NET. Looking at the two files you linked, I had a hard time figuring out how they fit together. It's particularly hard without an actual Groundspeak gpx file to look at... Looking at the Groundspeak xsd, it just represents a snippet of a document, not the entire thing. You wouldn't be able to use it as a document schema because it's insufficient by itself (this is probably why you're getting Nothing or Null values). So, looking at the main gpx schema file, obviously the <xsd:any> elements are where any extension points go. I think Groundspeak only extends the <wpt> elements with <cache> information. Looking here http://www.w3schools.com/schema/schema_complex_any.asp it seems that you have to create an xml schema instance (xsi) which references the different schemas you are using in a particular xml file. Maybe you have to do something similar with the .NET tools. It seems that <xsd:any> blows up any strong typing, because it can take any element. So you're probably going to have a hard time mixing these two schema files unless you combine them on your own into a new xsd file, which is likely a bad idea. Sorry for my stream-of-consciousness thoughts; maybe there's something helpful in there...

I only have the base and topo 2008. Well, I'm assuming you were looking at the Topo 2008 maps when you noticed it was 20 feet off, on the wrong side of the street. The Topo maps have some known inaccuracies; I'm guessing that's what you're seeing.

This happens when you're already viewing the cache info and you press the "Map" button on that screen. Then when you're viewing the map in that mode, it allows you to move the cache waypoint.

<snip> Unfortunately it is already set to Road-Off. What does the auto routing on road do? If you only have the basemap, on-road routing is not much use due to the poor coverage. If you have a routable map (CityNavigator, for example), it will give you turn-by-turn directions on the roads. Otherwise, with off-road routing, it just projects a line from your current location to your destination. It's up to you to figure out what roads or trails to take to get there. If you only have the basemap, that's probably why you're seeing the road on the wrong side. The basemap is very coarse and low resolution--some people have reported it being 150 feet off. The purple circle on the map screen represents the uncertainty of your location--it's a combination of your current location precision and the resolution of the map.

What about one of these for an eTrex series: Foarm eTrex case Has anyone tried this case? It looks to be an ideal companion with a screen protector, because it doesn't have a cheesy plastic window.

You might have better luck posting in the Yahoo support forum here: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/map_authors/ The cGPSMapper author posts there and might have an answer for you. Make sure you state which version of cGPSMapper you're using, too.

I don't think there's any way to make it do it automatically (it gets reset to 0 on startup) but if you toggle the backlight on while it's connected to an external power source, the backlight won't time out.

A GPS, like all radio receivers, has to generate a signal to match up with the carrier wave of the signal it's trying to receive. This turns it into a tiny transmitter, which could, in theory, interfere with the planes avionics.

A key site is http://www.cgpsmapper.com/ That's the software used to create those free maps, in most cases. Get the sendmap20 program from there. That will let you upload the free maps (Note that you have to upload all the maps you want at one time; a second upload will erase what you already have).

Why would they want to come out with a unit that is 4 months late, with crashes and missing parts while outsourcing their customer service to surly, uninformed non-native English speakers? <ducks>

I wonder if there's something slightly off with your Vista HCx. I cart mine around everywhere and when I look at the track logs, there is very tight correlation between the outbound and inbound tracks, and also between multiple trips. Of course, there's the occasional outlier, but in general it's very good.

Try it again. After a restart, click the power button once to bring up the backlight control, then click the power button again and it will restore your "user" setting. Then you can let it time out or press the Page/Quit key to hide the backlight control, and the user setting will persist for the rest of the time you have it on (no need to press Enter). Note that you have to let it boot fully--wait for it to get to the Satellite screen. For some reason the backlight level is reset during the bootup process. Basically, clicking the power button cycles the backlight between Off, User Setting, and 100%.

You don't need to press the Enter key after adjusting the backlight. Just let it time out and it will stay at the level where you left it. Same thing for power-on. Just click the power button twice to restore your User Level, no need to press Enter.

Well... When they're little (i.e., not walking) it's probably not too bad--you can put them in a stroller or front carrier, and later in a backpack (after 6 months). Once they reach toddler stage, though, family geocaching pretty much becomes a one-person exercise, because they're not yet interested in finding it (too short attention span) so one of you has to keep the toddler entertained and out of trouble. That makes it not as fun for that person (you can trade off, but still...). So, we've done easy caches that we can pick up on walks around the neighborhood, but not much else. Maybe in a year or two we can do more.

I think the reason that you see so many questions about Garmins is simply because they're more popular (they seem to be far more popular with the geocaching crowd, especially). Any time you have a larger user base, there tends to be more questions. Plus, a lot of questions are about doing "interesting things" with Garmins (i.e., custom maps, POI enhancements, etc.), so lots of questions doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. I'm a recent Vista HCx owner (I haven't used other brands or models much) and I don't have any complaints. It Just Works, which is simply what I'd expect.

Unless you would rather sit at your computer and make maps rather than ride, I recommend purchasing one of the mapsource topo products and upload your own tracks and tracks found on the internet. There are a lot of mountain biking sites out there that provide maps and gpx files: http://www.google.com/search?q=mountain+bi...amp;startPage=1 See also http://motionbased.com Pay services: http://trails.com Stay away from http://trailsource.com I believe making your own maps is an advanced task and a daunting one if you are unaccustomed to gps and mapping in general. You may also consider working with OpenStreetMap (www.openstreetmap.org), too, to share your work with a larger audience, and as part of a larger project. There is a program to convert OpenStreetMap data to Garmin map format. (Not currently routable; I'm planning on creating a routable version).

I really wish the NHD dataset was downloadable in bulk, instead of being forced to use their web interface and then wait for an email. It's great data, and would make a good addition to OpenStreetMap (www.openstreetmap.org). Maybe it's available if they're contacted directly....