MrGigabyte

quote:Originally posted by DARC: The topographic maps are recomended not to install on Huhhhh? There are no Topo maps available for Canada. The original poster is from Kitchener. Last time checked, that was still part of Ontario. Why would he want US topos?

When you use battery saver mode, the receiver turns off the RF receiver section of the unit, and signals are no longer being received for that period. When the RF side of the unit is turned back on, all channels of the receiver have to re-acquire their satellites - they have to make tiny adjustments in signal timing until the satellite signals appear coming out of the correlators. If the signals from the antenna are strong, this doesn't take long. The CPU of the receiver has been estimating your position while the receiver was turned off, so it already has predictions for exactly where you are and how fast you're going and thus where to expect to "find" the satellite signals. But when signals are weak, this doesn't work so well. With the receiver in Normal mode, the RF/correlator section runs continuously, and each channel continuously tracks the timing of its assigned satellite signal. These tracking loops can follow a signal even when it gets weak (due to attenuation from tree leaves), right down into the noise. But this same weak signal can be too weak for the channel to re-acquire after it's been off. Also, the horizon mask angle is raised, thus disabling WAAS.

An opportunity for a joint find cache has just come to my attention. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=16934 It is called "Sisters" and is based on 2 geocachers in remote cities teaming up to log a joint find (each gets to log it). Per the instructions on the cache page, I found the following page on the sister-cities.org web site. http://www.sister-cities.org/sci/directory/Americas/Canada/index I am in Vancouver, BC, and the listed sister city is Los Angeles, California. If anyone around LA is interested, please let me know as soon as convenient.

quote:Originally posted by laraley: But I see that system requirements are just for a PC! Are the updates important enough that I have to have someone with a PC do them for me? Depends on your requirements. Certainly there has been no major upgrades from my Legend in the last year that I would upgrade for. Then again, If I need a certain feature, then I would risk it. quote: What about downloading waypoints into the unit. Anything for a Mac? Many of us run Virtual PC with MapSource. It works, but you would be a borderline Windbloze user. MacGPSpro will do everything you want. Upload, download, manage, transform raster maps, plot tracks, read NMEA data etc. Overall, an excellent app. quote: he arrow on this one bounces around like crazy and is very slow to respond to changes in direction. This has nothing to do with the unit or version. It has everything to do with how the arrow indicator calculates its instantaneous bearing. It uses the last two logged track points to solve a back bearing. It has no idea that you are stopped or even slowed and are doing the drunken bee dance unless it has just recorded a track point. To solve this problem you can easily upgrade... but not the software.. upgrade to add a cheap compass to add to your caching tools and learn how to use it.

If you are looking for caches in any area, why not use the built in "nearby caches" link that is on every cache page. Go the the cache you know about (C12B3), then clink on the nearby caches link on that page Find... ...other caches hidden or found by this user ...nearby caches ...nearby placenames Looks like there are 10 caches within 50km. Lucky you!

They are probably broadcasting differential corrections (DGPS) from that location.

Have you tried the Links page on geocaching.com ? These links are here for a reason. Pay particular attention to the 2 links under General Resources. If you cannot find what you want there, then it is not worth looking for.

Have you tried the Links page on geocaching.com ? These links are here for a reason. Pay particular attention to the 2 links under General Resources. If you cannot find what you want there, then it is not worth looking for.

quote: I have seen co-ordinates posted in two formats around the site. That would be very unusual to see coordinates listed anywhere on geocaching.com in any format other than ddd mm.mmm. The only place ddd.ddddd are used is on the home page when searching for caches in specific area. But, they are not listed anywhere. Also, all automatically linked maps from cache pages (MapQuest, MapBlast etc) all take values in ddd.ddddd but again, they are not on this site, they are external sites. The best thing to do is just to recognize what formats things are an use what ever you want. Geocaching.com makes it very easy for you if you stick to ddd mm.mmm. As Kerry says, you already carry the best conversion tool, right in your hand.

quote: I have seen co-ordinates posted in two formats around the site. That would be very unusual to see coordinates listed anywhere on geocaching.com in any format other than ddd mm.mmm. The only place ddd.ddddd are used is on the home page when searching for caches in specific area. But, they are not listed anywhere. Also, all automatically linked maps from cache pages (MapQuest, MapBlast etc) all take values in ddd.ddddd but again, they are not on this site, they are external sites. The best thing to do is just to recognize what formats things are an use what ever you want. Geocaching.com makes it very easy for you if you stick to ddd mm.mmm. As Kerry says, you already carry the best conversion tool, right in your hand.

WGS84 is a map datum. There are dozens of them preloaded in your Legend. Without getting into what a datum / map projection / coodinate system is, just make sure the following are the settings you have in your Legend. Go to the "Main Menu". Select "Setup" Select "Units" Select "Position Format". Make sure it is set to hddd mm.mmm Select "Map Datum". Make sure it is set to WGS 84 That's it. We are all now speaking the same babblegab from this point on. Welcome to the addiction.

Go to Garmins web site and follow the links to the online Mapsource Map Viewer. Here is a view of Kitchener on the Enhanced Base Map . If you want metro Torana', you can use the Metrogide and R & R. The detail is increased by about a factor of 10. Note, these are the EXACT maps that you upload to you GPSr.

quote:Originally posted by RAD Dad: I take the first reading, wait a few minutes take another, then another, then another. I don't move, I just stay in the same spot the whole time, take as many as 20 different readings over a period of around ten minutes. Unfortunately, you may think you improving you accuracy this way, but in reality, you are doing nothing (except maybe trapping a gross error). Ten minutes of readings means 20 waypoints recorded with no consideration to the geometry of the satellites. To be of any value, the geometry must change. The birds move 30 degrees an hour, so waiting even half an hour is a big improvement. All you may be doing is getting an average of bad data. It may be accurate but it is not precise. They may all be within 5m of each other, but they may also all be 100m out! How you get the average is irrelevant. Whether by rigorous (least squares) or semi-rigorous methods does not make any difference, if the average you come up with is based on questionable readings. RadDad, regarding not moving... moving is very important if it means moving to a location where the view of the sky is improved over the exact spot you have hidden or looking for the cache. Simply moving to the other side of a tree or more may improve you precision by several orders of magnitude. Get to know your satellite screen. It is the best information your GPSr provides. Again, you should read the concurrent thread in the GPS Units forum on this exact topic.

You should read this current thread on waypoint averaging in the GPS Units forum.

Kerry, Anders, jfitzpat are spot on. All averaging is going to do for a novice is average bad positions based on bad geometry. It may be an average, but it is still wrong. Keep an eye on the satellite page. Wait until you have the best reception and geometry and set a waypoint. If you have to move 5m to get out of the tree shadow, then do so. Moving that 5m may increase your accuracy by a factor of 10. Now keep watching the satellite page for as long as you can stay there. Take more waypoints. The satellites will move 30 degrees of arc in an hour. This will make a huge difference to your accuracy. Just wait, be patient, improve your view of the sky and take multiple waypoints when the satellite view is good. Now, just zoom in on your map screen on yor GPSr and manually select the best position from the grouping of waypints you recorded.

32*97.556 is not valid (in terms of your GPSr). As such, it will not let you enter that value. In reality, it is valid, but it means 33* 37.556 If you are using the hddd mm.mmm coordinate system, your maximum value would be 32 59.999. As such, your 3rd digit can only be in the range of 0 to 5.

quote:Originally posted by mrcpu: I'm curious as to where this logo comes from originally and why it has become so popular of late. This stlye of design is anything but new. Check out any of the works Piet Mondrion, Dutch Neo-Plasticist Painter, 1872-1944

quote:Originally posted by RAD Dad: They claim that Metroguide was RECENTLY updated yet it still is missing the same information Roads and Recreation is missing. Rad Dad... can we imagine for a moment that the world encompasses an area somewhat larger than your parents subdivision. Lets also assume that things are constantly changing everywhere. NavTech updates their data on a continual basis, Garmin buys that data at some point and produces a product based on that data at the instant. Now, years later Garmin buys updated data from the same supplier to produce and updated version of the same product. How can we for a moment expect every conceivable change to be incorporated in the update. They missed a subdivision that was 5 years old. So what, I bet they missed hundreds of them. At the same time I am betting that there are hundreds of new subdivisions that are newer than 5 years old that are included in the update. Notwithstanding, your missing corner of the globe, the data is indeed updated as they claim. Error free, no... but they never claimed it was. Garmin provides an online form for you to submit errors and omissions that you find in their mapping to their cartography department. I assume you have submitted your missing areas to them after your discovery. If you haven't then you are not helping identify areas containing errors and therby improving the product in future updates. quote:Originally posted by BusBoy: All I can say is thank goodness for Morpheus!! BusBoy... I hope that is a joke. If not, thieves such as yourself are part of the reason legitimate MapSource owners, such as myself, pay a premium price for the product.

You invest a small fortune in business selling geocaching trinkets to Canadians. It then turns out that most of your best customers are from the US !

You invest a small fortune in business selling geocaching trinkets to Canadians. It then turns out that most of your best customers are from the US !

quote:Originally posted by cliffy: She was kind enough to e-mail a couple of pictures of the masterpiece in the works Holy crap Cliffy... Is that one of your patented camo caches under the table in the second pic. That blue domed thingy. If it is, I want the plans for building that thing. Did you use expanding foam then hollow it out?

quote:Originally posted by cliffy: She was kind enough to e-mail a couple of pictures of the masterpiece in the works Holy crap Cliffy... Is that one of your patented camo caches under the table in the second pic. That blue domed thingy. If it is, I want the plans for building that thing. Did you use expanding foam then hollow it out?

Most consumer GPSr provide the Orthometric Height which is the height above the geoid (the height above mean sea level. MSL). The Geoid Undulation or Geoidal Separation, is the difference between the Earth's Geoid and the GRS80 ellipsoid. Your GPSr actually calculates the height above the GRS80 ellipsoid (HAE) and by use of a lookup table calculates... Orthometric Height (MSL) = HAE - Geoid Undulation. The Orthometric height displayed will always have 1.5 to 2 times the error of that of the horizontal position for the same point.

Most consumer GPSr provide the Orthometric Height which is the height above the geoid (the height above mean sea level. MSL). The Geoid Undulation or Geoidal Separation, is the difference between the Earth's Geoid and the GRS80 ellipsoid. Your GPSr actually calculates the height above the GRS80 ellipsoid (HAE) and by use of a lookup table calculates... Orthometric Height (MSL) = HAE - Geoid Undulation. The Orthometric height displayed will always have 1.5 to 2 times the error of that of the horizontal position for the same point.

The easiest way to locate these points is to "traverse" point to point using simple "plane" surveying. To do so, you should switch your GPSr to a coordinate system that most closely represents a plane. This is UTM. Your starting point (Pt 1) in UTM is 17 S 299469.0 4290180.0. You will confirm this as soon as you switch your GPSr to UTM. We can ignore the zone (17 S) and express the coordinates in terms of Easting & Northing. (299469.0 4290180.0). In UTM, the coordinates you see displayed in your GPSr are really actual ground measurable distances in visual units... metres. They are not arc distances as in latitude and longitude. This makes it very easy to locate your points just by looking at the coordinate display alone. From this point on, we have to assume that the bearings you listed are astronomic. That is, they are based on True North. If they are anything else, we will have to apply a bearing equation and rotate all the bearings to suit the specified north reference before proceeding. Now, having said that... The bearings on your plan are in a system called quadrantal bearings. These are values between 0 and 90 degrees. They are always expressed as an angle east or west from the poles. This system was used as it was based on manual calculation of trig functions. Since the sine of 1 is the same as the sine of 179 and 181 and 359, only values less than 90 were needed. Only the sign changed. In the following table, your bearings have been converted to "full circle" bearings, or azimuths and your distances converted to metres. Just enter the Eastings and Northings for points 2 through 7 into your GPSr and your all set.