Smac999

I have some old trimble NT100's and 200's at work. stilling working after 24/7 use for over 10 years. doubt that helps you though . although I'll add for fun that the NT100's were not yk2 complinent. and the date on the screen reads 1987

I don't know if the garmin ones provide straight through 12v? that would cause some voltage changes on the line. but any generic USB cig plug is only 5v and likly regulated. so it should never change. I haven't actully tryed mine yet. but you just plug the garmin USB cable into it. it doesn't have it's own cable.

have you calibrated the compass? it needs to be done atleast every time you change the batterys. and probably every time you turn the GPS on. also it has to be held 100% flat to work. make sure the compass is on. holding the top right button turns it off and on. (it 'll tell you on the screen when it changes) and as above make sure lock to road is off etc.

I don't understand the track thing. everytime you turn it off and on (and even every time you lose sat) it will start a new track. when you load the tracks into mapsource you should have had seperate tracks for each time you turned it off and on. at which point you could join them together in mapsource if you wanted. or are you saving the tracks then loading the saved tracks? maybe that joins them together, I haven't looked at that. I always just take the active tracks right off the unit without saving. with requards to the stoped time, it has nothing to do with the sats. you can have clear view 3m and it still doesn't show if you are moving slowly. it's simply the speed limit setting that they have made. if you are going slower then xx speed it doesn't show. and I guess if they make it slower the gps will have other problems. probably counting time when you are stoped or tracking everywhere while stoped. they are probably battling with the new sensor, and trying to find the middle point between tracking what should be, and not tracking what shoudln't be.

Thank you gentlemen, I found it, thank you. just make sure you calibrate the compass often if you are using it. atleast everytime you change the batterys. and maybe even every time you turn it on. it's defaintly wrong after removing batterys.

not for this use. but I use them for other uses. I have found some that work, and some that don't.... generaly I find the cheaper the cable the better it works. the $40 ones suck and the $10 ones work. go figure.

if you buy the chips you can only use the maps on the GPS. if you buy the CD's. all the maps are usable on your computer and the GPS.

I noticed mine was way off after I updated untill I calibrated the compass again...

I hardly call the CX inferior. the trip meter on the HCX still sucks. if I wasn't using the GPS in deep forest I would buy a CX instead of an HCX...

I can walk as far as you want. and make he HCX show 0 distance and 0 time moved. it simply doesn't count slow speed. when I walk a few hundred feet. and the trip meter says 0 feet and 0 time moved. it's pretty obvious it's wrong. the trip meter on the CX simply starts counting at a slower pace.

I can't find this Settings/Marine/Speed Filter toggle on my Vista HCx. The only settings that show up on it are Anchor Drag Alarm and Off Course Alarm. Am I missing something here? this setting is not on the new H's. the removal of which tells me garmin didn't know how to, or had problems dealing with the filtering right from the start and knew about it.

there is no way to view the card from the GPS. what you should be able to do is load up the file in mapsource then transfer the track (or 20) back onto the unit. if you needed a certain track for a trip.

I'm pretty sure the geocaches are combined with the way points. so yes you can turn all waypoints off. but you can't only turn the geocache ones off.

what they are talking about the is compass warning in 2.3. everytime you turn the gps off and on, or turn the compass off or on. a warning would pop up and say the compass needs to be re calibrated.. really anoying. the warning screen wasn't there in 2.2 and has been removed again in 2.4

I'm leaving tomorrow and will be walking lots this weekend. very glad the fix is out, hopefully I'll know how far I walked . mine updated perfect, both files. didn't have to do anything. gps reset itself after the first file. only thing I had to do was turn it off after the 2nd one finished. went for a 100 foot walk outside. it's probably better but still not great. still doesn't track really slow walking. and once it stops it seems to take some really fast walking to get it started again. I'll have to borrow my friends CX again for a better check.

Yes it does...I just did a 35 mile backpacking trip in Yellowstone. If left on, the unit recorded the tracks very, very well. However, the odometer recorded just a fraction of our actual mileage. you are incorrect. I have tested it myself. gone walking slowing (no distance on trip meter. and looked at the tracks in mapsource. I had a single track point. the place I started. if the tracks are set to "track by distance" (is this the part you are missing? you're was probably set to auto or time) then unless the GPS thinks you are moving. it doesn't record. if you set it to track by distance. say 300 feet. it'll track everytime the trip meter rolls over 300 feet. if the trip meter never moves. you get no tracks. I am strickly talking about track by distance.

No. This is an issue with the trip computer. It does not affect tracking. it effects tracking if you have it set to track by distance. it doesn't track if it doesn't think you moved. It will still track. The trip computer is triggered by the rate of movement. People are complaining that this threshold rate is too high for pedestrian use. exactly and if you are going slower then that rate it doesn't track. I have tested.

No. This is an issue with the trip computer. It does not affect tracking. it effects tracking if you have it set to track by distance. it doesn't track if it doesn't think you moved.

when updating my 60cx you have to run webupdater twice to get the chipset update. first time it checks for the unit software, then webupdater will ask you to check for additional software, this is when it will update the chipset. 2.3 has the compass nag and is worse then the software it comes with. don't upgrade untill they fix the speed problem. hopefully they will get rid of the compass nag with it.

I think if you buy the marine charts it would have them, but I'm not sure.

you change the GPS to a storage device and copy them to your computer. to view in mapsource. you can't access the card via the GPS. the tracks are saved onto the interal memory for gps veiwing. and you can save them into the interal memory (20 tracks)

I got this reply today. I just replyed with the pics I posted above. Thank you for contacting Garmin International, I"d be happy to help you. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have had numerous accounts of this happening and we are currently looking in to this to see what the issue might be. Hopefully, there will be a software update to fix this issue at some time. Please let me know if there's anything else I can help you with. With Best Regards, Debbie B Product Support Specialist

I sent an email last week to surport. if I don't get anything by mon / tues I'll call.

here's my review.... http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=173260

updates from today. hiked a slow going backcounty trail yesterday into a campsite, and today back out. I don't think the moving / stoped times are quite right on the CX either. I don't think stoped time should have been more then 30 mins or so on the way out. however the CX is ALOT better then the HCX. the distance on the HCX is a joke. I'm still alittle confused on the total distance though. all 4 tracks (2 units x 2 ways) give me around 4.5km in mapsoure. the cx gives me 4.5km each way on trip meter. but the markers at the trail head say 5.5km. pic from the hike in... pic from the hike out. pic from mapsource of the HCX