AlunS
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Posts posted by AlunS
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As of today, Etrex Vista C's latest version is v2.70
Are you sure your friend's one is Vista HCX?
I don't think you can even buy a "brand new" Vista C any more though, can you?
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Did a hike with the downgraded chipset firmware (2.60/2.30) and did not experience the position drift problem, and everything (except the speed and the odometer errors) seemed to work fine. On the same route I usually got several such drifts with the 2.60 chipset fw.
So I'm happy (sort of)...
Did you tell Garmin that it had solved your problem? That, at least, should get them to acknowledge that there is indeed a problem and get something moving.
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I managed to get a complete uninterrupted track on a 2 hour ferry crossing last weekend using my Vista HCx. It was one of those fast-ferry catamaran type of ships and I was sitting in the middle of it, not near any windows really, so I'm assuming what signal it managed to receive was actually coming through the metal roof above me. . It did take some time to get the initial fix, but once it had it, it hung on to it for dear life. Very impressive!
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I still thought it was worth noting as it sounds like Garmin was pointing the finger to custom maps.
Which is nonsense seeing as track logs retrieve from the unit after the fact show the same phenomenon as well, and these are unaffected by the presence or absence of maps, custom or otherwise, on the unit.
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I agree, you usually get a more accurate estimate of error. But sometimes even the true error goes up!
Same thing !!!!! Having a more accurate estimate of the error doesn't necessarily mean that it will be lower, it might be higher, and it logically follows that if the estimate of the error goes up then the observed error may increase within those revised estimates.
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Not entirely true. Read the links above. On average WAAS improves readings, but can occasionally make them worse. I too would advise leaving it on, but be aware that it does not always make things better.
That all depends on your definition of "better". What it is effectively doing is ensuring that the reported position together with the EPE is a more "accurate" representation of the truth. In most instances this will mean a reduction in the reported EPE, but some instances it might mean that the reported EPE is larger, but this does not mean that your fix is "worse" if you get what I mean.
Anyway, for me in Ireland at about 53 degrees north, it's a bit of a waste of time. The EGNOS satellites at this latitude are relatively low on the horizon, which means that in any kind of valley or where there's any kind of obstruction on the horizon I can't pick them up reliably. On open ground in the hills the addition of WAAS/EGNOS only usually makes about 1m of difference in the reported EPE which for my purposes is irrelevant, so I just leave it off.
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This has bugged me for so long. When using the keyboard to bring up a list of address to get to the name I have to scroll to the 'OK' button to leave the keyboard and scroll the list. Say goodbye to keyboard ok woes by using the 'zoom in' button to 'OK' a list.
... or if you're like me and can never remember which is 'zoom in' and which is 'zoom out', just hit the quit/page key. Does the same thing.
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The only things that go into the track log are position, elevation and a timestamp. Anything else that may be displayed by the many and various pieces of software that process track logs, such as speed, bearing etc. is derived from this basic information.
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Thanks for your replies! I remember reading something similar to this when the unit first came out, but I too was under the impression that the problem was corrected with firmware update 2.40.
What software are you actually running? It is currently at 2.60
http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection....ct=010-00630-00
Not only that, but a lot of the problems were due to the GPS chipset firmware which needs updating too. You have to do this via Webupdater, there is no separately available downloadable executable for this update.
The current versions for both the unit firmware and the GPS chipset firmware are 2.60.
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I've got a map scale indicator on my nuvi 760, although I can't say I've ever noticed it before until I read this thread, so that goes to show how useful I've found it so far
I've also never found any reason to know what compass direction I'm travelling in when driving either to be honest. When I'm out hiking though it's a whole different ballgame. Horses for courses and all that. -
3) You can record your tracks with GPS elevation rather than barometric elevation by making the following changes to the altimeter setup:
Auto-Calibration - OFF
Barometer Mode - Fixed Elevation
What does the real-time altimeter display show in this case?
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the unit software is 2.3 this is specific to the unit and can not be updated.
Wrong. It's part of the "additional updates" that WebUpdater asks you if you want to install after it updates the main system s/w.
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Has anyone tried turning off WAAS to see if that impacts it in the same way?
My wife was having this problem with her Venture HC, and it seemed to be cured by disabling WAAS, but it was hardly a scientifically valid experiment. She was only having the problem in areas of relatively bad coverage, such as on forest tracks, where WAAS would have been as much use as a chocolate teapot anyway.
Interestingly though, my own Vista HCx seems not to have been affected at all by this problem.
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Thanks. I guess I haven't spent enough time on the menu system. THAT is actually a better way than I use with Magellan because there is no typing ... just reposition this waypoint to the current position.
Now that I am on the menu I see a choice called AVERAGE. Even though I'm inside right now it seem like that function can be used to reposition a waypoint???? If so, REPOSITION is quick and easy, and AVERAGE is longer and easy. Do I understand that correctly?
That's pretty much it, yes. The extra accuracy probably wouldn't be of any advantage to you in this particular instance though unless you have a very, very small car
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I have a new Etrex Summit HC and a couple of older Magellans. For Geocaching, I would like to be able to park the car and enter the car position as a waypoint called "CAR" each time I start a hunt. On the Magellans I can mark a waypoint and give it the name CAR. Magellan then tells me that I already have CAR, do I want to replace it ... and I say yes. Pretty easy.
On Etrex, I set a waypoint and call it CAR, and Garmin says that CAR already exists and won't let me overwrite it. I then have to go back and give the waypoint a unique name, like "CAR1. Either that, or delete the original CAR and then enter a new CAR waypoint. Is there an easier method? I guess it's the same question as how to redefine an existing waypoint.
Thanks
Just make sure you have a fix, select the CAR waypoint from the waypoint list, click the menu button and choose "Reposition Here" (right down at the very bottom of the menu under "View Hunt and Fish").
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Is there anyway to determine if the micro sd card is working besides loading you GPS with enough data that it would fill it up?
I have a Etrex Legend Hcx and I put in a 512mb micro card from my phone that I don't use and Im not sure if it is working or not. however when I loaded the topo maps onto is I was able to put on all of Wa, Or and Id. So, I am assuming it works.
You can put it into "USB Mass Storage" mode via Setup -> Interface when it's connected and you'll be able to access the memory card as a USB mass storage device, i.e. it'll appear as an additional drive on your PC.
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Well, regarding the problem with my wife's Venture HC that I mentioned above, we went back to the same area where we were having problems on Saturday, but this time disabled WAAS, and got no problems at all. Not sure whether this is relevant or not, but it seemed to solve the problem, which is strange seeing as in the places where we were having problems (fairly thick tree cover) there's not a bat in hells' chance we were picking up a WAAS (or in our case EGNOS) satellite anyway. Strange.
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Manual - but I have always thought that it should somehow be built in - at least as a prompted option.
That's actually a lot more difficult than it sounds. Time zone boundaries, especially outside of the US, are often far from straight which would make any kind of simple look up table to decide which side of a time zone you were useless. Take Spain and Portugal for example which are in different time zones and have a very "wiggly" border. Also if you were walking close to a time zone boundary you'd get pretty fed up of it prompting you all the time as you criss-crossed in and out of one and into another.
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YES..just about the same problem...What is happening is that the backtrak feature (with my Venture HC) does NOT follow the exact same return route as the initial route. I guess thats just the "nature of the animal". I am a new Garmin owner...I still have my Magellan Merigold and I love it. It will be used as my backup unit. I am going to Arizona next week and I need to have confidence in my new Venture HC. Time will tell.
Well, if the track it's recording isn't an accurate representation of the track on the ground, then it's clear that the backtrack feature won't work as expected, since it merely follows the recorded track in reverse. That's not anything to do with the backtrack feature per se, but merely a result of an incorrect track being recorded, and not the "nature of the animal" at all.
Maybe you could try downgrading to 2.50 from here ... http://www.gpsinformation.org/perry/etrex/...ntureHC_250.exe and see if it cures the problem. If so, then at least you have something to go back to Garmin with if you want to.
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My wife has had some problems with her Venture HC, not with the trackback as such, since she's never used it, but when downloaded and overlaid on a map, the tracks do some odd things like they're the same general 'shape' and do all the right bends and curves, but are offset by a certain distance. See http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...t&p=3341800 Is this what you're experiencing? There's also someone claiming to have the same problem with a Vista HCx with the latest updates.
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I loaded the newest version for my new Venture HC....2.70. It seems that it screws up my trackback feature. With the GPS turned on, I drive around a large block and zig/zag in my area. When I turn on the trackback feature, some of the trackback turns are way off. I am going hiking in Arizona in a week and I don't want any problems with my Venture. Any comments ?? Also..is there any way to download a previous update such as ver# 2.50 for my Venture HC ?? I never had any problems with ver# 2.50. Thanks....
You can find all the old versions archived here
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Have you contacted their support yet? I think it may speed things up if more people would complain about this bug.
No, I haven't. I generally avoid tech support (for anything, not only Garmin) like the plague, and only contact them as an utter last resort .. I'd only end up getting frustrated at the stock replies and their total inability to actually read what I've written.
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Ahh, yes! That is very much how it looks like. For example the red track does the same turns as the blue, but it's wandering further and further away from the real position. That's exactly the same as what I've been observing.
I see that you both have the same firmware versions. So it must be something that goes wrong during the firmware upgrade in some cases, and not in others.
Garmin support told me to reset the unit and leave it for 30minutes in clear view of the sky. The reset did erase all the user settings, but didn't seem to have any effect on the GPS receiver, the fix was instantaneous after the reset just as before. So the problem may be that the GPS chipset itself needs to be reset, but which apparently the normal reset doesn't perform.
Thanks for the info, that's very useful!
Glad to have been of some use, but it doesn't solve your, or my problem unfortunately.
There doesn't seem to be any way of redoing the update of the GPS chipset firmware or downgrading, since the files aren't available as separate .exe files like the main firmware updates are, but only via webupdater. There was a funny thing that happened with the 2.50 firmware that when you did the GPS chipset update it hung on the update screen and needed a manual reboot to get it out of it. They fixed this with the 2.60 main firmware update .. to quote the release notes "Fix reboot issue of GPS firmware update." Whether that had anything to do with it, I don't know.
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I've recently upgraded the firmware in my Vista HCx from 2.40/2.30 to 2.60/2.60 with WebUpdater. After this I'm sometimes seeing much degraded accuracy.
The peculiarity of this is that I can get 20m (60ft) of inaccuracy shown even with excellent satellite reception. The actual error (compared to the position on the map) is usually much greater, like 50m (150ft). When this happens, and I switch the unit off and immediately switch it on, then it shows the exact position on the map, and the location accuracy shown is 4m (12ft). So the reception is indeed good, only the GPS becomes confused, and doesn't calculate the position correctly.
I've asked Garmin support, and they replied that I should perform a reset (PAGE-ENTER-POWERON), but it didn't make a difference. I've also tried to downgrade the firmware to 2.40, but this only changed the "Software Version", the "GPS SW Version" remained 2.60, and I'm still seeing the same problem.
Anyone having a similar experience?
Not with my Vista HCx, but my wife is having some odd problems with her Venture HC which uses the same chipset. See my post here ... http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...t&p=3341800
I've also never found any reason to know what compass direction I'm travelling in when driving either to be honest. When I'm out hiking though it's a whole different ballgame. Horses for courses and all that.
Garmin Web Store not encrypted!
in GPS technology and devices
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The "Checkout page" and subsequent pages are though, which is when any sensitive information might be entered.