[Green Etrex Venture]

Last year, I won a green Etrex Venture but it broke after about six weeks worth of weekend geocaching use. Specifically I would switch it on but then it would automatically switch itself off after about 10seconds. I sent it back to Garmin who replaced it with a brand new one (can't fault their after sales service!). This one has worked fine for about six months now but today it started to do the same as the first one had - switching itself off after 10 seconds or so. It seems a bit odd to me that I now have had two GPSrs do this - I wonder if anyone else has experienced anything similar with this make/model?

 

In the meantime I have gone back to using my yellow Etrex - which I bought new in Spring 2004 and which has never let me down (fingers crossed, knock on wood etc!)

It happened to mine every now and then. I suspect it's the battery contacts which get a bit loose, and then a bit of a knock or other shock can momentarily cause a brief lack of power. I just bent them out a bit with a screwdriver to make the batteries a slightly tighter fit.

[Garmin Vista HCx total ascent computed incorrectly]

Well, so far, I've been told to reset the unit (with incorrect instructions on how to reset it!). I sent back a rather testy reply.

 

However, I did reset. I also updated the software as suggested (I had just updated it before the ride and sure enough when I used web updater it told me I was up to date).

 

I'll do another ride this weekend and I bet I'll find the same problem.

I'd put money on it I'm out tomorrow on a hike too, so I'll check it out as well and come back with some figures. What software did you use to analyze the track data by the way?

[etrex firmware update]

thanks

 

i would really like to get to at least ver 3.0 for WAAS, but i think i am going to have to buy a newer etrex

 

i have the old yellow one

IIRC for the basic yellow etrex, the Camo and the Summit there were essentially two different hardware versions. The latest software updates for these models were unsuitable for the older hardware revision, so you were stuck with the last software created for the older h/w revision which is 2.14 unfortunately.

[Different map datum?]

Google Earth is generally more accurate than that, but I've seen instances where it was clearly off by that much. You should check your datum (make sure it is set to WGS 94), but most likely it's just the Google Earth registration at that particular area.

The registration between reality and the satellite / aerial imagery is very bad in places, so 17m is doing pretty well, I'd say.

[Garmin Vista HCx total ascent computed incorrectly]

2.40 huh? So do you have the low speed problem with that version, or does that fix it? I also notice that it is not on Garmins site yet....

It's better than what a lot of people have reported with the 2.30 version, but still not quite right when compared to the reported distance computed from the track logs. It was supplied with that version of the GPS firmware I believe, although I'm not quite sure as I ran Webupdater as soon as I got it set up.

[Garmin Vista HCx total ascent computed incorrectly]

Yes, I've noticed exactly the same problem. I went on a hike last week, that started and finished at about 200m and went up as high as 925m with a few other small ascents in between. I'd have guessed at about 900m of climb altogether, but my Vista HCx said 550m or thereabouts! The altitude plot on the unit looks OK, and the altitude plot displayed in OziExplorer from the downloaded track looked OK as well.

 

I'd be interested in what reply you get from Garmin.

 

My software is at 2.50 and GPS at 2.40.