gitarmac
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Posts posted by gitarmac
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I just checked and the record method on both of them was "auto". The venture has always given pretty much the same distance around my block, or to my stands, and so does the vista, but the vista gives longer distances.
I think it has to do with the unit thinking you are moving when standing still, the vista is kind of bad about that. When I first got it it wandered A LOT!! I did the software updates (which you think would have been checked, since it was "factory refurbished" ) and a hard reset and it went back to reasonable levels.
I will experiment with those differant settings, maybe change them to "distance" and see what happens.
I still like them both though. I don't have any maps yet, I will probably really appreciate the differance then. I'm on the flat coast though, I wonder if the topo map will be useful at a flat swampy hunt club. The printed ones are all but useless. I make "maps" from satilite images.
We go to the mountains sometimes though, I'll bet it would be fun there.
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I have both of the track settings set to "fewer". I am not sure about these other settings, what I have compared are the same.
I'll check when I get home and report back!
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I have both a venture and vista. The venture worked great for me but I wanted more tracks, that's why I considered the vista.
I like the compass mostly for the fact that I can stop and show people the map page and there doesn't seem to be as much jumping around. It's easy enough to pin a compass on the gps lanyard though, I hang one around my neck much of the time. I do it so in case my gps fails, I can go in one direction till I hit a known road or trail.
You might want to consider a factory refurbished model of whatever you decide on. They are a lot cheaper, come in a shiny new box with a shiny new warrenty. I would not have known my vista was "used" except for they told me. It's not like new ones have that great of a success rate to be honest. At least customer service is good, so you may as well go cheap.
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My vista give longer distances than my venture, both are hc. The vista will say I am moving when I am really still for longer than the venture. I made sure my settings were the same tonight and walked around my block with my doggies. The block is about .90 miles long according to my car. I get about that when my venture is on my bicycle. I noticed at the hunt club the distance to my stand was longer with the vista but I can't say for sure how much.
So tonight around my block I got 1.02 miles for the vista, and 0.96 from the venture. The doggies like to sniff and stuff so I know that's going to throw it off, and even more for the vista.
But what I was not expecting was the track to be longer as well. I have the trackpoints set the same and would not think time would be a factor in that. There was a .05 mile differance.
Has anyone else ever compared differant units? How much variance would you consider acceptable, I guess any varience means one is more "accurate" than the other if the differance is always on the same side.
I'm going to try it in a car, when I'm moving at a better pace. At the hunt club I am not stopping when I track these distances, which seems to imply one of them is more "off".
Just wonderin'.
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I never play the games but I have noticed some flickering. There was a thread explaining that this was some kind of normal artifact from adjusting brightness but I don't know. Hasn't gotten any worse though.
My venture has a bug in that I can turn it on, tell it gps off (when I am in my room and don't need it on), but cannot turn it back on from the menu - or it will lock up and I will have to resort to taking the batteries out.
I will try and reproduce the problem the next time I turn my vista on. I feel sorry for people that do not utilize the interweb for information, I wonder how many people are trying and failing, to use buggy and malfunctioning units. Seems like it's impossible to get a good one the first try out.
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I got a refurbished vista and it seems to be OK, it was in a new box and looked like new. I did have to update the software, which I thought was wierd. I would not have known it was refurbished if they did not tell me.
It can't be any worse then a buggy new unit. You still have the warrenty, garmin will "refurbish" it again if it's bad, and you save a lot of money.
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I'm glad you posted this info! When I called garmin they said they had not heard of such a thing and i said I didn't want to send my unit in right now if it wasn't going to get any worse. I have had headlamps that flickered somewhat and wondered if it was a feature of the led in my unit.
My flickering has not gotten any worse, and I seem to have forgotten all about it. It seems more noticable in certain types of light so that would lend credence to that theory. Or fact as it where.
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here is a link to a thread discussing this. It has not happened to mine yet but it seems like an easy enough fix.
I wish it were as easy to fix the many bizziliaon software bugs.
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tag for the awesome info posted here!
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I really like the electronic compass on my vista. I was initially put off on those models because I had read accounts of having to frequently calibrate them and them not working but I have not had that problem.
You DO have to hold it level if you want it to work right but it's not hard. The nice thing is I can show someone something on my gps and it not jump around when you stand still. This was an issue because people will ask me "where are we at" thinking because I had a gps I knew the answer, I could not show them the map screen without walking.
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I'll have to try that method. Right now I am exporting gpsx files either through easy gps or mapsource, then using gpsvisualiser to make my map. I get stuff like this:
here is a link to gpsvisualizer.
I got my vista hcx for the main reason that it will save more tracks. My new method is to clear the track log and to start saving a track when I go into uncharted territory. Then I save it, give it a name, and clear the log for the next one. That way I might someday have a nice clean map. As it is now some of my maps have straight lines where I either turned the gps off or that tracklog off and it linked with a straight line. I did not know it would do that.
Forgot to mention, if you go to your tracks page, you can access all of your saved tracks. You can select weather they show on the map or not and what color they are. I have so much overlap now mine are kind of messy, so sometimes I change which ones display on the map page.
I also export all of the data to my gps and save it from time to time because it only holds so many tracks, and I can keep them all if I do this. I actually have differant folders on my computer with files that are customized, so I can make maps with only the data I want. For instance, I have detailed maps for friends that I hunt with but more basic ones for other hunt club members. I have ones for state parks I have gone to, so I can delete my hunt club tracks and load my park tracks if I know I am going there. Then I can put the hunt club tracks back on.
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got some duracell rechargable batteries this week 2650ma i beleive, and the ones with the charger are 1700 ma/h will see how they fair soon, but they only got to get 4 charges out of it and ive broken even. If it means ive got to charge them each day after going out i will still save in the long run.
You should be able to get a lot more than 4 charges out of a rechargable battery! The cheaper chargers are worse for batteries than a good one, they don't have a separte channel for each battery. I really like the lacrosse cause I can pop a battery in and see what the voltage is. The maha uses some kind of "pulsing" method of charging which is supposed to be better in some way.
I actually haven't worn out any of my rechargables yet and I've had some for years. I use my headlamps all the time so the batteries get a lot of use, I have quite a few though.
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It seems that people really hate to change batteries. Unless you are changing every few hours, I don't get all of the fuss over batteries.
For me it's the expense. I can go throught AA's like you wouldn't believe, even being resourceful. With rechargables I can use my stuff like it's supposed to be used. I actually have 2 chargers, The lacrosse 900 and the maha. I use them in my gps, camera, and headlamps. Plus my computer mouse. Not all brands work the same and some are better than others. The first no-name brand I got with crappy 2 channel charger didn't work well at all.
The eneloops are especially good for when I forget to top my other batteries off. I carry 8 spares with me when I go out. I frequently lend them to people too.
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Just wanted to mentioin I have the venture hc and it's been a good little gps. Once you get communicator set up you should be able to go to geocaching.com and "send to gps" the caches you want.
I have a kindle and also save the cache file as a text file on my kindle. It's how I go paperless. The kindle isn't very sturdy though so I only do this around town.
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What is the percent memory the track is using when it stops showing? I have not had this problem, I don't think anyway. I have not had my track running for over a day but I do have tracks several miles/hours long. I set mine to save fewer points sometimes but for some reason I don't think that's the problem here.
I just got a little card for mine, I was going to post a thread on tips to using it, I'm not sure I understand how it's supposed to work. From what I gather, the unit does not use the card, but you can access it on your computer.
This weekend I will attempt to save a long track and see if I can reproduce your results. Hopefully someone else will chime in before that.
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Thanks for posting that link, I knew I had read of a similar issue but could not find it.
Only problem is - I don't WANT to wait until everything is done before I press buttons - I want it to STOP looking for satilites. I should be able to press a button THAT IS MADE TO PRESS - TO STOP IT FROM DOING WHAT IT IS DOING!!!
And take a look at the bugs the updates fix would ya!! Then they need updates to fix the bugs the UPDATES HAS ADDED!11!1
And there's not a thing I can do about it, as I understand the other brands are even worse.
I like my garmin gps's, when they work like they are supposed to work. Do they have a bug-reporting website, that they actually look at? I mean, it's nice you can send your unit back, but even that doesn't gaurentee it will be fixed. My first unit was a rino. A couple of channels did not work, I called, I sent it in. I got it back and the CHANNELS STILL DID NOT WORK!!
I sent it in and asked that they send me something else of similar value, I got whatever is below the venture. That did not work so I got the venture, the older model. That one started intermittently going off, it got worse until I stopped using it altogether.
A few years later I called garmin and sent it in, with some money as it was out of warrenty and the money was still cheaper than a new unit. Yayyyyy!!!!!! I FINALLY got one that worked!!!!!!
So I started geocaching again, it was fun WITH A UNIT THAT REALLY WORKED! I got the HC model later on. Other than the freeze it seems to work fine, but hey you can't really expect something to actually work perfectly now can you. Well CAN YOU?!?!?
[rant mode off]
Seriously, the amount of bugs in gps's is just plain silly. It's like you have to have 2 or 3 to make sure you can have one that is not being sent back!
opps, there I go again.
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But not all the time. At first I thought it was because I hit the backlight button first. I couldn't get reproducable results doing that though.
When I am in the house I generally turn the gps "off", since there is not need for it to "aquire" satillites. On my venture hc, if I turn the gps off, then turn it on with the option in the menu it will lock up and I will have to remove the batteries. I have learned to live with that.
I thought it was awesome that my new vista hcx did not do this. Then I ran into the mysterious turn off if I hit the menu button. I don't know, maybe I am holding my face wrong. I get *%$^% sick and g$$da4$$ tired of buggy gps's. Why in the holy f*^^& can't they figure this s$#$#4 out before they send out the units!!!!!111111eleventy!!!2w21
Of all the units I have had, I have only not sent one back, the one venture that locks up. My vista backlight also pulses and flickers some but since I really have to use it now, and I really don't have any faith in their ability to fix it SINCE IT WAS FACTORY REFURBISHED AND WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN LOOKED AT BEFORE I GOT IT, I am not sending it back either. IT DIDNT' EVEN HAVE UPDATED SOFTWARE!!!! THEY "REFURBISHED" IT AND DIDN'T BOTHER TO CHECK THE SOFTWARE!!1
How may bugs do y'all just put up with?!?
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I mostly have my eneloops for when I forget to top-off my 2700's, and for spares. I have never had a problem with them though. I don't really keep track of how many times I have to change batteries, I would notice though if something were wrong.
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I have had great success using rechargeable nimh. I like eneloops and sanyo 2700's the best. I started out with just the lacrosse charger but now I have the maha as well. I can use my camera, gps, and headlamps as long as I want, as much as I want! I carry spares with me. When I travel I take one of my chargers.
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So far gps visualizer had given me the best map results. It seems like the software that came with the gps would have more options.
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I have noticed this with my venture as well. Thanks for posting the fix. I rarely keep mine a number and could not figure out why I had 008 when I had no waypoint 007. I decided not to worry till I hit 999.
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I have had a lot of problems with communicator. I have to update it each time I either get a new gps, or use one if I have not used it in awhile.
Then, even though I have updated communicator, it will tell me I need to update it. When I try it says I have the latest version.
I don't know the exact steps I went through to get mine to work, but it seems to be working for now. I also have easygps for managing my tracks and waypoints. It always works. Of course it's no good for updating a unit.
Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling it? I remember doing that once. Or restart your computer, I did that before too.
I don't know what the magic ritual is, I was going to butcher a rooster and scatter the feathers the last time, when it started working. There seems to be no logic.
Sorry I'm not more help. I'm just feelin' your pain.
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It would definitely bother me and I wouldn't tolerate it. It's only going to get worse from here as it's a cracked/loose wire/connection. You say "if it's never going to get worse"... That's a big IF. My vote is the connection will get worse and worse until you have no backlight at all. This is a hardware issue and no amount of firmware updates will fix it. Have you tried knocking it against your other hand? Any noticeable changes?
It doesn't change by tapping it. It seems to be kind of intermittent, at least the more noticable flickers. I really need it right now for my lease mapping, I would hate to send it back and get it back flickering just like it is now. I know there are some led headlamps that flicker somewhat, I thought maybe it was a function of that.
I figured because it was factory refurbished it would have been looked at more closely. It didnt' even have a software update. I have only purchased one handheld gps that did not have to go back, my venture hc. I have sent a rino back, whatever I had before the first venture, and the older venture. It's not like there are any other options either.
I guess I will call garmin this week - again. I would rather not send it back if they don't have an idea of what could really be wrong. I still have a year warrenty, maybe I will keep an eye on it.
I keep reading about flickering backlights but I don't remember the exact details.
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My new factory refurbished vista was wandering pretty bad, even after the updates. I hard reset seems to have fixed it.
My screen flickers a little though. I hope it's not a sign it will break.
which topo map?
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
mapsource topo US, or just the southeast region. The "smaller" one is more expensive, why is that? I'm looking at what is offered at amazon, if that matters.