Grasscatcher
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Posts posted by Grasscatcher
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Absolutely do not send the gift cards to either one of the losers above !
Send them to me and I'll hang on to them until the next time Cabela's sends me a "$20 off your next order of $150" coupon in the mail.
......or you could find someone that regularly orders from them.....they've probably got one of those coupons laying around.
(or call them and ask if you qualify for one of those discount coupons)
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Try Topografix Expert GPS....
It's so difficult that the user has to select a track, then "right click" and choose "convert to track". That makes every trackpoint into a route point.
In reality, the user needs to first "simplify" the track (reduce the number of trackpoints) down to the desired number of preferred route points, THEN do the above "convert to route". How much/how many times you "simplify" and down to how many points is totally up to you.
The whole process takes less than 30 sec.........
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And don't forget....
now that the user can store more Waypoints, Tracks, Routes, etc ....they have "taken away" the option / ability to "List By Name" and "Delete By Symbol"
If you can't remember how a specific item was named, how can you start spelling it?
...and deleting "similar type" of waypoints one by one is a totally unnecessary PITB.
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Yeah, them's EGNOS. Guess my suggestion was a tad late. Seem stupid to spend 5 minutes per bird to cycle through ALL of the systems when only the "local" ones can possibly be of any use. Ah well. I figured that even if the fix that's in beta didn't solve all the problems, that at least our units would have the good sense to stay focused on what was within range. Better chance of finally getting a lock. As it is, if you don't get a lock on the first pass by 48/51 (or the EGNOS birds, if you're in Europe), you might as well power the unit down and up again. It's quicker than waiting for the full list at 5 minutes a pop... assuming you have any better luck the 2nd time, of courseI just spent some time looking more closely on the satellites page (hadn't really looked that closely before). I've seen it attempt to acquire 33 and 35 (aren't those EGNOS birds?) and 48 and 51 (which I'm fairly sure are WAAS satellites). At least tonight, it's not finding any of them. The best I've ever seen this unit do (as opposed to my 60CSx, which seldom had difficulty locking on to either 48 or 51) was to briefly display a hollow bar for either 48 or 51, then give up trying to lock any of them. Hope this helps!
--Larry
Update....
3.26 b still seems to acquiring a WAAS lock much quicker and more regularly, but the ability to maintain that lock with any movement of the unit doesn't seem to be much improved.
ECA, My unit "first" looks for 51 or 48, and generally locks so that it doesn't start "cycling"to other sats. However, under lousy conditions (in the house, lying flat,etc) I have seen it eventually start cycling. At that point , if I turn it off and then back on, it again starts with 48/51 and (with improved conditions) has always (so far) got a WAAS lock.
Without the power cycle, it would continue the sat cycling thru all the other WAAS /Egnos sats. What it would do when it got back around to 48/51? I don't know because I don't have the patience to wait that long.
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No surprise there, but as they expect to have it operational by December '10, we should start to see some real data some time this summer.I checked just now and 133(46) is transmitting now, but it's only sending out message type 0 full of zeros. So, not even close to usable.
Anyone in the know heard anything about the progress of the beta of the WAAS fix for the Cartesio chipset units yet?
ECA, check 3 posts above.......v 3.26B
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PDOP, right now it would be just another one for the Oregon's to NOT lock onto or to just look at, and keep on truckin'.
I share your frustration and hope that Garmin or STM Cartesio get their act together soon.
PDOP
With the Oregon X50 3.26 Beta update.......preliminary results show much WAAS reception improvement ! Of course, that's not one of the mentioned changes from 3.20 to 3.26B, but then ....if there is no "official" problem, then the fix doesn't have to be announced "officially" either.
After update, unit started up totally differently, reacquired a whole new almanac, locks on either 48 or 51 within 2-3 minutes regularly, start seeing Ds on multiple sats even before WAAS sat turns solid.
Definitely different....
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Nice additions, wonder when they will get to the x50 WAAS issues?
Did you notice a difference in the startup after updating to 3.26? I did...... unit "saw" zero sats to begin with then started picking up one solid bar , then another, then another, all starting on the left hand side of the sat bar chart.
Finally it got over to the WAAS sat 51 which came up full strength but hollow, then I got a couple of Ds , then a couple more and then 51 turned solid. Only took about 2-3 min, maybe barely longer.
Acted like it was acquiring a whole new almanac ......
We can only hope that "they" are doing something......
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New Beta 3.26 for 550 on the Garmin site now
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You might now also see a new WAAS satellite (46) in North America.
PDOP, right now it would be just another one for the Oregon's to NOT lock onto or to just look at, and keep on truckin'.
This morning , after numerous previous phone calls (to Garmin) and even more numerous e-mails to support reps and senior support reps , a Garmin rep finally admitted that the WAAS reception problem is a known problem and that "They are working on it", but had no ETA for a fix yet.
At least they finally admitted there is a problem!
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ecanderson,
Go over on the Oregon wiki forum and check out the entire "Oregon WAAS" thread.
The more people that contact Garmin the better.
They (Garmin) will want to tell you that "whatever" accuracy you are getting is "within range", but they will not answer when you ask why the WAAS bar doesn't turn solid, or takes a looong time to lock then it's quickly lost, etc,etc,etc.
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Turn on recording (and check record and show on map) when you want the track to be visible, then " save" at the end of where you want it to be visible, then turn recording off.
Personally I leave recording on all the time, then delete what portions I don't want.
You can delete portions when you go in to save just a portion in track manager.
I just clear current track log (either save or delete) then "save" the portion I want to see and in track manager check "show on map".
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Here's another way....Change one of your "Locations" to " Selected" and use (select) UTM coordinates .
Change another of your data fields to "Dist to Dest" or Dist to next.
What will be displayed there will be the distance from your current location to the point you are navigating to (cache)......and since , when using UTM coordinates, the coordinates are in meters, each of the "last" (maybe couple) digits represents one meter.....or essentially one step.....
Either go "More North" or "Less North" or "More East" or "Less East" to reduce the "Dist to " number .
No mental gyrations or guesswork.
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Compass on or off.......
Press and HOLD the "Page" button for several seconds.
If the compass is ON it will turn off, if it is OFF, it will turn on....
and will say so on the screen. (for a few seconds)
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Good grief!......Having the ABOLUTE latest and greatest is only good for bragging rights for about "two seconds " . Very likely no changes in your area anyway.
Pull up your "Big Boy Pants" and DEAL WITH IT!
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Here is a perfect example of comments in my earlier post.....
ecanderson, why do you keep refering to the pointer like that is the compass? You can turn the compass off (or not even have one) and, if you are navigating to a set of coordinates, you STILL have the pointer.
The pointer is pointing to a set of coordinates, a spot, the cache location. It could not give a hoot which compass direction that is. The bearing pointer is what you are using to "triangulate" with., not the compass.
Guaranteed, if you turn the compass off, you'll find the cache quicker, with less confusion about what your unit is "telling" you.
3,4,7 different people could be coming to the same location from all different directions, and all their "pointers"would be directing them to the same spot. ...and some of them likely would not even have a compass.
Also, try using UTM coordinates instead of Lat/Lon. As Red 90 said, you can triangulate without ever stopping, essentially simulating those multiple people. Bingo! there it is. No dancing compass , no problems.
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This whole thread could have been eliminated by a one word answer post as the second post...............NO
The reason for the multiple opinion camps is that there are WAAAAY more GPS users out there that don't really have a clue how the GPS compass really works. They THINK they do , but, by their comments, it's obvious that they don't. Guess what....the pointer isn't the compass......
I've got a Trimble (no compass), a 76CS, a 76CSx, and a Oregon 550.
Note that some are 2 axis and the Oregon is a 3 axis. All the compasses work perfectly, no hanging, not jumpy,etc.and when used correctly are as accurate as a normal magnetic handheld compass .
All that being said, I'm in Starbrand's camp......I leave them turned off in normal GPS use. When I need a compass, I turn it on, calibrate and read....then off again.
With the 60/76 series, it's physically impossible to use the compass and have the GPS operate the most accurately at the same time anyway. Antenna works most accurately vertical and the compass only operates horizontally.
Different strokes for different folks.......
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For some reason or another you are not getting into navigation mode..... that's the reason for no info in the boxes and no pointer. The "ring" IS the compass.
When you select a waypoint to navigate to, do you next get an option for "Follow Road" or "Off Road" ? That should be next after selecting a waypoint, go to,enter,..... on/off road, enter,........then page or quit to get to compass page.
Without choosing on or off road it never starts navigating.
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... why would anyone choose to pay for the imagery and lock it to one unit when the same imagery is available free for use on multiple units?
It's not available for free. There is a big cost in time in the learning curve for how to do it. And there is an additional big cost in time for doing it. Most average GPS users who will have ideas how they can use the imagery will not want, or be able to, invest that kind of time.
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.... At thirty bucks a year for all you can eat, why on earth would you bother to do it yourself?
...ken...
Time???? You have GOT TO BE KIDDING ! The absolute first time I tried it , it took less than 5 minutes, start to finish with the image onto the GPS, and I sure didn't even know what I was doing!
But, no big deal.....like TL said it's just I frill that I don't need , or want.....
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Would anyone excited about this feature, please try to explain to me how it is anything other than a step backwards or at best sideways........??????
Except for places that do not have imagery freely available (only out of USA ??), why would anyone choose to pay for the imagery and lock it to one unit when the same imagery is available free for use on multiple units?
I can understand the interest for "out of US ", and that may be the real focus.
"In the States" it's kind of a D moment (Duh)
"Out of USA" it's one more nail in the D coffin.
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New "x" with the non SIRFlll chipset
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Tachnoknoght,
Are you talking about the red pointer or the compass?
You are aware, aren't you, that the pointer is NOT the compass?
Try this......turn the compass OFF, and choose the "Bearing" setting for the pointer (and use North Up setting for Track). Learn to use your GPS without having the compass ON to confuse the issues. When you choose a point to navigate to , the pointer will point to that destination.....just follow it. The actual compass direction ? ...,who cares, since that is direction you must go to get to the cache.
The pointer will still be pointing at the same destination whether it be N,S,E,orW.
If you need to use the compass to determine N, just turn it on, calibrate and read, and then back off again.
Later on, after you fully understand how it works, turn the compass on and you'll start understanding why I said "confuse the issues".
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ecanderson,
Where are you in Colorado?
I'm now in W CO (GJ) but was in SW CO Lake City, and in that area (SW) Correct NAD83/WGS84 coordinates for a point if incorrectly entered as NAD27 Datum would show the point to be a small amount more East but a Bunch more North. (Z13)
EX: WGS84 NAD27
301338E 301379
4234554N 4234765
Here in W CO ( barely into Z12) it's a little different......700709 vs700850E.....and 4323314 vs 4323109N ....(84 first then 27 second)
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Lee,
No arguments here either. Maybe a difference in my choice of words should have been there's a 50/50 chance of being right (correct as to official coordinates) or being wrong.
RK,
I too would love to have a GPS that would repeat exactly "327" times in a row....HA! ...Not likely to happen!
I should have said "Even if....."
Lee, see inserted comments.....
" If the device is set up and used properly, my own experience is that a "consistent" answer is the right one. With a consumer grade device that best right might still be off by a few metres at any given time, and repeated readings will let you draw scatter pattern, small or large, that shows how good or bad the thing is.
Now THAT is a measure of your accuracy (small or large)
When I've done that kind of testing, a small (good) pattern has always been centered on the right place; and a wide (poor) pattern doesn't show enough consistency to look for an offset.
You have to have accurately established coordinates to "define" what the "right place" is.
But a small pattern showing a "consistent offset"? I haven't seen this and don't understand how it can happen. Other than user error, what kind of conditions bring that about?"
I agree, this is the one that is most likely NOT to happen in the real world.
By modifying methods and procedures and setup choices, users can noticeably reduce what you are calling "user errors" . That's not necessarily a correct term. Wouldn't you agree that "possible operator induced variations" might be more correct? However, without an established accuracy "baseline" , you wouldn't even know that changes in methods and procedures even need to be made.
Example:
Carrying multiple GPSrs at the same time, I've got multiple tracks from multiple GPSrs on exactly the same narrow (18") single track trail. In three separate places around the 5 mile loop, one GPS consistently says the trail is "here" and the other consistently says the trail is "there". The problem appears to be caused by multipath error....it is NOT operator error. I've changed carrying positions , used and not used external antenna, etc. ....I'm still working on it.
I'm trying to determine which is "accurately" logging the track. Both units are repeating (with themselves) just Not with each other.....and only in those three locations.
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I agree with repeated visits to a fixed, known location over multiple days. But how is "an established benchmark with officially established/adjusted coordinates" better than any other fixed, known locaction?The only established (out here in the Real World) way of accurately determining how accurate a particular GPS unit is, is to compare that unit's coordinates for a specific Benchmark (Only Benchmarks with with OFFICIALLY ESTABLISHED and ADJUSTED coordinates qualify) , and then only with repeated visits over multiple days.The only advantage I see with an "established" benchmark is that I know what my GPS should read before I get there the first time. But after that? My mailbox isn't a moving target. If a GPS will routinely give the same coords for that spot (within a couple of metres), I think that's a good enough test.
Come on Lee, surely with your experience you are smarter than that. If your GPS repeated EXACTLY at your mail box 237 times in a row, that proves ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about accuracy. It would only prove that your unit is consistent with itself. Consistently wrong is just as probable as consistently right.
Only when you compare your "consumer grade GPS" coordinates to official Benchmark coordinates ("adjusted") which were established to accuracy tolerances that consumer grade equipment is incapable of achiving, can you start determining the accuracy of your unit.
Also, only checking once, proves nothing. Why? Because "one in a row" does not make a pattern.
Absurd shipping rates at Cabelas
in GPS technology and devices
Posted · Edited by Grasscatcher
Pax42, Think about it, we'll both be losers if he follows our advice....
A new store is scheduled to open here in Grand junction, CO next month!
I'm waiting to get some Merrell shoes that are only sold at Cabelas. I'm almost already drooling....
The OP should ride a Polaris anyway...but then he'd have to change his name!