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Thot

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Posts posted by Thot

    Okay, The Good Luck Stopped

    in How do I...?

    Posted

    EraSeek made a good point about not getting a good lock on the satellites in the car. The roof will block the GPSr(eiciever) from attaining the signal unless you have it close to a window or windshield.

     

    After I saw the jumping around I began holding it forward -- over the dashboard near the windshield. It didn't seem to help a lot. I've had so little experience with this thing my observations aren't probably worth much but usually I've been able to hold it in front of me at a normal distance and it seemed to work fine until I got very near a target. Then it seems to respond too slow -- have a lag.

     

    I don't know about the older units, but my Meridian doesn't have a Speed setting. There is an Auto setting for laying down a track with more trackpoints , particularly when you are going around corners, but I've never seen this be affected by speed, only by coverage.

     

    So far I haven't been able to find a speed setting.

     

    Depending on the type of coverage you have, that is the constellation of the satellites has to be wide and not narrow, and more birds is better than less, your estimated position error can range greatly. Bear in mind the EPE is nothing more than a sophisticated formulated guess of where you are about 95% of the time. You could be outside of that estimate 5% of the time. How do you tell? Unless you're really good at triangulating yourself on a map, or standing over a benchmark you will never really know for sure. You just got lucky with a good constellation at the time of your searches.

     

    I don't know what factors control the number of satellites one gets. I haven't been paying close attention to this but the few times I've checked I was getting 7 or 8 and the looked pretty solid (tall bars).

     

    If this problem happens again I'll check the count.

     

    Assuming one has a lot of sky, what effects this most -- location on the earth or time of day or what?

    Okay, The Good Luck Stopped

    in How do I...?

    Posted · Edited by Thot

    So, you think the behavior I described suggests the unit was really malfunctioning? I don’t have enough experience with them to know. The thing is spec’d with an error of 50’ (I asked about this in another thread. But, up to now it seemed to be getting within 2-3 feet after repeated trials. I had been confused by the difference between specified accuracy and previous performance. This latest performance is more consistent with the spec. I thought maybe they are flakey inside the car, and maybe heavy cloud cover screws them up.

    Okay, The Good Luck Stopped

    in How do I...?

    Posted · Edited by thot

    If you post what brand and model you have, you might receive some more targeted info about that particular unit.

    It's a Magellan GPS 315.

     

    I should have mentioned, there was pretty heavy cloud cover, but the location was in the open with lots of open sky area.

    Okay, The Good Luck Stopped

    in How do I...?

    Posted · Edited by thot

    On our first few hunts, after walking around some the GPS homed right in on the target. This time it pointed all over the place. I noticed it was doing flaky things in the car. We’d be moving down a straight road and the target would suddenly jump from a modest distance off to the left side of the road to the about the same distance off to the right. As we finally neared the target it pointed to four very different locations as far apart as 40'. ( I tried to narrow them down each of these points by coming from different directions.)

     

    The description rated it one star (easy) to find, but given the large amount of dense shrubbery in the area encompassed by these points I decided it was futile to try to find a 1” x 2” microcache wrapped in camo tape.

     

    How would others handle this situation?

    Does The Gps Just Get You To The Right Part Of Tow

    in How do I...?

    Posted

    You are looking at the worst case possible.

     

    The 50' isn't reality.  It's probably closer to 20 if you update your firmware.  Do a search on the Magellan 315 in the GPS and Software section . You will be suprised at how many people have a lot of success with it.

    Your are right!

     

    I have confirmed what you said and better. I located a microcache today that I doubt I could have found if the error had been as much a 40'. In fact the gadget pointed directly at it, which, given how it was hidden, was necessary for me to find it. It takes a little practice, but I'd guess it pointed within 2' of the cache.

     

    So, the answer really is, Try it, you'll see."

     

    So, I now have to wonder where the up to 50 foot error Magellan specifies comes from.

    Is There An Faq For Easygps?

    in How do I...?

    Posted

     

    That seems to answer all my questions, except deleting a specific waypoint from the GPS unit.  I'm assuming it cannot do this. 

     

     

    On your gps, select the waypoint you want, to delete it . . .

    Thanks.

     

    Yes, I understood how to delete them with the GPS unit. The way I'm doing this it would be convenient to delete multiple points using the software.

    Avoiding Conspicuous Behavior

    in How do I...?

    Posted

    There’s a microcache in my area in a VERY public and heavily trafficked location (in geocaching terms, lots of Muggles) . I have never seen this area when there were less than maybe 30 people within 60 feet. Also, I’ll appear very odd/conspicuous walking around this location looking at a GPS.

     

    How should this situation be handled to avoid drawing a lot of attention to the cache and its location?

    Logging A Virtual Cache Find?

    in How do I...?

    Posted

    Virtual caches all seem to require a test emailed to the host(?term) as proof you were actually there. Are you supposed to wait for some kind of confirming reply before logging? What if it doesn’t come in X days? How long do you wait?

    Is There An Faq For Easygps?

    in How do I...?

    Posted

    Thanks. The right click menu is very helpful.

     

    That seems to answer all my questions, except deleting a specific waypoint from the GPS unit. I'm assuming it cannot do this.

     

    Now that I see how to do all these things it's very useful. :(

     

    I guess if I found his wish list I'd suggest adding the ability to combine files by importing/merging a different file into an existing file. And, of course, the ability to delete individual waypoints just as it can add them.

     

    Thanks again very much for the help. Once you know how it seems a little emparrasing I couldn't figure it out. Oh well . . . .

    Is There An Faq For Easygps?

    in How do I...?

    Posted · Edited by catch_22

    Has anybody created an FAQ for EasyGPS?

     

    I see people asking questions about using it and I have more questions.

     

    Question

    Can I edit waypoints -- name, description, coordinates, etc. If so , how?

     

    Question

    How do I combine downloaded files, or add a downloaded list to my existing waypoint list?

     

    Question

    Can I send only one waypoint from a large list to the GPS without deleting all the other points?

     

    Question

    Can I use it to delete waypoints? How?

    New Guy Needs Advice

    in How do I...?

    Posted

    As far as mass dowloading of waypoints, EasyGPS is free and easy work with. With it you can dowload all the waypoints on a search page.

    Can you explain how this is done? There's no help file with EasyGPS and so far I haven't figured out you to do what you suggest can be done.

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