GeoBobC

RE: WAAS; check out this link: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=94147

I am in total agreement. To suboptimize accuracy for the vast majority (I would guess 99% of more) of the Garmin customers who do not use EGNOS sats seems backwards to me as well. Please tell Garmin. They've heard it from me.

Makes sense; can't blame them. Thanks for the link.

Is there a (freeware or otherwise) general purpose utility program such as GPSBabel that can translate to/from the new Garmin Mapsource 6.5 gdb format?

I'm still missing a key step in Paint - I copy and paste an image into the Paint canvas, and then I resize it via "Image > Attrbitutes > 16x16". However, the size of the image I pasted in does not change; only the background (white) portion does. How do I get the size of the "foreground" image to resize to 16x16?

Thank you for the help! I did not consider opening a second instance of Paint. (I had already copied some of the waypoint symbols and wanted to create my own; I'm now off and running).

I received a reply from Garmin Engineering today regarding the original topic here it is: This is in fact the expected behavior of the search process. First, the satellites with almanac are looked for. If they are not found, a scan is started for all other possible WAAS satellites (33 - 51). This search will not include the satellites with almanac that were already looked for. Only after this scan is complete will the satellites with almanac (47, 35) be looked for again. The reasoning behind this is best illustrated by a potential situation that could happen in Europe with the EGNOS system which contains 4 satellites. Say a user had almanac for two EGNOS satellites (33 and 37), however these satellites were for some reason unhealthy or had stopped transmitting altogether. It is not desirable to continuously look for these satellites when there could possibly be others out there with a usable signal (44 or 39). This is the reason for the scan when the satellites with known almanac are not found. If the user misses 47 and 35 on the first try the scan will start so the order of the search I would expect to see is: 47,35,33,34,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,48,49,50,51, and then back to 47 and 35 again. A user will need to wait a little longer for the scan to complete before 47 is tried again. To avoid the scan, waiting until you have a clear view of the sky to turn the unit on is beneficial. This will help with GPS acquisition time as well as WAAS acquisition time. Let me know if you have any further questions on this.

Would you be so kind as to briefly outline the steps you go through with Paint to create these custom symbols? I've played around with Paint a bit but am not proficient enough yet. Do you "paint" the images from scratch, or start with a clipart image? Another question: when I resize an image it seems to resize only the background, not the entire image. Is there a way to "merge" the various portions I see in Paint into "one" image that will resize as one?

If you don't receive a signal from 35 or 47 within the first 45 seconds, the 3.70 firmware starts searching for other SBAS/WAAS signals (33-51) and appears to give up on 35 or 47. I turned on my unit and after 45 seconds the "47" was replaced by 33. I put the unit in plain view of 47 and it was a no-go, even after 10 minutes. With 3.61 it would keep 35 and 47 on the satellite page, and instantly reflect a signal. I think Garmin messed up on this. It appears that they added it just before release since it was not on the 3.61 beta (check the release notes for 3.61 and it is not there, but it is for 3.70.) Tsk tsk, Garmin. That's what betas are for.

The next to last item in the upgrade is "Improved WAAS search and selection process to be smarter in its handling of multiple SBAS service providers, overlapping service volumes, and exceptional conditions." I've noticed some very unusual behavior after upgrading. Has anyone else? Prior to 3.70, my satellite page would always display WAAS satellite numbers 35 and 47, even if no signal was being received from them (they are the two WAAS satellites visible in the U.S.) After upgrading to 3.70, I notice that sat 47 only stays on the satellite page for about 40 seconds if no signal is received from it. The 47 is then replaced by 33 and the unit subsequently cycles from the WAAS/SBAS satellite numbers in pairs: 35/36, 37/38, and so forth until it reaches 47: it then skips to 46/48. It acts as if the firmware initially looks for satellite 47, and if it does not find it quickly it then ignores 47. I called Garmin and they said they if a signal from 47 was received while the unit was cycling through the 33-51 satellites, it would replace one of the other numbers on the satellite page. However, my unit does not work that way. I turned the unit on (not in view of satellite 47), waited for the 47 to be be replaced by 33 on the satellite page, and then placed the unit in clear view of satellite 47. No luck - it never acquired even after 10 minutes. However, if I turn the unit on in clear view of 47, it instantly acquires sat 47within 15 seconds.

I called Garmin Tech Support. They suggested the problem is track data, specifically the active track. They said the (3.70 and others) upgrade could corrupt the track data, which could cause these sorts of problems with communication between PC and GPS. Their solution: download data from the unit to Mapsource, clear it out/reset the unit, and upload back to the GPS. Hmmmm..... I could not get the symptoms to replicate but I'm not convinced the problem is solved.

I have the same problem with my 60C. After updating to 3.70, I get partially through a download of tracks from my GPS to Mapsource and the download freezes with a message "There was an error communicating with your device".

I just purchased a new Dell PC with Windows XP. I would like to create ximage waypoint symbols to be used on my Garmin 60c. I would also like the software for editing personal photos, etc. What software packages should I consider?