dropthehammer
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Posts posted by dropthehammer
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FYI / For future reference....
While on the phone for the 1 hour plus being on hold waiting for a customer service warm body (with a clue), i did a search on the forum and found THIS POST that gives the p/n for the "bike clip" adapter i need which is 145-00709-00.
After the first 30 minutes of being on hold, i spoke with a young lady that tried to sell me a replacement "belt clip button" for $12.95. I didn't think that was going to work so she transferred me to the "outdoor" department. 40 minutes later of being on hold, i spoke with a gentleman who is shipping me the replacement "bike clip" pro bono after a little convincing on my part.
If You want to save yourself some Hold time, you can buy this gadget aftermarket HERE.
This is what it looks like:
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I did the same thing on my mountain bike, called Garmin and they sent me a new one.
Thanks for the quick reply!
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I use my Vista HCx on my mt bike, recently broke the included "bike clip" that screws into the battery cover and interfaces with my handlebar mount. This clip came attached to the battery cover with the unit.
How do i go about replacing this screw on "bike clip" piece?
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An older Vista (pre-HCx) may give you problems under tree cover or in canyons.
I just upgraded from the Vista to the Vista HCx. Let me say i really liked the Vista and the only reason i upgraded is because it broke. I think it had (device specific) issues from the start, but it carried me for 2 years.
I can vouch for the sensitivity. I havent had the HCx off road yet, but under tree cover my Vista had a very difficult time keeping satellite lock. Forget about picking them up indoors (not that thats required) just making the point that i can lock onto a bunch of satellites sitting in my living room now with the HCx, no way the old one would see even one in that situation.
I used my vista extensively when mountain biking this summer. I was dissappointed with how often it lost sat. reception in the trees and valleys. Couple of the guys i was riding with had the edge 305 devices on their bikes and kept lock the entire time no matter how deep the ravine or thick the canopy. Looks like the HCx will be much much improved in this area.
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I'm going to hijack this post a little...
I just installed a 2GB microSD in my new Vista HCx... and installed a bunch of mapsource maps on it....
My ? is: Is there a way from the menu to see that the card is installed and how much space is consumed/left on it?
Page 38 of the manual:
To view information for the microSD card:
Press MENU prior to opening the USB Mass Storage page and, select Card Info
In other words,
Main Menu>Setup>Interface>Menu Button>Card Info
It shows you % Full, MB used by each of Maps, Tracks and Miscellaneous, Free Space (in MB) and Total Used (in MB).
Many Thanks. I saw that in the manual but couldnt get it to work b/c of operator ignorance. Now I've got the menu button figured out. I never used it on my vista, but on the vista hcx I need it. I was using the click stick and page buttons to select the main menu.... duh
Next sorta hijack ? within the context of this thread....
I didnt read up on this but was hoping that with the 2GB microSD card that i could put multiple maps on the card without overwriting the last one uploaded like on my old vista. Apparently not. I have metroguide and topo 2008.... I was hoping i could put selections from both on the same SD card, but last night when i tried i noted that each seperate upload overwrote the previous.....
IS there a way to put selections from both on the same card or do i need to get a second card, one for each mapset.???
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I'm going to hijack this post a little...
I just installed a 2GB microSD in my new Vista HCx... and installed a bunch of mapsource maps on it....
My ? is: Is there a way from the menu to see that the card is installed and how much space is consumed/left on it?
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where can i get a screen film protector for my vista hcx?
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anyone have a quick link to the best deal on topo 2008 out there right now? quick search on ebay yields around 80$ shipped best case. I've heard 60$ is a possibility....
s there a better topo software package I should be looking at instead?
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Its all coming back to me know.... It wasn't a "calendar update" but rather an "almanac update" to get WAAS working.
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Thanks for the reply. Perhaps calendar was not the proper term. It was some type of calibration that had something to do with differential signals. The procedure was to find a place where differential/WAAS bird 35 was received and let the GPSr sit in that place for awhile.... Don't remember much more than that.
Also, I am interested in getting a screen protector film on this right away. Wheres the best place to get a robust one? Should i just get a readily available PDA film and cut it to fit??
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I've owned a few GPSr's now, (etrex) but am not a power user. When i got my vista several years ago, i remember someone told me to set it outside for awhile to get a regional 'calendar update' or something to that effect.
Just recieved my new Vista HCx. What should i do to get it ready?
Also, for the plain old Vista I had purchased MapSource. Just after i got my Vista, the Vista C came out. IIRC, I was told at that time that the MapSource I have for the Vista would not work with the Vista C or Vista xxx models. Is this true?
I would like to get some Topo maps loaded on it. What is the recommended SW to buy for topo?
Guessing i am further ahead to buy a cheap microSD card and load it up myself than any prepackaged cards offered.
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I just received my Vista HCx from TVNAV.com. Saw this place mentioned in several posts here, and upon quickly shopping at 5 or 6 other places found them to be the best price.
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I've been reading all the HCx odometer stuff but that didn't slow me down, an HCx is on the way. But I'd still like to salvage the old vista as its been good to me.
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I've had a Vista for several years now. I can't say that I've used it very heavily, I've done a little geocaching. As of late mostly use it on my MTB as a trip computer and to capture waypoints & tracks.
Its always had some of what i consider quirks about it. One of the most noticeable is that the slightest jolt to the unit while powered on will cause it to turn off. For example, I like to put it on my dash, use the rubberized body and the flex of the dash material to stick it in an upright position between the dashboard and the winshield.
If it were to just fall over onto my padded dashboard, it will turn off. I would think it would be a little more shock resistant than that. Also while mounted to my MTB which has front suspension, even while riding not so rough singletrack a light jolt will shut it off. Anyone else experience this type of thing?
Over the past couple of months it has started to malfunction to the point that it affects useability. A couple of symptoms I have experienced are thus:
- The screen gets vertical lines across it from top to bottom.
- I will try changing pages and it will just shut off cold.
- Click Stick does not work vertically
- Click Stick does not work when depressed in to select something.
At first when these symptoms would appear i would suspect weak batteries. But the batteries were verified good and sometimes immediately changed, and the symptoms would persist. These symptoms also appear to be intermittent. The click stick items will hard fail one day and the next be fine.
While on a Geocache this past Saturday, with brand new batteries installed, It malfunctioned to the point where it wouldn't even turn on unless i took the batteries out and re-installed them. Even then when it turned on the click stick would not work. It would go left and right but not up and down so i couldn't get to anything... Tried to cycle the power multiple times with the same result.
Yesterday and today I power it on and everything works great - same batteries...
My unit has had software upgraded as far as 3.6. I was about to put 3.7 on it, but the only change listed from 3.6 to 3.7 is to support manufacturing test.
Has anyone else experienced these things?
I am ready to upgrade to a Vista HCx (- hopefully they will fix the current errata on that one soon) but would like to salvage my Vista nonetheless. What is Garmin support like to deal with on repairs?
If the track log fills up does the full memory affect other functionality?
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Don't know anything personally about the explorist but I've seen a lot of bad stuff about it, not the least of which was their customer support. Some reckon it's good though.
Me, I'm really pleased with the VistaHCx, can't use mapsource yet but at least Garmin have released their communicator for mac which means I can download or upload tracks from google maps and drag and drop into google earth, which had my jaw dropping on the ground.
Where i can i get the communicator for MAC. Quick search landed me here. The text on the page just says "Mac support coming soon."
Vista HCx - Autorouting with maps
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
I have the Vista-HCx, mostly use topo maps on it for mt biking and outdoor sports, but i am interested in seeing how good the auto-routing works for use in my vehicle.
First of all, what software would i need? Do i have to get City Navigator® North America NT to do the auto-routing? Is that the only one that autoroute works with?
The name implies detail in cities, i live in a rural area of western pa, how well does this cover small towns?
How do i enter an address into the GPS to find?
Thanks for your response!