tr_s
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Posts posted by tr_s
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My recently acquired $90 (hardware only, no contract) smartphone doesn't even NEED active calibration for the compass. It just works and works and works. I understand the situation is quite different on the etrex considering its replaceable batteries... but yeah... I certainly hope garmin got it right this time - might pull out my Trex from the drawer next weekend and try out the new firmware.
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Unfortunately a common failure mode for electronic devices is that the big electrolytic capacitors in parallel with the battery start leaking, thus chugging batteries when off. I just measured with an industrial grade multimeter, and my eTrex 30 draws 45 µA when off. That's just 1 mAh/day. Should not be enough to noticeably drain an alkaline cell even in a full month.
Yes your receiver may be faulty.
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I will disagree with you on that one. A quick and proper direction is very helpful. But I guess with 23 finds in 12 years, you may not be the best Geocaching expert.....
No, I don't care much for geocaching. Those I've been to outings with that do, seem to use magnetic compasses at the final approach though, if there is no good working such in the receiver. But to each his own strategy, and I understand if you find it important.
If people have such different needs in this regard it should be no biggie to make the filter setting a menu option.
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Look around on here and see the hundred of post complaining about too much lag and filtering of the signal for OUR USE..... Garmin reduces the filtering to make people happy... Then other complain...
Nothing prevents the use of differently tuned filters for position vs. direction. I mostly saw complaints about that the "sticky problem" meant the distance would not count down when the cacher in question approached a cache, i.e. the position truly lagged. When you are that close to a cache, the direction doesn't mean much anyway and it's time to pull out your Silva.
Of course how hard the direction filter should be set is also a matter of application and taste.
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It is working.... It is just more sensitive and so reacts easier. This is a good thing. The phone has no clue what is going on...
1. There is very moderate difference in accuracy and sensitivity between modern GPS chipsets. Most of the user exeperience is actually up to the software to create. Modern compact smartphone and modern compact GPS = fairly similar in all but exceptional cases.
2. In my opinion, a jumpy pointer upon a hiker truly stopping seems more like a poorly tuned direction filter in software than anything. I share the experience of the OP with this but do not think it's a huge problem, usually the arrow keeps the "general" direction anyway - within 45 degrees or so.
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every tried a touch screen with gloves on!! Use a etrex20 and find it first class.
The dakotas from my experience work ok with light leather gloves on due to their resistive Touchscreens, whereas capacitive Smartphones don't...
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"Garmin sucks" is perhaps a bit simplistic and harsh, but I sure did loose a lot of faith in the company after my experiences with the eTrex 30. Nothing serious had been going on with my three previous Garmins. As for the eTrex 30, it could have been something, but is really dragged down in the mud by poor and inconsistently working firmware. The version my receiver was shipped with (2.40?) functioned so poorly, it nearly seemed to be the result of some cellar-grade open source project, and a first version beta at that.
At v2.73b onwards, the machine borders to okay, but they still need to revise the compass and fix so that track following works properly.
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There seems to be a lot of Android GPS apps out there... however, none I have found does what I really want: converts the phone to an eTrex Classic.
I.e. you should be able to mark waypoints, record and follow GPX tracks, show a breadcrumb view, and be able to add elementary GPS data to the overview such as bearing, heading, coordinates in a lot of different formats, etc.
Map support such as OSM or Garmin format support would be nice but is really optional.
Dream or exists?
Thanks for any information.
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The MapSource software is a windows native but might also work in WinE. I have no idea. But yes, both the memory card and internal memory are visible as standard MSC when the device is connected.
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I think all Garmin handhelds are rated at least to IPX-7
Maybe all current products, except the vehicle GPS of course. The old eMap handheld was just water protected (ie could handle little splashes).
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Almost all outdoor garmins are made waterproof afaik - whether they will retain that waterproofness is another question. The traditional etrex devices had quite severe problems with that rubber band / sticky glue problem. Upon unsticking, the device could pretty easily become non-waterproof.
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Haven't had a problem with the email support from Garmin, usually responding within a couple of days, but the bug report email rarely ever responds.
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Hi,
I reacted on this (along with a lot of other bad stuff), when I got my eTrex 30. See my other thread
http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=290976
Search works much quicker (in seconds) on new maps than old ones (probably new index or database style).
Unfortunately the poor search implementation is as of 2.80 not yet fixed. If there is one older map on the device, it will be searched along with the new ones (doesn't matter if you disable the map - that just makes it invisible!!!), making search so slow it's effectively useless. 1 minute sounds rather good, mine can chug for twenty.
I wouldn't call these bugs, just extremely bad software design from Garmin.
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Garmin's page for the 60CSx claims "military-grade reliability" in my language. If that's even remotely true, it simply cannot even be compared to for instance the new eTrex or Dakota lines, which both have their fair deal of software oddities going on.
So probably, the 60 Csx series are showing a high resale and after market value because the devices work well.
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Good site. Unfortunately most of the things handled is stuff that wouldn't have been necessary for a third party to clarify if Garmin had bothered to write a reasonable manual for their products in the first place. Me knowingly they did so for every reciever before the dreaded eTrex x0 series...
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[*]etrex 30 - $244
[*]digital compass - This seems like it would be very handy
Problem is that it just doesn't work very well, requiring frequent recalibrations to work at all, not just at changing the batteries. You are really better off picking out a bearing with an ordinary magnetic compass. If you get it over the 20, do so because of the radio sensor capabilities and the barometer.
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Can you check how big the file on the card is? I do suspect you've had a corrupt memory card shipped, and are just seeing the basemap..
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Actually, that sounds normal to occasionally see even on a 1:25 000 topo, even if it's on the high side. At least some topos have been poorly vectorised from the raw data resulting in those types of discrepancies, or the data was old/imprecise/not that good in the first place.
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To me it actually sounds like a hardware problem, like the receiver somehow lost contact with the antenna (from cold solder, being dropped, or something else). Unfortunately I think that's it, but of course you might want to try a hard reset.
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The speed is not correct, the tracking had been turned off,and my unit is running on 3.90 software. I need to try a few more things .
Okay, then it's clearly a bug recently introduced on the 62 series as well.
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I find this all very interesting. I have a Gpsmap 62s and it does the very same thing. I have been trying for weeks to get rid of that @&$&@&$ straight line and I haven't found an easy solution yet. I had my home as a waypoint at one time and I drove my car about 20 miles to another location to hike. When I turned on my gps there was a line from my house to my new location that I had to look at all day. I hope someone can come up with a solution.
Does the straight line on the 62 series have an apparently correct speed recorded or is it thousands of whatever per hour?
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Yes, that Garmin spline is nice - works very well.
I had problems with it on my bike though and had to replace the plastic bands once. This is because the only place where I can really put it is somewhere where the circumference of the handlebar is slightly varying; it's hard to get a tight fit with the bands and the thing shakes loose displacing the rubber.
The old Garmin eTrex mount (screw tightening) can be seated like a rock on the same place. Liked that design better. An option for making the new garmin mount more usable might be just slabing it in place with silicone rubber or vibration resistant glue like Silane.
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Since GLONASS and GPS use almost the same frequencies it is difficult to believe, from a physics standpoint, that anyone could notice a difference between the two systems concerning tree cover.
From what I've read, Glonass has a more pole-prioritized constellation - higher probability of satellites being close to zenith at northerly latitudes. Sussam is somewhere in the UK and I'm in Stockholm, so both rather far north. Have also noted strongly improved accuracy by using GPS+GA under tree cover. In the open using merely GPS seems better.
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Sorry Grasscatcher but i had this happen to me whenever i used my legend hcx. I called garmin and they explained to me that if I just set a track then at the end of the track just turn the gps off whenever i turn the gps on the gps will track to my current position wherever i may be at the time....
Phew! They said that? Then it's a feature change from the older series of their GPS. My eTrex, eTrex H and eTrex Legend have NEVER done this.
Now, I could buy that if it weren't for that the speed data recorded in these "straight line legs" is incorrect by a factor of about a hundred - this spoils the average speed number. There's another thread here on that.
Sorry Garmin... I don't really believe this feature change is fully intentional.
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eTrex 20/30 software version 2.87 Beta
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
Of course they do, that's why I wrote "active calibration", as in practical specific action/procedure from the user. 10 degrees off is in my book pretty much nothing. It's still the correct general direction. 45 is where it starts getting really questionable, and my uncalibrated 30 sure was far over this figure...