dumketu
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Posts posted by dumketu
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I just joined as a premium member and lost finctionality. Can I get my premium membership refunded? It seems like the admins are refusing to recognize and fix the problem.
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I am also a huge fan of Maha bateries and chargers. I have also had good luck with the Eneloop batteries as well.
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It's true that the faster you recharge a battery, the harder it is on the battery. I don't think Maha is doing anything wrong by offering fast charges. It's a trade off - do you want a fast charge or do you want the most capacity and life out of your battery?
I read a study somewhere that you do not want to charge NiMh batteries too slowly or they crystalize and don't hold as much charge, so faster is better; however, I suspect there is a point where you can charge too fast.
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So how does Topo 2008 differ from the old Topo US? I can't imagine many of the contours have changed and I have other maps for cities?
I'll be interested to hear how it goes.
BTW - I couldn't help but be amused by the fact that the Canada and UK Topo maps are intended for the US domestic market only on the Garmin website.
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If you do a search you will find that there have been many threads on this. The absolute best batteries are the Powerex 2700 rechargables. A very (and I mean very) close second are the eneloop batteries. The eneloops hold their charge much longer (although the Powerex batteries are pretty darn good) than anything else, but the Powerex will give you the longest run times freshly charged. Energizers are good right out of the charger, but loose their charge fairly quickly, making them worthless after a couple of weeks. The few times I have used duracells they had similar behavior, but I did not use enough to be sure. Bottom line, your GPS using behavior should determine what you buy and use. (I use the Powerex and eneloop batteries; the former in my GPS usually, the latter in my wife's digital camera because it sits in her purse for weeks between pictures). I would avoid lithiums unless you are going into some extreme cold conditions where they will give you an advantage where all others will fail. Make sure your GPS is set to the type of battery you are using, or it will read the battery life wrong (not sure if it makes any difference otherwise).
The other thing you need to consider for rechargables is the charger. Those chargers you get with the batteries in the store do not optomize the charge in the batteries. Too fast and they will burn up the batteries (not literally, but the heat will destroy the components that hold the charge over time.) Too slow and crystals form between the plates and prevent the battery from reaching optimum charge. The best charger on the market is the MAHA energy AA charger. Charges in about an hour.
Hope that helps.
Brian
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I use the Garmin 60csx, and when using WAAS I have never gotten a better reading than I normally get with WAAS off. I can get about 9 feet accuracy on average either way. WAAS was more important for older, pre-SIRF GPSs.
Brian
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I just wanted to point everyone to the March 2007 revision D of the Owner's Manual for the GPSmap 60CSx. You can download it at:
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/manual.js...145&pID=310
All the new features are now documented and for example on page 36 you can read how to view "Vertical Profiles of routes" (new in v3.30).
I wonder if that means we are going to see the end of new features for this model? I am pretty happy with it the way it is, but I know there are those out there wanting more.
Brian
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On my 60CSx accuracy seems to average around 10 feet in regular mode and 20-40 feet on battery-saver mode. YMMV.
That's because battery saver mode turns off WAAS.
Yes it does, but WAAS makes no difference to the accuracy of my 60CSx. I wonder if the battery saver mode turns off the receiver for brief periods (1s or less) whereas the regular mode leaves the receiver on all the time?
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Does anyone have links to the best price sources for all these batteries? Yes, some batteries are terrible at keeping charge, but if you can get them at half price, are they still terrible?
I have the Rayovac 1 hour charger, with adapter for using the car cigerette outlet. Have folks experienced problems with a one hour charger, in any context? I am not sure if the chargers mentioned are one hour chargers or not.
Amazon.com. Probably not the best source, but you can get all types there. I bought the MAHA charger direct from MAHA. (google it)
The MAHA charger is a 1 hour charger (about). Supposedly this is the optimum speed to recahrge NiMh from what I have read. Slower, and crystals form that reduce the charge/life of the battery, and too fast and the battery overheats. The MAHA charger also has a conditioining circuit and trickle charge to get that last 2% into the battery.
Bad batteries at half price are still bad batteries. The initial investment in good batteries will pay for itself over time and will give you peace of mind that your camera/GPS/etc. will work when you need it most.
Brian
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I found your post very interesting.
How did you find out the times that the batteries lasted? Is there a timer on the GPS unit?
I found this which seems intereting. Although it appears to be a couple years old.
I recently bought the Rayovac hybrids. They seem fine to me, but i have no idea how they compare to others.
Thank you for sharing what you have found!
The GPS has a data page that shows moving time and stopped time. I just added the two together. Of course I reset it each time I put in a new set of batteries.
The URL you refered to is a good review. I wish they would update it.
I have not tried hybrids in anythign except a camera that came with them. Since they require a different charger, I did not bother after they were used up. They did last quite a while as I recall
Brian
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Does it matter what charger you use? I have the charger that came with the energizers.
TX
I use a Maha smart charger with my NiMH batteries and have been very pleased with it.
I also use the MAHA charger now. I used to use the energizer charger and with the Powerex batteries I get slightly better performance out of the MAHA charger. Surprisingly, the energizers performed much better with the MAHA charger, but still not good enough.
Brian
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I use my Garmin GPSmap 60CSX all the time and am constantly on the search for the best batteries for it. I had started using Energizer rechargables, but that was a disaster. Right out of the charger they did well, but more than a few days on the shelf and they lasted less than 3 hours. On recommendations in this forum I then bought the MAHA Powerex 2700s and have been very happy with them - good shelf life and run for a very long time. Then I saw people here recommending the Sanyo eneloop 2000s so decided to give them a try. Also a good battery with very respectable run-time. Out of curiosity, I decided to test the batteries. Here are the results:
Powerex 2700 straight out of the charger - lasted 22hours, 13 Minutes
Powerex 2700 after sitting on the shelf for a month - lasted 18 hours, 15 minutes
eneloop 2000 straight out of the charger - lasted 17 hours, 53 minutes
eneloop 2000 after sitting on the shelf for a month - lasted 15 hours, 7 minutes
(this was done in Normal GPS mode, WAAS off and compass on, although the unit was vertical most of the time so the compass was probably disabled automatically.)
As you can see, the Powerex beats the eneloop, both have respectible times both off the shelf and out of the charger. As far as I can tell, the only real difference is that the eneloop is only 2000 mAh and the Powerex is 2700 mAh. If Sanyo makes a 2700 mAh eneloop, it will give powerex a run for its money.
Either way, both are good batteries and the advantage of the eneloop is that you can find them in most stores, I have only been able to get Powerex through mail order.
Brian
P.S. In addition to Energizers, I have also tried Duracell and Sony rechargables, with similar results to the energizers.
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Changes made from version 3.10 to 3.20:
Add capability to see vertical profile of an autoroute using DEM topo data.
Anyone tried uploading DEM topo data? How is this done?
Brian
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Hello All,
I am Sagi, a new member from India, Bangalore.
Would like to buy a GPS and use it in India for caching purpose.
Has anybody in the group tried this before from India?.
Are there any providers for GPS service in India?
If this service is available in India, where can i buy GPS instrument?
Details pl. :-)
Best Regards
Sagi
I am living in India right now and use my GPS all the time. It is a Garmin 60csx, and as others have indicated, the maps are very limited (world base map) and same for magellan. I have seen some auto gps units locally that have better road maps. Have found a couple of virtual caches in Delhi, but Geocaching has not caught on that much in India yet.
Google "GPS India" and you will get some of the GPS suppliers in India.
Brian
Brian
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I use the MH-C204W charger. It is great and works better on the sorry energizers than the energizer charger does.
Brian
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I'm not an expert at map segments, but as a programmer, I can say that unexpected data can cause hardware to shut down. And suddenly changing map segments could cause an error which would shut down the hardware.
I would lean towards the guess that this is a software bug, and it should be reported to Garmin.
I will retract my statement about 3.10 making things worse; too little data. I think the software is just less sensitive in one direction than the other; also it has never shut down while walking the same path either direction, just driving.
I guess I will send a bug report to Garmin (note my enthusiasm
) I haven't gotten a lot of feedback recently (read about a year) on bug reports sent. (Actually, I did get a response about a year ago on the lithium battery thing - response, but no fix 
)I have only tried flying with my CSX, but on both occasions it turned off. I wonder if it has something to do with the speed? One was a comercial jet, the other a twin engine prop plane. I was using the world map on both occasions (travelling in Asia)
Brian
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What have you found the self-dischage of the Powerex 2700's to be. In other words, how good is the shelf life if you haven't charged them recently?I use powerex 2700 MA in my Garmin 60CSX.Thanks
Hermit
I also have lots of energizer 2500 ma and I have lots more trouble with shelf life with them. With the powerex, they will lose some charge after a couple of weeks, but they still have most of it. If I am going on a long trip, I will charge up all my battereis, otherwise, the set of pwerex gets me through no problem. So I highly recomend the battery.
Run, don't walk and buy some of the Powerex 2700s. They are absolutely the best for this purpose. I concur that 20-24 hours continuous service is about the norm (compass on, normal mode, WAAS off). Shelf life is good for a month or two, but I would recharge after that. Sanyo has some new eneloop batteries that many jave said have a longer shelf life (6 months) but lower mah rating. I have ordered some and will give them a try, but until then, I am very satisfied with the powerex. And buy the powerex charger is is the best on the market. I have had terrible results with energizers and duracells (mainly shelf life - I do get 14-16 hours if they are freshly charged, but a week later and they last only a couple of hours.)
Brian
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How have your Powerex 2700's been for shelf life?I use the Powerex 2700 batteriesThanks
Hermit
They have been great. I have a set in my GPS 60CSX right now that I put in before Christmas. I have several hours of use on the GPS and my battery meter is still reading 3/4 full (it reads full at startup and drops to 3/4 after 10 minutes or so, indicating I still have a very good charge.) I can still tell there is some discharge, but nothing like the energizer batteries. The energizers work well if they have just come out of the charger, but if they have been on the shelf for more than a week, they drain rapidly. The Powerex batteries also do much better in my external flash for my SLR camera. (I use my older Powerex 2300s for that.)
Brian
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I tried using Duracell 2650mah batteries and they were terrible. They didn't even last 2 outings. I mountain bike and generally go out approx. 3 hours at a time. When I checked the 60CSx at the end of the 2nd ride it had shut down on me because the batteries had died. I had given the batteries a full charge before my first ride and checked the level indicator before the second ride. There seemed to be plenty of juice left, but apparently not. I did see on one of the Digital camera forums I also visit, that Powerex batteries seem to be the most popular there. They are available from Thomas Distrib. Anyone have any experience with them here? How about the Duracell? I have the 15 minute charger from Duracell.
Thanks,
Kevin
I use the Powerex 2700 batteries and get 20-24 hours use out of them (compass on, WAAS off) minimum. I am incredibly pleased with them. I absolutely hate the Energizer and Duracell Nimh batteries. They always seem to crap out right when I need them. I have seen some posters here mentioning the Sanyo batteries. I would be interested to hear more about them.
Brian
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GPS time is ahead of UTC time by 14 seconds.
GPS time was zero at 0h 6-Jan-1980
There is a slight bit of slowing down of the Earth due to Tides mostly, and the Mass of the Earth is so great, that the slowing of the Earth is minimal, at least by only 14 seconds since 6-Jan-1980.
Don't think so. Just checked my GPS against the atomic clock at the Naval Observatory - exactly the same. The world's atomic clocks, including the ones that drive the GPS system conduct periodic "leap second" adjustments.
Brian
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I am having problems with my Garmin 60csx and a sandisk 512 MB microSD card. I had City Nav 7 maps loaded on the card (about 400MB) and it was working perfectly for about 2 weeks. Yesterday I shut the unit off for an hour while on a trip and turned it back on and all the maps were gone. I took the card out a few times and put it back in and every time it would not show the maps. I also checked under the menu on the map page and all it showed that the basemap was the only thing the unit was using. I put in the old card (64 MB) that came with the unit and the maps on it showed up fine.
I am just wondering if anyone has had their microSD cards go bad or erase the data while in the GPS unit. It seems odd that it would just stop working all of a sudden. Thanks for any suggestions or help.
I actually had a similar problem happen a few days ago. While out geocaching I realized that the GPS no longer had the maps on my cf card. We went about the hike and some time later the maps re-appeared. The GPS also did not record the tracks to the CF card while the maps were unavaliable. I am assuming that the CF card got loose somehow and so far the problem has not re-appeared. You might check to see that the CF card is making contact with the GPS properly.
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Jan,
I have tried, used and then thrown away the energizer charger. It will destroy your NiMH batteries. Anything that charges them in 15 minutes will. NiMH needs to be charged fast for best performance, but 15 minutes creates too much heat and breaks down the structure of the battery. 1 Hour (as MAHA does) is just about perfect. Too slow and the batteries wont work as well either. The energizer batteries are good - use them wiht a MAHA charger and you will have an excellent combination. There is a lot about all of this on the internet if you google it and want the science involved.
In the long run the MAHA charger is worth the extra money. BTW - using the MAHA charger, my energizer batteries give me about twice the performance in both my GPS and my wife's digital camera.
Brian
To add to the geocache tool list you must buy a top of the line MAHA battery charger ( I use three) and a supply of MAHA POWERX Ni MH batteries ...
For the price difference between even the cheapest MAHA charger and the 15 minute Energizer charger I bought at Target I can buy an extra pack of 4xAA 2500 mAH Energizers. For the really good ones it's more like 4-6 extra packs of them.
This is in no way meant to dis the MAHA chargers/batteries. They are for sure top shelf and the best an end consumer can get ... technology wise. But the best technology is not allways the most economic way.
Jan
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From what I've read, these are formulated for devices that have short periods of high drain (such a recharging a flash capacitor and driving a motor in a camera) with relatively little drain in between. A GPS is a fairly steady-drain device.
I have had the greatest success with the maha Powerex NiMH batteries. Just replaced a set after 18 hours of use, and there was still some charge left. The key is to also get the Maha charger... it is awsome. It will also make your energizers work a lot harder too - about 12 hours I would guess based on my last try. Most other chargers (energizer) overheat the batteries and you don't get near the performance.
Brian
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Go for Maha rechargeables, they appear to have better power retention than the Sony's that I used earlier. My experience with Sony's batteries has not been entirely satisfactory. The power in one of them seemed to drain off fairly quickly even in storage.
I am also very impressed with Maha's batteries. I have ordered their charger as it gets great reviews. I have to say that the batteries though are much more reliable and last longer than similar energizers, which are probably the next best battery.
Brian
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Not really. The Sirf chipset uses an order of magnitude more "correlators" in its lookup table than the older GPS chips. That is how they get the sensitivity. It is not so much that they "receive" more signal, the lookup tables help it make more use of weaker signals. By the same token, the more robust lookup tables will normally make it more accurate as well under the same conditions as the older chips. This has also been my experience in practice.
*IF* they both have an identical view of the sky with an identical signal strength on identical satellite constellation, the accuracy will be very similar. Comparing the Sirf-based Garmins to their predecessors with Garmin's home-brew receiver, you will typically just plain get more sats with a stronger signal in most cases you would describe as a "thick" area.
The C units are also notorious for not readily divulging when they don't really have a lock - most owners quickly recognize the "hmmm. I'm standing still; my compass is frozen and my reported speed is unwavering at 2.7 (or whatever) miles an hour" as an indicator that in about a minute, the GPS will finally divulge that it's lost lock.
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) I haven't gotten a lot of feedback recently (read about a year) on bug reports sent. (Actually, I did get a response about a year ago on the lithium battery thing - response, but no fix 
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Cant Download Files With The Premium Feature?
in Website
Posted
I have tried multiple ways to create a PQ and do a download and all it ever returns are the geocaches I have already found. The generated .loc/.gpx file in no way resembles the search generated by the PQ.