sparksd
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Posts posted by sparksd
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Still have my 12XL and I'll hold onto it and my myriad external antennas for it for old time sake.
ah, the good old days of Selective Availability ...
Dave
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See here for answers on your item (1) --
http://garmingpsmap.wikispaces.com/message/view/home/30151655
Dave
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Here's a long thread on BirdsEye issues over at Garmin's forums:
https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?t=19882
Dave
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I plan on getting one for my Montana when they're released. From the looks of the case and material I could light it on fire and roll it down a hill and it would come out looking like new.
I ordered one for my 62st and it's on the way. I'll report back on it when I get it.
Dave
Ordered it on Tuesday from Amazon (but shipped direct by GizzMoVest) and received it today (Thur) - that kind of service is unbeatable! The case fits my 62st very well. It is clamshell, hinged at the bottom, and held closed by cinching the attached lanyard. Easy to put on and remove. It has a dimple on the side to delineate the on/off switch and I don't have any problems activating the switch. The belt clip is removable. No problems accessing the buttons. About the only addition I would make would be putting a screen protector on. I think this will work quite well.
Dave
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I plan on getting one for my Montana when they're released. From the looks of the case and material I could light it on fire and roll it down a hill and it would come out looking like new.
I ordered one for my 62st and it's on the way. I'll report back on it when I get it.
Dave
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In the on-line NGS data I was recently able to track down station "DAVE 1974", set on the East shore of Knik Arm in Alaska's Cook Inlet.
NAD 83(1986)- 61 18 28.61167(N) 149 49 10.59919(W) Elevation 23.1 ft
I helped set this station in 1974 while working as a survey crewman on the NOAA Ship Rainier and the team named it after me. Pretty neat to track it down after all these years.
Dave
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I'm of the mind to call it a defect but that's just me. These buttons should not be wearing through so quickly and effortlessly. I know it's just a simple rubber pad that Garmin could replace for pennies. I'd be calling them up and demanding a repair in light of a chronic reporting of this issue. Cutting costs in manufacturing to increase profit margin comes with a price.
It is irritating to see on my relatively new unit. Similarly, I have dust building up under the screen of my HTC EVO phone and the letters are wearing off the keys (which I seldom use) on my Kindle e-reader. Just like with the 62st, I take great care of these, keeping them in protective cases. Poor manufacturing processes.
Dave
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I'm seeing a similar wearing on the corner of one button on my 3-month old 62st which has not seen hard field use. I store and transport it in the soft cover case.
Dave
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myotis -
Thanks for that last post of yours - I didn't realize that I was really looking at a BaseCamp (or MapSource) display issue with the glacier rendering. I just bought the 62st relatively recently and have not had the chance to use in a glaciated area and had not specifically scrolled to such an area on an installed map. My comments had been based on looking at a BaseCamp/MapSource rendering - Garmin 24k Topo does indeed display glaciers nicely on the 62st but not in BaseCamp. Your explanation clarifies this for me though I am surprised that such an issue exists when using Garmin maps with Garmin Windows s/w. I had been using a GPSMap 76s until I bought the 62st and the rendering of topo maps had never but much of an obvious issue.
Dave
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They had some initial bugs but seem to have worked through them. I have the old Wildflower Topo! maps which are USGS-based and I have always liked working with the USGS maps here in the Pacific NW - I prefer their display of permanent snowfields, glaciers, etc. The BirdsEye products have so far played well with my 62ST.
The Above the Timber topos display snowfields/glaciers inside your GPS, worth a look.
The snowfields/glaciers are included in the USGS NHD data map authors use to make the maps. So I would be suprised to see a map without it. I have the first version of Above the Timber map for CO. One reason I did not like it was it had snowfields/glaciers showing as lakes. They were in the right place, the mapmaker just did not seperate them out from the lakes (which is real simple to do). The roads were also pretty bad-I remember even I-70 being way off. I complained about the roads and was told they are for off road use. Hopefully these problems were fixed.
The Above the Timber map for Wash does a nice job of glacier display, unlike many of the others which either don't delineate them at all or, as an example, display them as a crosshatch of blue lines (Garmin 24k topo).
Even with just a quick check, I have seen some significant road errors in the Above the Timber map.
Dave
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THAT Garmin Birdseye looks amazing... and in some places, it really is pretty good. But what's served up from Garmin's servers isn't always so pretty. They will also deliver shots where the nearby area was overcast (producing dark, low contrast images), or where the area itself is overcast - you'll be looking at clouds and nothing more. Further, not all areas are covered at the same resolution. You'll find some where you'd swear you could identify the make and model of the car in the drive, and others where you can't tell a tree from a rock.Dave,
Thanks for posting those shots. The Garmin BirdsEye looks amazing!
So FWIW, be aware that the results are variable based upon location and how recent they've been shot.
Exactly true - your mileage will vary. It can be a real mixed bag and there have been recent issues with variable quality. See this thread over at the garmin forums:
https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?t=19882
Dave
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I posted some BaseCamp screen captures of different map displays of the same area:
http://www.pbase.com/sparksdjs/map
These are of an area on Tiger Mtn, just outside of Seattle and it is interesting to see the detail and feature differences. I posted captures from:
Above the Timber 24k
BirdsEye Satellite Imagery
Garmin Topo 24k
Moun10bike's Northwest topos
A free map from gpsfiledepot
I just switched from map to map without changing settings or position, doing a screen capture at each.
Dave
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Here is what I have on my 62st for the state of Washington..............
Have you tried Moun10bike's Northwest topos ? They are free and I would be curious to see how you felt they compare with your other maps.
Yes, I have and I missed it - thanks. To follow my original format:
Pros: Free (a donation is encouraged), good detail, very good to excellent trail coverage, lots of POI
Cons: Not routable, not multi-level, terrain delineation a mixed bag (to be more specific: as an example, Mt Rainier is shaded entirely green, unlike the USGS and Above the Timber maps which delineate rock and glaciers. This is a biggy for me as I travel a lot in the Cascades above the tree line).
Again, the pros and cons are from my usage point of view.
Dave
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Followed your advice and checked these out. They are quite nice - I went ahead and bought the Wash state map. Nice supplement/option to the others I have downloaded.
Dave
I'd be curious, at some time in the future, if you'd post what maps you have and the respective Pros & Cons.
For Colo, I have the Garmin 24K Topos and Above the Timber topos, basically I only use the AtT unless I want to use the Garmin routing. The free maps are so inferior I don't even have them on my GPS' and rarely open them in MapSource.
Here is what I have on my 62st for the state of Washington and my personal view of the pros and cons. I should note my use and background because that colors what I like and dislike wrt the map products I use. I have 5 Garmin units dating back to the 12XL. I use this unit primarily for hiking, biking, and climbing – I am not a geocacher. I am also kind of a “mapping techno-weenie” – I have done cartographic work in the past (for NOAA) and in my work as a s/w developer I wrote the navigation s/w for what I will call a “fast flying aircraft”. (That means I buy some of these things not just to address functional needs but rather because I can be obsessive.)
Garmin 100k Topo
Pros: Full US coverage, came with 62st
Cons: Pretty useless to me, should have saved $ and just gone with the 62s
Garmin 24k Topo
Pros: Routable, even on trails. Nice to have on a PC to use with MapSource and BaseCamp because you can easily create a route on trails and then view the elevation profile.
Cons: Expensive, trail coverage spotty, snowfields and glaciers not delineated
Garmin City Navigator
Pros: Good city street coverage, routable.
Cons: “City-oriented”, not outdoors. Routing can be strange at times. I prefer to use my nuvi for in-city navigating because of the larger, landscape-oriented screen but it is handy to have available in the 62st.
BirdsEye Topo
Pros: Provides a USGS map view which I like for mountain terrain. Puts the same paper map I have in my hand into my GPS unit. Also, as a nostalgia fix for me it was worth the $30 - I have developed quite an attachment to some of the USGS maps I've had for over 40 years.
Cons: Not routable, USGS maps can be dated.
BirdsEye Satellite Imagery
Pros: Can give a Google-like satellite image perspective that can be quite good.
Cons: There have been image quality and download issues recently. In the end, limited utility for me.
Misc Wash topos (gpsfiledepot)
Pros: Free, good detail, some have good trail coverage
Cons: Not routable, not multi-level, terrain delineation a mixed bag
Was 24k Topo (Above the Timber)
Pros: Nice product. Good detail, including trails. Good terrain delineation, including snowfields and glaciers. Multi-layered. Lots of POI.
Cons: Somewhat pricey at $50 but significantly cheaper than Garmin options. Not routable.
Dave
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They had some initial bugs but seem to have worked through them. I have the old Wildflower Topo! maps which are USGS-based and I have always liked working with the USGS maps here in the Pacific NW - I prefer their display of permanent snowfields, glaciers, etc. The BirdsEye products have so far played well with my 62ST.
The Above the Timber topos display snowfields/glaciers inside your GPS, worth a look.
Followed your advice and checked these out. They are quite nice - I went ahead and bought the Wash state map. Nice supplement/option to the others I have downloaded.
Dave
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I have the 62ST (and 4 other older Garmin models).
If, like me, you are a fan of the USGS-style topo maps, Garmin prrovides some USGS map imagery download capabilities through BirdsEye subscription. Some info:
http://gpstracklog.com/2011/05/garmin-birdseye-topo-us-and-canada.html
They had some initial bugs but seem to have worked through them. I have the old Wildflower Topo! maps which are USGS-based and I have always liked working with the USGS maps here in the Pacific NW - I prefer their display of permanent snowfields, glaciers, etc. The BirdsEye products have so far played well with my 62ST.
Dave
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One of the big issues with BirdsEye is that recently there was a problem with downloading high-res images. Where before you could could download larger areas at high-res, there was a problem such that if you selected a larger area at high-res, it downloaded at a lower resolution without telling you it was doing so - you didn't know until after you did the download and checked the results. You had to retry, selecting a smaller area to download but it was a hit-and-miss operation - extremely frustrating. I was one of the complainers about this one but they have apparently addressed the issue. I can't test it because at the moment I don't have access to a high bandwidth connection.
Dave
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Break it down into constituent components and see what you think --
The basic 62s is a very good GPSr with a lot of very positive reviews by users.
The 62st is the 62s preloaded with 100k topos for the US. I have this unit and it's great but in retrospect I would have saved money and gone with the 62s as I don't see myself using the 100k maps now that I've added the Garmin 24k topo and free maps from gpsfiledepot.
The 62sc is the 62s but with a camera. Do you think that would be useful for you? For me, that answer is no.
The 62stc is the 62st with the camera - same question.
Now you have 4 different units to choose from based on a single excellent unit - the 62s - plus additional capabilities that you have to decide as to whether you want them or not (for added cost, of course).
Dave
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Hello everyone,
Im an intern working on a mapping project for some town parks. I was told to check up on the geocaches in the area to make sure they are maintained and not damaging to our nature areas. My question is,the gave me a Garmin GPSmap76S to work with and the accuracy is AWFUL. Has anyone worked with this unit before or have any pointers on how i can go about this project with bad accuracy. So far Ive only found one geocache and i basically just stumbled upon it. I've been trying to find very easy ones , ones that say they are on a hiking trail and dont include much bushwhacking. Any pointers or should i just tbag this project lol
I recently replaced my old 76S with a 62st. My experience was that the 76s has good accuracy in the open with a clear view of the sky but suffers badly when under cover. But even in the open, it hasn't matched the 62st wrt accuracy, speed in establishing a position, etc. That's the shortcomings of an older unit.
Dave
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A side question - other than testing it on a unit, can you determine the draw order for any given set of Garmin-compatible maps (including Garmin-produced and 3rd party)?
Thanks,
Dave
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One more thing, as GPS units get more accurate, the GPS altimeter's accuracy gets better. It's to the point, that the barometric altimeter is mostly useful as a barometer or to track altitude when the unit isn't reading satellites.
GPS altitude accuracy has improved tremendously in the last few years. Even after SA was turned off, for a long time altitude accuracy was horrendous and I always had one of my baro altimeters handy when out in the mountains and never used GPS altitude. I'd been away from playing with my GPS units for a few years until I recently bought the 62st and I've been astounded by the improvements in GPS altitude accuracy. Newer (and more) satellites; wide adoption of WAAS; improved receivers, antennas, and more powerful processing chips in handheld units; and likely improvements in s/w have all been contributors. GPS altitude has actually become usable!
Dave
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I have a 62S, and I already had a copy of Topo U.S. 2008 before I bought it. I installed it on the 62S, and I *think* I end up with the same thing as a 62ST. The Topo U.S. maps don't use a key, so they can be installed on as many Garmin GPSs as you have. You can't do that with the topo map in the T model.
I believe that DVD-based map supports routable roads, correct? The Topo US 100k preloaded on the 62st does not - a route between two points will be a straight line, not locked to roads. I needed to add either City Navigator or Topo 24k to get that capability.
Also, the 62st has a preloaded "Worldwide DEM Basemap, NR" which I assume also provides the DEM data but in what granularity I cannot say. Does the 62s come with this?
Dave
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The preloaded Topo 100k map is the only difference. I recently bought the 62st and in retrospect I should have gone with the 62s - the 100k map is not very good and I'll never use it. I've bought and loaded a 16GB uSD card with City Navigator and the local Topo 24K series in addition to loading free maps available from gpsfiledepot. I've also subscribed to and added BirdsEye satellite imagery. In the end, though, I am very happy with this unit (my fifth Garmin since 1997).
Dave
edit: I should note that I paid an $80 premiunm for the st over the s. If it were only $30 more I would probably go for it.
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One of the best descriptions of barometric altimeters and how they work is the Avocet Vertech FAQ collection --
http://www.avocet.com/vertechpages/vertfaq.html
I have owned one of these (in addition to a couple of other altimeters) for many years, though it is currently inoperable due to a dead battery.
Dave
Garmin 62 buttons wearing past the black
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
I've tried covering the bare spots with flat black enamel model paint but it wears off very quickly.
Dave