dogwalkers2

That's great, if you happen to already know that your tracks are being shortened when you save them so that you could dig this up in the FAQ. It would have been nice to know it in advance. Maybe I'm weird, but I browsed the FAQ, etc. to learn as much as I could about the Vista HCx while I was waiting for my unit with baited breath....

1. It autocalibrates if you have it set to. From Garmin: "Using the autocalibration feature on the device, the accuracy is +/- 50-125ft (same as GPS elevation). When manually calibrating (autocalibration off) to a known elevation it is approximately +/- 10ft for the first 15 minutes. The unit should be calibrated hourly to maintain accuracy when using manual calibration because of possible preassure changes. If using a locally reported pressure reading to calibrate the device, the accuracy of the altimeter would depend on the time and location of the reading. With WAAS and good reception you can obtain an accuracy of +/- 25-50ft." 2. & 3. There doesn't appear to be a way to turn it off. However, the auto calibration mode filters with a significant emphasis on the GPS altitude. The rate of change will be slow, though. I did a test and calibrated with a wacked out pressure. The altitude corrected back to the true altitude at a rate of about 20 feet per minute. I suspect the same thing would happen in an aircraft. Definitely not usable for active flying, but OK if you are just curious and have time to wait (you could help speed it along by entering an approximate altitude in a manual calibration, but set up to auto calibrate). Anyway, GPS altitude is never used for air navigation (see point 1...it is similar for airborne GPS applications as well). The eTrex series were meant for "On the Trail" not "In the Air" so, obviously, not a major design consideration to use just GPS altitude. Personally, I think they did it right, given the other uses for pressure and the use of a blended altitude capability (auto calibration). 4. Since "There must be an active track log (not a saved track log or activated TracBack) to see the elevation profile. If the track log has been cleared, there will not be an elevation profile," I would hazard to say that the barometric altitude (as filtered with GPS altitude, if you are set up to auto calibrate) gets recorded.

... so there's no excuse for a GPSr being confused over whether it's moving or not unless your're cutting corners and costs. Fix it Garmin. Thanks. Yes, they measure frequency shift; however, this measurement is still subject to errors, just like position is subject to error. The errors are increased/more likely with multi-path and weaker signals, hence the problem "under tree cover" as noted elsewhere. Furthermore, multipath signals are more susceptible to fading, so when you are already receiving a weak signal with a high sensitivity reciever, errors are introduced, where in previous models of GPS (i.e. "Old Blue" Legend) the signal was just lost and you had no position, no velocity, nothing...I like having at least some information. So, yes it is cutting costs. A GPS receiver can be designed to minimize the errors (including such techniques as filtering with inertial navigation systems, etc.), but I like my GPS for under $300 (at least affordable), rather than significantly more expensive and unaffordable.

When I posted this I was thinking that the manual said something about this, but it was just buried. After reading the other concurrent thread and going back to the manual I have to concur with IndianaDan; there's no mention of the loss of data at all. I guess most of us learned the hard way - by losing some data The info is in Garmin's FAQ in their support site: "Question: Why are my tracks shortened when I save them on the device? Answer: When a track is saved on the device, the number of track points in the track will be lessened. While there may be more track points in the active track log, the saved track will only get 500 points to save in the device. The information stored with the tracks is shortened as well, so information like speed and time are removed. If this data is needed, the track must be kept in the active log, not saved. Last modified on: 06/12/2007" There's a lot of good info on this site (things like the 2025 map segment limit, the 2 GB limit on microSD cards, etc.) and it's worth a browse.

According to Garmin's website, the unit can hold 1000 waypoints. I don't use PQ so 'm not sure how it factors into this, but if geocaches are all you have, I'd imagine 1000 would be the answer. You can determine how many waypoints are loaded by downloading your waypoints to Mapsource and it tells you (it takes a couple of seconds and you can always just not save the file if you don't need the info in Mapsource anymore...they're still on the GPS). Not much use in the field, but I don't know how to do it on the unit. For card memory used and available, go to Main Menu>Setup>System, click the "Find" button and select "Card Info."

The "saved" and stripped track logs are saved in internal memory, not on the card, so every byte is precious. There are only so many memory addressess available, hence the restriction to 20 tracks, etc. Apart from these registers, there is no internal memory in the unit. See the specs. The automatic daily tracklogs with all the information (not stripped) are saved in the near limitless data card (if you have the option turned on). However, as you say, it would be useful to have an option to save and use tracklogs on the datacard, as I mentioned in my previous post and has been mentioned elsewhere in these forums. This would allow for any number of tracks, routes, waypoints, etc., limited only by the size of datacard you buy (somewhat like POIs).

I believe that the design is on purpose. The information that is dropped (i.e. the time information) when you save a tracklog via the "Save" function is useless for Tracback operations, what is seen as the main reason to save tracks such as that. The positional information that is kept allows for these operations. In other words, a saved tracklog is really just a very detailed route. The tracklogs that are saved on the microSD are meant for post-trip analysis and can easily be manipulated in MapSource, keeping what you want, deleting what you don't, joining tracks, cutting them up, etc. Each log is easily identified by the date and time of the start of that segment. Each day is a separate gpx file but there are several segments per gpx file, depending on how you've used the unit during the day. As you point out, saving the logs this way is more flexible and detailed, allowing for almost unlimited amount of track points. There is still limited memory on the unit, but it has been recommened by others that the route and track information be stored on the data card in future unit software releases. Whether this will happen is anybody's guess.

Ya, and I can't type either...the 92W in my post above (#2) should be 92E. For some reason the forum won't let me edit it....

For just tracks and waypoints, it should not matter what map you have, MapSource should just display it. Are you sure "Maps" is unchecked when you send to the GPS. I would recommend you save the tracks and waypoints as a gpx file and send it to him that way (using File>Save As...). That should work.

There is no error in the longitude. You are so close to 90 degrees of longitude, the problem is not obvious. Think of it this way. Say you were at 10W. The other side of the earth would be at 170E (180 degrees out). Since you are at 88W, 180 degrees out would be 92W, which is basically what you got.

On the Vista HCx: Main Menu>Setup>Altimeter Then there's a dropdown box for Auto Calibration (On/Off)

Once you put other maps on, the basemap becomes irrelevant. I've used my old Legend in Europe with no problems and a limited basemap. Metric is not an issue. I have distance and speed set up metric and altitude and depth in feet. Pressure can be millibars, hectopascals or inches Hg. Looking at the options on my Vista HCx, there are English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. It looks like you'd be out of luck for German with a North American model. I live in Canada, so I couldn't tell you the best place to buy in the US.

The only way I know how to do this is to delete all the waypoints from the GPS and then transfer the waypoints from Mapsource to the GPS. This, in effect, does the same thing and takes only a couple of seconds. Although it would be really handy to have a synchronisation facility, I think it was probably left out of MapSource because you can have many different data sets. Although there are several methods to delete all waypoints from the GPS, I find the simplest is to use select "Reset" from the Trip Computer menu and select only the "All Waypoints" option before selecting "Apply". Mind you, it might depend on what GPS you have; this is for a Vista HCx.

I'm not sure about the 60cx, but with the eTrex series, if you "save" a track, the elapsed time and hence avg speed are stripped from the file. I think this is so they can be used for Tracback operations. However, if it is the same as the Vista HCx, if you set it up to record to the microSD card, these tracks retain all the information, since they are considered Active Logs by Mapsource, when you load the gpx file. Just for your info, the gpx file contains all the track information for a calendar day, but when it is imported into Mapsource, there is a separate track (with all information) for each time the GPS is turned on (ACTIVELOG 1, ACTIVELOG 2, etc.).

If you've loaded the caches via POILoader, you can set them as proximity waypoints at that time. If they are normal waypoints (even handier if they are identified as Geocaches) and you are on the road and away from your computer and all you have is your GPS, you can set the waypoints as proximity ones. Go to Main Menu>Proximity, highlight the long dashed line and hit Enter. You can then select a waypoint by the normal means (Geocaches would be handy in your case) and then select Use. It automatically defaults to one mile (1.61km) but you can select this distance and change it to whatever you want. Works OK for a few points, but sucks if you've got a lot.

The Vista has an electronic compass and a barometric altimeter.

I don't know if it's any faster, but if you have a card reader, it shows up as a drive in Mapsource in the "Send to Device" dialog drop-down box when you have a card in your reader.

The instantaneous GPS position will always "wander" a little bit. Hence, the ability to average a waypoint when you create it, increasing the accuracy of the waypoint. On the Vista HCx, you can do this when you mark a waypoint and select "Avg" and watch the estimated accuracy get better as you wait and the GPS gets more positions to average. I believe this is right but is not unique to the H series. When my old Legend lost a signal (a relatively common occurrence), any distance covered during that period was not included in the odometer and neither the stopped not moving time changed. When it doesn't have a signal, it treats it as if the machine is off and doesn't do any recording. That's probably the same case for the H series. Notice that a new track log also starts when a signal is regained, whether due to a lost signal or the unit being powered down. It appears that the trip odometer records the equivalent of the sum of the track log distances since it was last reset. As a quick check and comparison, today, I walked a 2.0 km route (route length on Mapsource). When I got home, the track length downloaded to Mapsource after my brief walk was 2.0 km and the trip odometer was something like 2.02 km (a difference less than the accuracy that Mapsource shows). I didn't specifically note the track length yesterday after walking the same route, but the trip odometer was showing something along the lines of 2.1 or 2.2 km (greater than the route length), although I did deviate a few metres off track to grab a coffee... In short, in my humble opinion, I personally do not believe that there is a "bug" in the Vista HCx with respect to it wandering a little when you are standing still or with the trip odometer.

I'd say do what you'd like and the cachers you are trying to attract will come (maybe not in droves, but they will). I did a similar cache, that has now been disabled (never did get to the final clue), and there were quite a few cachers that enjoyed it. Multiple days, lots of driving, great way to see the countryside outside of your normal area. Someone mentioned the bug problem if you expect someone to sit for up to 10 minutes figuring out the next stage. A nice gesture would be some insect repellant (Off Skintastic, or some such stuff) included in the cache (with a Do Not Remove! request on it, like your book). SO, go for it, have fun and others will have fun, too!

Try Main Menu>Setup>Display and adjust the Backlight Timeout setting to something that is reaonable for you.

The easiest way is to install both on your hard drive. Then you can just select the segments you want, regardless of which disc they're on. I'm not sure how MapSource works running from the CDs. All of Canada Topo only takes up about 2 GB on the hard drive and comes on four CDs; I don't imagine the US (on two CDs) would be any more.

From the home page select--> maps-->on the road maps--> under the City navigator set, select North America--> click the viewer in the upper right corner. It brings up the viewer for City Nav NA 2008. Wow, that's truly bizarre. When I follow those exact steps, I get a pop-up window with the title at the top of the map reading: "City Navigator North America v8". Theron When I go to City Navigator NT, I get the v8 map, but when I go to the plain City Navigator, as detailed in his description, I get the City Nav NA 2008. There is a difference as some major changes that happened in the last year here in Winnipeg are reflected in the 2008 version, but not in the v8 version.