Forkeye
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Posts posted by Forkeye
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OK so fixed my problem of downloading to my unit. Finally found where I needed to register my device and activate Birdseye.
Anyway still have to say birdseye V2 looks lousy in the mountains near Vancouver BC here. The imagery was taken when lots of snow was still around so everything is pretty much white which makes it hard to see things. In the summer the snow is gone, thats when they should have taken the images and the clarity is not as good as google earth.
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OK maybe I am being too critical too soon. Those images of yours are very good. I will give it a decent try, but back to some of my questions if you can assist me. If I have 2 units listed at My Garmin is that going to screw things up, because it keeps saying my gps is not registered and after I download to basecamp it says only a demo version can be transferred to the gps.
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OK so I bought V2 and I can download it to basecamp when my 62sc is plugged into my computer, google earth still looks way better than Birdseye V2 does...oh well too late now. Anyway, after the download it wont transfer to my gps, it says my gps does not have an active subsciption and when I start the down load to base camp it says I am not subscribed ,but it still downloads to basecamp. Both my gps units are registered at My Garmin, maybe that's the problem. Is there some place I have to enter my Birdseye order number? Too bad you cant just download from Google Earth. How many devices can you put birdseye on, I read only one on an old forum post, is that correct?
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Does birdseye have little photos to click on like google earth does? Or only the geo tagged ones you load yourself? Also on Garmins site they have Birdseye Satellite and then Birdseye with raster maps for different countries. I am not quite sure of the difference , can someone clarify, thx.
http://garminbasecamp.wikispaces.com/BirdsEye I am guessing you don't get the satellite imagery with the topo version.
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What about for hiking though? Last I looked, Birdseye seemed pretty poor once you got out in the mountains away from large metropolitan areas. Anyone use it for hiking in Washington USA or BC Canada.
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Hell will freeze over by then... lol
And anyway they wont know what to fix until after the release because they never test them out ahead of time!
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I would get the 62s, I have the 62sc and the camera takes very dark photos and it gets 4 hrs less battery life than the 62s.
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http://www.gpscentral.ca/products/garmin/gpsmap-64s.html says early February here at one of my dealers, so I would guess some time in Feb.14
Why are there different battery settings on these units? What happens when you switch battery type? My 62sc came with Nexcell 2000Ah NiMHs and a charger and once I set the battery type to Lithium by mistake and they were dead in 1/2 hr.I don't have to change battery type on anything else I own if I change battery type.
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The thing I like about Glonass is just the fact that there are more satellites available for your unit to pick up, not that I have ever needed more. Just would like to have it, but not for another $400 and a year of software updates! My 62sc works just as well as my Etex 30 does with Glonass. Someone commented that the 62sc has a faster cpu than the 62s once, hence 4 hrs less battery life, but I have not compared them ever. Maybe the 64 battery life is for the same reason. Battery saver mode is a nice feature, too bad the Etrex didn't get that, maybe it could have run 30 hrs on a set.
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No camera anymore? Well the one on my 62sc is not very good anyway. The only thing I dont like about my 62sc is the 16 hr battery life. I would like the Glonass though, not that I have needed it yet. The other new features I have no interest in. Seems like they are lacking on ideas for new units. I could use features like the Spot or Delmore Inreach or ACR resqulink added to my gps unit, but those are not geocaching features I know. Live tracking is interesting though.
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I go into settings, then heading , then north reference, set it to user, enter the value I want, click done at the bottom and reverse the sequence, push quit, to go back to the compass page. should I do the above procedure again I will see my selected value still when I get to that page again. Compass is set to auto so when standing still it should be good to go . Is there another setting to turn on some place? Not that I am aware of, because if I use magnetic setting it works ok, as well as true setting, its just the user setting that doesn't work here. Also when you select a display box and a field to show should it be heading or bearing, there is no choice of true or magnetic, obviously its going to display the reference you have previously picked. If there is another setting to adjust I am not aware of it. One more thing ,when I look at the compass page, in one of my field boxes which shows heading on the top of the compass page, it shows a little M in the bottom right corner of the box, showing the unit value for the display, not a U, but ok maybe that's to be expected, it shows T when set to true and G when set to grid and M when set to magnetic. I no longer have my 76csx, but if I remember the user never seemed to work on it either, that unit used to display the magnetic and grid values it used, so at least you could quickly see if they were close to correct. My above post was for the Etrex 30, now for the 62sc, it will show the N on the compass ring being about 5 deg. east of north no matter what value I enter into the user value , and again the heading box shows this value and a small m in the bottom of the field box. I do not believe the user entered feature works because if it did the N on the compass ring should point the same direction as my Suunto compass does, it works ok for the magnetic setting.
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I have the 62sc and Etrex 30. So for this test I will use the Etrex 30, and by the way the 62sc gives different results, but still not expected ones either. In the heading setting I select user ,enter declination ,select done and return to the compass page. I just don't see the expected changes when I check back at the compass page heading. My correct declination for where I live is 16 deg. east. So lets say I set my Suunto compass declination to 45 deg. east just for a test, (I know its the wrong declination for where I live), line up the compass needle with the inner dial arrow and take note of where the N on the outer ring of the dial points. Its way off to the west of true north by 24 deg., and so where true north should be reads 24 deg. So 24+16=40 deg.
OK so now back to the gps and set the user declination to 40 deg. east and then go back to the compass page and the N on the outer compass ring is pointing east of where true north should be by interestingly approx.16 degrees, so now I change the user value to 60 deg. east and still the N points to ALMOST the same direction ,but not by a difference of 20 deg.
Is the N on the outer ring of the gps compass ring not supposed to point to north? If yes the why does it not point to the same direction as my Suunto does when the declinations are set the same and when I change my user gps declination by a large value the N barely changes position ,but yet does not point north either. I also calibrated the compass every time I changed declination. This puzzles me, but as I stated earlier I always use the true setting anyway so it is correct with my real Suunto compass. What do you mean by telling the hand held to use the user setting, if I select user, does that not tell it to use that setting? I know I am slightly off topic ,sorry for that, but I thought declination was part of this topic.
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Why is it that when I input different values into the user declination my displayed heading always seems basically the same? Looking to true north say. If I change the declination on my Suunto hand held, then my heading to that true north waypoint changes, am I missing something with this gps or does this user declination function not work properly?
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I have played around with the user setting before and noticed that when I set it at 000, it reads about 5-8 degrees off true north. I would have thought 000 in user would have been basically true north. Too bad Garmin removed the displayed magnetic value like my 76scx had, kind of a step backward. I always use true settings anyway.
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Cant you just use the user declination and set it to your correct magnetic if you want magnetic values shown?
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I think that when I had my 76csx , when it was set to magnetic , it showed the declination value, and for my location it was incorrect by almost 2 degrees when I last checked it, When I contacted Garmin they told me that there were declination tables built into these units, that were basically for a ten year period.
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62S also has a battery saver mode, where the display shuts off until a button is pressed, but the receiver keeps tracking your position, to help save on battery consumption, a ribbon style menu should you desire it, and also an external antenna jack. I have the 62SC and the Etrex 30 and both are on a par as far as reception and accuracy go. The weight difference is barely noticeable, but there is a size difference, and the user interface (buttons) are different. Etrex have a much slower cpu speed which probably gives some of the power savings, you can really see this when you try to pan a map, but when you are actually navigating with the map I don't think you will notice it. The Etrex because of its size is nice for hiking/biking, but the larger 62 screen size is also nice. Very happy with both units.
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For maps try GPSFileDepot.com, I am sure their are a few others too, and for geocaches this site is good. You can do a search for an area and list them or show them on a map. If you are new to Garmin and this site, you will have lots to learn. Also the use of Basecamp. Good Luck.
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Believe what you want. Those compass horror stories are probably as old as Vincent Price. Dont have any issues with either my 30 or 62sc compass. But I can understand the compass haters of the world must have the last word.
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Totally agree Glenn, I just don't get the requirement for more accuracy. Just walk right up, bend down and pick up the cache, no more thinking, no more fun. Remember back in the 90s when SA was on, didn't have too much trouble then either. You actually had to look and think, check out a couple of places perhaps. The gps compass was a waste of time.
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I don't really find a need for an electronic compass for geocaching, or for hiking its just nice to have, all you really need is a good map most of the time and the smarts to know how to use it and keep track of things. I always have my Suunto with me, as my trusty backup, but that will cost you $60-$70 too.
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Oh for sure, once you know the general area, you know pretty much where one would hide things. Having accuracy to a meter or less would just take away all the fun of looking.
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The Etrex series was never intended to be used on a flight deck, or really in a vehicle, how could anyone drive or fly and look at a postage stamp size screen, and for sure the compass is not going to work in those applications either, though mine works fine in my submarine when I last used it.
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Never had any issues with my Etrex 30 or 62sc Compasses, but I still carry a Suunto with me, only because the army taught me how to use one decades ago, now I have an ACR ResQlink+ in case I crash and burn too, they can come and get me.
I cant see any aircraft using an Etrex 20 or 30. Garmin has aircraft specific gps units,if the aircraft didn't have one, and since the 30 can do every thing the 20 can do why would they swap it out, there are just a bunch of people that seem to hate the advanced Garmin models, and will do anything to bash them, perhaps because they bought the wrong one?
BirdsEye V2 ?
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
It looks ok on my gps, but in basecamp it doesn't look as good as when I look at google earth. Maybe some areas in Birdseye are not as good as others or they were not updated for V2.