Geo J&Sly

can you use your phone? hate to see you buy one you will soon want to sell or replace.

Ok so for cars I will use a vehicle GPS. So the good news is seems I don't have a defective unit. I thought maybe it was positioning me 10-15 feet off and it needed to be reset or similar. I imagine that for the trail it will work if I have pre downloaded maps and lock on, for those rare instances I am blazing my own trail, I guess I will take into account the potential discrepancy when I am checking my route after the fact. Thanks everyone, sounds like given my car and phone GPS "on road" experience I thought I had a potentially faulty unit. In the pic above I was on the center of the road, its a typical 2 lane road.

Thanks for the responses Cacheholic and yogazoo. That is what I needed to hear if thats the case. Like mentioned my biggest worry then is it will not put me on the trail maps I download, when I am driving my dirtbike, potentially alone, in the middle of a state forest, where some roads are illegal to be on with my bike .(I want to stay off the illegal ones if I can help it). Should I be worried about that then? Here is a screenshot of my GPS outside a few miuntes ago: http://s1002.beta.photobucket.com/user/Snake2715/media/IMAG0908.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0 Obviously again if that's the nature then I know I didn't get a faulty one and will move on. It sounds like that is what is being said, but I wanted to post a picture just in case. Its also possible that as mentioned when on a downloaded trail i can use lock on roads to lock me on the trail. Thanks for any confirmation. Sometimes we get used to our smartphones and car GPS systems that probably "lock on roads" by default so we don't realize how accurate or not the GPS and or maps are in reality. *Edit - Thank you Walts Hunting yours came in while I wrote the above response, I didn't read it until now. So that sounds like the deal, when trail riding I will lock and when caching, etc I will unlock.

Ok So I downloaded and installed the topo to basecamp, sent it to my GPS with the trail maps. I walked outside and have an open area (by farmland) some trees to one side maybe 50 ft away. In menu satellite it shows between 9-13ft accuracy. I walked down the driveway to the end of the road. It still put me next to the road as I walked up and down the street. I do have the unit zoomed in as close as possible and the key in the bottom left shows the 20ft as the measuring distance. I just dont know if I should reset this, or return it or if thats the nature of these?

First thanks for the quick response, really appreciated! Downloading a Michigan TOPO from GPSfiledepot now. Ok So their maps are just not accurate potentially? I did the waypoint, actually pulled up the satellite screen and stood still outside and took a reading. I typed that into google maps (not earth) and its about 2 car lengths off. Is that where it should be? Thats actually about ow far off the road it was putting me... Actually I checked the green arrow in google maps and it gives coordinates (after I typed my coordinates in) and they are not exactly what I type.. not sure how google maps stores its info so maybe its giving me a close set of coordinates. Maybe I am expecting too much from the GPS? Its just December here and should be snowing so I wont get to use it for the main purpose until well after the return period expires.. just worried it wont work on the trails I downloaded.

I used a combo of my phone and the new Etrex 20 to find a few caches. I bought the etrex 20 mainly for trail riding on my enduro and hiking, but geocaching is a nice way to get out and get familiar. I bought a bundle and have the 100k maps from Garmin on a SD card installed and they show up. I have noticed today that while driving down the road I showed up next to it about 10-15 feet off the side of the road.. This bothered me so I came back home and read and changed a few things and still my GPS shows me next to the road, not on it, still 10-15 feet next to it. Is this because I have the topo 100 maps and need the 24k maps? Or is this an accuracy issue? I have tried settings like: . Lock on Road I have changed guidance method Calculate routes for pedestrain and car/motorcycle Still I am next to the road. Now on the geocaching I realize these are not always precise coordinates.. I did find one with precise coordinates locally GCJXE7 ( http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCJXE7 ) that gives some precise coordinates for a "bonus find": "find this location N42' 59.812 W084' 34.029" I went there tonight and found the bonus.. I set my GPS right on it and it read: N42' 59.811 W084' 34.029 So the coordinates seem to be accurate on this unit, or extremely close. I have GPS + GLONASS enabled. I have tried with WAAS on or off. Here is my concern is this just an issue due to something faulty in the GPS? I can return and try a replacement or another unit if so. I dont want to show up next to the trails while riding my bike in the spring summer, that wont do me any good. I might as well just use my phone an locus, etc then. Also on the caches if I am always 10-20 feet off it will make it more challenging. Thanks for any insight. I am hoping there is an easy solution of either I need better maps or change settings, or reset or something. If this is the improper place or website please feel free to suggest where I might find this answer or post the question.

Make sure under Setup > Tracks > TrackLog is set to "Record, Show on Map" FYI.... Check out GPS File Depot it has more detailed free topo maps. Thanks for the response! I did check that option. What happens is that the current track being navigated shows up purple and overlays on the "breadcrumb track" that I gave a yellow color". On a screen refresh you can see it appear for a moment but it is overlaid by the purple track. Change the color of the tracks? I just got my etrex 20 but had read about how to do that, but didnt need to so far in my case.. I read it best here: http://www.aukadia.net/gps/lw3_0.htm