eaparks
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Posts posted by eaparks
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If I'm not mistaken all 60CSx will be less than 4 years old. Someone else may have an exact date that they first hit the market but that is pretty close. The software on any 60CSx can be upgraded to the most recent version for free on Garmin's site. The amount of abuse / use would be a lot more important to me than a 4 year old production model. Things such as, are the buttons all still in good shape, any scratches on the unit, has the unit had any operating problems are things that would determine a good used unit to me. I would not hesitate to go with a Garmin factory refurbished unit, these carry the Garmin warranty and have been thoroughly tested by Garmin.
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Not exaggerating a bit JetSkier. I'll post the tracklogs one of these days. I do it on a consistent basis as well. Everyday on my 10 oclock break I walk around the block and perform the hand to hand test zoomed into 20 feet on the map screen. I can see the tracklog undulate as I switch hands while I walk (looks like a snake). Before the 3.7 update it looked like pure crap. I have a "wingspan" of 6 feet.
True, GPS accuracy is within 10-15 feet, BUT accuracy is not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about tracklog recording. Tracklog performance has little to do with accuracy and is mostly a product of processing of the available signals (accurate or not). The 60CSX, with the same 10-15 ft accuracy, laid down some really nice and detailed tracks that would pronounce the slightest of switchbacks.
It appears to me now, under relatively little tree cover and/or sky obstructions, the Oregon tracks are quite comparable.
yogazoo,
I have seen the same thing you are referring to.
When I first got my 400t I was comparing it's tracklog using unit software 2.97, to my 60CSx, software 3.7. To do so I walked my lot's perimeter at a normal walking pace holding both the 60CSx and the 400t side by side approximatley 1.5' in front of my chest with both units tilted up at approximately a 45 deg. angle, did this 3 seperate times. My lot is 2 acres with 3 sides perfectly straight with the 4th side being road frontage of 437' in a large smooth arc. Corners are clearly marked with pins so walking the perimeter precisely is very repeatable. Along one side I have a rock lined water runoff ditch that is 2 ft. wide right on the property line.
The first time I compared the 2 units I stepped across this ditch, don't remember exactly why, but it was a side step of no more than 3 ft. When I reviewed the tracks on the computer zoomed in maximum amount this side step was very apparent on the Oregon's track but did not show up at all on the 60CSx's track. I questioned if it was repeatable so I did it a second time. Yes, it showed up the second time also.
Now the bad news was that the 60CSx (3.7) tracking was so much better than the Oregon (2.97) that there was no comparison as to which you would want to follow. The 60CSx did not show the 3 ft. side step but it had all 3 sides perfectly straight and the arced side was nice and smooth just like it is. The Oregon had a significant amount of clutter/perceived error due to sensitivity and erroneous sensitivity in some cases, none of the 3 lines were perfectly straight and the arced side was not smooth either. Looking at both tracks zoomed in on the PC the 60CSx came back to within 3 ft. of my original starting point and the Oregon's track showed it was 18 ft. from my original starting point, My starting and ending point were at the exact same spot standing on top of a pinned corner.
I haven't repeated this test since then with any of the newer software updates but it did make me aware that the Oregon did pick up the slightest movement in my case 3' laterally. In real world practical tracking applications this slight amount of movement is probably not good since so much error is also recorded in the track.
So knowing this I sort of feel Garmin's pain in trying to determine at what level is sensitivity of recording data in a track a trade off with real world practicality. I am curious now how the latest 3.15 beta is averaging tracklog data.
Update to my above post #19.
I repeated the above test using the Oregon 3.15 beta software (had not done this since 2.97 SW update) and the Oregon recorded an outstanding track; comparable to the 60CSx. Was very smooth straight lines where it shoud be and turns were right angles, also as they should be. Looks like Garmin finally got the track averaging/recording of track points correct. Even did the 3' side step at the same location as I discussed in post #19 above and it did not appear now... a good thing. When I completed the loop my ending point was within 5' of my starting point (the 2 are at the same pin). Track had absolutely no clutter at a slow continuous walk.
I am very pleased with the tracking capability of the Oregon now.
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corgikev, I saw from your other thread that you are using an Oregon 200. Garmin added a very nice feature with one of the software updates to the Oregon series. You no longer have to install all of your maps when you want to add an additional map. Be sure to update your Oregon with the latest software (3.15 beta). The Oregon will recognize any .img file either on the memory card or unit's internal memory... no longer has to be just gmapbmap.img, gmapprom.img, or gmapsupp.img.
Ex. load City Navigator maps and change file name from gmapsupp.img to CN.img. Next load Topo maps and change gmapsupp.img file to Topo.img. Next load Inland Lakes and change the gmapsupp.img file to Inland Lakes.img. Continue: Colorado Topo and change file name... Colorado Topo.img; load Custom Maps and change file name... Custom Maps.img and continue with as many as you want.
Now when you want to add a new map it will be loaded as gmapsupp.img no longer getting rid of any of your existing maps, a big time saver if your putting a lot of maps on your memory card or in internal memory and later decide to add or delete a map. Procedure works the same for both memory locations.
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Another 2 cents worth. LowBat hit the nail on the head with the screen visibility issue IMO. Direct bright sunshine the screen visibility is good. Bright sunny day in a somewhat shady location where the unit is not in the sun is where the real problem with screen visibility becomes apparent... backlighting has little affect and no noticeably significant improvement in screen visibility.
I have been considering replacing my Oregon 400t with the 550t if the screen visibility is significantly better.
First trip to Sportsman Warehouse and instore compared the screens of the 400t and 550t side by side with various settings. Panned and zoomed both units to the same settings & location in Olathe, KA; units wouldn't get sat. reception inside. Result: 550t screen with it's glossy surface was slightly clearer or cleaner looking than the 400t; small streets were slightly easier to see on the 550t... larger streets such as major hwys. and interstates I could not tell any difference in ease of seeing them. Same result for backlight fully on or no backlighting.
Sales clerk was nice enough for us to take both units outside for a side by side comparison. Was a very overcast day, No Sun, pretty much the same results as inside. Set both units to no dem. settings and with dem. settings and various backgrounds. Overall in these 2 situations I would give the 550t a slightly but only slightly improvement in screen visibilty over the 400t.
Second trip to Sportsman Warehouse, this time I took my own 400t that I have customized the backgrounds on per the Oregon 400t wiki for improved screen visibilty and my unit has a ZAGG Screen Protector on it. Again, compared my 400t to the 550t side by side. Instore with backlight full the 550t was slightly clearer, my 400t screen has a very very slight yellowish tint to it... don't know if this is from use in the sun or age or normal. With no backlight same situation as first trip the small city streets are slightly easier to seen on the 550t inside; backlight or no backlight pretty much the same results.
Now for the real test, we took both units outside, today was a very bright sunny day. Now remember I have customized my screen per wiki for optimum screen visibility. With settings the same on both units except for my custom backgrounds and dem. off on both, I could not tell any significant difference in the 2 screen's visibility, at least not worth saying one was significantly better than the other.
Next took both units under the stores front canopy, bright sun but units in the shade. Same result as just mentioned. Turned backlight up full on both units and pretty much no affect and no signifciant difference in the screen visibility difference worth noting.
My conclusion: The glossy sceen of the 550t makes only a very very very slight improvement in real world operating conditions over the 400t if you have customized your background to improve viewability. Granted, if the 550t's backgrounds were customized I might have seen more of a difference, but then the 550t did not have a screen protector on it.
With my unit and the 550t side by side it made so little of a difference outside on a bright day that it was instantly a no brainer that I would not be getting the 550t even though I was very much hoping for a noticeable improvement that would make me want to spend the money. On a very cloudy day, overcast, or low light conditions the backlight is going to be used anyway and then either screen is easy to see. Definitely not worth the cost to me to upgrade since the screen visibility with no backlight was my only reason for wanting to change and I was considering the upgrade would cost me about $150 after selling my 400t.
Hope this may help some others in the same dilema as I was.
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No, it will not charge the batteries. The 60CSx has no built in battery charging circuitry.
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It looks as if you have no post in this thread. If your asking how to uninstall a map from Mapsource one of the simpliest ways is to use a free, simple, and straight forward utility called MapSetToolKit. http://cypherman1.googlepages.com/
Just be careful not to delete some map accidentially or you coud be reinstalling the Topos or CN on your PC again.
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If you don't have any graphics programs or experience with making custom graphics/icons you can take a screen shot or use the print screen command to save any thing you see on your pc screen (the entire screen) and then cut and paste using MS Paint to get just the individual object (such as a Mapsource symbol) that you want to create. Multiple MS Paint screens can be opened at the same time and copy and paste between them
Still using MS Paint to "Stretch/Skew" (Stretch/Skew won't leave out part of the image in resizing) to get the pixel size to the appropriate size required.
Absolutely everything you need to do to copy any object and turn it into a custom icon can be done in MS Paint. MS Paint is very basic but it will get the job done.
edit: There are some situations where the Horizontal and Vertical Resolutions have to be changed to 199 dpi for the magenta background to be transparent... Paint is not good for doing this one step, but only comes into play if your getting more involved with transparent backgrounds.
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Not exaggerating a bit JetSkier. I'll post the tracklogs one of these days. I do it on a consistent basis as well. Everyday on my 10 oclock break I walk around the block and perform the hand to hand test zoomed into 20 feet on the map screen. I can see the tracklog undulate as I switch hands while I walk (looks like a snake). Before the 3.7 update it looked like pure crap. I have a "wingspan" of 6 feet.
True, GPS accuracy is within 10-15 feet, BUT accuracy is not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about tracklog recording. Tracklog performance has little to do with accuracy and is mostly a product of processing of the available signals (accurate or not). The 60CSX, with the same 10-15 ft accuracy, laid down some really nice and detailed tracks that would pronounce the slightest of switchbacks.
It appears to me now, under relatively little tree cover and/or sky obstructions, the Oregon tracks are quite comparable.
yogazoo,
I have seen the same thing you are referring to.
When I first got my 400t I was comparing it's tracklog using unit software 2.97, to my 60CSx, software 3.7. To do so I walked my lot's perimeter at a normal walking pace holding both the 60CSx and the 400t side by side approximatley 1.5' in front of my chest with both units tilted up at approximately a 45 deg. angle, did this 3 seperate times. My lot is 2 acres with 3 sides perfectly straight with the 4th side being road frontage of 437' in a large smooth arc. Corners are clearly marked with pins so walking the perimeter precisely is very repeatable. Along one side I have a rock lined water runoff ditch that is 2 ft. wide right on the property line.
The first time I compared the 2 units I stepped across this ditch, don't remember exactly why, but it was a side step of no more than 3 ft. When I reviewed the tracks on the computer zoomed in maximum amount this side step was very apparent on the Oregon's track but did not show up at all on the 60CSx's track. I questioned if it was repeatable so I did it a second time. Yes, it showed up the second time also.
Now the bad news was that the 60CSx (3.7) tracking was so much better than the Oregon (2.97) that there was no comparison as to which you would want to follow. The 60CSx did not show the 3 ft. side step but it had all 3 sides perfectly straight and the arced side was nice and smooth just like it is. The Oregon had a significant amount of clutter/perceived error due to sensitivity and erroneous sensitivity in some cases, none of the 3 lines were perfectly straight and the arced side was not smooth either. Looking at both tracks zoomed in on the PC the 60CSx came back to within 3 ft. of my original starting point and the Oregon's track showed it was 18 ft. from my original starting point, My starting and ending point were at the exact same spot standing on top of a pinned corner.
I haven't repeated this test since then with any of the newer software updates but it did make me aware that the Oregon did pick up the slightest movement in my case 3' laterally. In real world practical tracking applications this slight amount of movement is probably not good since so much error is also recorded in the track.
So knowing this I sort of feel Garmin's pain in trying to determine at what level is sensitivity of recording data in a track a trade off with real world practicality. I am curious now how the latest 3.15 beta is averaging tracklog data.
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*) Improved render quality of GB Discoverer maps and maps with satellite imagery
What does it mean?
Can we use now or own sat-images - what kind of format? (TIFF, ECW, ...)
I could be wrong but I doubt that we can use our own satellite imagery in any type of rather simple application.
I suspect that the improved render quality of maps with satellite imagery is directed at the known problem of the satellite imagery used in the base map of the g2 Blue Charts on the OR & CO 400c units. These units would not display maps properly when other maps were Enabled along with the g2 Blue Charts. It was a serious problem in the normal function of zooming out on these units... no map would be viewable in some situations after zooming out considerably.
edit: corrected unit model; from 400i to 400c
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Is 3.10 only available via Webupdater? I searched the Garmin site but only the 3.01b was still available for a manual install.
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That's hard to say without knowing someone's top priority for using it. If paperless caching and a touch screen is the top priority then an Oregon. If the best repeatable unit with the best tracking capability is the most important than the 60CSx with the Sirf III chip.
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Went from 3.7 to 4.0 and no problems; I always update manually though, just a personal preference.
Did a test track walking comparing both my the 60CSx, 4.0, and the Oregon 400t, 3.01, side by side and the 60CSx still outperfoms the Oregon's tracking substantially. 60CSx no drift at slow walking speeds and the track came back to the exact same spot I started from... 60CSx dead on. Oregon small amount of drift and showed 25' off when back at the starting point.
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You can load both, instructions are here:
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-...armin-gps-unit/
You can switch between the two in the GPS with from the map menu.
Any map that is Garmin compatible can be loaded with as many or as few other Garmin compatible maps as you want. Ex. Garmin 100k Topos, Garmin street maps, Garmin Blue Charts, Garmin Inland Lakes, Garmin 24K Topos, Ibycus free street maps, GPSFileDepot free topo maps, Custom made maps. etc. can all be loaded at the same time.
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Saw Thursday on CNBC where new companies are being formed that have developed platforms just for looking at all the "tweets" (1 million per hour) sent on Twitter and analyzing them for items of concern from how well a particular product is liked, to political interest, or anything else that someone or company might be interested in buying.
Nothing sacred anymore. One day machines will be reading our mines and we won't even need to talk or write anymore, just highly detailed brain wave recognition.
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I don't have tones turned on, on mine and I just hold the on button until the screen appears and then I let go; about 2-3 seconds. Think I'd try installing an old software version, say what originlly came on it, and then update to 3.7 and GPS sw version 3.0. and a different memory card and see what happens using these for a while.
Maybe this would get everything stable in it again. Worth a try.
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A first look at the brand new Oregon 550 (camera, geotagging, and 3-axis compass) with screen images is available here: http://gpsinformation.info/penrod/oregonca...egoncamera.html
Good Review, well written/user friendly; thanks.
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I believe you just need to let it get off of the blue Garmin startup page before pushing any buttons. Once it switches to the satellite page you'r ok, even if it isn't locked on to any satellites yet.
I would be interested in hearing if anyone has lost the chipset by pushing buttons after their unit has switched to the satellite page but before acquiring satellites.
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A few years ago I remember seeing a site discussing the replacement of the internal battery in the 12 Series Garmin units. It caught my attention because I had a 12XL. Didn't look complicated and even specified the type of battery required.
One thing you never wanted to let happen with the 12 Series was to let the AA batteries run down and stay in the unit for any extended length of time, always needed to keep freash batteries in them when being stored to prevent internal battery from running down. I had a few friends that let this happen and they were able to get the internal battery recharged by plugging unit into a 12V plug with unit off for 24 hours. New AA batteries in unit didn't solve the problem even after several days.
I'll see if I can dig up where it was, but may take me a couple of days, might try googling, too.
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The 400t ver. 3.01 says as of June 30. Its odd the 2 different dates are several days apart.
edit: Upon looking at Garmin's site further under Updates and Downloads all Oregons show a release date of June 22, but under Products the 400t unit's software it states a release date of June 30.
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I just bought a Oregon 300. I also have had a 60cx for a few months now.
I tried connecting the Oregon to upload some tracks to it and Mapsource doesn't find it. Now when I go to connect the 60cx , it doesn't see it either. I have another PC with Mapsource on it and it finds the 60cx still ok. I don't dare try to hook up the Oregon to it.
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling everything, Still same thing.
PLEASE HELP !!!!!!!!!!!
Sounds like a corrupt driver file. Go to Garmin's site and download and save the drivers file. If in the future a similiar thing happens again direct Mapsource to look for the driver in the drivers file you now have saved.
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I just looked at the file formats in GPSBabel and there are 4 formats that use .wpt files (1 CompeGPS and 3 DeLorme. One of these may work for you, it may not be perfect in that it might not convert all data fields but if name and coordinates are all you are after then one of them vary likely will do that much, enabling you to directly convert to a .csv.
I feel certain there is something that is available allowing you to convert your Bushnell .wpt file to a .csv file correctly, just to many conversions tools available for there not to be one.
Good luck.
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Confirmed black / white screen on 300 power down.
Garmin spanner mode + USB connection when off worked as normal..unit powered on and asked the normal "Mass storage mode?" prompt.
Excited about the .img loading.
No go on the Garmin Spanner mode for me. I have my Automotive set to Spanner. When I plug in the USB (while the unit is off), I see the Garmin text in the middle, my startup text at the top and the it goes to the black/white screen and fades away.
Ok ... I just set my recreation profile to spanner and it worked fine. Still no go with Automotive mode.
JetSkier
I thought changing unit to "Garmin Spanner" mode was a global function and changed all profiles, am I incorrect? I know, way back when I changed my 400t to Spanner I only did it in the Automotive Profile, but when I view this setting in other profiles they all show Garmin Spanner, also.
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Map tile limit is still 2,025.
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Did they take out the customizeable start up screen? I can't seem to figure out how to get that working.
It's still there. Garmin :drive > Garmin > startup.txt
60CSx Serial number question
in GPS technology and devices
Posted · Edited by eaparks
Unless it was a real bargain on Ebay I would hesitate to buy a GPS on ebay. There are alot of good reputable Garmin distributors that sell them for almost ebay prices.
Walmart online and is new $292 http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do...14&Find.y=8
GPSNow and is new $319.95 http://www.gpsnow.com/gmmap60csx.htm
PC Nation.com factory refurbished $248.15 http://www.pcnation.com/web/details.asp?af...amp;item=0833AA
These were just a few I found quick that I'd consider before ebay.
edit: you might watch the GPS Garage Sale on here, also. I just looked and last week someone posted that Costco has the 60Cx for $219.99 on sale. http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?...〈=en-US