+Team Snoopy Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 I've got an Etrex Vista and my husband has a Legend. I was messing around with my settings before finding a cache and it was way off. All I remember changing was switching my WAAS to on and the compass to on. Granted my husband had some issues finding the cache as well, but that was due to lots of tree cover and him not getting enough satalites. I had enough, but at the cache location I was still reading over 100 ft off. I honestly don't know about the features on my gps (need to find the book again), but wondering which or both of what I changed woudl cause it to read off, or was it some fluke? We only did one cache that day. Should I have the compass set to on, or the waas set to on and change somethign else?? Thanks for any help you can give me. Quote Link to comment
+webscouter. Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 My first inclination was that you had the wrong datum set. WAAS and compass should not change your accuracy that much. Quote Link to comment
+park2 Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Datum would be my first thought too. Second would be that you changed DM.M to DMS or D.ddd in the position format. It can look quite close and has fooled me on occasion. Quote Link to comment
ImpalaBob Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Secrete Startup commands WAAS is not just an on/off setting. Units need an almanac which is a coarse position chart for Sats. When you turn WAAS on you need to get a WAAS almanac loaded ..... which can take 30 minutes +/- to load. Your issues may work themselves out with use .... but just in case .... I suggest you save out your waypoints, reset your unit indoors (no sat signal), reset all your preferences including WAAS enable (no sat signal), then place it outside in a clear area and turn it on ....leave it sit for 45 minutes ..... and you should be good to go again! ImpalaBob Quote Link to comment
+AtoZ Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Secrete Startup commands WAAS is not just an on/off setting. Units need an almanac which is a coarse position chart for Sats. When you turn WAAS on you need to get a WAAS almanac loaded ..... which can take 30 minutes +/- to load. Your issues may work themselves out with use .... but just in case .... I suggest you save out your waypoints, reset your unit indoors (no sat signal), reset all your preferences including WAAS enable (no sat signal), then place it outside in a clear area and turn it on ....leave it sit for 45 minutes ..... and you should be good to go again! ImpalaBob I agree if in doubt RESET. Then again there is the old saying give a man a watch and he'll know what time give a man tow watches and he'll never know what time it is. The same is true GPS you may have two units agree and you may have diffeances. I have wondered why my caching partner is wonderiing off 60+ feet from me when I am standing on the cache or vice versa, LOL. You might check this out a bit more before you do a reset. Go ouit in a field with the tow units and see what coodinates each gives. Do a bit of troubleshooting first. Of if you dont want to then just RESET. cheers Quote Link to comment
+Team Snoopy Posted August 17, 2005 Author Share Posted August 17, 2005 Datum...I've seen that recently, I guess I need to figure what that is! I think I'll go with the reset route and see where that gets me! Quote Link to comment
rynd Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 If you reset the unit it will probably restet the datum so you will have to change it anyway. The wrong datum can throw you off quite a bit. so be sure to check it wether you do the reset or not. Quote Link to comment
+A.T.Hiker Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 My Legend C was reading 130 feet off one time standing at a cache in wide open territory, and I couldn't figure out why. Then, I realized I was in "On Road Navigation", which is a no-no when caching. This only comes into play I believe if you have City Select loaded, or other Auto-Routing map set. When I recalculated as "Off Road" - I got readings less than 10 feet. The coordinates were right, that's not the issue. The issue is the On/Off Road Navigation that can throw your distance to desination reading way off. Quote Link to comment
+hikergps Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Something else that can happen, happened to me, is that during the initialization, (or the gpsr "learning" where it is) the gpsr gets moved and it will toss the thing out of whack. I had left mine on the front porch to initialize and couldn't figure out why everything was so far off. Then I found out my kids had wandered the neighborhood with it while it was initializing. I re-initialized it and it has been spot on since. Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.