Garmin E-trex Accuracy

[Corolla]

Tried my first ever Geocaching hunt yesterday, using a standard (yellow) Garmin etrex that I've owned for about four or five years. The unit took me to the middle of a football pitch, which I knew couldn't be right. Consequently, I got my friend to come along with his Tom Tom. That took us to exactly the right spot. My E-trex was 370 feet out and was still taking me to the point in the middle of the pitch. Is this unit inherently less accurate than others? Does it need a software update? I've never been aware of any inaccuracy before, but then I've never used it for Geocaching where a very precise longitude/latitude is required.

[+briansnat]

Is this unit inherently less accurate than others?

 

No, all consumer grade units are about the same. Any differences can be measured in a few feet.

 

Are you using the correct datum (WGS-84)?

[+garri]

Yes, I also think that you set a wrong datum.

[+Camping Hoosiers]

I have a yellow etrex and two etrex legends and find them to be very accurate.

 

Any chance you may have entered the coordinates incorrectly? I have been known to do this on occasion!

[Corolla]

I am absolutely certain that I entered the co-ordinates correctly. I checked them several times. I'm convinced that the GPS itself is giving inaccurate readings at the moment, because I was getting different co-ordinates just standing in my friend's garden to those that he was getting on his Tomtom. I'll need to get the instructions out to find out how you set the datum.

[+Ed Rad]

You stated that you have had it for 4-5 years. You may want to visit the Garmin website and check for a updates. I used a Yellow eTrex up until early summer this year. For the most part it was excellent. Good luck.

[Corolla]

Thanks for the advice guys. I was using British Grid datum. I changed it to WGS-84 and it took me to within 20 feet of the cache. Problem solved. Lets get geo-caching!