Is My 76cs Defective?

[ubievol]

i've read thru the manual, and read the FAQ referenced from this forum, but have not found an answer so i'd appreciate any input.

 

i'm concerned that my 76CS may be defective. before i return it to Garmin, i'd like to know if there is anything that i can do to remedy the problem (such as calibration, reset, whatever).

 

i was batting 1000 with the borrowed magellan unit i started with, but since i bought the 76 i've been skunked on cache finds. i figured it was almost certainly operator error, and maybe a learning curve, so i didn't think much about it. after today, however, i'm thinking it may be the GPS.

 

i set a waypoint at my parking spot, did some diddling around without moving location at all, went back to waypoints and saw that the GPS was indicating that i was 0.7 mile from that waypoint. that is pretty far off. checked again after going after the cache, and it still indicated that i was 0.7 mile away when i was standing right on it.

 

took the trail to the cache, and the GPS indicated that i was gradually gettting closer to the cache by travelling SW. then, it indicated that the cache was NE. i figured i had walked past it, turned around, and sure enough the GPS indicated that i was getting closer. when i got indication that i was right on it, i stopped and started considering likely hiding spots. after checking a couple, i looked at the GPS again and it indicated that the cache was now a couple of hundred feet to the NE. i backtracked on the trail, and after getting a location indication from the GPS that clearly conflicted with the hint for the cache, i gave up.

 

so it seems that this 76CS can't decide where it is located. is there something that i can do to straighten it out myself, or is sending it to garmin for service the thing to do?

 

thanks!

[+Renegade Knight]

Using a GPS to set a waypoing then it thinking that point is 0.7 miles away when you are standing on it is a bit much.

[+BlueDeuce]

Any Garmin GPS with an internal compass HAS to be calibrated with every battery change, otherwise it can give some really funky readings. I've had it point me five miles off.

 

You also have to keep moving for your GPS to be able to tell where you are at and what direction you are moving in relation to the waypoint to be able to point you towards the cache. Stopping and then checking the GPS arrow is not going to provide any sort of accuracy.

Whenever I need to better pinpoint a location I will walk at least one hundred feet away (in whatever direction), then head back.

The arrow at 60 feet can tell me more about where I should look then at 10 feet, especially when I approach from different angles.

 

 

Edit: missing words

Edited October 27, 2005 by BlueDeuce

[ubievol]

i didn't know that about the internal compass. i've been using it with the compass turned off.

 

is there some kind of check, or calibration, that i can do to make sure it is working as it should?

 

thanks again

[stevesisti]

Forget the trail and cache stuff for the time being....go out in an open field, turn the unit on and wait for it to get a good lock (EPE 25ft or less), then mark your waypoint in the spot you are standing , and mark the spot you are standing on with something visible. Now you can walk around and see how the GPs responds in relation to the marked waypoint. For accuracy sake you should mark the waypoint with the unit in the vertical position where it gets it's best reception. I would suspect it was just a onetime deal, as your unit is new and maybe didn't get a good almanac load.

[Alphawolf]

Did you make sure the Map Datum is set to WGS 84? That is the default "out of the box" setting, but don't know if you ever changed it from that setting or not.

[+Tharagleb]

Any Garmin GPS with an internal compass HAS to be calibrated with every battery change, otherwise it can give some really funky readings. I've had it point me five miles off.

 

You also have to keep moving for your GPS to be able to tell where you are at and what direction you are moving in relation to the waypoint to be able to point you towards the cache. Stopping and then checking the GPS arrow is not going to provide any sort of accuracy.

Whenever I need to better pinpoint a location I will walk at least one hundred feet away (in whatever direction), then head back.

The arrow at 60 feet can tell me more about where I should look then at 10 feet, especially when I approach from different angles.

 

 

Edit: missing words

I don't understand why you would have to calibrate the COMPASS part of the GPS to get accurate lat/long readings...

 

If you have an internal compass that is correctly calibrated then you shouldn't have to keep moving to get the arrow pointing correctly to the waypoint, that's the whole point of having the internal compass.

 

As far as the OP goes, I would try your experiment again. Turn your GPS on, way 5 or 10 mins to settle down and take a waypoint, move some distance away and come back. How far off is your GPS? If it is 0.7 miles send it back to Garmin for repairs, it doesn't matter how your GPS is set up, it shouldn't be doing that!

[+BlueDeuce]

I don't understand why you would have to calibrate the COMPASS part of the GPS to get accurate lat/long readings...

 

Normal settings have the compass take over when you slow down for a set time period. If it doesn't know where it's at, it's going to provide an incorrect reading. Why does it have problems with distance rather than just confusing north from south? I don't know.

 

If you have an internal compass that is correctly calibrated then you shouldn't have to keep moving to get the arrow pointing correctly to the waypoint, that's the whole point of having the internal compass.

 

Yes, the compass is supposed to "display an accurate heading while standing still" and if you stop it'll maintain that you were heading 'SSE', But your gps is also trying to point itself towards a floating waypoint and the worse SAT reception the greater the float. You are basically being directed towards a 20 foot sized piece of ground (or greater) Once you are on site your gps is still going to try to point you in a direction. It knows which way is north and what direction you were moving before you stopped, now it wants you to go that way, no, that way, now other where, wait back that way.

[+Thrak]

TURN THE COMPASS ON. If you don't have the compass turned on it won't work at all unless you are moving at a certain speed. Once you stop moving the compass WILL NOT WORK.

 

On the compass page press and hold the "page" button until you see a message at the bottom of the screen stating that the compass is ON. Next, at the compass screen press the menu button and use the rocker to highlight "calibrate compass". Press Enter. Hold the unit away from your body and level to the ground and slowly rotate it through a full circle twice. Watch the screen and it will show a progress bar and tell you if you are moving at the right speed. When it is finished calibrating it should function properly.

 

Be sure to recalibrate the compass each time you change batteries. It's fast and easy to do.

 

Also, there are 2 settings for the compass pointer. One is Heading and the other is Bearing. Whichever choice is available from the menu is the one NOT currently in use. The Bearing setting will always point toward the cache or destination. This is the one you want to use on the 76CS.

Edited October 27, 2005 by thrak

[+W7WT]

My 76C acts that way if I forget to change from FOLLOW ROAD to OFF ROAD when I use routing to get the parking lot and then go down a trail to find the cache. Dick, W7WT

[ubievol]

i think that the problem is solved.

 

someone at the yahoo 76cs user group suggested that accuracy and sat lock problems can be caused by the unit being set to "battery saver" mode. i don't recall every setting it to batter saver (i'll blame my wife -- always a handy excuse), but i made sure that it was not in batt saver mode and went out for some limited testing. the 76cs got me back to the waypoint i had set within about 10 feet every time, and at about 3 feet a couple of times.

 

before, i had run the same test and was getting to within 30-50 feet of the target.

 

i'm going to do some more in depth checking, but hopefully i'm all set and don't need to send my GPSr in for service.

 

thanks again for all the replies! great forum!