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Garmin 60csx Observations


Didjerrydo

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I just got a 60CSx yesterday and it truely is amazing. under 3 floors I can get 30 foot accuracy indoors!

 

One question I have. When I go to find:marine points:tide station and select a location, the backlight turns off and the screen fades away. It's then fully turned off. I can't get tides and it never worked. :laughing: Whats wrong here? Does everybody have this problem?

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I don't have this problem. What ver FW do you have? YOu should have 2.5

I just got a 60CSx yesterday and it truely is amazing. under 3 floors I can get 30 foot accuracy indoors!

 

One question I have. When I go to find:marine points:tide station and select a location, the backlight turns off and the screen fades away. It's then fully turned off. I can't get tides and it never worked. :laughing: Whats wrong here? Does everybody have this problem?

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I don't have this problem. What ver FW do you have? YOu should have 2.5

I just got a 60CSx yesterday and it truely is amazing. under 3 floors I can get 30 foot accuracy indoors!

 

One question I have. When I go to find:marine points:tide station and select a location, the backlight turns off and the screen fades away. It's then fully turned off. I can't get tides and it never worked. :laughing: Whats wrong here? Does everybody have this problem?

 

I've got 2.5 is there any way to reload the latest firmware? perhaps it was a factory glitch. I doubt the actual internal circuitry has any issues.

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I would try to dl it and see if it will let you reload it? Does it happen to all tide locations you go to?

 

There is antoher common glitch where if you go into a tunnel etc and loose reception it will sometimes not gain it back until you turn the GPS off and on again.

 

One question I have. When I go to find:marine points:tide station and select a location, the backlight turns off and the screen fades away. It's then fully turned off. I can't get tides and it never worked. :laughing: Whats wrong here? Does everybody have this problem?

 

I've got 2.5 is there any way to reload the latest firmware? perhaps it was a factory glitch. I doubt the actual internal circuitry has any issues.

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I just got a 60CSx yesterday and it truely is amazing. under 3 floors I can get 30 foot accuracy indoors!

 

One question I have. When I go to find:marine points:tide station and select a location, the backlight turns off and the screen fades away. It's then fully turned off. I can't get tides and it never worked. :laughing: Whats wrong here? Does everybody have this problem?

 

This has been reported by others (see this thread). I have not run into it on my unit, so it might be dependent on what station is selected, etc. It might be a gone one to report to Garmin techinical support just so that they have more data on the issue.

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All I can say is I borrowed a friends csx to try out and reception is amazing. I was in a two story brick building on the first floor with a 4 inch concrete floor above me and steel support beams and this locked on to 7 sat's. in about a minute. Pretty amazing.

The seem to stand behind there product too. Garmin is replacing/repairing my out of warrenty legend. My wife is happy about that. You could argue who makes a better product all day.

It's like a debate about cars, Lexus, MB, or BWM?

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I got my 60CSx last week and have been impressed with it. It passed the hikining in a Redwood Canyon test where my Vista failed. It passed 2 tests taking it inside Walmart. It also tracks well inside my 3 story office building where my Vista would not.

 

Lots of great comments in this forum. I loaded California from the city select map. The only issue I have had with my unit is at times it gets stuck on a road and if I walk off the road ot drive off into a lot the unit takes a few seconds sometimes as much as a minute to realize I was no longer on the road. I have seen some posts about wondering but not sure if any one else has seen getting stuck on the roads or if it's user error wich I certainly have made a few of.

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I got my 60CSx last week and have been impressed with it. It passed the hikining in a Redwood Canyon test where my Vista failed. It passed 2 tests taking it inside Walmart. It also tracks well inside my 3 story office building where my Vista would not.

 

Lots of great comments in this forum. I loaded California from the city select map. The only issue I have had with my unit is at times it gets stuck on a road and if I walk off the road ot drive off into a lot the unit takes a few seconds sometimes as much as a minute to realize I was no longer on the road. I have seen some posts about wondering but not sure if any one else has seen getting stuck on the roads or if it's user error wich I certainly have made a few of.

 

Would be a good idea to turn off LOCK ON ROAD, not really needed.

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Yesterday I just got my 60csx and have great reception with almost full bars even inside my place. All of a sudden it lost sattelite reception and never regained it. I went outside and it would not pick up a single sattelite. I cycled the power and they all came back. Today I went on the undeground Muni in SF where naturally I lost reception. When I got back outside it said "weak GPS signal" and will not acquire a single sattelite. Now I am back home and it will not get a signal at all still even outside with a full view of the sky. I cycled the power and it is fine. I think I am going to return it to REI and get a full refund until Garmin can get the kinks out. I guess it is possible my unit is deffective but seems strange. It came stock with FW 2.50.

 

Seemingly this is a known problem by Garmin as well!

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I just got a 60CSx yesterday and it truely is amazing. under 3 floors I can get 30 foot accuracy indoors!

That's pathetic! Do you really need to find your way around the house with a GPS?!

 

I know *I* do, my place is HUGE!!! I've got food caches in almost every room incase I can't find the kitchen

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I have had trouble with my GPSmap 60csx and nroute. I have City select Europe V7 loaded. In nRoute the 60csx is recognised, the satellited picked up but no navigation. I have clicked "keep vessel visible". I have contacted Garmin but they had no suggestions.

This is a known problem that Garmin is already working on resolving. The new 60/76C/CSx models have a modified USB interface protocol that doesn't work correctly with nRoute. There should be a new version of either nRoute or the 60/76'x' model firmware to resolve the issue. No availability date yet though.

 

Good news! update is available at garnin for the gpsmap60csx to version 2.60

suppose to fix nroute and some other issues.

I have just installed version 2.60 and indeed it does seem to be working with nroute!

I had emailed garmin the other day on this issue and they told me 'we are aware of the issue but

ca not provide a time frame when an update will be available" haha,seems we know before there own tech support!

anyway,go update to your hearts content...

Chief Fugawee

Edited by ChiefFugawee
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WOOHOO got my 60CSx today :P , and so far am impressed with the reception previously mentioned time and again. Under 10 seconds had 9 locked with an accuracy of 16 ft. in the center of my house, 5 locked as quickly with an accuracy of 26 ft. inside the gym. at my daughters school. I couldnt get 1 to lock with my Meridian Gold in my house up against a window, and it has always done me good in the woods as far as holdiing a lock.I cant wait to actually field test it.

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I got a 60CSx a week ago and just noticed when I was inside that when I turned on my compass by holding down the page button, it turns on for 10 seconds and works fine, then just turns off. I can only get it to stay on when I'm on USB power. Anybody have this issue? Do you have to be moving to keep it on? (That wouldn't be very useful) I did have a lock.

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Route point names on map screen (60CSX)

 

Maybe someone out there can help me:

When I activate a route on the 60CSx and show it on the map page, there are all the names of the route points displayed. This clutters the view of the map, as the names may be long, and thus they hide map details. Is there any way to hide the route point names in the map screen? I think I tried all the options in the map setup, but they are still there. The route was created with MapSource.

 

Thanks!

Albert

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Hopefully we can put together a list of improvements needed in the future for the CSX, and email to Garmin to implement in future firmware update.

 

5. Add Ablity To Load Maps And Wayppoints To Transflash Memory Card

FYI, this is the response I got from Garmin tech support when I emailed them about storing user waypoints on the microSD:

 

At this time I am not aware of any current or future plans to

offer the ability to transfer user waypoints to the microSD card. Since the card

stores the details maps as flash memory, there could be issues with it

erasing the user waypoints when maps are loaded and changed.

 

:laughing:

 

Guys...I'm a little confused...you're saying that you cannot load waypoints to the memory card. Can you load them to the unit? I currently have a etrex Legend and I load waypoints of geocaches to the unit...I'm looking to get either a Legend C or a 60cx or 60csx...will I be able to load waypoints of geocaches to them? Or does the new memory card screw it all up? With the memory cards, do the units no longer have their own built in memory? That is not mentioned in any literature about the new units. Thanks, Paul (twinsdad93)

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You can load 1000 waypoints to the internal memory with the 60Cx and 60CSx exactly as with previous non "x" units.

 

In ADDITION, you can load custom points of interest to the card with no limit on the number other than the capacity of the card.

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I just got my 60 csx and am also pretty impressed. Normally I get great signals even on the 2nd floor of a 6 story concrete parking garage. I've noticed though that randomly its taking around 30seconds to get satellite acquisition. That seems odd to me considering all the praise its gotten.

 

Just added city select maps to the gps so can't wait to try that out.

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I have observed on my new 60CX a "delay", or "lag" in the auto-routing beeps (prompts). I had both my 60C and new 60CX auto-routing together to compare. My CX seems to wait a lot longer to give a beep to alert for an upcoming turn, then beeps again almost right at the turn. My 60C gives much more lead time with both beeps. Also, the CX seems to have a lower volume on the tones than my C. Anyone else notice this?

 

Yes. With proximity set for 0.1 mile (~500') the alarm isn't sounding until about 300'. That's was when I was walking. I've observed this several times.

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Train Man, This may not be the problem since you say it works with the USB power on. But check and see that you have set a non zero speed for switching from electric to GPS compass. The logic here is "less than", so if you have zero set it will not stay on the electric compass. Otherwise call Garmin, I found their tech support helpfull.

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WOOHOO got my 60CSx today :laughing: , and so far am impressed with the reception previously mentioned time and again. Under 10 seconds had 9 locked with an accuracy of 16 ft. in the center of my house, 5 locked as quickly with an accuracy of 26 ft. inside the gym. at my daughters school. I couldnt get 1 to lock with my Meridian Gold in my house up against a window, and it has always done me good in the woods as far as holdiing a lock.I cant wait to actually field test it.

 

I'm betting the windows were double paned or had metal strips in it. I had the same problem with a new house. the double pane windows have a thin metallica clear film inbetween the panes. I learned that the hardway from the computer wireless scene.

 

good luck..

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FWIW I just got my 60CSx and updated it to the 2.60... While it did wander some before the update now it does not seem to or at least not nearly as much.

 

It still does not establish a lock after coming out of non-reception zone but I have found that if I toggle the "Use with GPS Off" on the satellite page it will start grabbing sats immediately provided I'm in a good reception area. So at least I don't have to power-cycle the GPSR.

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I was told by a Garmin tech that the SiRF chip is better at holding a signal lock, but worse at acquiring a signal lock while moving. This is in response to the known problem of reestablishing a lock after signal loss (i.e. coming out of a tunnel). He said that if you set a 60x and a 60c on a car's dashboard and start driving without a lock, the 60c would acquire faster than the 60x. Interesting, if true.

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I was told by a Garmin tech that the SiRF chip is better at holding a signal lock, but worse at acquiring a signal lock while moving. This is in response to the known problem of reestablishing a lock after signal loss (i.e. coming out of a tunnel). He said that if you set a 60x and a 60c on a car's dashboard and start driving without a lock, the 60c would acquire faster than the 60x. Interesting, if true.

Very true I'd say. I'm in the habit or turning on the gps after I leave my driveway and it takes till i'm about 1/2 mile away to get a lock. Kinda annoying. Hope they can fix it with firmware. I start in the garage so it isn't gonna be too fast to get a lock from there either.

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I was told by a Garmin tech that the SiRF chip is better at holding a signal lock, but worse at acquiring a signal lock while moving. This is in response to the known problem of reestablishing a lock after signal loss (i.e. coming out of a tunnel). He said that if you set a 60x and a 60c on a car's dashboard and start driving without a lock, the 60c would acquire faster than the 60x. Interesting, if true.

 

Well, if I am in my house and and I loose the signal, then I go to a window to get the signal back, and I stand still at the window (not moving), my 60CSx still remains without a fix. Have to turn it off and on to get a fix back.

 

So, I fear it's not only related with moving or not moving.

 

pyt22fr

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I was told by a Garmin tech that the SiRF chip is better at holding a signal lock, but worse at acquiring a signal lock while moving. This is in response to the known problem of reestablishing a lock after signal loss (i.e. coming out of a tunnel). He said that if you set a 60x and a 60c on a car's dashboard and start driving without a lock, the 60c would acquire faster than the 60x. Interesting, if true.

 

Well, if I am in my house and and I loose the signal, then I go to a window to get the signal back, and I stand still at the window (not moving), my 60CSx still remains without a fix. Have to turn it off and on to get a fix back.

 

So, I fear it's not only related with moving or not moving.

 

pyt22fr

 

I think I read in the forums here recently that instead of having to power cycle the unit (off/on), you can disable then re-enable the GPS from the Satellite screen. IIRC, it's something like "Use with GPS off". I think that my kick start it to search for signals again.

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I think I read in the forums here recently that instead of having to power cycle the unit (off/on), you can disable then re-enable the GPS from the Satellite screen. IIRC, it's something like "Use with GPS off". I think that my kick start it to search for signals again.

 

yes, that works for me.

If you're on the satellite page, you can hit the menu button and select it.

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I got a 60CSx a week ago and just noticed when I was inside that when I turned on my compass by holding down the page button, it turns on for 10 seconds and works fine, then just turns off. I can only get it to stay on when I'm on USB power. Anybody have this issue? Do you have to be moving to keep it on? (That wouldn't be very useful) I did have a lock.

Go to "setup"->"heading" and take a look at which speed the compass is turned off automatically.

If it is e.g. set to 1 or 2 mph (km/h) and you have bad signal receiption, your consecutively computed positions may be different enough to cross this speed limit. I would recommend to set the limit to at least 3 mph to keep the compass active when signal receiption is bad.

 

I realized that that accuracy was never less than +- 14 feet. Other than it was like 22 feet accuracy. Far worse than my 60cs which would get down to 3-4 feet accuracy.

Forget this artificial value, it doesn't tell you anything.

The csx-position is from my experience more accurate than the cs-position. I tested both units on several ski-tours (wearing both at the same time) and analyzed the tracks with Touratech.

The csx writes more trackpoints, and the points are more accurate (though the accuracy of the CS would be already more than enough for my purposes).

It's a little bit disturbing that the unit displays a worse accuracy than the CS, but I learned to just ignore that.

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You know what would be great? Having Garmin allow the gpx file to be loaded on the card and have the GPS read it (description, hint, logs, etc). I bet it would be a lot of work for them, but it sure would be nice to eliminate the need for a PDA.

 

This would be great. Does anyone know if Garmin has a page to suggest firmware upgrades, or do you just send to garmin support? (has someone already suggessted the .gpx to them?)

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This would be great. Does anyone know if Garmin has a page to suggest firmware upgrades, or do you just send to garmin support? (has someone already suggessted the .gpx to them?)

I've been emailing Garmin about these kinds of things with plenty of suggestions regarding my 60CX and the way the POI Loader works with custom POI files. You can email them at: techsupp@garmin.com

 

They have been very good about replying, and saying they are passing along my suggestions to engineering. Fire away, and when they hear from enough of us users good things may happen.

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Anyone having problems with the power button on the 60csx?

Kind of. I have to depress the power button on my 60CX (not a 60CSX but virtually identical) with some authority, a lot more so than my 60C, but it doesn't seem to be a problem. I figured it was meant to avoid an accidental powering on if it got bumped. Pretty unlikely I know in any event.

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Anyone having problems with the power button on the 60csx?

Kind of. I have to depress the power button on my 60CX (not a 60CSX but virtually identical) with some authority, a lot more so than my 60C, but it doesn't seem to be a problem. I figured it was meant to avoid an accidental powering on if it got bumped. Pretty unlikely I know in any event.

 

I am having a similar experience. Thanks.

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An observation I'd like to add, even though it contradicts my much earlier observation...

Leaving a 60Cx attached to USB or a car adapter WILL charge NiMH batteries!!!! It just takes a LONG time, and doesn't fully top them off.

 

Twice (2 charge cycles on 2 pairs of NiMHs) I have run the unit on NiMHs to the low battery warning, shut the unit off, and attached it to USB or car adapter power. My 'testing' has shown me that it will take on average 7 full days to charge the NiMHs via USB and an average 5 days via the car adapter. Runtime after this method of charging (with 40% backlight timing out after 15 seconds) has averaged 19 hours.

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An observation I'd like to add, even though it contradicts my much earlier observation...

Leaving a 60Cx attached to USB or a car adapter WILL charge NiMH batteries!!!! It just takes a LONG time, and doesn't fully top them off.

 

Twice (2 charge cycles on 2 pairs of NiMHs) I have run the unit on NiMHs to the low battery warning, shut the unit off, and attached it to USB or car adapter power. My 'testing' has shown me that it will take on average 7 full days to charge the NiMHs via USB and an average 5 days via the car adapter. Runtime after this method of charging (with 40% backlight timing out after 15 seconds) has averaged 19 hours.

 

What is the capacity of the NiMH batteries? 2100mAh?

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my 60csx does not charge batteries with a connected usb cable. I took the battery out and measured the voltage on the contacts – nothing there…

Regards pietsch

 

It do not charge battery when using USB, but it powers the GPS from USB.

The old 60CS do not power the unit from USB.

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If you want a real test of its accuracy, take both of your GPSrs and compare their readings against a "control point" such as a USGS bench mark that has adjusted coordinates listed. I have seen my 60C w/WAAS enabled show an indicated EPE of +/-6 feet to +/-10 feet and still hit the bench mark coords spot-on. I wouldn't take too much stock in the estimated position accuracy- give it a true field test. I hope to receive my 60CX later this week and I'll report my experiences after I've been out surveying. I always carry my Garmins while using the Trimble RTK units.

 

I just got my 76CSX today. Upgraded to the 2.62 Firmware. Uploaded the maps and waypoints from my backup of the 76cs and then hooked it up to an external antenna in my car and let it sit for an hour for a lhour or so to d/l of the almanac.

 

After letting it sit for that much time I went to my local BenchMark that is in down the street.

 

Boy was I disappointed! My older 76Cs brought me to within 6 feet doing the same thing. The new, just out of the box 76csx brought me 58 to 75 feet away! ( Could not really tell because the unit kept pointing me to walk out into the middle of a busy street. Then I went and sat on the BM and calibrated the altimeter. This was a bit better, only about 5-8 feet off. While I put the GPSr on the BM surface it was still saying that the location for the BM was 60 feet away.

 

I turned on WAAS and at one point it showed all sat's with D's. Accuracy it reported on screen was 6-9 feet. But it was way off physically from the BM.

 

I turned WAAS off again after that.

 

Sooo is this as good as it gets with this firmware? If so that sucks!

 

What good is a fast acquire of the signal if it takes you to the wrong place?

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