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Garmin Etrex Legend Cx


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We had noticed the accuracy was pretty good when we first bought our Legend CXs. After a while I noticed the accuracy didn't seem to be very good with both units being consistently "off". However we were out caching and the units consistently put us right on the cache. I wonder if something has changed. Our only "hard to find" cache was in a valley with some tree cover although we were on a narrow country road.

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Hello Pigshanks....did you save the location of these benchmarks as waypoints on each receiver? If not, would it be possible to do that, and then approach the benchmark using the waypoint as a GOTO. This, i believe is when the CX shows it's problem. At least that is the case with mine...or at least seems to be. My readings appear to be accurate, until i close in on a GOTO. If you could do this, then i would love to see the results.

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Instead of geocaches, I tried locating a geodetic survey marker. My Venture CX put me about 60 feet away from the target. This is way worse than the specified 10-16 feet accuracy.

 

I think Garmin will have to do something, because the product is not performing as advertised.

 

Dont panic on this issue. Remember, most of the waypoints on survey markers were computed mathematically, before GPS was available. Found the same issue on several in my area, would be off about 100 feet, always in the same general direction. But using the physical measurements, I could place myself relatively close to the marker. Possible explanations------ the surveyor consistantly made the same error in calculation, or the difference between magnetic or true north, and which we used then and now.

 

BTW, Garmin Summit, a little off out of the box, but on the mark lately. Last time out, GZ was arm's length from the cache.

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Hello Pigshanks....did you save the location of these benchmarks as waypoints on each receiver? If not, would it be possible to do that, and then approach the benchmark using the waypoint as a GOTO. This, i believe is when the CX shows it's problem. At least that is the case with mine...or at least seems to be. My readings appear to be accurate, until i close in on a GOTO. If you could do this, then i would love to see the results.

 

Yes, they were waypoints on both receivers and the goto function was used to find the benchmark. But remember, I was in the open prairie. I do notice some significant fluctuation in the readings when I head into the river valley under a lot of tall trees. And yes, some of the readings were out by 22 meters.

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I've had the same issue with my Legend Cx. Ordered it the day it came up for sale. Thinking back it seemed like it worked better when I first received it, unless I was just blinded by it's "newness". I've had it since maybe Feb. I think?....I'll have to check for sure. I've used it finding over 200 caches, so it's not new to me at all.

 

I always cache with my girlfriend though, she still uses her basic eTrex yellow. Two different units, different sats...whatever. The two units rarely if ever point to the same location, typically a 30+ ft. difference in the two. The yellow seems to get closer to the cache probably 75% of the time. I mean, my legend Cx gets me close....the yellow often gets closer. Time and time again.

 

On a side note I did notice a big difference in mine when I had selected the wrong battery type after switching from rechargables to regular. So make sure you have the right setting there. Also just this weekend the rubber strap around the buttons is coming loose. I'm constantly pressing it back down, and the adhesive isn't holding at all. Seems to be getting worse and worse. It's happening by the up/down buttons on the left, it pulls away from the main body so much you can see through it. Guess I'm off to email Garmin about that now.

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I've had the same issue with my Legend Cx. Ordered it the day it came up for sale. Thinking back it seemed like it worked better when I first received it, unless I was just blinded by it's "newness". I've had it since maybe Feb. I think?....I'll have to check for sure. I've used it finding over 200 caches, so it's not new to me at all.

 

I always cache with my girlfriend though, she still uses her basic eTrex yellow. Two different units, different sats...whatever. The two units rarely if ever point to the same location, typically a 30+ ft. difference in the two. The yellow seems to get closer to the cache probably 75% of the time. I mean, my legend Cx gets me close....the yellow often gets closer. Time and time again.

 

On a side note I did notice a big difference in mine when I had selected the wrong battery type after switching from rechargables to regular. So make sure you have the right setting there. Also just this weekend the rubber strap around the buttons is coming loose. I'm constantly pressing it back down, and the adhesive isn't holding at all. Seems to be getting worse and worse. It's happening by the up/down buttons on the left, it pulls away from the main body so much you can see through it. Guess I'm off to email Garmin about that now.

 

30 feet inaccuracy is about normal, assuming the cache hider was 100% accurate, which is unlikely. The rubber sleeve is an issue to plague the Legend C and somewhat sad to see they didnt fix it for the Cxs. Garmin will fix (well, they'll likely send you a refurbished model), another option is to reattach yourself, plenty of threads around here about it. I used aquarium sealant to reaffix mine about a year ago.

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30 feet inaccuracy is about normal, assuming the cache hider was 100% accurate, which is unlikely. The rubber sleeve is an issue to plague the Legend C and somewhat sad to see they didnt fix it for the Cxs. Garmin will fix (well, they'll likely send you a refurbished model), another option is to reattach yourself, plenty of threads around here about it. I used aquarium sealant to reaffix mine about a year ago.

 

I meant my Cx is always at least 30+ ft. different than the yellow etrex. Keep in mind it's not that accurate either. So if the yellow gets within 15-25 ft of a cache, which it seems to do pretty regularly, then I'm at least 45-65 ft from it. Either way I've obviously been able to deal with it, but it's without a doubt not as accurate as my old yellow eTrex. Which is a shame, I really love this unit other than the accuracy issues.....well, and the band thing now.

 

I'll look up the home repair for the band, thanks.

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Hey folks.

 

I didn't start this thread, but I unintentionally hijacked it. People wanted me to post my results when I got my Legend cx replacement from Garmin.

 

The unit is older than the one I sent in (serial # is 2,000+ lower). The paperwork said the unit passed all quality control tests.

 

I turned it on, let it sit in the open for over an hour to get the almanac data (instructions said 20 mins). Then I switched to waas and let it sit again.

 

This morning I came to work and visited to same waypoints as before. This "new" unit has me standing in the same locations as my old unit. I turned off waas hoping there was some algorithm problem but I would be wrong. Again, I was off (and for the people not involved in the history of this thread - when I say "off", I mean "off" - like way off when compared to other and older receivers. Not the whiny "why am I 4' from a cache, what's wrong" type of "off")

 

To add to the experience, I have to get on the phone and wait for customer service in order to get mapsource remapped to my new unit's ID.

 

Conclusion - and this is just from my observations - I'm not making a blanket statement since not everyone has problems:

This Christmas two of my family members wants to get into geocaching - one just wants to cache: she will get an Etrex Yellow. My mom wants both caching and street maps - she'll get the 60cx.

 

As for me, the Legend will remain in my ram mount as a nav unit and I'll take it to Europe to walk the streets. My etrex yellow has been promoted to waypoint finder/marker. And if I ever get into confluence'ing, I'll take the yellow.

 

Thanks to everyone who supported the cause, gave me suggestions, technical advice, and expectation guidelines.

Edited by romulox
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Hi all,

 

I'm not a Geocacher but I have been lurking and learning a lot about GPSr's and related subjects from this board for few months now. Being a GPS newb and Legend cx owner I've followed this thread and others like it with considerable interest. I was intrigued by the idea of locating benchmarks and comparing my readings with other GPSr's. So, with a little help from my brother the surveyor, here's our readings for a benchmark in Central Florida. Its coordinates are N28 05 16.8688 – W081 45 40.51118 (adjusted).

 

Legend cx N28 05 16.9 – W081 45 40.6

 

Yellow eTrex N28 05 16.9 – W081 45 40.5

 

eTrex Vista N28 05 16.9 – W081 45 40.5

 

As you can see my Legend cx is only off by one digit compared to the yellow eTrex and the Vista. Being a newb I don't really understand the significance of that one digit difference but in practical terms my unit had me off just 6 feet to the east. I don't have any experience using the compass page to loacate waypoints but using the map page and walking toward the waypoint for the benchmark put me 6 feet east of it. My brother hit it dead on with both of the other units. I wanted to post a photo of the thee units together showing the location numbers. But, I'm not sure how to do that since it ask for a complete URL. I guess you have to upload the file to another site and link to it? If anyone's that interested I'll be happy to email it and someone else can post it.

 

Even though this is just one test I'm pretty pleased with the result.

 

Scott

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To add a couple more data points to this discussion, I found a two benchmarks with my Legend CX this weekend, and here are my results.

 

Benchmark HZ2433: The official coordinates are N 38° 00.966 W 084° 26.346

My CX reported N 38° 00.965 W 084° 26.348. It claimed its accuracy was +/- 8ft.

 

Benchmark AA4603: The official coordinates are N 37° 57.486 W 084° 29.468

My CX reported N 37° 57.485 W 084° 29.474. It claimed its accuracy was +/- 10ft.

 

So the first reading matches the benchmark very closely. According to the calculator on this page, the second reading is off by about 29 ft to the west of the benchmark.

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Like many others, I'm happy I bumped into this thread. I too own a eTrex Legend Cx, and have had it for about 3 weeks now. I love all the features, but the acuracy is no good.

I'm going to throw an experience I had today into the conversation and see what comes of it.

Today at a local GeoCaching Event, they had a "game" where they gave everyone at the event a set of coordinates (we'll call them the control coordinates). They also gave everyone a little flag. On the flag, we wrote our names and the Make/Model of our GPSr's. Everyone was to stick their flags in the ground at those exact coordinates based on the readings from their GPSr's.

Interestingly enough, a majority of the flags were within 3-5 feet of the "Control". There were 2 that were way off. I was outside the "cluster" by about 25 feet, due East. The other was outside the "Cluster" by about 25 feet North and West of the Control.

The two "outsiders"..... eTrex Legend Cx's. I saw that there were some Cx's in the cluster, but only 1 or 2. Again, maybe this is the acuracy that should be expected. If I were searching for a campsite, or a lost vehicle or something like that, I'd find it. When I'm searching for a "Blinkie" and I'm off by 60 feet, I'm Pi$$ed! <_<

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It would be interesting to know which brand/models made up most of those within the 3-5ft cluster. This would give a great indication to those who are looking for something with consistently good accuracy.

 

Did the organizers of the game come up with a chart/table of some sort that you can post here?

 

Thanks.

Edited by wifiabc
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Unfortunately, I didn't make note of it, nor did I write anything down. I didn't realize I would need that information at the time.

I do remember that there were some Garmin units in the "Cluster" along with some Magelans. Again, I didn't make note of the specifics.

Now that I belong to that club, and having read this post, I may see if we can repeat that "game" at a meeting and see what kind of results we get.

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I located a couple more benchmarks around Medicine Hat and took some pics.

 

ASCM 91777 - Medicine Hat N 50° 01.714 W 110° 44.593

ASCM 91777

 

Legend Cx N 50° 01.714 W 110° 44.599

Legend C N 50° 01.714 W 110° 44.599

 

e03ac7ca.jpg

 

#2 GSD 82A522 - Dunmore N 49° 58.592 W 110° 33.062

GSD 82A522

 

Legend Cx N 49° 58.598 W 110° 33.074

Legend C N 49° 58.594 W 110° 33.066

 

bce9e8ae.jpg

 

Another pic of the site(Cap was sealed)

 

geo009.jpg

 

I'm a eXplorist owner and I'm surprised no one here appluded Pigshanks for settling some of the quetions here. It looks like his units are as accurate as one could expect. On the few caches and benchmarks I've actually looked for and found, my eXplorist is about 6' off right at the cache or benchmark (even if it is showing 20' accuracy). Also, the only time I ever got a good WAAS lock was in Wiconsin and then I even got

accuracy readings of 3'. I live in NJ and for some reason don't get good WAAS locks here, hence the 13'-23' accuracy readings I ususally get.

 

Anyway, good job Pigshanks!

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:ph34r: Hello I was also having the same problems the rest of you are havimg with my new Vista CX, my old Vista did not give me any great errors, unlike my new one which was giving errors of 10-100m more than the sat accuacy. A caching friend sujested upgrading the software in my new vista from the Garmin site www.garmin.com/support/download.html , I went out caching this morning and lo and behold it was right on the money every time. The upgraded software seems to have fixed the problem. I will post a note in a few days after I have had a chance to give it a through work out.

Hello all!

I thought I was alone on this one! I have the Venture Cx and have experienced the EXACT SAME issues the rest of you have! There were times it was pointing 100ft in the wrong direction compared to my iFinder and 60csx. I thought, at first, it was a settings issue or a fluke so I checked all settings and tried again. Same thing! Im glad I now have the 60csx, but still have a place in my heart for the Venture! Hopefully Garmin will acknowledge this and provide a fix.

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Right now I have six working Garmin units in my possession. Should I go out and mark a waypoint, at the same location, with all six of them, just to see what results I get?

 

It would be intersting to see if you could do the flag method that another poster mentioned earler and take a picture of it. If your units are pretty close to each other and you have the one odd ball and it happends to be the Cx then it would be very intersting to see the picture.

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No, I don't have any CX, so I can't help you there. The units I have right now are the following:

eTrex Vista

Forerunner 301

iQue 3000

iQue 3600

iQue 3600a

StreetPilot c550

 

I'll see if I can do this tomorrow, or otherwise at the weekend.

 

Notice that two GPS units in close proximity of each other may cause mutual interference.

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So.... The obvious question is: Anyone running 2.6? :o

 

Actually, now that I take a look at the web site, I see that it was released yesterday. I went ahead and upgraded. It took about 10 minutes.

I'll try to figure out if I'm more accurate now and let you know. Anyone else that want's to join in the fun, please update and let us know the GPSr responds.

Edited by dakotacache
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So.... The obvious question is: Anyone running 2.6? :o

 

Actually, now that I take a look at the web site, I see that it was released yesterday. I went ahead and upgraded. It took about 10 minutes.

I'll try to figure out if I'm more accurate now and let you know. Anyone else that want's to join in the fun, please update and let us know the GPSr responds.

 

I saw the post and had some free time, so I updated to 2.60, did a complete reset of by Legend Cx, let it sit outside for a full hour to grab the signal...then headed out with it and my old B&W Legend to some nearby caches I had already found.

 

Overcast in Orlando, so I was getting between 13-20 feet accuracy on both units.

 

The results-- well, no bad news yet. Which is hopefully good...

 

On the three caches I hit, including one where the Cx had went crazy last time, both GPSrs took me right to the same location, and in each case it was right on top of the caches.

 

I hope to hit some more caches this weekend. Maybe...just maybe...well I don't want to get to optimistic yet...

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FYI...

There is an update on Garmin's website for firmware version 2.60 for the eTrex Legend Cx.

 

Got it yesterday. I dunno why but it removed my geocaches from my map. ??? I found this out when I tried a quick cache run yesterday. They weren't showing up as icons on the map... also the one I was looking for wasn't in my GPS even though I'm pretty sure it was before. Weird.

 

Anyway, will reload caches and give 'er a try. :)

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Well, it doesn't say that the problem is addressed in the update:

 

Changes made from version 2.50 to 2.60:

 

Fixed problem of shutdown when viewing map Topo Great Britain v2.

Improved drawing of lines for MPC maps.

Reduced variation in battery gauge indicator.

Fixed display scrolling issues when searching for roads.

 

But hopefully, it is built in to the update but just not listed.

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I'm having the exact same problems and initially wrote it off as being new to the hobby. When I first got the unit, it was dead on accurate. Lately its been off significantly. I was standing at the cache (circled it for over an hour) and the unit indicated I was facing the complete opposite direction and 34 feet from it (with a 23 foot accuracy). The arrow spins and has me jumping North 10 feet, then South 25 feet, etc. I know the fun is in the hunt, but I'd like to at least be in the ballpark.

 

I lose satellite signal frequently even in a clear sky without any tree cover and it seems like the unit has to refresh itself because the arrow does not always follow me and then suddenly it jumps. Of course, it now shows I'm way far away from the cache. A few seconds later with me standing still, it indicates I'm right on the cache.

 

If Garmin cannot replicate the problem (although it doesn't appear that the same units given in the example of the problem are being used -Legend B/W vs. Legend Cx) and fix it, or offer a trade, I'm going to return it. I tried to call them today, but after 20 minutes holding, I had to hang up. I'll try contacting them again on Monday and will post their comments if they are at all helpful.

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My first post on this forum was on 9/15/06. I've been reading it daily to see if any answers to this problem were discovered yet. For the last month I have not really been able to use my Venture CX. Same problems inconsistent readings, bouncing GoTo arrow. I got disgusted the other night after returning from a Did Not Find and bought a cheap etrex off eBay. Waiting for it to arrive. I will go check it against my Venture CX, and post the results. I contacted Gamin through e-mail (3 days to respond) and phone ( 20+ minutes of holding. The answer was the same, hard reset. No difference at all. Checked an adjusted benchmark, 97 ft off. How do I convince Garmin that this unit is inaccurate?? Will post my findings after i get my cheap etrex. Lets keep this post going and send the link to Garmin.

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Even though I posted pics showing how accurate the Cx (under clear skies) was compared to a benchmark reference point, I did notice that under any cloud cover or canopy of trees the accuracy diminished quickly. In the vehicle to find addresses and routes, it worked great, But I use gpsr for geocaching also and it was a bit more than frustrating to be in less than ideal conditions and walking around in circles for a cache. Now I know there is a level of innacuracy involved with both the cache placers and the finders gpsr, but my old Magellan GPS Pioneer which I started the hobby with put me a lot close to the search area. Reading that you are 25m left of the mark and in 2 steps you are now 33m to the right makes me want to pull out what little hair I have left. Garmins answer to all this is HARD RESET and RE-AQUIRE SATTELITE. Been there, done that to many times. As this was a new LegendCx, I opted to return the unit last week and I upgraded to a MAP60Cx. Hope to have it on Monday. I do hope that the 2.60 fixes the problem, but I do have my doubts.

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If I am doing this correctly, my Gps is off 100ft. If I did this wrong, please let me know. Thanks...

Sorry, but you didn't quite do this right. Your GPSr is sitting on top of Reference Mark 3 for MF1470. MF1470 is a triangulation station. The coordinates provided for MF1470 are for the actual station. The arrow on the disk in your photo points toward the station. It looks like this station has 3 reference marks (including the azimuth mark) around it. You found RM3, and in the description, it says RM3 is 98.04ft west of the station. So your Venture Cx was performing pretty well at that particular moment if it said you were 100ft away from the station's coordinates. Edited by geognerd
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Not quite sure what to think of this... I did the upgrade, checked against a benchmark the decimal part of my Western coordinates were 866 before the upgrade and 860 after the upgrade. Today I set my Legend CX next to a friends 60CX outside for a few minutes and the decimals were off by .001 Not bad eh! Here's my dilema, yesterday I went out for a cache and it had me bouncing back and forth along a strech of trail for approx. 50 metres (150ft) There was a bit of tree cover but nothing my trusty Legend BW couldn't handle. Could the fact that I had my GPSr set to Magnetic North instead of True North have been the problem in this case???

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I use True North and still have problems. I received a cheap etrex yellow today. I'm taking them both out Geocaching this weekend to see how they compare. Will post my results............

 

 

Just Uploaded 2.60. The kids and I are heading out on a couple of easy caches near the house. I'll see if the posted coords and the GPSr (Legend CX) match up, and let ya's know. If you don't hear from me by tomorrow night, you will know it was way off, and we are still lost in Nova Scotia :(

 

Jester and Family

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Ok. We did 3 caches, and the CX brought us to within 2m each time. I must admit, though, there were times when it seemed confused for a few seconds, but found itself each time. :blink:

 

Does this mean that 2.60 firmware solves the problem?

 

Seems pretty early to say that. As posted above, I had three perfect caches a few days ago with 2.60, and I am encouraged to see that JesterYHZ & crew seem to have positive results, but due to the intermittent nature of the problem (at least on my Legend Cx), I am still holding my breath to see what others and I find on more extensive caching...

 

Having said that...keep the 2.60 trial info coming!

Jammer

Edited by Tammer&Jammer
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I'll finally chime in. We got a Vista CX a couple of months ago. We have a couple road-use GPSs but this was our first handheld for geocaching. Sometimes the CX was very accurate but sometimes it would have a bad day. The interesting thing was that it seemed to really be off the entire day and fine another. It would jump...wander...and be well off the cache. According to the GPS I've been standing on top of a cache only to have my wife finally locate it >80ft away. I go stand physically at the cache and a few minutes later the GPS would jump over there and agree. I came to this forum for the exact problems mentioned in this thread.

 

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a 60csx. We cache a lot in heavy trees so I thought maybe tree cover was the problem with the Vista CX. The 60csx is much better. It doesn't have bad days. It's not off by 80 feet. I get a signal sitting in the down stairs of my house so trees aren't an issue. This past weekend we each carried a GPS. I had my 60 and she is now carrying the Vista CX. We did 8 caches in the woods one day. This was with the new 2.60 firmware. For probably 6 of the 8 the CX was just fine. They didn't always match, but I don't expect them to. The CX wasn't far off. But 2 of the 8 it was off...it was erratic and jumping around. 80 feet this way, then 20 feet that way, then I'm on top of it...then it's over there. The 60csx was just more reliable. I also greatly prefer the 60 buttons and layout.

 

Bottom line? In my opinion, buy the 60csx (or the one without compass). It's $100 more but well worth it. We're keeping the Vista as a secondary and to use while mountain biking but normally rely on the 60csx in the woods.

 

The only problems I've had on the 60csx were once it lost signal in the woods in a spot we've been to 6 times. The Vista never beeped...but the 60 totally lost signal. I finally had to sit it down for a minute in a spot of lighter cover. It was fine the rest of the day and in the same spot as before. Weird..and only happens once. I hear the Vista CX beep every so often when my wife has it and it looses signal, never on the 60csx. I'm also running in to an issue with the compass. There is a thread on here talking about it. The compass needs to be calibrated a lot more than the Vista CX. When it's calibrated it's very accurate...but I usually have to do it once per day. I've only done the Vista CX twice since we've had it and it still matches the magnetic compass fine. I really like having the electronic compass as I can stand still and turn and line up to a cache. You can't do that with the GPS figuring up compass directions based on movement.

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I would like to follow up on my last post.

 

I haven't been geocaching too much, but since disabling WAAS, my GPS tracks have been a lot more stable - they don't jump around much. In addition, over time they seem to be fairly consistent coordinates.

 

The one thing I do notice is that on any given day I can ride a bike trail and get a certain GPS track. The next day I will get a "parallel" track off about ~2-3 meters to the East or West (NOT North/South ever). This is so consistent its scary. I'm really starting wonder about possible intentional regular shifting of GPS data to skew any reliability dependence. It COULD also be based on certain satellites being present, but accuracy is the whole purpose of GPS, any specific satellite shouldn't throw the calculation by this much on such a regular basis! Thats like syncing your watch alternately with a accurate clock and a clock that is always off by a bit and is never fixed by its owner, even though they know its wrong.

 

I'll not claim conspiracy, but this has been an odd discovery. Other than this finding, I believe the Venture CX has some accuracy issues - under canopy, but not enough to make it unusable.

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