Legend And Legend Cx Floating Cache

[+CheshireFrog]

I have been using a Merigold and blue Legend for about a year now, and just last week took the plunge and got a Legend cx. This past weekend I ran into a problem I have never had before.

 

I was hunting a cache and having no luck. I thought this was off, since the cache was listed as an ammo can, but decided to move on and try and hit it again on the way back.

 

Taking a break, I ran into another cacher and we began discussing what caches we were looking for. I mentioned the one I had just given up on and he said it was up on the rocks behind me, about .2 miles off of my coords. I had just loaded both my Palm and the GPSr before starting out, so I got out my Palm and, sure enough, my coords were off. I checked the coords for the next cache I was heading to and they were spot on.

 

Later, in the evening, I got out my old blue Legend and checked it. the coords in it were off, too, but not by the same amount as the cx. I reloaded the cx from GSAK and immediately checked it, and the coords were off again, but this time just by a few hundredths of a degree. I've checked other caches stored in the GPSr and they all seem to be OK.

 

Since this is happening to two GPSr's, I don't see how it can be the fault of the receivers, but I'm at a loss to explain why it's happening at all. Maybe something in GSAK? I don't see how, but it's the only other common element.

[+MtnGoat50]

Interesting, I have sometimes noticed the coords I download to be off by .001'. I assumed this was because GSAK stores coordinates in decimal degrees and the GPSr displays them in degrees and decimal minutes. I am assuming that GSAK is displaying the correct information? It appears to be a GSAK issue rather than a hardware issue.

[cwichura]

Comments about GSAK->Garmin positions being slightly off come up regularly. I've never looked at the GSAK forums, but I'd bet there is more detail over there. In general, the differences seem to be .001 off (so likely a rounding error) which I believe someone said translates to about a 5 foot position inaccuracy -- considering the innacuracy of GPSr units general, this should still be close enough to locate a cache.

 

One way to test if this is really a GSAK issue is to load a GPX file downloaded from geocaching.com using MapSource and upload the waypoints that way, rather than via GSAK, and see if the coordinates match correctly or not.