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Garmin 60csx wandering


kdgreene

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I left my 60csx on my desk overnight and noticed that I had tons of tracks in random patterns th stretched for 50 feet or more. Is this a common problem with this unit? Also, I have noticed when I am searching for caches, the compass will move around even if the unit is lying on a flat surface. Is that also related to the "wandering" problem. Is there a fix for this?

 

Thanks

Kelly :anitongue:

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Yes, there is a known issue where evidently poltergeists are trying to geocache when the 60csx are being left unattended, especially at night. It is recommended that you sprinkle a circle of ashes from incinerated wet cache logs around your unit before you leave it alone for the night.

 

Don't worry, Garmin is looking into developing a separate "Poltergeist line" of their mapping GPSrs to address this phenomena... :anitongue:

 

 

 

[sorry... couldn't resist... your description sounds so much like a ghost story :laughing: ]

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I use an eTrex Vista with the weaker receiver, and a 60CSx in my pack when travelling.

 

I noted the eTrex Vista sometimes looses signal, especially on the north side of steep wooded hills. In these situations, the 60CSx keeps signal, and indicates a low error. Yet the 60 CSx track will sometimes wander even 100s of feet. So the 60 CSx may say it's getting signal and accuracy to make you happy, when in fact it's just doing a bold face lie.

 

The GPS sitting a desk in an office could be one of the weak reception situations that has lots of wander.

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Many people have complained of this “wandering” problem but I do not think it is a problem at all. What you are seeing is an addition of errors. Each calculation your GPSr makes has an error. When the next calculation is made, it also has an error. The space between the errors is the bit of track you see.

 

I am amazed that the errors are so small considering your GPSr sitting on your desk was the only stationary part of the system. Think about it! The earth is rotating at nearly 1000 MPH while it is hurling around the sun at a blistering speed of 67,000 MPH. Above the earth are 24 GPS satellites in different orbits traveling near 2000 MPH. Each of the satellites is transmitting a radio signal at 186,000 Miles per second. Over dramatic, but I hope you get my point.

 

Some GPS manufactures dampen the errors shown on the GPSr by averaging the estimated location. (I am sure it is a complex mathematical equation) This may or may not be good depending on your intended use.

 

I am sure there are others on this board that could explain things in a more technical way. Oh, free to correct me if I have made errors in my thinking.

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had the same problem with my Legend Cx...... Always occurred when I put the unit in DEMO mode, then put it back into regular mode.

 

Try this for the fix.

 

go to SETUP MENU / MARINE / then make sure the SPEED FILTER is set to auto.

 

That solved the problem for me, then the unit knew it was standing still and wouldn't record distance while sitting still. It still will record tracks that seem to wonder but won't record it as distance moved.

 

I hope this works!!

Edited by gpsblake
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All GPS receivers I have owned wander, though you notice it allot more with the 60csx/60cx because they seem take allot more readings in the same period of time. also you'll notice much less wander when you not indoors, even under heavy tree cover the wandering is limited to +/- 50ft.

when I first reach a cache I may get a reading that says 30ft away, after signing the log and preparing to leave the unit has settled in more and may have me as close as 1-5ft.

Edited by hogrod
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All GPS receivers I have owned wander, though you notice it allot more with the 60csx/60cx because they seem take allot more readings in the same period of time. also you'll notice much less wander when you not indoors, even under heavy tree cover the wandering is limited to +/- 50ft.

when I first reach a cache I may get a reading that says 30ft away, after signing the log and preparing to leave the unit has settled in more and may have me as close as 1-5ft.

 

I can sit on top of an open hill with my Vista and 60CSx, both with good reception, and watch the 60CSx collect miles while the Vista is properly stopped. Also, at the end of a bike ride, the Vista will have the proper moving and rest time (as compared to my bike computer), but the 60CSx will improperly indicate a lot of the time that I was stopped as moving. The difference on a ride with 4 hour ride with 1 hour of breaks is typically another 15-20 minutes of "bonus" wandering with the 60CSx.

 

Another difference is that the total climb indicated by the 60CSx data field is low by about 12-15%. I calibrated both the Vista and 60CSx on a steady climb (with no dips along the way). I accurately knew the elevation at the bottom and top from topo maps and other sources. Also, the barometric altimeters on the Vista and 60CSx agreed to within a couple feet on the 1100' climb (0.2% agreement!). But whereas my Vista and Motion Based both got 1100' climb, even using uploaded altitude data from the 60CSx, the indicated climb on the 60CSx itself was under 950', which is mathematically impossible.

 

The 60CSx software needs some tweaks to recognize when it's not moving, and to adjust the total climb data. I waiting for the update.

Edited by BigLarry
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You can see this graphically in the 'My Ghost Likes To Travel" and "When In Roam" sections of http://www.mtgc.org/robertlipe/showdown/ where you can see the 60csx collecting over a mile of travel while at my desk while the Magellan realized it was standing still and kicked in the averaging - for better and worse.

 

That said, I haven't found this to be a problem in the real world. Yeah, it collects 3-5 of motion every second or two and over the course of many hours that adds up, but in the woods hunting tupperware, I've not found it bothersome.

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It is a major bug if you need to know your moving average speed vs your total average moving speed or tell the difference between moving time and stopped time. Like on a bicycle for example. If the GPS is constantly thinking it is moving, it is useless for bicycle data. It also makes the compass spin in wild circles when you are stopped. It is NOT normal behavior.

 

The bug is the unit will turn off the speed filter under the Marine settings which tells the unit to ignore variations when you have stopped moving. This usually happens when you put the unit into DEMO mode then go back to normal mode.

 

Using the fix I posted should solve the problems for the Garmin color units.

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had the same problem with my Legend Cx...... Always occurred when I put the unit in DEMO mode, then put it back into regular mode.

 

Try this for the fix.

 

go to SETUP MENU / MARINE / then make sure the SPEED FILTER is set to auto.

 

That solved the problem for me, then the unit knew it was standing still and wouldn't record distance while sitting still. It still will record tracks that seem to wonder but won't record it as distance moved.

 

I hope this works!!

 

My 60CSx Marine menu only has four Alarms that can be turned on, with distances that can be set:

Anchor Drag

Off Course

Deep Water

Shallow Water

 

I don't see a "Speed Filter" on the 60CSx setup menu for the marine icon.

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had the same problem with my Legend Cx...... Always occurred when I put the unit in DEMO mode, then put it back into regular mode.

 

Try this for the fix.

 

go to SETUP MENU / MARINE / then make sure the SPEED FILTER is set to auto.

 

That solved the problem for me, then the unit knew it was standing still and wouldn't record distance while sitting still. It still will record tracks that seem to wonder but won't record it as distance moved.

 

I hope this works!!

 

My 60CSx Marine menu only has four Alarms that can be turned on, with distances that can be set:

Anchor Drag

Off Course

Deep Water

Shallow Water

 

I don't see a "Speed Filter" on the 60CSx setup menu for the marine icon.

 

My 60CSx also had the same problem. I cannot find the "Speed Filter" as mentioned...please clarify.

 

TQ.

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Yes, in fact the odometer did record mileage. It had a few hundred miles on it. That is why it seemed so weird to me. I'm starting to wonder if I need to get in contact with Garmin.

 

This leads me to believe that your unit lost signal for an amount of time then regained it. Download your tracks and see if a signal track point is way off.

 

I purposely left my 60CSx on my desk overnight to see what kind of track error would accumulate. After 10 hours, a track of .22 miles recorded. That's about 1161 ft recorded in 36,000 seconds or about 4 inches / second. I did not look at the track because the results were so low. I did not feel the unit was showing anything I did not expect. If any thing I thought I would see 15 feet (low epe) x 36,000 seconds = 102 miles.

 

As for the distance errors others are experiencing while hiking, I too notice some error but not to any great extent. For a full day of hiking I see less than .5 mile error in the recorded distance. While hiking a mountain peak with a elevation gain near 3000 feet I will usually stop and recalibrate the altimeter about every hour. This puts a error into the totals, so I disregard them.

 

I would be nice if the calculations the 60CSx made were a little tighter but I'm OK with the way it works now.

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I left my 60csx on my desk overnight and noticed that I had tons of tracks in random patterns th stretched for 50 feet or more. Is this a common problem with this unit? Also, I have noticed when I am searching for caches, the compass will move around even if the unit is lying on a flat surface. Is that also related to the "wandering" problem. Is there a fix for this?

 

Thanks

Kelly :laughing:

Unless your desk is outdoors, poor reception is part of the problem. You may also want to check that you have the most recent OS version. Early versions of 60CS_ OS had a "wandering" problem.

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Unless your desk is outdoors, poor reception is part of the problem. You may also want to check that you have the most recent OS version. Early versions of 60CS_ OS had a "wandering" problem.

Reception may be part of the problem, but it's not the whole story. I've left a 60CSx static with a clear view of the sky and it does the same thing outside very repeatbly.

 

If you look at the graphs above, the 60csx had 7 or more sats most of the time. I didn't graph HDOP in there, but the symptoms observed really don't match the "you've lost a lock" type of drift.

 

I keep hearing that early ones used to be worse - and perhaps they've fixed/changed something - but in 2.7/3.0 I'm still seeing this.

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had the same problem with my Legend Cx...... Always occurred when I put the unit in DEMO mode, then put it back into regular mode.

 

Try this for the fix.

 

go to SETUP MENU / MARINE / then make sure the SPEED FILTER is set to auto.

 

 

a search of the VentureCX/LegendCX manual does indeed list this setting, but it is not listed in the 60csx manual--only the four choices listed in previous posts.

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had the same problem with my Legend Cx...... Always occurred when I put the unit in DEMO mode, then put it back into regular mode.

 

Try this for the fix.

 

go to SETUP MENU / MARINE / then make sure the SPEED FILTER is set to auto.

 

That solved the problem for me, then the unit knew it was standing still and wouldn't record distance while sitting still. It still will record tracks that seem to wonder but won't record it as distance moved.

 

I hope this works!!

 

My 60CSx Marine menu only has four Alarms that can be turned on, with distances that can be set:

Anchor Drag

Off Course

Deep Water

Shallow Water

 

I don't see a "Speed Filter" on the 60CSx setup menu for the marine icon.

 

My 60CSx also had the same problem. I cannot find the "Speed Filter" as mentioned...please clarify.

 

TQ.

 

According to the VentureCX/LegendCX manual the Speed Filter sounds an alarm when you enter an area of water that is either too shallow or too deep. Apparently the 60csx splits thisout into two choices, Deep Water and Shallow water. I don't have a 60csx in front of me so I don't know if there is an "auto" setting for those choices.

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Noticed the travelling phenomena on my 60csx this weekend. When I paused my travel for a few minutes the unit shows me going sideways (each side) for a total travel of about 150 ft. Got right back on track when I started to move again. Another interesting observance was that my start elevation was 60 some feet lower than my end elevation even though physically they were the same spot.

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