Garmin 60CSx Weirdness

[+alanfreed]

I had a weird problem with my 60CSx today... just curious to see if anyone else has experienced something similar.

 

I did a cache this afternoon, and on the way home, suddenly it was showing me consistently 200+ feet off the road. My tracks paralleled the tracks from my earlier ride on the same road. At home, after turning it off, turning it on several times, changing batteries and so forth, same deal... it would show me more than 200 feet off, even while showing a very strong signal.

 

I was using my "home" waypoint as a benchmark since I know right where it normally zeroes out.

 

I eventually took the MicroSD card out, and turned it on, and the coordinates were back to reading normally. And thankfully, they continued reading normally once I put the card back in.

 

Very weird... and it certainly had me a bit concerned for a bit. I'm just wondering if anyone else has seen this happen before, and whether this is a symptom of worse things to come...

 

Thanks in advance!

 

-- Alan

[+geokitebuggy]

I had the same thing happen with my 76CSx yesterday! My error was roughly 0.3 mi. It has worked fine today - found 3 caches (and a baby rattlesnake). See GC12K4W log and gallery.

 

I cycled power a couple of times and changed batteries. Within the hour things got better and have not reappeared. I didn't think to remove the SD card.

 

I wonder if it is something to do with the clock? My error was at around 5:30 PM PDT. How about yours?

 

geokitebuggy

[+hogrod]

I think someone else had the same issue a few weeks back, though I didn't look for that old topic.

[+alanfreed]

My error was at around 5:30 PM PDT. How about yours?

 

I was having the problem initially at 2:30 (ET) today. We went out to see a movie and had dinner, and I was still having the problem when we got home after 6:00. I dunno... very odd. I wasn't a happy camper there for a while.

 

If anyone happens to find the previous thread about it, I'd definitely like to read more about it.

[+hogrod]

If anyone happens to find the previous thread about it, I'd definitely like to read more about it.

 

I dug around a bit and found it... here ya go

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=161878

[+alanfreed]

I dug around a bit and found it... here ya go

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=161878

 

Many thanks for looking that up! Yep, my problem sounds very much like a couple of the ones described there. Very weird. Hopefully it'll just be a once in a blue moon kind of thing. Glad to hear it's not unprecedented.

[+imajeep]

You can isolate the problem by setting a waypoint when you observe the error. Then, when you get home, plot the waypoint on Google Earth or a topo program like ExpertGPS. If you see the same error on the photo or topo, then you know your fix is off. If you don't, you know your GPS unit's map is off.

 

I just did a cache with my 60 Csx where the map was 60' off. Hasn't happened often, but then, I just got the unit. In my neighborhood, the GPS map is about 20' off (the normal margin of error of the unit). Google Earth is spot on.

[+alanfreed]

I know for certain it was reading 200+ feet off the mark... that's not the issue.

 

My home waypoint is set to a specific point in my driveway, and standing at that point (with +-10 accuracy) it was telling me I was 225 feet away. It has always shown my home properly on the map every other time, so it's not as if the map data is off. Plus I have two other GPS units, so I was able to compare numbers.

 

 

You can isolate the problem by setting a waypoint when you observe the error. Then, when you get home, plot the waypoint on Google Earth or a topo program like ExpertGPS. If you see the same error on the photo or topo, then you know your fix is off. If you don't, you know your GPS unit's map is off.

 

I just did a cache with my 60 Csx where the map was 60' off. Hasn't happened often, but then, I just got the unit. In my neighborhood, the GPS map is about 20' off (the normal margin of error of the unit). Google Earth is spot on.

[Phoenix2001]

I had a weird problem with my 60CSx today... just curious to see if anyone else has experienced something similar.

 

I did a cache this afternoon, and on the way home, suddenly it was showing me consistently 200+ feet off the road. My tracks paralleled the tracks from my earlier ride on the same road. At home, after turning it off, turning it on several times, changing batteries and so forth, same deal... it would show me more than 200 feet off, even while showing a very strong signal.

[snip]

My 76Cx was off by about 125 meters to the north and about 90 meters east on Sat. May 19. A Vista Cx, 76S, and map 76 showed "correct" values at the same time. It took two hours before the 76Cx was back to reasonable values. I tried on/off, batteries out for about 10 seconds, and user data reset (Enter/Page keys). Receiver was running most of the time to download current almanacs. I didn't find the master reset (quit/menu/zoom out) sequence before the 76Cx was back to normal.