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Garmin Vista HCx mini-review


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Received my unit. Does yours came in a bag? Mine was just sitting between 2 cardboard so it's dirty (rubber is like sticky so it's collecting box dust easily) but at least there is a protection on the screen.

I also got it dirty - with protection screen.

Seems to be usual.

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A guy in europa had also the power-on-bug. - He solved this problem by HARD RESET.

"The newer etrex units (venture, legend, and vista) with the "Click Stick" use different keys to accomplish these tasks but the idea is the same. Holding the click stick down and then powering up will enter the test screen while holding the "page" key down and the "click stick" down and then powering up will reset the unit. You will be prompted with an "are you sure?" message. On these units holding down the "find" button in addition to the others will avoid the "are you sure" message. Hold the buttons for 5 seconds to clear the unit."

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/secret.htm

PAGE + ENTER (click stick) + POWER ON

 

If anyone has the power-on-bug and can also solve it by hard-reset - please give a feedback.

 

I've tried this multiple times (after being instructed to do so by Garmin Support) and absolutely nothing happens. All I get is sore fingers and a blank screen! :o

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Well OK. Looks like the auto resetting of the WAAS is a problem we all have, but my on/off/on problem is just a screw up with my unit. So I'll try the "hard reset" suggestion, and if that doesn't help I guess it's off to Garmin.

Be sure & let us know if a hard reset fixes your power problem.

so it looks like this is the only MAJOR problem with the HCX? if so, do you think it would be okay to purchase the unit and just get the download for the patch when they fix the problem? i just don't want to buy a unit with a problem that will have me send the unit in to get fixed when i can just buy a fixed unit.

The power problem that 'captain454' is having may very well be isolated to his unit only. I have yet to hear of anyone else having the same problem but I'm just going by the info on these boards. If this problem were widespread, you'd definitely be hearing about it here. If the problem he's having is corrected by a hard-reset, then it would be a total non-issue.

Regardless of the problem 'captain454' is having with his unit, I would not hesitate to order an HCx if I did not already own one. That's just my opinion... :o

 

Edit: looks like while I was posting, the captain's problem was solved by the hard-reset.

 

Sorry to burst your bubble but as of today, I am still having the power on problem. In addition, my son's friend is also having it (he got his unit at the same time and same place as I did - they were ordered together). When I try to do a "hard reset", I get absolutely nothing but a blank screen!

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I just spoke with Garmin (to get an unlock code for my City Select 6) and I asked them about the WAAS issue. This rep. wasn't appraised of it specifically, but he did confirm that "internally" they have version 2.70 of the unit software. It is not available online (or for him to e-mail me), but it is good news that a new version is in the works. My unit arrived today with version 2.20.

 

My HCx is great. very fast and light. I'm getting 6 satellites from inside my apartment. The error is +- 68 ft. But, it's amazing that I get a fix at all on the 1st floor of a 3 story apt. building. The WAAS turn off issue does occur. I plan to do some caching with it this afternoon. Yee-Ha.

Edited by Brainerd
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I just spoke with Garmin (to get an unlock code for my City Select 6) and I asked them about the WAAS issue. This rep. wasn't appraised of it specifically, but he did confirm that "internally" they have version 2.70 of the unit software. It is not available online (or for him to e-mail me), but it is good news that a new version is in the works. My unit arrived today with version 2.20.

 

My HCx is great. very fast and light. I'm getting 6 satellites from inside my apartment. The error is +- 68 ft. But, it's amazing that I get a fix at all on the 1st floor of a 3 story apt. building. The WAAS turn off issue does occur. I plan to do some caching with it this afternoon. Yee-Ha.

Brainerd, are you sure that he was not mistaking the Vista HCx for the Vista Cx, as the most recent version for the Cx is 2.70? I would find it odd that they would be that far ahead in software versions without beta versions, as Garmin, like many other companies, release betas with changed single digits, like 2.21 instead of 2.30.

 

Vista Cx 2.70

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Sorry to burst your bubble but as of today, I am still having the power on problem. In addition, my son's friend is also having it (he got his unit at the same time and same place as I did - they were ordered together). When I try to do a "hard reset", I get absolutely nothing but a blank screen!

 

I just received my unit and had the power up problem. I was able to fix it with the hard reset. Be sure to remove and replace one of the batteries before doing the reset. The unit needs to be in a state where it will turn on.

 

So the steps are:

- turn off the unit

- remove 1 battery

- reinsert the battery

- press & hold the click-stick, page button and power button

- choose yes on the pop-up "Are you Sure" menu

Edited by BOSP
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I just received my unit and had the power up problem. I was able to fix it with the hard reset. Be sure to remove and replace one of the batteries before doing the reset. The unit needs to be in a state where it will turn on.

 

So the steps are:

- turn off the unit

- remove 1 battery

- reinsert the battery

- press & hold the click-stick, page button and power button

- choose yes on the pop-up "Are you Sure" menu

 

Thanks for posting this procedure now that it's been tested to work. Also thanks to Rhialto for coming up with the idea for this (having to remove a battery to get the unit to get into the 'now able to power on' state). This will hopefully help some of the users experiencing this glitch. Maybe Garmin should also be notified of this. :lol:

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Received my unit. Does yours came in a bag? Mine was just sitting between 2 cardboard so it's dirty (rubber is like sticky so it's collecting box dust easily) but at least there is a protection on the screen.

 

Mine came packaged in the same way. Masking tape does wonders in removing the lint and junk that gets stuck so easily to the rubber outer band. Simply stick it to the rubber with some firm pressure and lift it off. The gunk sticks to the tape and simply gets pulled off along with it.

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On my old Vista C I have a (related/similar?) power problem in that the unit freezes up whenever I turn it on on battery, and then connect it to USB power (eg in the car). Nothing works until I disconnect the USB, at which point it continues on batteries as if nothing happened. To use in the car I have to connect the USB power first, and then turn it on. A pain, as I cannot try and get a fix before climbing into the car..

 

Could someone with a new HCx test this?

 

Also, I'd be interested if the HCx now has a way to display the GPS elevation in a data field rather than the barometric one (which doesn't do anything good in a pressurized conveyance). If not I'd consider the Legend HCx over the Vista again...

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On my old Vista C I have a (related/similar?) power problem in that the unit freezes up whenever I turn it on on battery, and then connect it to USB power (eg in the car). Nothing works until I disconnect the USB, at which point it continues on batteries as if nothing happened. To use in the car I have to connect the USB power first, and then turn it on. A pain, as I cannot try and get a fix before climbing into the car..

I have a Vista C (software v2.70) and do not see this with my unit. If the unit is powered on, then connected to an external power source (I just tested using my laptop's USB port), I have full use of the unit upon the power source change. Have you tried the hard-reset procedure as (described above) on your unit yet? This seems to help with strange quirks...

Could someone with a new HCx test this?

No problem with my Vista HCx either...

Also, I'd be interested if the HCx now has a way to display the GPS elevation in a data field rather than the barometric one (which doesn't do anything good in a pressurized conveyance). If not I'd consider the Legend HCx over the Vista again...

Unfortunately, it's not available as a data field display option on the HCx either.

Edited by SergZak
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Brainerd, are you sure that he was not mistaking the Vista HCx for the Vista Cx, as the most recent version for the Cx is 2.70? I would find it odd that they would be that far ahead in software versions without beta versions, as Garmin, like many other companies, release betas with changed single digits, like 2.21 instead of 2.30.

Vista Cx 2.70

I bet you're right. The software guy I spoke with was working with getting me a new unlock code. So, he may not be familiar with the HCx. Edited by Brainerd
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Have you tried the hard-reset procedure as (described above) on your unit yet? This seems to help with strange quirks...

 

I tried a master reset. It comes up with 'All user data will be lost, proceed?'[NO][YES]

if I select YES, it loses its current location etc, but all maps and the owner info (welcome screen) etc are all still there.

It even shows a message that the maps loaded support routing and that I will be asked more routing prefs when first attempting to route.

 

I could not get the 4-finger salue (FIND-ClickStickDown_PAGE-Power for 5 seconds) to give me more thorough reset.

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One thing I've noticed is that if I set the Backlight Level on the Display settings page it gets reset to 0% after I restart the GPSr. This is my first color Vista, so the backlight settings are a little new to me. Is this the normal behavior?

 

I do see that I can press the power button and then adjust the backlight with the click stick.

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One thing I've noticed is that if I set the Backlight Level on the Display settings page it gets reset to 0% after I restart the GPSr. This is my first color Vista, so the backlight settings are a little new to me. Is this the normal behavior?

 

I do see that I can press the power button and then adjust the backlight with the click stick.

You can cycle 3 times for 3 different settings. 0%, user select, 100%

 

I've seen mine do the same, I choose my setting (60%) then power off and on and again I need to press the backlight 2 times to get back to my setting. That's annoying but I don't know if they always worked like that, this is my 1st Garmin also.

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You can cycle 3 times for 3 different settings. 0%, user select, 100%

I've seen mine do the same, I choose my setting (60%) then power off and on and again I need to press the backlight 2 times to get back to my setting. That's annoying but I don't know if they always worked like that, this is my 1st Garmin also.

it always works like that :anitongue:

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I received mine today; it doesn't have the power issue that others have written about. I do hope that they "fix" the WAAS issue when restarting the unit. Although, with WAAS turned off I was still getting 9ft of accuracy outside. ...maybe it save battery life with WAAS turned off.

 

on a side note... topo US 2008 hasn't changed much from the previous version, aside from the shaded terrain on the PC (no change on the GPS display). But the North American NT software on DVD has changed so that you need only one map per state (except TX - 2 maps). Previously states were in a bunch of pieces.

 

one last side note... Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable batteries are excellent. (Circuit City or Thompson Distributing online) A couple of sets of those and a BC-700 or BC-900 charger and you're golden.

 

I purchased from TigerGPS and I would do business with them again.

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Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable batteries are excellent. (Circuit City or Thompson Distributing online) A couple of sets of those and a BC-700 or BC-900 charger and you're golden.

 

How long are you guys getting with the Sanyo Eneloop batteries? I had some cheap Energizer batteries with my original Vista and would only get about 2 hours out of them. I want to pick up a long lasting set to go with my Vista HCx.

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I got my Vista HCx yesterday and I have some of the same issues. Backlighting reset is annoying. I don't have any startup problems but I definitely have a WAAS problem. Not only does WAAS reset to disabled all the time but I don't think it even works when I select it to Enabled because my accuracy does not improve once WAAS is enabled. I am going to write to Garmin about this.

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Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable batteries are excellent. (Circuit City or Thompson Distributing online) A couple of sets of those and a BC-700 or BC-900 charger and you're golden.

 

How long are you guys getting with the Sanyo Eneloop batteries? I had some cheap Energizer batteries with my original Vista and would only get about 2 hours out of them. I want to pick up a long lasting set to go with my Vista HCx.

 

make sure that they were really charged fully. I bought 4 energizers rated at 2000mAh. When I first charged them in my new BC-700 they were reading full at only 550mAh. I have those same batteries on a discharge/charge cycle in the hopes of having them hit the full 2000mAh that they are rated for.

 

I'll try re-post on the eneloops with an accurate real world rating. I have had them in my Legend C for days before I ever recharged them but I really don't know how many hours.

 

unrelated note... 278.2MBs of maps (Topo and N. America NT) looks like its taking over 20 minutes to transfer to a 2GB card in the HCx. But, I won't have to do that again for a while.

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I got my Vista HCx yesterday and I have some of the same issues. Backlighting reset is annoying. I don't have any startup problems but I definitely have a WAAS problem. Not only does WAAS reset to disabled all the time but I don't think it even works when I select it to Enabled because my accuracy does not improve once WAAS is enabled. I am going to write to Garmin about this.

I also have the WAAS issue. It still may be working on your unit after you enable it. It's my understanding the a satellite's signal is error corrected with a WAAS signal when a "D" is in is strength of signal bar. This takes a little bit after enabling the WAAS.

 

How long are you guys getting with the Sanyo Eneloop batteries? I had some cheap Energizer batteries with my original Vista and would only get about 2 hours out of them. I want to pick up a long lasting set to go with my Vista HCx.

I've also started using Eneloops. Great batteries. Sanyo is the top producer and after many years of experimentation, I won't buy another brand. The Eneloops have a very slow self-discharge rate, so they will remain charged in the drawer. The regular Sanyo's have about 700mAh more that the Eneloops (rated at 2000mAh). So, if you charge them often, get the regular Sanyo's. If you don't want to get caught without fresh rechargables, get the Eneloops. No idea on hours on the Eneloops. I've used my HCx for over 5 hours (with 50% backlight set at 30 sec., and finally one of the battery status bars has gone away. **Make sure you change your battery type to NiMH in the "Setup...System" menu. The discharge characteristics of alkaline and NiMH batteries are very different.

 

Auto-routing. Wow is it fast. I had a 60cs and it was quick. From memory, I would say the HCx is at least twice as fast. Also, when recalculating (If I purposely miss a turn) happens so fast that the "calculating" status bar just pops on and goes away. It's that quick.

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Got my Vista HCx on Thursday. I too have the WAAS disable problem - sort of. If I turn on the GPS right after turning it off, the WAAS stays enabled. Otherwise, it's working great. I took it to a movie theater tonight and got 80-feet accuracy with four satellites. I happened to have my trusty 60CS with me; it did not pick up any sat signals.

My HCx has Software v 2.20/2.10; serial # is 16D0078xx.

 

BTW, since I don't have any unlock codes available with CN software, I'm using Geo Dude's Metro Wizzz utility to auto-route with my v5 MetroGuide. The HCx appears to respond without any problems.

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Thanks for the replies about the batteries, I'll pick up some of the Eneloops today. Brainerd's 5 hours with one battery bar missing will work perfect for my hikes since it should last all day and then some.

 

I should have added earlier that I have the WASS bug but everything else seems fine. Coming from the original Vista I'm loving the speed of the HCx, longer battery life and the fact I can keep the GPS in my backpack and maintain sat lock. I'll finally be able to take it with my snowboarding and log the whole day. The original Vista would choke when I went into the trees.

 

I also like how I can store a daily .gpx file to the SD card so I plan on taking the Vista whenever I shoot photos so I can embed the lat/long when I get home. The file that gets saved to the SD card doesn't ever get the date/time stripped from it even when you save your track log. The log that is stored to the internal memory is stripped from the date/time when you save the log. Just an FYI for you guys looking at using this GPS with photo shoots.

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I also like how I can store a daily .gpx file to the SD card so I plan on taking the Vista whenever I shoot photos so I can embed the lat/long when I get home. The file that gets saved to the SD card doesn't ever get the date/time stripped from it even when you save your track log. The log that is stored to the internal memory is stripped from the date/time when you save the log. Just an FYI for you guys looking at using this GPS with photo shoots.

 

Thanks for the tip. What program and work-flow are you going to use to GeoCode the JPEGs? I have just got my first GPS and leave for an International trip where I will probably take 1000+ pictures next week. I am looking for the simplest, most foolproof process.

 

Paul

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Thanks for the tip. What program and work-flow are you going to use to GeoCode the JPEGs? I have just got my first GPS and leave for an International trip where I will probably take 1000+ pictures next week. I am looking for the simplest, most foolproof process.

 

Paul

 

I'm using a Mac so I'm not sure what's out there for Windows. On the Mac the best program I found is HaudahGeo. You basically drop your photos into the program window, open up the .gpx file and then write the EXIF headers back to the pics.

 

Aperture and iPhoto cache the EXIF data so process your photos with HoudahGeo first then import them into Aperture/iPhoto. If you don't use HoudahGeo first then Aperture/iPhoto will show that your lat/long isn't there but it really is.

Edited by macnerd
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Is it possible to increase the volume o this unit? Weird that we can choose many different tones and rings but I found no way to increase the volume yet.

 

Nope, no adjustable volume. I've been through -many- GPS units (mostly hand-held) over the years and the only one that I know of (at least that I've owned/still own) are the nuvi 350 and the Quest automotive unit. The Quest has adjustable volume but it's not internal in the unit but external on the 12v adapter/speaker module. Generally speaking, most any hand-held will -not- have adjustable volume but most (if not all) of the automotive units will have it either internally or externally (design dependent).

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not demanding, just asking

 

can we get some more pictures of this thing in action?

 

like say for instance, show us how it works under deep foliage with a shot of the skyline covered in heavy foliage, give us an idea of how strong this thing is with/without WAAS enabled

 

Cant wait to get mine in the mail, my old GPS (venture) is so old and the nearest geocache next to me is in very deep foliage lol.

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I received my Vista HCx today from

 

Quick edit: Just did a quick side-by-side comparison between the HCx and my nuvi 350 (SiRF III chipset) with the HCx edging out the nuvi by a couple of sats...

 

Anyone able to compare Garmin 60 ..x against HCx??

Yes :laughing:

What do you like?

I already made a comparsion in the german forum:

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=169317

and here the problem with the TRIP ODOM (under tree cover)

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=169653

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upload it to image shack if you're having trouble, you can put the things in {img} put url here {/img} (use the non shift brackets on your keyboard) or find a photo host of your choice, photo bucket, image dump, the alternatives are endless.

 

http://imageshack.us/

 

and its good to hear about the deep foliage cover, the first cache i've been dieing to try out has area's so deep in foliage (its a nature preserve called lenoir nature preserve, i live near the Hudson river) that its actually DARK i mean really DARK and i was so amazed to find this place so close to me, i was starting to think their were no beautiful area's around me that were like this. and to have it in my own backyard, is quite amazing.

Edited by Dr. Jackal
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Got it working. Groundspeak was parsing my Groundspeak folder with a capital G. Weird. Renamed the directory to gs and now it works.

 

Edit: I typed the second Groundspeak name above with all lower case and it capitalized it.

Edited by macnerd
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thats some beautiful area right there mac, where is that located?

 

The Sandia mountains, basically Albuquerque, NM. This was in the east side of the mountains. The west side is a desert until you get up to about 7500 feet. I got 3 caches yesterday one was in about the same area as that picture.

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thats some beautiful area right there mac, where is that located?

 

The Sandia mountains, basically Albuquerque, NM. This was in the east side of the mountains. The west side is a desert until you get up to about 7500 feet. I got 3 caches yesterday one was in about the same area as that picture.

 

desert on one side, a full blown forest on the other side, quite the diversity there, didn't know you guys had that kind of stuff.

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thats some beautiful area right there mac, where is that located?

 

The Sandia mountains, basically Albuquerque, NM. This was in the east side of the mountains. The west side is a desert until you get up to about 7500 feet. I got 3 caches yesterday one was in about the same area as that picture.

 

Might be moving there this fall. Nice to see a photo of the east side. I bet there's lots of good caching there.

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Thanks to all of you who have posted to this thread because it has helped me in deciding if the Vista HCx was something I really wanted to purchase so soon after product introduction by Garmin. I decided to buy now and hope that my unit wasn't a problem child.

 

I received my unit yesterday and have not had any problems with the power on. <_< The WAAS disable is wierdly intermittent. Sometimes it resets to disable when I power down and back up, and other times it stays enabled. I turned it on this morning after being off for about 7 hours and it came up with WAAS enabled. When I turned it on again later today after about 7 hours of being off it was disabled. This isn't that big of a problem for me because I was getting +/- 13 feet inside my house locked on to 11 satellites. I don't mind checking the set-up to see if WAAS is enabled, but it would be nice to have Garmin present a firmware fix for this.

 

The Vista HCX blows away anything I've used before, and I started with a GPS 12XL, then got an iQue 3600 (for my vehicle), and then got the Garmin Mobile 10. All for different reasons. But the Vista HCx is definitely the best one so far in terms of sensitivity and speed.

 

The only real complaints I have is how skimpy the user manual is (seems more like a fat quick start guide) and the packaging so that carboard dust is all over the unit. I wound up using the sticky side of the LCD screen protector to remove the carboard dust.

 

Software Version 2.20

GPS SW Version 2.10

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Here in Sweden I am still waiting for my little beauty to arrive. It was shipped yesterday so I will have it later next week. dadgum I'm psyched! ^^ Thank good I recieved another toy yesterday so my mind will be occupied with something else than just waiting =P

 

I have already constructed beautiful maps over the local area that far outcompetes whatever map Garmin sells in the store ;D

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Last summer we did a hiking trip into the high Sierras, specifically Mt. Whitney via the mountaineers route. I brought along a Vista Cx and it was mostly useless. It worked fine for time and altitude functions but that was it. It dropped out ALL THE TIME. I was hoping to reference the backtracking feature as we descended some dicey cliff sections. The dropouts created straight lines on my track that ,if followed, would have put us in the abyss.

Overall, I was very disappointed after dropping 3 bills for the unit in anticipation of utilizing it on our hike. These problems occurred above 10,000 feet. I can't imagine where there would be better sat reception, so it performed poorly. It has also frequently dropped out on me while doing beach runs ( more clear skies). I assumed that it dropped out during our hikes due to the steep canyon terrain we were in. But my beach runs are on pancake flat florida beaches and I get the same thing, DROPOUT. A few weeks back while at some western North Carolina mountain trails,I couldn't get ANY reception, even at the trail head. Tree cover baffles it.

In a huge leap of faith, I purchased a Vista HCx yesterday based on glowing reviews about it's superior reception. Garmin's website brags of no reception loss even in deep canyons. I'll put that claim to the test next week as I head back to the Sierras for another round of back country climbing. I'll post a detailed report upon my return, assuming I don't end up (Mt. Russell's east ridge has some SERIOUS exposure) in the abyss. It's going to get tested in the most strenuous terrain imaginable. Everyone who is considering the Vista HCx might want to sit tight until August 13 when I return and post my review.

Edited by rundanrun
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Hi, I have a Vista Cx and just bought a Vista HCx more than a week ago. I find the HCx a great improvement compared to the Cx. Like many people have mentioned, you can receive satellite signals even inside your home, which my Cx is not able even to do when I was testing them side to side.

 

Concerning the WAAS issue, I just bumped into the following link, which mentions about the automatic disabling of the WAAS. I was wondering if this may be the reason why the WAAS is being disabled..? Somebody mentioned that there were changes in the WAAS satellites, too? Something that they were changing/switching them to other satellites..? Anybody have heard or is aware of anything along this lines..?

 

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/addendum.htm

 

The article excerpt is appended below:

 

WAAS/EGNOS

 

Garmin has released revisions to all of the GPS receivers that support WAAS. This change is designed to improve the use of WAAS and EGNOS by disabling the WAAS support feature in areas that do not have WAAS/EGNOS correction data and to ensure that the correct GEO-SV's are used for correction.

 

Thanks, AJTex

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thats some beautiful area right there mac, where is that located?

 

The Sandia mountains, basically Albuquerque, NM. This was in the east side of the mountains. The west side is a desert until you get up to about 7500 feet. I got 3 caches yesterday one was in about the same area as that picture.

 

desert on one side, a full blown forest on the other side, quite the diversity there, didn't know you guys had that kind of stuff.

 

I've been lurking @ this particular Groundspeak forum thread since early july, watching the accumulating input to convice me that an HCx is the right tool to become my first GPS.

So it's great to see that you, Macnerd, a fellow Albuquerque resident, are trying it out in the Sandias! Have you or anyone you know taken it into TWA canyon or any other steep west side canyon yet? Or is that asking too much for ANY current non-military GPS? If the HCX works while standing amist the TWA wreckage, I'll go straight to REI and order one!

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Hi Guys,

 

A week ago I was considering replacing my Vista CX for a couple reasons, 1) Its got poor satellite lock when Geocaching in woods. 2) The rubber seal around the outside has came loose on this unit & the Legend C I had previous to this, the glue holding the seal seems to be very sensitive to any temperature over 50 celsius (I dont think the HCx will be any different with regards to item 2).

 

I'm going for a GPSMAP 60CSx which I hope will be a much better unit all round.

Edited by durrantie
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durrantie, HCx is a top performer, par or even insignificantly better than 60CSx but like I already said, you don't choose the unit according to this. Choose it for it's form factor you prefer, the buttons placement, etc. Both are great and I'm sure you read many thread here already discussing and comparing both.

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kwikitti, I don't know how the HCx will do in the TWA canyon and I don't have a hike planned for there until September. What I can tell you is I had a solid track the whole way up Tree Spring Trail when my original Vista would have lost lock in a lot of places. I have a good feeling the HCx will work just fine in the canyon.

 

Have a look at my gps file from my hike last weekend. In the upper part of Tree Spring where you join up with South Crest Trail there is heavy tree cover, it never lost lock once and I was even carrying the GPS in my pocket. You can open the file with Google Earth or whatever other program your using.

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kwikitti, I don't know how the HCx will do in the TWA canyon and I don't have a hike planned for there until September. What I can tell you is I had a solid track the whole way up Tree Spring Trail when my original Vista would have lost lock in a lot of places. I have a good feeling the HCx will work just fine in the canyon.

 

Have a look at my gps file from my hike last weekend. In the upper part of Tree Spring where you join up with South Crest Trail there is heavy tree cover, it never lost lock once and I was even carrying the GPS in my pocket. You can open the file with Google Earth or whatever other program your using.

 

i'm very impressed, macnerd! thanks for the prod to upload google earth (just another great piece of free software from the great god google). i'll be buying my very own HCX in the next couple of days. if you don't mind, i'd appreciate being able to email you directly to get a few more tips and info, specific to the Sandias and the primary reason why i'm buying this GPS. my email address is: luveggies@gmail.com.

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Hi All,

 

First post... Hope this works.

 

I purchased a Vista HCx upgrading from a Legend C.

 

Here is a short summary of my findings...

 

Power on issue - No

WAAS issue - Yes

Dusty from the box - Yes

Serial #: 16d009087

Purchased from Offroute.com

 

More interesting, a side by side comparison...

 

A short bike ride from the office to the house:

 

Legend C Vista HCx

Odometer 5.03 5.02 Miles

Max speed 29.60 28.90 MPH

Moving time 21:11 21:00

 

Trip to Vista from Escondido in the car

 

Legend C Vista HCx

Odometer 15.98 15.97 Miles

Max speed 72.70 72.60 MPH

Moving time 22:49 22:01

Stop time 3:59 4:49

 

Return trip from Vista to Escondido in the car

 

Legend C Vista HCx

Odometer 15.56 15.57 Miles

Max speed 69.10 69.30 MPH

Moving time 22:24 21:48

Stop time 4:23 5:00

 

What I find very interesting about this is the moving vs. stopped time. The Legend is definitely quicker to realize it is moving. However, at the end of these trips, the odometer readings are essentially identical. The moving average calculation is affected by this difference in moving vs. stopped time.

 

At the end of the trip, when you pull into the garage and walk through the house, the Legend will announce at some point that it has lost contact while the Vista continues to plot my movements. :( Further, at any given location, the estimated accuracy is a lower number on the Vista. It is very clear that the Vista HCx has a substantially better receiver than the Legend C.

 

Thoughts?

 

Skyliner / N6SUN

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