+Blackjack Bailey Posted October 20, 2007 Share Posted October 20, 2007 On my eTrex Vista HCx, I have the option to use either the Compass view or the Map view to navigate to a geocache, which both seem to achieve the same objective. What are the pros and cons of using these either of these two methods? Quote Link to comment
+LeonW Posted October 20, 2007 Share Posted October 20, 2007 Hi Neville. I like to use the "Map" view to get to the vicinity of the map, up to about 500 meters I would guess. Nearer to the cache I find that the "Compass" view works better for me, after calibration. Quote Link to comment
Sippy Dippy Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 I use the "Map" view to navigate to the nearest spot to the cache then switch to the "Compass" mode (and set routing to off-road) to get to the cache...works the best for me...Just have to remember to calibrate the compass after switching batteries... Quote Link to comment
+LeonW Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 Sippy Dippy, welcome to the forums. Now take a lesson from and old guy. If you want to find the cache first time, then you would make it a habit to calibrate the compass every time as you get out of the car. I will recalibrate again if I find the cache to be elusive and mark my words, the cache is suddenly in a totally different direction than you were first looking at. Neville can stop laughing now. Quote Link to comment
+Blackjack Bailey Posted October 26, 2007 Author Share Posted October 26, 2007 Round and round the garden, goes the teddy bear... Sorry Leon - couldn't resist! Quote Link to comment
+vespax Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 I use map view almost all the time. I use two data fields at the top, one with pointer on left side and distance to destination on right. With these three views I can get to most caches just fine. Quote Link to comment
+Goofster Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 I prefer compass view once I'm out of the cache mobile and walking. I use map view mostly when navigating in the car, and only if I don't know where I'm going! Quote Link to comment
+GlobalRat Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Have tried the electronic compass on a number of units and have found them all to be useless. More often than not they send you in the wrong direction and one has to keep on recalibrating. I switched the electronic compass off, but still use the compass view when approaching the cache. One of course needs to move to get direction if one switches the electronic compass off. Used to use the map view on my old GPSr, but tend to use the compass view more often than not on my newer one. I would recommend switching the electronic compass off if your GPSr has one (only a few do, do not confuse this with the compass view). It's only upside is to provide direction without having to move. With it off one needs to move in order for the GPSr to determine in which direction you are facing/travelling, i.e. operates like old GPSr's. With the electronic compass on, I walked too many miles in the wrong direction thanks to the pointer being extremely indecisive or the compass freezing up, and wasted too much precious caching time by recalibrating and recalibrating and recalibr...u get the picture. BTW, a common complaint in many GPSr forums, and echoed by LeonW's earlier post. Once I switched it off, no more hassles. Nish4....that's +1 Quote Link to comment
+Larks Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 I completely agree, I have only ever used my electronic compass in caves etc, otherwise I seriously wouldn't bother!! It will really throw you off.... Rather turn it off and use the satelites to take you there. But one downside is that you will have to move before it will point you in the right direction. In fact i hardly ever use my compass at all. When i get closer, I just zoom in... seems to work just fine. Six of one, half a dozen of the other i suppose.... Quote Link to comment
+GlobalRat Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 Good man.. Forgot to add. Garmin in their wisdom have done something odd with the road lock in the new units. You will find that if a waypoint is within 30 odd meters from a road, the unit refuses to disengage from the road even though your mode of navigation is off road. This means that one needs to switch the road lock off for the unit to disengage. In my old unit (GPSV) they fixed this problem so one could navigate via road to within spitting distance and then switch to off road, all while the road lock is on. In the new units, it only disengages if the waypoint is sufficiently far (seems to be about 30m) from a navigable object i.e. road, and the road lock is on. Now this is a right pain in the behind. Garmin's recommendation is to manually switch road lock on and off or just leave it off. Switching the road lock off impacts autorouting, so I leave mine on. So, if there is a roadside cache, I know the map view will not work properly and that's the reason why I started using the compass page. Garmin refuse flatly that it is an issue despite the fact that they have the documented patch on older GPSr's to fix the problem. Quote Link to comment
+Carbon Hunter Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 Good man.. Forgot to add. Garmin in their wisdom have done something odd with the road lock in the new units. You will find that if a waypoint is within 30 odd meters from a road, the unit refuses to disengage from the road even though your mode of navigation is off road. This means that one needs to switch the road lock off for the unit to disengage. In my old unit (GPSV) they fixed this problem so one could navigate via road to within spitting distance and then switch to off road, all while the road lock is on. In the new units, it only disengages if the waypoint is sufficiently far (seems to be about 30m) from a navigable object i.e. road, and the road lock is on. Now this is a right pain in the behind. Garmin's recommendation is to manually switch road lock on and off or just leave it off. Switching the road lock off impacts autorouting, so I leave mine on. So, if there is a roadside cache, I know the map view will not work properly and that's the reason why I started using the compass page. Garmin refuse flatly that it is an issue despite the fact that they have the documented patch on older GPSr's to fix the problem. GR - is this why I sometimes get within a few metres of a cache, but my Garmin unit still says that I am (e.g.) 250m from the spot. And does not update dynamically? Quote Link to comment
+GlobalRat Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 Good man.. Forgot to add. Garmin in their wisdom have done something odd with the road lock in the new units. You will find that if a waypoint is within 30 odd meters from a road, the unit refuses to disengage from the road even though your mode of navigation is off road. This means that one needs to switch the road lock off for the unit to disengage. In my old unit (GPSV) they fixed this problem so one could navigate via road to within spitting distance and then switch to off road, all while the road lock is on. In the new units, it only disengages if the waypoint is sufficiently far (seems to be about 30m) from a navigable object i.e. road, and the road lock is on. Now this is a right pain in the behind. Garmin's recommendation is to manually switch road lock on and off or just leave it off. Switching the road lock off impacts autorouting, so I leave mine on. So, if there is a roadside cache, I know the map view will not work properly and that's the reason why I started using the compass page. Garmin refuse flatly that it is an issue despite the fact that they have the documented patch on older GPSr's to fix the problem. GR - is this why I sometimes get within a few metres of a cache, but my Garmin unit still says that I am (e.g.) 250m from the spot. And does not update dynamically? Hi CH, you haven't mentioned what unit you have. What's been described above generally applies to newer units that have autorouting and in the case of the compass issue, those with an electronic compass. If your road lock is on, and the cache is a few metres away from the road, you may well be experiencing the problem I've described above. You can walk miles away and the unit remains locked on a position in the map view. If you look at the view that displays coordinates and you will see that the coordinates are indeed changing. Compass view should be working fine, the problem above only affects the map view. Try switch the road lock off and see whether your problem persists (map setup). Alternatively you may be experiencing the electronic compass problem if you have one on your GPSr. with the electronic compass on, I've experienced very strange results which affects the map and compass view. Turn the electronic compass off, if I can recall you need to go to the compass view and then hold the Enter key for 2 seconds to toggle it on/off. refer to your user manual. If the problem still persists there may be something else wrong. Quote Link to comment
+vespax Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 GR - is this why I sometimes get within a few metres of a cache, but my Garmin unit still says that I am (e.g.) 250m from the spot. And does not update dynamically? Not just my GPS eh! *although mine is never (repeat never) that bad! Quote Link to comment
+cincol Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 GR - is this why I sometimes get within a few metres of a cache, but my Garmin unit still says that I am (e.g.) 250m from the spot. And does not update dynamically? Not just my GPS eh! *although mine is never (repeat never) that bad! Hi Guys Carbon Hunter is out of the country for a few days. He has the Quest II. Quote Link to comment
+Nish4 Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 (edited) Upgraded our old faulty Quest to a Quest 2 yesterday - Christmas has come early thanks to the good service from Trappers in fourways and Avnic Trading. The POI and traffic alerts are a big plus. To overcome the problem with sticky roads all we do is zoom in a bit and it seems to release you from the road in map view. Edited October 31, 2007 by Nish4 Quote Link to comment
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