+indycam Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 I recently purchased an etrex vista hcx to compliment my street pilot. I have noticed while hiking close to roads the vista puts me on the wrong side of the road usually by 200 - 500 ft. While geocaching the vista has been dead on accurate, so it seems to be the basemap. Any ideas? I also have loaded Topo 2008. Quote Link to comment
+Miragee Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 Welcome to the Forums! Do you have "Lock on Roads" set? Quote Link to comment
+indycam Posted November 19, 2007 Author Share Posted November 19, 2007 Welcome to the Forums! Do you have "Lock on Roads" set? Actually I have lock on roads set to off. I went on a hike today found a geocache - the location was perfect. When I got home I loaded the track onto mapsource on the computer and after reviewing I noticed that it showed me crossing a road that I wasn't even close too. Later in the hike it showed me on the wrong side of a road by at least 200 ft. Quote Link to comment
SiliconFiend Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 Welcome to the Forums! Do you have "Lock on Roads" set? Actually I have lock on roads set to off. I went on a hike today found a geocache - the location was perfect. When I got home I loaded the track onto mapsource on the computer and after reviewing I noticed that it showed me crossing a road that I wasn't even close too. Later in the hike it showed me on the wrong side of a road by at least 200 ft. If you only have the basemap (no other map products installed), it has a very coarse resolution, so errors like this are common (although 200 ft does seem extreme). Quote Link to comment
Hiker2008 Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 Are you looking at this road on the gpsr or mapsource? Quote Link to comment
Smac999 Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 (edited) the basemap is only good to the nearest couple hundred feet. that is what the big circle is on the map. if you are on the road, and the road is inside the circle, then it's within accuracy. the topo or metroguide ect will probably help alot. is this a highway you're standing on? I thought only major highways were on the basemap. opps I just saw you had topo. (even though you said basemap..) so then your accuracy is based on the topo. which should definatly be less then a couple hundred feet. the circle will still be there, just alot smaller. Edited November 20, 2007 by Smac999 Quote Link to comment
+indycam Posted November 20, 2007 Author Share Posted November 20, 2007 Are you looking at this road on the gpsr or mapsource? I actually noticed the problem while hiking - I do have mapsource loaded onto the gps. When I got home I loaded my track onto my computer to verify the problem and sure enough it showed me 200ft from the road. Quote Link to comment
Motorcycle_Mama Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 200 feet from the road on the TOPO maps? The roads on the TOPO maps are not very accurate, so you can't really go by them. Quote Link to comment
BelchFire Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 I agree. I've got known issues in my neighborhood where the tracks and actual roads (as shown on Topo 2008) don't coincide. When I load that same track into Google, it lines up nicely. It's a Topo accuracy issue. Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.