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Vista HCX Trip Odometer FIx?


sli23sli

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It does however, "hang" in the Transferring Data screen on the GPS itself and doesn't automatically reboot like when you update the main software, and requires a power off/ power on cycle.

 

Mine hung on the "Transferring Data" screen too. Although it seems to be working fine (and shows version 2.60), I'm a little concerned about it not "rebooting" automatically. How can I be sure everything loaded up properly and completely?

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It does however, "hang" in the Transferring Data screen on the GPS itself and doesn't automatically reboot like when you update the main software, and requires a power off/ power on cycle.

 

Mine hung on the "Transferring Data" screen too. Although it seems to be working fine (and shows version 2.60), I'm a little concerned about it not "rebooting" automatically. How can I be sure everything loaded up properly and completely?

 

I just updated mine as well, and it too is sitting there at the "Transferring Data" screen. Grrr, Garrrrmin. :)

 

- Mark

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It does however, "hang" in the Transferring Data screen on the GPS itself and doesn't automatically reboot like when you update the main software, and requires a power off/ power on cycle.

 

Mine hung on the "Transferring Data" screen too. Although it seems to be working fine (and shows version 2.60), I'm a little concerned about it not "rebooting" automatically. How can I be sure everything loaded up properly and completely?

 

I just updated mine as well, and it too is sitting there at the "Transferring Data" screen. Grrr, Garrrrmin. :)

 

- Mark

 

It seems to be working though. At least, it's functioning. Won't know until tomorrow how effective the update itself was.

 

- Mark

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Walking+Running with/without treecover (mixed) - and this is the result:

with 2.60 it is now much better! THANK YOU GARMIN!!!

But gpsmap60csx is still better :)

 

ODOMETER

HCX 11,6 km

CSX 11,5 km

 

SAVED TRACK

HCX 11,29 km

CSX 11,40 km

 

But one test is only one point of view - so more different types of testing would be necessary

Edited by freeday
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Walking+Running with/without treecover (mixed) - and this is the result:

with 2.60 it is now much better! THANK YOU GARMIN!!!

But gpsmap60csx is still better :)

 

ODOMETER

HCX 11,6 km

CSX 11,5 km

 

SAVED TRACK

HCX 11,29 km

CSX 11,40 km

 

But one test is only one point of view - so more different types of testing would be necessary

 

Freeday,

 

Thanks for posting your results. I just updated my GSPr last night to the 2.60 GPS SW (2.50 Unit Software) but won't have time until this weekend to check it out.

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Walking+Running with/without treecover (mixed) - and this is the result:

with 2.60 it is now much better! THANK YOU GARMIN!!!

But gpsmap60csx is still better :grin:

 

ODOMETER

HCX 11,6 km

CSX 11,5 km

 

SAVED TRACK

HCX 11,29 km

CSX 11,40 km

 

But one test is only one point of view - so more different types of testing would be necessary

I think you need to do the test by walking <2 mph for a good distance. The issue was at slow speeds.
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Walking+Running with/without treecover (mixed) - and this is the result:

with 2.60 it is now much better! THANK YOU GARMIN!!!

But gpsmap60csx is still better :)

 

<snip>

I'm even more curious about this after a long hike yesterday with two friends. One has the 60CSx and the other has a Magellan. The Magellan recorded 6.1 miles. The Trip Computers on the Vista HCx and 60CSx were reset at the same time a short distance up the trail from where the Magellan was reset. The Vista recorded 5.8 miles from that point, while the 60CSx recorded 6.9 miles. :grin:

 

Now that I have updated the firmware again, the next time I go out, I'll have to take both my Vista C and Vista HCx to compare the accuracy of those two units with the 60CSx. Could be interesting. B)

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Why doesn't someone just go to the nearest interstate and walk from one mile marker to the next and see what the odomoter reads. I'm pretty sure the mile markers are set the proper distances apart. Plus you might find some hubcaps along the way or maybe a McDonald's cup.
You could just go to the local high school and walk around the track four times...
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Why doesn't someone just go to the nearest interstate and walk from one mile marker to the next and see what the odomoter reads. I'm pretty sure the mile markers are set the proper distances apart. Plus you might find some hubcaps along the way or maybe a McDonald's cup.

Feel free....Im not about to take a chance of being hit by some crazy cager that would rather talk on their phone than drive...not on foot anyway...

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Why doesn't someone just go to the nearest interstate and walk from one mile marker to the next and see what the odomoter reads. I'm pretty sure the mile markers are set the proper distances apart. Plus you might find some hubcaps along the way or maybe a McDonald's cup.
You could just go to the local high school and walk around the track four times...

Even better idea.

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Why doesn't someone just go to the nearest interstate and walk from one mile marker to the next and see what the odomoter reads. I'm pretty sure the mile markers are set the proper distances apart. Plus you might find some hubcaps along the way or maybe a McDonald's cup.
You could just go to the local high school and walk around the track four times...

Even better idea.

I don't know that the local school oval is any safer than the nearest interstate with mile markers for doing the test.

 

My local school down the road here now has "out of hours" access for the neighbourhood's dog owners who can let their dogs off the leash. Last time I went for a walk down there I got chased and attacked (one of the locals even ended up sticking a melon on my head :o)

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one of the locals even ended up sticking a melon on my head :o
That's the first time I've heard about someone doing that...

 

Edit: Now that I think about it a melon is most likely Aussie for a bump. We have plenty of high schools here that are like that but most are not.

Edited by TrailGators
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one of the locals even ended up sticking a melon on my head :)
That's the first time I've heard about someone doing that...

 

Edit: Now that I think about it a melon is most likely Aussie for a bump. We have plenty of high schools here that are like that but most are not.

 

Yeah...we talk a bit differently here in Los Angeles...when Night Parrot said "sticking a melon on my head", I took it literally and had a vision of him stumbling blindly around the track, arms outstretched with half a watermelon plunked down on his head. :o

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one of the locals even ended up sticking a melon on my head :)
That's the first time I've heard about someone doing that...

 

Edit: Now that I think about it a melon is most likely Aussie for a bump. We have plenty of high schools here that are like that but most are not.

 

Yeah...we talk a bit differently here in Los Angeles...when Night Parrot said "sticking a melon on my head", I took it literally and had a vision of him stumbling blindly around the track, arms outstretched with half a watermelon plunked down on his head. :)

:o I did too at first, but then I thought it would be pretty silly for someone to hide in the bushes and then run out and put half a watermelon on someone's head. :)
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I thought Night Parrot's avatar was a cat with a melon on it's head...

 

I tried to do the slow walk thing tonight (figured I'd wait until dark to look less weird... don't think it worked). Walking 1 mph seems to be impossible unless you are 90 years old!! (I didn't do too well). I took a Legend Cx, GPSMap60cx and a Vista Hcx for a comparison but only had the patience to do .28 miles at what seemed like a snails pace to me. My average speed on all three GPS's was listed as the same -- 2.1 mph. That may not be slow enough to test the 2.6 upgrade but I don't think I'll ever walk slower than I walked tonight! The track logs showed that much of the time I was walking below 2.0 mph so maybe not a total loss.

 

All three GPS's recorded the same distance on the odometer and the track logs read the same (.28 miles). Since the track log total in Mapsource was in miles, I added up all the leg distances in feet and the distances were all very close. The only reading that I'd question on any of these units was the max speed on the Vista Hcx. It listed my max speed at 4.2 mph while the other two said 3.6 mph. I very much doubt I reached 4.2 mph but I did have to dart across the street which accounts for the higher reading on my otherwise painfully slow stroll.

 

I hope somebody has the patience to walk a mile at 1 mph to verify the fix but the idea of wasting an hour walking that slowly is too much for me to bear!

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I thought Night Parrot's avatar was a cat with a melon on it's head...

 

I tried to do the slow walk thing tonight (figured I'd wait until dark to look less weird... don't think it worked). Walking 1 mph seems to be impossible unless you are 90 years old!! (I didn't do too well). I took a Legend Cx, GPSMap60cx and a Vista Hcx for a comparison but only had the patience to do .28 miles at what seemed like a snails pace to me. My average speed on all three GPS's was listed as the same -- 2.1 mph. That may not be slow enough to test the 2.6 upgrade but I don't think I'll ever walk slower than I walked tonight! The track logs showed that much of the time I was walking below 2.0 mph so maybe not a total loss.

 

All three GPS's recorded the same distance on the odometer and the track logs read the same (.28 miles). Since the track log total in Mapsource was in miles, I added up all the leg distances in feet and the distances were all very close. The only reading that I'd question on any of these units was the max speed on the Vista Hcx. It listed my max speed at 4.2 mph while the other two said 3.6 mph. I very much doubt I reached 4.2 mph but I did have to dart across the street which accounts for the higher reading on my otherwise painfully slow stroll.

 

I hope somebody has the patience to walk a mile at 1 mph to verify the fix but the idea of wasting an hour walking that slowly is too much for me to bear!

 

Where I find the Vista HCx probably goes wrong the most is when hiking, steeper slopes, where I am going slow and stopping often. The trip computer typically records that half of what I hike I am not even moving. At the end of the day of typical mountain hiking, the trip computer/odometer will typically show at least a few miles less than what track logs show.

 

Very excited to try it out with the update. Its frustrating to the point that I am ready to return.

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Where I find the Vista HCx probably goes wrong the most is when hiking, steeper slopes, where I am going slow and stopping often. The trip computer typically records that half of what I hike I am not even moving.

 

That, and I also saw the problem when snowshoeing.

Edited by oxothuk
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Where I find the Vista HCx probably goes wrong the most is when hiking, steeper slopes, where I am going slow and stopping often. The trip computer typically records that half of what I hike I am not even moving.

 

That, and I also saw the problem when snowshoeing.

 

Going to be using mine snowshoeing hopefully within the next few weeks and fully expected the odometer to be worthless then.

 

Going to a CITO event tomorrow that's in a large park. Hoping to be able to test the update then. Fairly sure there will be a lot of slow moving and stopping all day :-)

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Not sure just how valid this test was, but..........

 

Before upgrading to 2.6 I put my Vista in the window and left it for about an hour. The odometer didn't register any movement ("normal" drift). After the update about the same time in the same window registered about 250 ft from those little annoying "jumps" people are always complaining about!

 

That's about all the checking I've had time to do so far.

 

Rick

Edited by rstickle
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Going to a CITO event tomorrow that's in a large park. Hoping to be able to test the update then. Fairly sure there will be a lot of slow moving and stopping all day :-)

 

The CITO event involved mostly standing in one place and wasn't able to test the unit there as I planned. But that park sure needed some love :-(

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Anyone get out to test out this chipset update yet? I already own a vistaCX and what to upgrade to a HCX, I just want my trip odometer to work well.

Went out yesterday with my Vista HCx (2.50/2.60).

 

The odometer read 21.3km and the total according to the track log was 20.45, which is about the order of magnitude of difference I always saw on my old Venture. I have no idea why there was a difference at all with my old GPS, but at least it's around the same level of difference, and not the crazy differences that were reported with the older revisions.

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Anyone get out to test out this chipset update yet? I already own a vistaCX and what to upgrade to a HCX, I just want my trip odometer to work well.

Went out yesterday with my Vista HCx (2.50/2.60).

 

The odometer read 21.3km and the total according to the track log was 20.45, which is about the order of magnitude of difference I always saw on my old Venture. I have no idea why there was a difference at all with my old GPS, but at least it's around the same level of difference, and not the crazy differences that were reported with the older revisions.

How speed did you average? Anyone that keeps up a steady pace over 2 mph won't see the issue. It's when you are going through slow or steep terrain where the problem would occur.
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Anyone get out to test out this chipset update yet? I already own a vistaCX and what to upgrade to a HCX, I just want my trip odometer to work well.

Went out yesterday with my Vista HCx (2.50/2.60).

 

The odometer read 21.3km and the total according to the track log was 20.45, which is about the order of magnitude of difference I always saw on my old Venture. I have no idea why there was a difference at all with my old GPS, but at least it's around the same level of difference, and not the crazy differences that were reported with the older revisions.

How speed did you average? Anyone that keeps up a steady pace over 2 mph won't see the issue. It's when you are going through slow or steep terrain where the problem would occur.

Overall Avge was 3.7km/h including two breaks, and moving average was about 4.7km/h IIRC. Sorry I don't 'do' miles :laughing:

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Anyone get out to test out this chipset update yet? I already own a vistaCX and what to upgrade to a HCX, I just want my trip odometer to work well.

Went out yesterday with my Vista HCx (2.50/2.60).

 

The odometer read 21.3km and the total according to the track log was 20.45, which is about the order of magnitude of difference I always saw on my old Venture. I have no idea why there was a difference at all with my old GPS, but at least it's around the same level of difference, and not the crazy differences that were reported with the older revisions.

How speed did you average? Anyone that keeps up a steady pace over 2 mph won't see the issue. It's when you are going through slow or steep terrain where the problem would occur.

Overall Avge was 3.7km/h including two breaks, and moving average was about 4.7km/h IIRC. Sorry I don't 'do' miles :laughing:

You didn't go slow enough to test for the bug. It only happens under 2 mph or 3.2 km/h. Try it again keeping your moving speed under less than those... Edited by TrailGators
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I loaded the 2.60 GPS SW version today into my eTrex Vista Hcx (yes, after WebUpdater says the transfer is complete, the receiver still says Transferring data...I powered the unit down an back up and everything seems to be okay.)

 

I went out and made the following test. I walked on a bike path with mile markers to determine the actual distance I was covering. Under these conditions with the previous software version the Trip Computer was showing errors of up to 30% in some of the parameters and this was at average speeds of 2 - 3 mph. The "Stopped Time" was way off, showing I had stopped 20% to 30% of the time, when I hadn't stopped at all. As I walked, I could see the speed drop to 0.0 for a few seconds, then jump up again.

 

With software 2.60 the one mile walk showed the following results:

 

Odometer: 1.05 miles

Total Time: 18:45 minutes

Moving Time: 18:45 minutes

Stopped Time: 0:00 (this is now correct, since I didn't stop at all)

Max Speed: 4.2 mph

Moving Average: 3.4 mph

Overall Average: 3.4 mph

 

These results look pretty good, compared with the previous SW version. The one parameter which I'm sure is wrong is the Max Speed of 4.2 mph. I maintained a steady pace at ca. 3.0 mph. As I watched the display, I could see what was happening. The display appears to be updated about every second. I could see the odometer jump for one update from, say, 3.0 mph to 4.6 mph and then back down again. In general, the Speed reading toggled every second with a range of +/- 0.6 mph. Each time it hit a new high, that was captured as the new Max Speed. These erroneous peak speeds, I think, may have boosted the Average Speed a bit. The calculated Average Speed for 1.05 miles in 18:45 minutes is somewhat lower. I would be interested to hear if other people see this toggling effect in the speed, particularly on other GPSr models.

 

Don

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[You didn't go slow enough to test for the bug. It only happens under 2 mph or 3.2 km/h. Try it again keeping your moving speed under less than those...

Awfully sorry, I was only trying to be helpful. I wasn't "testing for the bug" just going for a walk as I do every weekend

Edited by AlunS
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I can't say for sure (only Garmin could), but I suspect the max speed issue is related to the fix. Here's my reasoning:

 

On one train of thought, someone at Garmin chose to ignore the small moves that the receiver detects which are, in truth, just changes in position due to the inherent inaccuracy of the civilian GPS signal. For instance, holding the receiver still, it will show movement over time, and Garmin chose to ignore that. So when moving very slowly, Garmin was struggling to differentiate movement from natural "drift".

 

Later, (when we began to howl?), Garmin attempted to register and use these small changes, and now, from one second to the next, you are detecting more and more of that inherent error. Each reading has some built in error, and that's what is maxing out the speed. For instance, let's say it takes a reading and the "normal" amount of error puts it two feet behind your true position. One second later, it takes another reading and this one puts it two feet in front of you (again, normal error being the culprit). When you calculate your speed as distance over time, you have an extra 4 feet change in position (that you really didn't cover). If you were moving much faster, say, a brisk walk, that 4 feet would be a smaller percentage of distance and the error reduces naturally. And it would continue to diminish as you go faster, and faster, and faster.

 

But wait, you say! Speed isn't calculated as distance over time, but instead is detected as Doppler shift in the signal. To that, I say, Fine, are you SURE that the GPSr itself didn't momentarily hit 4.2 mph as you swing your arm back and forth while walking? People, we're talking about spitting hairs here and we have been since this "error" was detected.

 

On proof-reading, this explanation doesn't sound too good, but I really feel like it's a trade-off based on what civilian GPS can and cannot do. In one case, they chose to ignore those small "drifts" and some thought it wasn't good enough. Now that they have gone back and tried to use those same "drifts", the speed change from one second to the next (this being the key), is erroneous. Methinks that as you walk faster, the max speed issue will become negligible. It's all in the accuracy of the signal.

 

I'm happy with mine; before AND after the upgrade.

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[You didn't go slow enough to test for the bug. It only happens under 2 mph or 3.2 km/h. Try it again keeping your moving speed under less than those...

Awfully sorry, I was only trying to be helpful. I wasn't "testing for the bug" just going for a walk as I do every weekend

No problem. I was just curious if it was really fixed. Everyone reporting in is walking too fast to truly answer that question. :laughing:
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I went for a brief walk around my block this afternoon after the Chargers/Colts game bringing my Garmin Legend C in my left hand and my Garmin Vista HCX in my other hand and recorded the track from both GPS's. When I came back, I checked both tracks and here's what the results were:

 

Legend C - 1980.33 ft.

Vista HCX - 1973.73 ft.

 

Only 6.6 ft. difference between the two. Legend C was more accurate to me. I did slow down as low as 0.4 mph. My Vista went to zero after i went below 0.7 mph so there still is a small bug but for most everyone, I think the chipset update will satisfy most of us unless you plan to drift on water. I'll do a much longer walk and test it again when weather allows. As for the Vista being on the bike, it's been pretty much on target so far.

 

Brian

Edited by patester24
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Anyone get out to test out this chipset update yet? I already own a vistaCX and what to upgrade to a HCX, I just want my trip odometer to work well.

 

I tried mine on a short hike to a chache this afternoon. It was uphill the whole way from the parking spot to the cache and I intentionally walked slowly during portions of the hike just to check the Trip Computer. I noticed that it was recording down to 0.4 mph. I didn't try walking any slower than that. When I stopped it went to zero but immediately started recording my speed again as soon as I started walking (something it did not always do before the chipset update). It appears that the odometer is now registering just a bit high. Here is the hike, as registered by the trip computer and the track log.

 

TripComp.jpgTrackLog.jpg

Edited by jmundinger
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These erroneous peak speeds, I think, may have boosted the Average Speed a bit. The calculated Average Speed for 1.05 miles in 18:45 minutes is somewhat lower. I would be interested to hear if other people see this toggling effect in the speed, particularly on other GPSr models.

Um...1.05 miles in 18 min 45 sec is an average speed of 3.36 mph. To one decimal place it's 3.4...exactly what you got. Peak speed is just a marker. Average speed (moving) will just take distance and divide by moving time, by definition.

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Went on a short hike today and had some issues. The unit shut off a few times which we *think* was due to some full charged but weird batteries. This seemed to cause part of the track log not to record going up.

 

The distance going up on the odometer did match the track log coming down though (track log on the way down was complete, just over a mile).

 

The trip was with a 4 year old, which meant our speed varied from chasing after him to barely moving to standing about.

 

When we left, stopped the track log and headed home, loaded coordinates and then went off to find a cache, maybe a total of 12 miles. When I got home noticed that the trip computer recorded 320 miles on the odometer and 102 max speed :unsure:

 

I'd be real interested if anyone has experienced anything like this or heard of stuff like this happening?

Edited by intolerable
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Since this thread seems to be the one that's stayed alive, I'd like to point out that this update "seems" to have worked on my Legend HCx. I walked down the street and saw speeds of less than 1mph.
How do you know exactly how far you actually walked? What was your reference?

 

I apologise. I was looking at the speeds and the compass rose and saw that they were working at less than 1 mph. Prior to the download they wouldn't work under 2mph. The tracklog has never been something I used so I never paid attention to it.

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Went on a short hike today and had some issues. The unit shut off a few times which we *think* was due to some full charged but weird batteries. This seemed to cause part of the track log not to record going up.

 

The distance going up on the odometer did match the track log coming down though (track log on the way down was complete, just over a mile).

 

The trip was with a 4 year old, which meant our speed varied from chasing after him to barely moving to standing about.

 

When we left, stopped the track log and headed home, loaded coordinates and then went off to find a cache, maybe a total of 12 miles. When I got home noticed that the trip computer recorded 320 miles on the odometer and 102 max speed :laughing:

 

I'd be real interested if anyone has experienced anything like this or heard of stuff like this happening?

I think your experience with the flaky batteries makes that test less than authoritative... Probably some power blips caused those outliers in your speed & distance.

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I think your experience with the flaky batteries makes that test less than authoritative... Probably some power blips caused those outliers in your speed & distance.

 

I agree completely, but wanted to note it. Also was wondering if anyone had experienced anything remotely similar in case it wasn't the batteries.

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For me, the update made a HUGE improvement. Previously, when walking slowly (say 4 km/h or less), the speed indicator when in compass mode would often be completely stuck at 0. This would in turn disrupt the odometer but also, the compass arrow would not update during that time, very annoying when trying to find a cache.

 

Now with the new update, that problem is gone. I took several glance over the course of an hour long walk and didn't see the speed stuck at 0 once. The walking time vs stopped time was much more accurate as well.

 

Thank you Garmin! I was about to return/sell that new hcx...

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I took a hike today up a steep hill. We had three GPS units and reset them at the very beginnning of the hike. I walked slightly further, but not a mile further, than my friend did who had the Legend HCx and ForeTrex. Here is a picture of the three GPS units at the end of the hike, as well as an image from the Track Log. I have the latest firmware on the Vista HCx.

 

c5968b05-3a5e-46dc-acae-92b26c14ecc3.jpg

 

e19ecaaf-5e79-44cb-803c-77370bcb2d3e.jpg

 

According to the Track log, I only hiked five miles while the Trip Computer said I went 5.61 miles.

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NOT a Vista HCx, I have the Legend HCx, same deal I guess...

 

1 - Approx. Date Of Purchase?

-- 11/2007

2 - Purchase Location?

-- nerds.net

3 - Unit Software Version? *

-- 2.40

4 - GPS SW Version? *

-- 2.30

5 - Unit ID? *

-- 336124xxxx

6 - Have you updated the firmware yourself?

-- Firmware, I think from 2.30 to 2.40

-- GPS FW, none was available.

7 - Have you noticed the Trip Computer bug firsthand? **

-- yes, no formal 'test' but *_seemed_* off to me.

8 - Does your typical usage depend on the Trip Computer function?

-- I'd *_like_* to be able to trust it!

9 - Have you contacted Garmin about the issue?

-- not yet

 

While reading the thread I plugged in and ran Web Updater. Found Firmware update from from 2.40 to 2.50. The GPS SW version updated from 2.30 to 2.60. Stalled during the transferring data. Power off/on, and it didn't 'brick it.' SO... Testing is in order now.

 

I DID notice right away that the direction arrow now seems much, much more responsive to directional changes. Before the update, it was very slow and unresponsive. Almost as if slow movements were being 'filtered.' That alone, will make the update worth it for me. The Odometer, if corrected, well cool I'll take that too.

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