+keend0 Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 I purchased a new GPS in December and started geocaching. The gps unit has been working great and was very accurate. Yesterday while out caching, I could not locate the first cache. I went on to the next (supposed to be a really easy find) and could not find it either. Coordinates had me looking in the middle of a field. After a while, I went over to the fence line 236 feet away and found the cache. I then hit find again and the unit was directing me 236 feet NW (back to field). I downloaded the coordinates to my gps so I thought they were accurate but triple checked them anyway and they were. I then marked the location on my gps unit and used the average function and the coordinates were dead on to where the cache was listed as being. So I hit find the coordinates again and the unit said 236 feet NW to destination. My question....what's going on here? Has anyone ever had this type problem? Is there a problem with my gps unit, the operator, or are errors like this common sometimes? The accuracy on my gps unit was +- 10ft. I am new and have only a dozen caches under my belt. Your help would be appreciated as I would like to get back out and enjoy the spring weather. Thanks!. Quote Link to comment
+Miragee Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 Welcome to the Forums! What kind of GPS unit do you have? Did it get switched to a different Datum, or to Battery Saver mode? Quote Link to comment
Keystone Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 I am moving this thread from the Geocaching Topics forum to the GPS Units and Software forum. Quote Link to comment
+keend0 Posted April 6, 2008 Author Share Posted April 6, 2008 Welcome to the Forums! What kind of GPS unit do you have? Did it get switched to a different Datum, or to Battery Saver mode? It is a Garmin 60CSx Map Datum is set to WGS 84 It is in Normal mode. WAAS/EGNOS is disabled Quote Link to comment
+Blindmantoo Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 I purchased a new GPS in December and started geocaching. The gps unit has been working great and was very accurate. Yesterday while out caching, I could not locate the first cache. I went on to the next (supposed to be a really easy find) and could not find it either. Coordinates had me looking in the middle of a field. After a while, I went over to the fence line 236 feet away and found the cache. I then hit find again and the unit was directing me 236 feet NW (back to field). I downloaded the coordinates to my gps so I thought they were accurate but triple checked them anyway and they were. I then marked the location on my gps unit and used the average function and the coordinates were dead on to where the cache was listed as being. So I hit find the coordinates again and the unit said 236 feet NW to destination. My question....what's going on here? Has anyone ever had this type problem? Is there a problem with my gps unit, the operator, or are errors like this common sometimes? The accuracy on my gps unit was +- 10ft. I am new and have only a dozen caches under my belt. Your help would be appreciated as I would like to get back out and enjoy the spring weather. Thanks!. There's something going on lately. I read a few posts here concerning others who were having similar problems. It happened to me today. My Vista HCx has been flawless since I purchased it around the first of the year. I live in central Ohio and decided to take it on a short hike today just to see if I'd have any problems. Couldn't get a fix for thirty minutes until I turned WAAS off. My error was typically 100' plus. I had tried to autolocate, locate by selecting my location on the map, and more. Typically I get a fix in about 20 seconds. Tonight I'm in the house and it seems fine (I just turned the unit on and got a fix in ~20 seconds and the accuracy is 17') . Good thing I wasn't trying to cache today or it would have been a wasted trip. Quote Link to comment
fletcherrules Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 I purchased a new GPS in December and started geocaching. The gps unit has been working great and was very accurate. Yesterday while out caching, I could not locate the first cache. I went on to the next (supposed to be a really easy find) and could not find it either. Coordinates had me looking in the middle of a field. After a while, I went over to the fence line 236 feet away and found the cache. I then hit find again and the unit was directing me 236 feet NW (back to field). I downloaded the coordinates to my gps so I thought they were accurate but triple checked them anyway and they were. I then marked the location on my gps unit and used the average function and the coordinates were dead on to where the cache was listed as being. So I hit find the coordinates again and the unit said 236 feet NW to destination. My question....what's going on here? Has anyone ever had this type problem? Is there a problem with my gps unit, the operator, or are errors like this common sometimes? The accuracy on my gps unit was +- 10ft. I am new and have only a dozen caches under my belt. Your help would be appreciated as I would like to get back out and enjoy the spring weather. Thanks!. Reply from Fletcherrules: I myself may or may not seem to have this problem,but I own a very out dated(but very well constructed) Garmin 75,that was bought 15 years ago!I haven't exactly found any caches yet,and I'm not sure if it's because of it's accuracy,or that I'm just not experienced enough!The answer to your second Question may or may not have been answered,but I do wish to know if the Garmin 75 works! Quote Link to comment
+geokitebuggy Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 I saw this kind of behavior with my 76CSx one time last year. The error was on the order of 600 ft. and lasted for about 1 hour. I tried on/off/on, new batteries, etc. to no effect. Suddenly, about an hour later, things snapped back to normal. Several other forum members reported the same thing from across the country, so I'd suspect an incident with the satellite constellation, either accidental or intentional. Quote Link to comment
+keend0 Posted April 10, 2008 Author Share Posted April 10, 2008 Just an update. After searching and reading more on this forum, I did a hard reset and downloaded the latest firmware and the issue seems to be gone. Guess I should have done more research before bothering all of you. Rookies make rookie mistakes. Thanks for everyone's help! Quote Link to comment
gitarmac Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Why would one not want waas enabled? Isn't it supposed to make it more accurate? Quote Link to comment
roughrider11 Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 I went to the garmin website and downloaded software that keeps your GPS software and revisions up to date. Quote Link to comment
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