Garmin Colorado 400t

[+FireRef]

Hi - I went and did a bunch of caches yesterday, but had a wierd problem - for most of the caches, the arrow pointed 90 degrees to the right of where I was going. My track on the map showed me (the arrow on the map) as pointing 90 degrees off, and this meant the arrow pointing to the cache was 90 degrees off. This was consistent over several miles of walking, heading toward several caches.

 

Any ideas? Rather irritating....

[+twolpert]

Hi - I went and did a bunch of caches yesterday, but had a wierd problem - for most of the caches, the arrow pointed 90 degrees to the right of where I was going. My track on the map showed me (the arrow on the map) as pointing 90 degrees off, and this meant the arrow pointing to the cache was 90 degrees off. This was consistent over several miles of walking, heading toward several caches.

 

Any ideas? Rather irritating....

Either turn off the compass or calibrate it. Many cachers turn it off. If you choose to leave it on, be sure to hold the unit absolutely level during calibration and use.

 

With the compass in auto mode, your direction of travel at low speeds is determined by the compass, not satellite information. This indirectly determines the behavior of the "pointer", since it reflects the difference between your direction of travel and the direction you should be going to reach the current navigation target. At higher speeds, the unit uses the satellite information to determine direction of travel. I believe the cutoff speed is 10 miles an hour. Seems rather high, but so says the wiki -- which is usually right.

 

With the compass off, direction of travel is always determined by the satellite track.

[+FireRef]

Hi - I went and did a bunch of caches yesterday, but had a wierd problem - for most of the caches, the arrow pointed 90 degrees to the right of where I was going. My track on the map showed me (the arrow on the map) as pointing 90 degrees off, and this meant the arrow pointing to the cache was 90 degrees off. This was consistent over several miles of walking, heading toward several caches.

 

Any ideas? Rather irritating....

Either turn off the compass or calibrate it. Many cachers turn it off. If you choose to leave it on, be sure to hold the unit absolutely level during calibration and use.

 

With the compass in auto mode, your direction of travel at low speeds is determined by the compass, not satellite information. This indirectly determines the behavior of the "pointer", since it reflects the difference between your direction of travel and the direction you should be going to reach the current navigation target. At higher speeds, the unit uses the satellite information to determine direction of travel. I believe the cutoff speed is 10 miles an hour. Seems rather high, but so says the wiki -- which is usually right.

 

With the compass off, direction of travel is always determined by the satellite track.

 

Thank you very much! I figured it had to be something simple and stupid, but I couldn't figure it out... haha - thanks again!

[+splashy]

Bottom line, is the compass usable??

[+StarBrand]

Bottom line, is the compass usable??

My opinion - if you hold it perfectly still and level - the compass works well - if you calibrated it recently. Start moving and it is very erratic and jumpy as it is difficult to hold level while walking.

 

I just turned the thing off. When i need a compass - my watch has one, my jacket pull has one, my hiking stick has one and I sometimes carry a sylvia in my pack.

[Dosido]

Bottom line, is the compass usable??

I'm continually amazed at the number of people that swear off the compass - both on the 60 series and the CO.

 

I never have problems with the compass - simply make it a habit of calibrating it each time you change the batteries, and you should be good to go.

 

Admittedly, I came over from a Magellan Explorist 500, which didn't have the 2 axis compass, so it's definitely a plus not to have to be moving to get a directional bearing.

[+george_k]

Bottom line, is the compass usable??

I'm continually amazed at the number of people that swear off the compass - both on the 60 series and the CO.

 

I never have problems with the compass - simply make it a habit of calibrating it each time you change the batteries, and you should be good to go.

 

Hey... finally! Someone else who also has been having consistently good experiences with the compass. I'm also amazed by how many people seem to dislike it so much. I posted about my positive experience with the compass before on a different thread, but have been laying low since then, since it seems like there are so many more people who dislike the compass than like it. I was beginning to think I was the only one who uses the compass all the time.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to chime in that the compass is not as unreliable as one might be led to believe. I encourage people to give it a try (or second try). You may find you actually like it...

 

Regards,

 

George

[+g-o-cashers]

I actually think the compass is pretty useful. The problem I have is how it works on the Colorado in auto mode:

 

1) If you use the map screen to navigate there is no way to know if the compass is on and not being held flat or on and not calibrated. The only place you get the "hold level" warning is on the compass page which I seldom use. Oregon has this problem as well.

 

2) In "auto" mode the Colorado switches to the electronic compass below 10mph which means if you are walking the compass is on and the unit needs to be held flat which isn't optimal for the quad helix antenna. Oregon's switch speed is much lower, like 1-2mph.

 

GO$Rs

Edited November 10, 2008 by g-o-cashers

[+GeekBoy.from.Illinois]

Hi - I went and did a bunch of caches yesterday, but had a wierd problem - for most of the caches, the arrow pointed 90 degrees to the right of where I was going. My track on the map showed me (the arrow on the map) as pointing 90 degrees off, and this meant the arrow pointing to the cache was 90 degrees off. This was consistent over several miles of walking, heading toward several caches.

 

Any ideas? Rather irritating....

 

I have a forest preserve near me that every time I go caching there, I have problems with my GPSr. I have just accepted that the cell tower that is less than 300 feet from the parking area is impacting the unit from working properly. I have seen things in that area that I have not seen anywhere else. Things like the little "arrow" on the map screen that represents you and your direction on movement to be pointing 90 degrees off, to that it looks like you are moving sideways and leaving a track log of to your left. It didn't matter how many times I calibrated the compass, or how many different times I visited that area, it happened every visit. I even calibrated my compass 3 times in one visit, and still had things like this happening...

[+rjmlakota]

Bottom line, is the compass usable??

 

I never have problems with the compass - simply make it a habit of calibrating it each time you change the batteries, and you should be good to go.

 

 

I’m not sure if it matters, but I was told by Garmin support that the compass should be calibrated every time the unit is powered up. Just thought I would share that with all the users here.

 

With the GPS having to be held at a level position to get an accurate compass reading, it brings up a question that I have. Is this do to the hardware that is used in the GPSr, or is it because of the software? Is this something Garmin can change with a firmware upgrade? It would be nice to use the compass without having to hold the unit level.

 

Thanks,

 

RJ

Edited November 11, 2008 by rjmlakota

[+g-o-cashers]

That's interesting because Garmin's manuals have always said this:

 

Calibrate the compass after moving large distances, experiencing temperature changes or changing the batteries.

 

Holding the unit level is a hardware requirement imposed by the 2-axis compass.

 

GO$Rs