spacejam1 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Just bought a Garmin Legend off of ebay and was so excited, I am a newbie to all this. Well took it out today for my first solo run and was SO disapointed. I had decent satalite reception and was in the woods but there wasn't any cover due to all the leaves being down. I had all my caches d/l and off I went. Well, got to the woods and it seemed to be taking me on a decent course and I followed it. I realize that the direction is going to waver and you need to be moving. Just keep on the main course and it will "right" itself. I would get within 15 feet of the cache, and then the arrow would point straight behind me to South. ?? So I turned around and headed that way and the feet were clicking down and figured I was on the right path. Well, then it turned totally west and then said I was 45 feet away from the cache. So I walked that way and then it would totally turn N! So basically I went round and round. Find the area of the cache and then my gps would tell me I was totally in the wrong area. I was so confused it was crazy. I did finally find the cache after the gps telling me MANY times that I was 8 feet from it, but it was always a different spot. Spent about an hour and half doing this. Not really having fun at the end till I actually found the cache. Tried the next cache, well I would walk 15 feet and the gps would register that I had 25 feet to the cache. Kept walking and walking and the gps STILL said 15 ft to cache. What in the world is going on? I knew this was a low end model, but being a house painter and its Jan, money is tight. (and being in school doesnt' help either) Sorry for the long post but what is going on with my gps? Am I doing something wrong? ANY help would be so greatly appreciated. If its the unit I want to get a decent gps that will work but not cost me a fortune right now. PLEASE help a newbie! Quote Link to comment
+snowball 58 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=210589 Read this thread and read through getting started threads for more info and good luck with your hunts Quote Link to comment
Motorcycle_Mama Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 The recreational grade GPS unit will typically get you within 20 - 40 feet of the cache location. (This is the accuracy limitation.) At that point, put it in your pocket and start looking around. Using your senses, is typically a better search. The unit sounds like it was performing correctly. Quote Link to comment
zorakk Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 The compass on your GPS is not a real compass.It can only show which direction you are going while you are moving.When you stop moving it will start acting in an erratic manor.Sorry i have a legend also,just the nature of the beast i suppose.Mine also jumps around with basically the same symptons.The only way i can think of to help you out is a little advice that i have heard bouncing around on this forum.The GPS can only get you so close,so start with some easy caches ,look at the clues and look for an obvious place that the cache could be in the general area that the GPS led you to.You can spend a lot of money on a new reciever that will alleviate a good majority of the problems you are having but as one newbie to another that's how i found my 1st cache. Quote Link to comment
+Albanysquad Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 A piece of advice: If you have no tree cover, then most likely your GPS's distance from the cache number won't change when you are standing still. However, if you get close to the cache, the arrow pointing which way to go probably will. When you are within about 60 ft of the cache, don't follow the arrow. Just see if going forward or backward makes the distance go down, and then walk until it gets to a point where going both forwards AND backwards makes the distance go down. Walk on the line perpendicular to the line you just walked, and go the direction that makes the distance go down. You should be able to find the cache easier than just following the arrow. Quote Link to comment
spacejam1 Posted January 5, 2009 Author Share Posted January 5, 2009 Thanks SO much for all the info. The really tricky part is when your walking and the gps suddenly points at where you just came from, even though the feet has been getting closer. What do you do then? Just keep walking straight as you were going and look for cache places? Also, on the 2nd cache, I walked over 200 feet and the distance to the waypoint only changed 2 feet. ????? I mean I walked a LONG way and it only changed a few feet. I figured it might be to me right or left. So I veered off several times. The funny thing is that the clue was A downed tree, there were MANY downed trees in that stretch of the woods! lol I checked em all! lol High and low, but I did find the first one and was so happy! So what do you folks do when your walking and suddenly your gps tells your to go back the way you came and the distance pops up dramatically? Thanks a lot! I thought I was going crazy till you people helped me out. I guess it takes some time to learn how the gps works and how to "read" it. Also, I do realize that I am not going to get right on top of the cache, you have to look! Thats part of it! At one point it said I was 7 ft from the cache and I looked all around that tree, then it said I was 425 from the point. Hummm. Not giving up! Thanks! Quote Link to comment
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