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Garmin Oregon 2.98 Available


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http://www8.garmin.com/software/Oregon400t_298Beta.exe

 

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4397

 

* Fixed not acquiring signal from all satellites in view

* Changed EPE to be more dynamic in changing conditions

 

Just curious as to why they would release a BETA version if they don't know if it will work or not?

 

Do you think they even remember that they also released a Colorado?

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http://www8.garmin.com/software/Oregon400t_298Beta.exe

 

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4397

 

* Fixed not acquiring signal from all satellites in view

* Changed EPE to be more dynamic in changing conditions

 

Just curious as to why they would release a BETA version if they don't know if it will work or not?

 

Beta software is a well established trouble shooting technique in software development. Fortunately, for us, Garmin has chosen to use/allow us to help them debug their firmware.

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Beta software is a well established trouble shooting technique in software development. Fortunately, for us, Garmin has chosen to use/allow us to help them debug their firmware.

 

I don't mind beta testing but I hope we are not still doing it with version 3.98. Surely perfection is just around the corner.

 

I loaded 2.98 and walked around outside. I got good fast locks on the birds and 19 ft accuracy.

Edited by redhawk44p
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I am very glad that Garmin releases their software as often and as quickly as they do!

 

I would rather a beta and decide myself if I want to use it or not then not have the option at all....

 

Beta software is a well established trouble shooting technique in software development. Fortunately, for us, Garmin has chosen to use/allow us to help them debug their firmware.

 

I don't mind beta testing but I hope we are not still doing it with version 3.98. Surely perfection is just around the corner.

 

I loaded 2.98 and walked around outside. I got good fast locks on the birds and 19 ft accuracy.

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Beta software is a well established trouble shooting technique in software development. Fortunately, for us, Garmin has chosen to use/allow us to help them debug their firmware.

 

I don't mind beta testing but I hope we are not still doing it with version 3.98. Surely perfection is just around the corner.

 

I loaded 2.98 and walked around outside. I got good fast locks on the birds and 19 ft accuracy.

 

I was kinda hoping that 2.99 would be the last beta. LOL.

 

I am only getting 11 meter accuracy but I am seeing all the birds.

Edited by Tequila
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I found this for those who, like me, do not know what EPE means:

 

GPS accuracy.

 

The system is potentially VERY accurate. Used with some sophisticated equipment it can pinpoint a position with sub meter accuracy (a meter is just a tad more than a yard). Receivers that are sold in sporting goods stores are not so sophisticated and, theoretically, could be accurate to better than 20 meters, if it were not for Selective Availability.

 

The number of satellites being received and their respective positions influence the accuracy as well. In Illustration #1, the position is solved as a 3D Fix (three dimensional) with an Estimated Position Error (EPE) of 19 meters. Such numbers indicate fairly reliable working of the system. If the position is indicated as a 2D (two dimensional, no altitude solution), some considerable errors may be present. A 3D solution is what you really want, but do not get fooled by the 19 meters accuracy indication. It does not account for Selective Availability. Since SA error is usually smaller than 50 meters, a total error of 70 meters can be anticipated when the receiver indicates a 3D Fix and 20 meters EPE. At the same time, without using some additional equipment (DGPS), the error due to the SA can be larger than 100 meters! Further in the guide you will find ways of dealing with the SA. My experience shows that in most cases the position indicated by a handheld GPS is accurate to within 50 meters, but NEVER BET YOUR LIFE on it!

 

Selective Availability (SA).

 

GPS satellites send a number of different signals. Some of them are very precise and available to the US military and some other selected users. You and I are not the selected ones, so we can only receive signals that are not so accurate... In fact, a purposeful random error is introduced into the signal. As an effect of it, the position indicated by a popular handheld GPS receiver, at any time, may be wrong by 100 meters or more. That’s the bad news. There is also not so bad news. In reality, most of the time, the SA error is smaller than 50 meters. “Most of the time” is the key.

Edited by ARGUS.360
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Do you think they even remember that they also released a Colorado?

I'm with you! Hey, I'd be happy with an "älpha" version for our Colorado. Anything....... anyone, anyone, Beuller?

 

Maybe you should try loading OR firmware into the CO. Can only be an improvement :laughing:

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I was kinda hoping that 2.99 would be the last beta. LOL.

 

Well, since an increase in version number to the left of the decimal (2.xx to 3.xx) is traditionally used to indicate a fairly significant upgrade (beyond just a handful of bug fixes), I would hope that they're getting close to releasing something big (maybe it will come out of beta).

 

Otherwise, they're running out of numbers... unless they go to 2.99, then 2.999, then 2.9999... :laughing:

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I found this for those who, like me, do not know what EPE means:

 

GPS accuracy.

 

The system is potentially VERY accurate. Used with some sophisticated equipment it can pinpoint a position with sub meter accuracy (a meter is just a tad more than a yard). Receivers that are sold in sporting goods stores are not so sophisticated and, theoretically, could be accurate to better than 20 meters, if it were not for Selective Availability.

 

The number of satellites being received and their respective positions influence the accuracy as well. In Illustration #1, the position is solved as a 3D Fix (three dimensional) with an Estimated Position Error (EPE) of 19 meters. Such numbers indicate fairly reliable working of the system. If the position is indicated as a 2D (two dimensional, no altitude solution), some considerable errors may be present. A 3D solution is what you really want, but do not get fooled by the 19 meters accuracy indication. It does not account for Selective Availability. Since SA error is usually smaller than 50 meters, a total error of 70 meters can be anticipated when the receiver indicates a 3D Fix and 20 meters EPE. At the same time, without using some additional equipment (DGPS), the error due to the SA can be larger than 100 meters! Further in the guide you will find ways of dealing with the SA. My experience shows that in most cases the position indicated by a handheld GPS is accurate to within 50 meters, but NEVER BET YOUR LIFE on it!

 

Selective Availability (SA).

 

GPS satellites send a number of different signals. Some of them are very precise and available to the US military and some other selected users. You and I are not the selected ones, so we can only receive signals that are not so accurate... In fact, a purposeful random error is introduced into the signal. As an effect of it, the position indicated by a popular handheld GPS receiver, at any time, may be wrong by 100 meters or more. That’s the bad news. There is also not so bad news. In reality, most of the time, the SA error is smaller than 50 meters. “Most of the time” is the key.

 

What you pasted in is quite old. Selective Availability (SA) was set to zero in 2000, thus the advent of Geocaching, so this no longer applies. As for EPE Estimated Position Error, it is merely the manufacture's programed estimate of how well your GPS is giving an accurate position. Not gospel. Differs from unit model to unit model. Just a helpful tool.

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I got an email from garmin that 2.98 was available. My email to garmin beta was specifically about the unit not seeing the birds.

 

Me too. I am seeing more birds but only an accuracy of 8 to 10 meters. Before, when 2.97 was working, I would get 2 to 3 meter accuracy.

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Garmin finally answered my e-mails (3) as well, and announced Ver 2.98b. I loaded it...crossed my fingers, and went out to acquire. Wide open sky view, east coast, locked on to 10 satellites, with WAAS, best EPE was 9 feet. I really have my fingers crossed that this version will do the trick. I'll test it some tomorrow, and extensively next week on a trip to Virginia Beach.

 

Bill

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Just did the install: GPS software goes from 2.8 to 3.40, I hope that this fixes my accuracy problem.

 

The last few s/w updates have done nothing ( for my 400t ) to fix accuracy issues ( never noticed if the GPS software was updated ). I was having odd problems, I'd get, say, 5 meters from a cache and suddenly my 400t would say 15 meters somewhere else. I actually have cross a street to find a cache, only to have to re-cross it to actually get to the actual cache location ... that's bad.

 

I'll be caching tomorrow, hope this does the trick for me.

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..

I don't mind beta testing but I hope we are not still doing it with version 3.98. Surely perfection is just around the corner.

..

 

Don't forget that whilst we are getting these very frequent beta updates we are seeing a lot of new features being added too!

 

If we can keep the beta going until version 4.00 we may get our EPE circle and landscape mode :laughing:

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Not happy with new fix...much better accuracy,for me,with 2.97.......

 

How did you know? Did you mark a waypoint at a benchmark? did you post process the data? side by side with a trimble? OR did you look at the "Accuracy" data field?

 

The reason people got "better" accuracy with previous versions was because Garmin's equation was not a good representation of what the data was telling the GPS. I feel that this 2.98 version is much better at giving you more real numbers with a higher fidelity to the actual data.

 

Remember, the "Accuracy" numbers the GPS displays are just a guide and by no means does it somehow magically represent reality. It is simply an estimation, an equation. Garmin could write an equation that always equals 1ft, that wont mean the GPS is any more or less accurate than if they wrote the equation to always equal 1mile.

 

I would rather have the EPE numbers be more dynamic and representative of error than a conservative estimate to give people a false perception of accuracy. It's like having your 5 year old tell you he didn't shave the cat, even though he did. He lied to avoid punishment (beta <2.97) rather than fessing up to be accountable (beta 2.98).

 

That was my little rant on EPE. Much love!! :huh:

Edited by yogazoo
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Not happy with new fix...much better accuracy,for me,with 2.97.......

 

How did you know? Did you mark a waypoint at a benchmark? did you post process the data? side by side with a trimble? OR did you look at the "Accuracy" data field?

 

The reason people got "better" accuracy with previous versions was because Garmin's equation was not a good representation of what the data was telling the GPS. I feel that this 2.98 version is much better at giving you more real numbers with a higher fidelity to the actual data.

 

Remember, the "Accuracy" numbers the GPS displays are just a guide and by no means does it somehow magically represent reality. It is simply an estimation, an equation. Garmin could write an equation that always equals 1ft, that wont mean the GPS is any more or less accurate than if they wrote the equation to always equal 1mile.

 

I would rather have the EPE numbers be more dynamic and representative of error than a conservative estimate to give people a false perception of accuracy. It's like having your 5 year old tell you he didn't shave the cat, even though he did. He lied to avoid punishment (beta <2.97) rather than fessing up to be accountable (beta 2.98).

 

That was my little rant on EPE. Much love!! :huh:

So according to your rant i should hide my caches when i have a 30 to 50 foot accuracy with the 2.98 fix rather than 8 to 15 foot accuracy with the previous 2.97 fix.....Ya Right !!!

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currently using an Oregon 400t post 2.98 accuracy was nearly always 3metres and was very happy, install 2.98 last night and rebooted, took about 10mins to lock on to all sats but only 15metre accuracy at that stage was not too happy but come to think about it later on i was standing outside on my back balcony with other houses around. but this morning was back down to 3metres so decided to try it out to find a cache and it was spot on, down to 0-1 metre so was very happy but will continue to monitor it.

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Remember that EPE is just the unit's estimation of position error based on an internal algorithm that Garmin can change at any time. The fact that you are seeing higher EPE with 2.98 does not mean that it is less accurate than 2.97, it just means the algorithm that computes the estimated error has changed (and actually might be more representative of the real error). Based on my testing yesterday I would say that 2.98 has about the same accuracy as 2.97 -- what Garmin hopefully fixed was the major drift issues associated with 2.95-2.97 not locking to available satellites. In my testing these issues were infrequent but very obvious when they did happen.

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I hiked about 10 km today doing cache maintenance and placing new ones. It the maintenance case, the OR was bang on. Time will tell if the placements were good.

 

I was getting 3 meter accuracy while driving and 4 - 8 meter accuracy in the bush. As mentioned above, this may be just a change in the algorithm.

 

I did notice that when I did waypoint averaging, the OR took much longer to state 100% on sample confidence. And the coordinates did change while I was waiting. In one case after 5 minutes it stated only 53% sample confidence. And I also saw the sample confidence decrease.

 

On the more positive note, I had a lock on 10+ birds at all times. And strong signals.

 

I am happy.

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It wasn't documented in the software update fixes, but the waypoint symbols in the Hunting category now transfer from Mapsource to GPS and from GPS to Mapsource properly. Before, all the Hunting Waypoint Symbols would default to the blue flag when a waypoint with a Hunting Symbol was transferred.

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Maybe a stupid question, but I've just ordered the 400T and was wondering how you can tell what verison of flimware it has? I'm guessing that the newer units shipped from Garmin would have the latest verison.

 

It will not have the latest software on it. I got one Oregon shipped directly from Garmin in Olathe just after sw v2.93B had come out and it shipped with sw v2.8. I got another Oregon, again directly from Garmin in Olathe, just after sw v2.95B came out and it shipped with sw v2.3. So first thing to do when you get it is to back up EVERYTHING on gps to your PC, this will take about 80 minutes. Then update to latest software

Edited by eaparks
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... we may get our EPE circle and landscape mode :)

 

Amen . . . and I'll gladly kiss the EPE circle goodbye for landscape mode. I've recently found that when using the touchscreen interface while the unit is hanging on my belt loop (via the include carabiner) that landscape mode would be useful there as well as in the car :D

 

Getting ready to go load 2.98b

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I can't seem to find the software updates for those of us who have Oregon 400ts and Macs.

This post was pointed out to me as a way to extract the update on a Mac. I used its instructions to load the 2.97 and now 2.98 beta. It worked great. :(

 

That was perfect! Thanks so much! I don't think I would have found that by myself.

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Took a walk this evening after work in the neighborhood. Oregon with 2.98b on the carabiner, on my belt clip.

 

The recorded track was better than with 2.80 and better than 2.97b both recorded in similar conditions.

 

Haven't had a chance to cache yet but I hope to see how it reads on a benchmark or two tomorrow.

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Took a walk this evening after work in the neighborhood. Oregon with 2.98b on the carabiner, on my belt clip.

 

The recorded track was better than with 2.80 and better than 2.97b both recorded in similar conditions.

 

Haven't had a chance to cache yet but I hope to see how it reads on a benchmark or two tomorrow.

 

Managed to stop by a triangulation benchmark on the way home from lunch yesterday. Oregon 400t read 2 Feet when sitting on top of the disk. I also had a hike under heavy tree cover yesterday and the tracklog looked great.

 

Butler-USGS-Disk.JPG

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I was caching this weekend in Upper Tennessee and lower Virginia and found 292 caches with version 2.97b. The unit just cut off for no reason several times. Other than that it performed pretty well with drift about 4 times (over about 25 hours of caching!).

 

I wish I had THIS version with me though. I loaded it yesterday but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. I hope the unit doesn't just shut off with this version.

 

(I haven't logged my 292 fines yet... I'm 'sandbagging' to get to 3000 before a friend of mine does... ;-)

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Took a walk this evening after work in the neighborhood. Oregon with 2.98b on the carabiner, on my belt clip.

 

The recorded track was better than with 2.80 and better than 2.97b both recorded in similar conditions.

 

Haven't had a chance to cache yet but I hope to see how it reads on a benchmark or two tomorrow.

 

Managed to stop by a triangulation benchmark on the way home from lunch yesterday. Oregon 400t read 2 Feet when sitting on top of the disk. I also had a hike under heavy tree cover yesterday and the tracklog looked great.

 

I'll also toss in that I checked 2.97 off this benchmark 3 times and got readings ranging from 10-15 feet all three times.

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Not happy with new fix...much better accuracy,for me,with 2.97.......

 

How did you know? Did you mark a waypoint at a benchmark? did you post process the data? side by side with a trimble? OR did you look at the "Accuracy" data field?

 

The reason people got "better" accuracy with previous versions was because Garmin's equation was not a good representation of what the data was telling the GPS. I feel that this 2.98 version is much better at giving you more real numbers with a higher fidelity to the actual data.

 

Remember, the "Accuracy" numbers the GPS displays are just a guide and by no means does it somehow magically represent reality. It is simply an estimation, an equation. Garmin could write an equation that always equals 1ft, that wont mean the GPS is any more or less accurate than if they wrote the equation to always equal 1mile.

 

I would rather have the EPE numbers be more dynamic and representative of error than a conservative estimate to give people a false perception of accuracy. It's like having your 5 year old tell you he didn't shave the cat, even though he did. He lied to avoid punishment (beta <2.97) rather than fessing up to be accountable (beta 2.98).

 

That was my little rant on EPE. Much love!! :anibad:

So according to your rant i should hide my caches when i have a 30 to 50 foot accuracy with the 2.98 fix rather than 8 to 15 foot accuracy with the previous 2.97 fix.....Ya Right !!!

 

The point being made is that the accuracy of the GPS is not dependent on the way the potential error is being calculated. The accuracy is not precisely known so the EPE numbers are estimates. Changing the way the EPE is calculated does not change the actual error of the Oregon.

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The point being made is that the accuracy of the GPS is not dependent on the way the potential error is being calculated. The accuracy is not precisely known so the EPE numbers are estimates. Changing the way the EPE is calculated does not change the actual error of the Oregon.

That's the exact thought I had when I was taking that picture.

 

Before (on 2.97) I would have EPE readings of 8 feet but the GPS would show 14 feet away from the benchmark. 2.98 shows 20 ft EPE but shows 2 feet from marker.

 

I'm trying a cache at lunch. Hopefully the accuracy is as good on this cache location :anibad:

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