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Compass Problems With Oregon 300


OldA'sFan

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I have an Oregon 300 which I like very much (except for the dim screen) :laughing:. However, the compass does not seem to work properly. I've compared the Oregon compass with my Brunto compass and when moving it is quite close. However, when I stand still the Oregon's compass shifts up to 60 degrees east or west. This happens about 50% of the time. I have the compass on the following settings: Display Numeric Degrees; North Reference - True; Go to Line Bearing; Compass - Auto; I have a hunch the electronic compass is deffective, but before I return it I want to get some comments. Thanks much for your help.

 

OldA'sFan

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I have an Oregon 300 which I like very much (except for the dim screen) :laughing:. However, the compass does not seem to work properly. I've compared the Oregon compass with my Brunto compass and when moving it is quite close. However, when I stand still the Oregon's compass shifts up to 60 degrees east or west. This happens about 50% of the time. I have the compass on the following settings: Display Numeric Degrees; North Reference - True; Go to Line Bearing; Compass - Auto; I have a hunch the electronic compass is deffective, but before I return it I want to get some comments. Thanks much for your help.

When that happens, did you try recalibrating your compass?

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I have an Oregon 300 which I like very much (except for the dim screen) :laughing:. However, the compass does not seem to work properly. I've compared the Oregon compass with my Brunto compass and when moving it is quite close. However, when I stand still the Oregon's compass shifts up to 60 degrees east or west. This happens about 50% of the time. I have the compass on the following settings: Display Numeric Degrees; North Reference - True; Go to Line Bearing; Compass - Auto; I have a hunch the electronic compass is deffective, but before I return it I want to get some comments. Thanks much for your help.

When that happens, did you try recalibrating your compass?

Thats what I was wondering

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I have an Oregon 300 which I like very much (except for the dim screen) :laughing:. However, the compass does not seem to work properly. I've compared the Oregon compass with my Brunto compass and when moving it is quite close. However, when I stand still the Oregon's compass shifts up to 60 degrees east or west. This happens about 50% of the time. I have the compass on the following settings: Display Numeric Degrees; North Reference - True; Go to Line Bearing; Compass - Auto; I have a hunch the electronic compass is deffective, but before I return it I want to get some comments. Thanks much for your help.

When that happens, did you try recalibrating your compass?

Good question. No, I didn't recalibrate at that time. I started walking and it corrected itself. However, I had recalibrated just prior (about 10 min) to the occurance. One other thing. Here recently after I calibrate (using Reset-Hedading-Calibrate Compass) the unit will ask me to recalibrate again.

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I have an Oregon 300 which I like very much (except for the dim screen) :lol:. However, the compass does not seem to work properly. I've compared the Oregon compass with my Brunto compass and when moving it is quite close. However, when I stand still the Oregon's compass shifts up to 60 degrees east or west. This happens about 50% of the time. I have the compass on the following settings: Display Numeric Degrees; North Reference - True; Go to Line Bearing; Compass - Auto; I have a hunch the electronic compass is deffective, but before I return it I want to get some comments. Thanks much for your help.

When that happens, did you try recalibrating your compass?

Good question. No, I didn't recalibrate at that time. I started walking and it corrected itself. However, I had recalibrated just prior (about 10 min) to the occurance. One other thing. Here recently after I calibrate (using Reset-Hedading-Calibrate Compass) the unit will ask me to recalibrate again.

You either weren't holding it flat and level, or you turned too quickly or slowly.

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I started walking and it corrected itself

 

that would lead me to believe that you have the compass off. Most people I know (including me) don't turn it on becasue of the problem you described. It only works when it can plot two consecutive points and draw a line with an azimuth. When you stop it wiggles.

 

Try Setup - Heading and see if the compass is set to Auto or Off. Off only means that you have to be moving not that it won't work. If it is on Auto it shouldn't be doing what you describe.

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I started walking and it corrected itself

 

that would lead me to believe that you have the compass off. Most people I know (including me) don't turn it on becasue of the problem you described. It only works when it can plot two consecutive points and draw a line with an azimuth. When you stop it wiggles.

 

Try Setup - Heading and see if the compass is set to Auto or Off. Off only means that you have to be moving not that it won't work. If it is on Auto it shouldn't be doing what you describe.

I have it set for auto. I have a hunch that it is deffective. Thanks much for your reply.

 

OldA'sFan

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I have it set for auto. I have a hunch that it is deffective.

I've had electronic compasses in various forms for a number of years, and have never been impressed much by them.

 

Depending on where you are and what's around you when you calibrate the compass, it may give very strange readings.

 

If you really want to test it, try calibrating it in an open area, a distance (say, 50 ft) from any metallic / magnetic objects (e.g. your car, and your compass), then test it against the compass.

 

I have the 300 as well, and don't tend to use the magnetic compass much.

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I have it set for auto. I have a hunch that it is deffective. Thanks much for your reply.

 

OldA'sFan

On my 60csx "auto" means shut off the electronic when moving above a certain speed. The arrow acts differently when the electronic compass is on. "Differently" does not mean defectively. Put the GPS down on a flat surface and put your eye close to the GPS and sight down the arrow. Turn the GPS and sight down the arrow again. If the arrow points to the same place for both sightings the magnetic compass is on. If the arrow moves with the GPS the compass is off. Two totally different responses.
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When you have the Heading>Compass set to Auto the electronic compass will only come on when you are not moving or moving slower than 1-2mph. The problem is that it is very hard to know when this switchover happens -- there isn't an explicit indication that the unit is using the electronic compass vs. your movement to determine your heading.

 

That is why most people leave the compass off because if you are moving slowly you may see erratic behavior if the unit isn't calibrated or being held flat. If you are in a situation where you can't move (fast enough) to get a heading using your movement, calibrate the compass (which will also turn it on), hold the GPS flat and away from metallic objects, take your heading and disable the compass again. For the few times you really need the electronic compass I find that this is the most reliable and it also saves on battery drain.

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On the Oregon (pre x50 units), it's actually quite easy to see when the unit switches from GPS to electronic compass. On the compass screen, it will display "hold level" or something like that when the electronic compass is on. Text will turn off when it switches to GPS compass.

 

I assume with the X50 units that have the 3-axis compass, it will no longer display this text since it doesn't need to be level for the electronic compass to be accurate.

 

I've definitely found that the electronic compass on the Oregon needs to be recalibrated more often than it did on my VistaHCX.

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When you have the Heading>Compass set to Auto the electronic compass will only come on when you are not moving or moving slower than 1-2mph. The problem is that it is very hard to know when this switchover happens -- there isn't an explicit indication that the unit is using the electronic compass vs. your movement to determine your heading.

 

That is why most people leave the compass off because if you are moving slowly you may see erratic behavior if the unit isn't calibrated or being held flat. If you are in a situation where you can't move (fast enough) to get a heading using your movement, calibrate the compass (which will also turn it on), hold the GPS flat and away from metallic objects, take your heading and disable the compass again. For the few times you really need the electronic compass I find that this is the most reliable and it also saves on battery drain.

 

Thanks much for the input. I'll try your suggestion out and let you know what happens.

 

OldA'sFan

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Good question. No, I didn't recalibrate at that time. I started walking and it corrected itself. However, I had recalibrated just prior (about 10 min) to the occurance. One other thing. Here recently after I calibrate (using Reset-Hedading-Calibrate Compass) the unit will ask me to recalibrate again.

Once you start moving, and since you're in "auto", the unit will begin to use GPS readings to calculate your motion vs. the target. That may be confusing things a bit. ALL of the Garmin units I've seen and used with a mag compass are sensitive to battery voltage. It's an ongoing design issue. You'll find that as your battery voltage drops, your compass readings will start producing significant errors unless you recalibrate. I found myself doing it a couple of times a day when caching, and finally just started swapping batteries when they dropped the first 1/4 on the scale to avoid the aggravation. This problem still applies to the newer units with 3-axis compass (e.g., the Dakota 20 and more recent Oregon models).
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For the few times you really need the electronic compass I find that this is the most reliable and it also saves on battery drain.

It's time to quash this ol' wives tale. The compass power usage in modern units is negligible. You can run the compass for an hour on the same power needed to run the backlight for a few minutes.

 

I double checked my old data on the Colorado and at least according to power measurements made on that unit the difference between full and no screen backlight is about 70ma. Activating the compass drew an additional 30ma.

 

The Oregon has a about 90ma difference between high/low backlight settings so as a percentage the x00 Oregon's compass might be about 1/3 the impact of the backlight assuming it uses the same compass as the Colorado (which I think it does).

 

I've never made measurements using the 3-axis compass in the x50 but these might be less power hungry.

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