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Garmin etrex 20.

hydrodis

By hydrodis
in GPS technology and devices

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TrekMutt

+TrekMutt

Posted
Posted

Got mine delivered yesterday from Go Outdoors. Have had a good play with it and I think its great. Only problems I have noticed so far is one dead pixel on the bottom left of the screen (cheap screens), and it crashed when looking at the profile page. A quick restart and things were OK again though. The free £20 Birdseye voucher came in handy too. Great 1:25K maps!

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JfLDave

+JfLDave

Posted
Posted

Got mine delivered yesterday from Go Outdoors. Have had a good play with it and I think its great. Only problems I have noticed so far is one dead pixel on the bottom left of the screen (cheap screens), and it crashed when looking at the profile page. A quick restart and things were OK again though. The free £20 Birdseye voucher came in handy too. Great 1:25K maps!

 

I've a stuck pixel at the bottom of my etrex 30 screen :(. Just left of the middle and its red all the time. Anyway, about those 1:25k maps, are they actually true OS maps?

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Davequal

+Davequal

Posted
Posted

Have you guys done the firmware update yet ?? I have ZERO issues with the screen.

Mine updated a couple of days ago. No problems that I can see.

 

That was more towards they guys having issues....... I updated mine mere hours after buying it. The directions were a bit misleading though.

 

 

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TrekMutt

+TrekMutt

Posted
Posted

Got mine delivered yesterday from Go Outdoors. Have had a good play with it and I think its great. Only problems I have noticed so far is one dead pixel on the bottom left of the screen (cheap screens), and it crashed when looking at the profile page. A quick restart and things were OK again though. The free £20 Birdseye voucher came in handy too. Great 1:25K maps!

 

I've a stuck pixel at the bottom of my etrex 30 screen :(. Just left of the middle and its red all the time. Anyway, about those 1:25k maps, are they actually true OS maps?

 

Sounds like we both have a stuck pixel in the same place. Mine is green. Yes the maps do appear to be true OS, although the procedure to get them onto the etrex could have been better in my view.

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mpilchfamily

+mpilchfamily

Posted
Posted

Have you guys done the firmware update yet ?? I have ZERO issues with the screen.

Mine updated a couple of days ago. No problems that I can see.

 

That was more towards they guys having issues....... I updated mine mere hours after buying it. The directions were a bit misleading though.

No firmware update will fix a dead pixel. Its a flaw in the screen itself. If its a problem for you guys then contact Garmin. They may be willing to fix it or replace the unit.

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JfLDave

+JfLDave

Posted
Posted

Sounds like we both have a stuck pixel in the same place. Mine is green. Yes the maps do appear to be true OS, although the procedure to get them onto the etrex could have been better in my view.

 

There's actually a thread here it seems with people complaining about stuck and dead pixels: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=283211.

 

I've done the software update, it didn't help but then as was previously said there was no way it was going to.

 

In order to get the 1:25k maps do I have to sort out the whole Birdseye business in Basecamp? I had a quick go at putting the 1:50k GB Discoverer maps on however they only seemed useable at a fairly low zoom level and certainly when zoomed in for street navigation my Etrex only showed the basemap.

 

I'm missing the highway mode my Legend HCx had, it doesn't exist in the 20 or 30 right?

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TrekMutt

+TrekMutt

Posted
Posted

Sounds like we both have a stuck pixel in the same place. Mine is green. Yes the maps do appear to be true OS, although the procedure to get them onto the etrex could have been better in my view.

 

There's actually a thread here it seems with people complaining about stuck and dead pixels: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=283211.

 

I've done the software update, it didn't help but then as was previously said there was no way it was going to.

 

In order to get the 1:25k maps do I have to sort out the whole Birdseye business in Basecamp? I had a quick go at putting the 1:50k GB Discoverer maps on however they only seemed useable at a fairly low zoom level and certainly when zoomed in for street navigation my Etrex only showed the basemap.

 

I'm missing the highway mode my Legend HCx had, it doesn't exist in the 20 or 30 right?

 

Sadly, you do have to load the £20 worth of free 1:25k maps via a complicated procedure which involves scratching off a code on a card that came with your unit, going to the website shown on the card, registering your device with garmin and I believe going to Basecamp at some point too. However, the maps are very good once installed and much better than the poorer quality 1:50k maps.

 

As for the missing highway mode, I have never used the Legend HCx, but I know the etrex has an 'automotive' profile which might be similar.

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JfLDave

+JfLDave

Posted
Posted

Sadly, you do have to load the £20 worth of free 1:25k maps via a complicated procedure which involves scratching off a code on a card that came with your unit, going to the website shown on the card, registering your device with garmin and I believe going to Basecamp at some point too. However, the maps are very good once installed and much better than the poorer quality 1:50k maps.

 

As for the missing highway mode, I have never used the Legend HCx, but I know the etrex has an 'automotive' profile which might be similar.

 

Thanks for that on the maps, and yes, the automotive profile appears to have replaced the highway mode and thanks for pointing that out. I probably would never have changed profiles otherwise.

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chillypenguin

+chillypenguin

Posted
Posted (edited)

What do you think of it so far chillypenguin?

 

Great so far, but I have not used it for Geocaching yet, work has been getting in the way!

 

I am impressed that I can get a GPS signal inside. I just need to do some testing on the accuracy. Glad I went for the electronic compass in the end, as I was used to that on the smart phone.

Edited by chillypenguin
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Chilli Pipers

+Chilli Pipers

Posted
Posted

right I got my 30 today, love it apart from the fact that the maps are taking forever to render! got the caches on there no problem and that seems simple enough but the map displaying skills seem really woeful.

 

I used mobile atlas creator to create the correct type of files (under 100 tiles big) but they take so long to render I could make a cup of tea in the meantime :(

 

any ideas?

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TrekMutt

+TrekMutt

Posted
Posted

right I got my 30 today, love it apart from the fact that the maps are taking forever to render! got the caches on there no problem and that seems simple enough but the map displaying skills seem really woeful.

 

I used mobile atlas creator to create the correct type of files (under 100 tiles big) but they take so long to render I could make a cup of tea in the meantime :(

 

any ideas?

 

Are you in the UK? If so, did you get the free trial 1:25K OS maps? Try loading some of these and see if they also take an age to load. I have the Etrex 20 with 1:25K OS maps and talkytoaster maps installed and both load at acceptable speeds. Sorry I cant help more.

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Chilli Pipers

+Chilli Pipers

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Posted

Thanks a lot chilly pengiun. I did buy it in the UK from go outdoors, havent tried the free birdseye map thing yet as spee was slow was thinking I might be returning it which I really do not want to do as apart from that I think it is great. the speed it was drawing the maps meant I could have drawn them quicker by hand! Will try out your links above now. Cant see how the 30 would be any slower than your 20

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Chilli Pipers

+Chilli Pipers

Posted
Posted (edited)

what software were you expecting out of interest? I downloaded basecamp and the communicator software. Have now just added my free Birdseye select map (which came up with an error at first think the file must have corrupted) so had to delete then re-download.

 

Slowly getting to grips with it and learning to love it. Roll on the weekend when I can put it through its paces.

 

I am looking for a lanyard possibly and might get a case like a Crumpler PP90 to keep it safe an snug :)

Edited by Chilli Pipers
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Davequal

+Davequal

Posted
Posted (edited)

Got my eTrex 20 today. Can't believe they don't include a wrist strap/lanyard like they used to. And the freakin' USB cable is a only foot and a half long!

 

Mine came with a wrist strap...... yea the cable length left a lot to be desired. I had the cable from my Venture HC.

Edited by Davequal
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Wintertime

Wintertime

Posted
Posted

Got my eTrex 20 today. Can't believe they don't include a wrist strap/lanyard like they used to. And the freakin' USB cable is a only foot and a half long!

From your profile, it looks like you live in the U.S. So do I, and my eTrex 20 came with a full-length lanyard, not just a wrist strap. The lanyard is even mentioned on the package contents list on the box. Does the box for yours say the same?

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Wintertime

Wintertime

Posted
Posted
Very strange, as Garmin website:

 

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=145&pID=87771

 

doesn't mention a wrist strap! Mine came without one too.

Huh, that is odd.

 

I've noticed sometimes that large retailers will have special versions of products that are slightly different from what's mentioned on the website. For example, a printer I got at Best Buy some months ago had some suffix letters in the model name that weren't on HP's website. I figured there were some slight feature differences that HP offered to certain retailers. Perhaps we're seeing the same thing here--maybe REI worked out an arrangement with Garmin to get a "special edition" eTrex 20 with a lanyard. Or maybe Garmin did a run with lanyards for all channels and then removed them. Or did a run without and then added them. Anyway, sorry for those of you who didn't get one. :-(

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bbaker22

+bbaker22

Posted
Posted

Hi all. Am thinking of getting a 20 or 30 myself. What is the screen size like. It looks really small to me. Can you read it ok ?

 

I have no problems reading mine. Screen size seems sufficient, but not large. FYI...my previous experience is with a Geko 201, which has a tiny screen. So, my view may be a bit skewed.

 

baker

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Chilli Pipers

+Chilli Pipers

Posted
Posted

Well I am used to using an Orange San Francisco for caching. The screen size on that is 3.5" compared to 2.2" on the etrex.

At first when I got the etrex out of the box I was disappointed. Having now used it for 2 days caching it is perfectly fine, much quicker and slightly more accurate than my phone and the joy of not having to check the battery level every 5 mins and turning it off makes it sooo worthwhile.

 

Battery level has not gone down at all which is crazy! could never manage a days caching with the phone.

 

As you can zoom in I dont think the screen size is an issue at all.

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RamblinBear

RamblinBear

Posted
Posted

I noticed some of you'd managed to put the UK talkytoaster maps onto your new Etrex. I've been trying to put these maps onto my friend's new Etrex30 but I've been running into difficulties. I've put the gmapsupp.img file into a garmin folder in the micro SD card, but the device doesn't see the maps there at all. When I go into the setup maps page on the GPS device, the map simply isn't listed.

 

Did you put the maps into a Maps folder instead, or did you rename the file to something else?

 

I've probably done something stupid, but a quick walkthrough from someone who's done it and got it to work would be really helpful. Thanks. :grin:

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RamblinBear

RamblinBear

Posted
Posted (edited)

Sorry, should have been clearer ... on the device.

Thanks,

 

I have it working from the microSD card on my GPSMap 60CSx, so I'll try that card in the Etrex 30. I'll also put the IMG file onto a USB stick just in case I need to copy it directly into the device.

 

It's a nice little unit, the Etrex 30. I'm wondering if I might have to get one for myself...?!?!

Edited by RamblinBear
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