Stuck compass and distance on a Montana 650

[WrongwayUK]

I am sure this has been mentioned quite a few times before if not on a Montana I believe its common with some of the other, newer Garmin models at times.

I was looking for a cache this afternoon along with the wife, using her new christmas present, an Etrex 30. When we got to within about 60 feet of the cache showing on both GPSr's my Montana stuck at 62feet to go and kept pointing in the same direction. My wifes Etrex still kept counting down distance until we got within about 25 feet shown as the target. My Montana still showing 62feet! Good signal as well. We started searching around this location (a tree) without any success. I had turned the Montana off at that point. After a good search and ready to give up as it was getting dark I turned the Montana back on and it immediately said 40 feet away in the other direction, the way we had come. I tracked to the correct location and a very stable 3 feet away reading quite easily. The Etrex was showing very similar. Found the cache there of course. But the point is it definitely stuck at 62 feet to go with a strong signal and no matter were I walked in that area wouldn't budge. That includes the compass too. It was only after turning off and on it decided to wake up and join the party again. I should have monitored the current coords as well see if they were changing.

Edited December 28, 2011 by WrongwayUK

[+splashy]

Montana has a habit to freeze the screen sometimes for no clear reason.

This happens even with a good satellite reception, in my case it happens ALWAYS at the same location.

On an open spot, no buildings or canyons whatsoever.

 

It is with older software and also with the last.

Edited December 27, 2011 by splashy

[WrongwayUK]

I had noticed this a few weeks ago as well. I had the 3.68 beta today when it occurred. Have you also found that switching off and on seems to clear the problem.

[+_SoP_]

Same here - this behavior is also being discussed in the german garmin forum.

[+taeke]

It seems to me the compass and map update independently. If the compass gets stuck, you can still see on the map you're approaching GZ.

[team tisri]

I've found mine does this kind of thing if you're navigating by any means other than "direct navigation" and looking at the compass page - after you take the last turn (or go past the last turn) it appears to stick with the same distance to go.

 

I cycled about 800 feet past a cache thinking it would sort itself out, not realising the map was stuck at the last place I was supposed to have turned. The fact the last "turn" was basically to "go off the path 50 feet into the woodland" didn't help I suppose...

 

When you get there try selecting the cache, choosing Go and selecting Direct Navigation as the navigation method to use. I've always found that solves it.

[+splashy]

@WrongwayUK

 

We have 3.70 (non Beta) on the moment, but this doesn't solve this problem.

 

Yes you can cycle off/on, not handy while driving a car.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

My Oregon 450 and 62S will do the same thing AT TIMES. On the last 70 searches the 62S behaved perfect ( some of these were around buildings and some under jungle like canopy ) and I think the 450 did also. I just can't figure out what causes the " sticky " issue.....it seems to be randomly intermittent.

A friend tells me his Delorme PN 60 does the same thing and I've read where the Etrex 30 did also. It seems to affect units with the 3-axis compass.

I just got the 62S and its a GREAT unit in every other way.....as it very seldom exhibits this behavior its not a deal breaker, if it did it on the majority of caches I'd have to return it.

 

Anybody hear from Garmin yet on what's causing the " sticky " ?

[+JabbaTHutt]

A buddy has a nuvi and drives from ontario canada to myrtal beach and it seems there is a place on the way that no matter what the nuvi locks up there, he can drive miles past it and it never sorts itself out, he has to turn it off then on again and all is fine, even when it locks up if he turns it off and on right then and there it clears up.

 

Another buddy has a nuvi and his soninlaw has a tomtom and in eastern canada they sudden both go off on a tangent, out into a field and he has no idea whats up with that.

[+taeke]

I've found mine does this kind of thing if you're navigating by any means other than "direct navigation"

 

Did you check if your navigation is set to "stay on road / yes"? If so, it won't continue to navigate, because you deviated from the route, and usually if there is no direct road/path to the cache, thge device doesn't know how to navigate there, and stays on the road where it last saw you were.

[+splashy]

No this IS different, the Gps stops 'writing' the map, after a off/on cycle, or about 1 mile from the freeze spot it works again.

This is happening on some places ALWAYS on the SAME spot.

 

I mailed BetaMontana about this, but no reply until now.

I gave them a track/waypoints (start freeze / end freeze) and a system.xml to make searching easier.

[pepikokojo]

I spoke to Garmin sometime last year about the sticky issue on my 62s. They did release a new firmware version that improved the issue. However I'm not sure if it was completely fixed. IIRC when you move slowly (as happens when approaching a cache) then the sticky distance problem will happen. Try briefly moving faster and hopefully that will unstick the distance to go.

[+t4e]

spinning it a few times like a lasso fixes the problem

[+dfx]

Another buddy has a nuvi and his soninlaw has a tomtom and in eastern canada they sudden both go off on a tangent, out into a field and he has no idea whats up with that.

 

Sounds like an error in the map that's present on both units.

[yogazoo]

I'd like to add to this thread something that is perhaps known already that the sticky issue applies to navigating to waypoints too and not just geocaches. I experience this issue alot and it's extremely annoying.

 

I'd also like to add something that I haven't seen talked about much. My Montana 650's recorded tracklogs aren't the best I've seen in recent years. It seems as though the multipath filtering isn't quite what it could be. Every time I get close to a single story building such as a house or school my tracklogs get "sucked in" to the building. I know it's just bounce from the solid walled object but with 12 satellites being received very strongly the multipath filtering should probably work a bit better. My hope is that Garmin, having to focus on bug fixes and figuring out things like the sticky issue, doesn't forget about making an effort to improve the receiver chipset firmware. After all one of the most important functions of a GPS is to receive satellite signals and use them to calculate location information as accurately as possible.

Edited January 8, 2012 by yogazoo