Issues with my garmin

[+QClan]

I've owned my garmin map 62s since March 25th. Until the last two days, it's been great.

 

I got rechargable batteries for Mother's Day, put them in, changed the battery profile and... boom. The GPS seems to have forgotten what it's supposed to do.

 

Is there a way to post video on here? I have video of me walking toward a cache, watching the distance decrease, while the pointer points firmly behind me. It will swing the right way occasionally, but it's become incredibly jumpy and usually points 180 degrees in the wrong direction.

 

My iPhone is more accurate.

 

I tried to recalibrate the compass, but it wouldn't work. I'd do the first two stages--rotating it and spinning it--which was fine. But then I was supposed to flip it end over end and that point would fail dozens of times in a row.

 

I'm frustrated and upset that this has happened. I haven't dropped it, it hasn't gotten wet... what can I do to get the calibration corrected? Has anyone had this happen? Did I break it by putting in rechargeables?

[+The_Incredibles_]

You could upload your video to youtube, then post the link here.

[+QClan]

You could upload your video to youtube, then post the link here.

 

My phone freaked and died (I have to go to apple tomorrow) so I'm waiting for it to recharge to see if I can post it. This happens in compass or map view, and happened consistently in fields or woods.

[nonaeroterraqueous]

make sure you have it set to navigate off road, not follow road. Classic Garmin issue. We got stuck on that once, after a few years of ownership and a thousand cache finds. We should have known better. If it says the distance is decreasing but the arrow points backward, that's the prime symptom.

[+pppingme]

No you didn't break it, but it sounds like you might need help calibrating the compass.

 

For whatever reason, the compass seems sensitive to battery voltage, and NiMH batteries operate at a lower voltage than alkaline.

 

It just takes practice to calibrate it the first few times, then it will be natural to you.

[+QClan]

No you didn't break it, but it sounds like you might need help calibrating the compass.

 

For whatever reason, the compass seems sensitive to battery voltage, and NiMH batteries operate at a lower voltage than alkaline.

 

It just takes practice to calibrate it the first few times, then it will be natural to you.

 

Any tips? I failed several times at that last stage. It said start with it level and flip it longways. There'd be the sad beep of failure and it'd have me repeat. I'd fail two more times and have to redo it all.

 

My two year old spent the whole time telling me I was doing it wrong. Maybe I'll let him try tomorrow.

[+QClan]

No you didn't break it, but it sounds like you might need help calibrating the compass.

 

For whatever reason, the compass seems sensitive to battery voltage, and NiMH batteries operate at a lower voltage than alkaline.

 

It just takes practice to calibrate it the first few times, then it will be natural to you.

 

Any tips? I failed several times at that last stage. It said start with it level and flip it longways. There'd be the sad beep of failure and it'd have me repeat. I'd fail two more times and have to redo it all.

 

My two year old spent the whole time telling me I was doing it wrong. Maybe I'll let him try tomorrow.

Two year old was right.

 

I found a video. I was rotating it the wrong way.

 

I thought I had a few years before he got better with tech than me...

 

I'm embarrassed.

 

I'll calibrate and check the road thing tomorrow and bet that'll fix it.

[jholly]

No you didn't break it, but it sounds like you might need help calibrating the compass.

 

For whatever reason, the compass seems sensitive to battery voltage, and NiMH batteries operate at a lower voltage than alkaline.

 

It just takes practice to calibrate it the first few times, then it will be natural to you.

 

Any tips? I failed several times at that last stage. It said start with it level and flip it longways. There'd be the sad beep of failure and it'd have me repeat. I'd fail two more times and have to redo it all.

 

My two year old spent the whole time telling me I was doing it wrong. Maybe I'll let him try tomorrow.

Two year old was right.

 

I found a video. I was rotating it the wrong way.

 

I thought I had a few years before he got better with tech than me...

 

I'm embarrassed.

 

I'll calibrate and check the road thing tomorrow and bet that'll fix it.

Best tip is go slow on all three axis. I don't think the direction of rotation matters but going slow does. Take 3-4 seconds on each rotation.

[+humboldt flier]

Go into settings and "tell" the unit which type of batteries you are using first.

[Keystone]

I am moving this thread from the Geocaching Topics forum to the GPS and Technology forum.

[+L0ne.R]

No you didn't break it, but it sounds like you might need help calibrating the compass.

 

For whatever reason, the compass seems sensitive to battery voltage, and NiMH batteries operate at a lower voltage than alkaline.

 

It just takes practice to calibrate it the first few times, then it will be natural to you.

 

Any tips? I failed several times at that last stage. It said start with it level and flip it longways. There'd be the sad beep of failure and it'd have me repeat. I'd fail two more times and have to redo it all.

 

My two year old spent the whole time telling me I was doing it wrong. Maybe I'll let him try tomorrow.

 

I have exactly the same problems as you regarding calibrating and incredibly jumpy and most often points in the wrong direction.

 

My 62s is 2 years old now. I emailed Garmin a couple of months ago and they suggested a Master Reset followed by a updating the software. It has been worse after the reset and update. Now I am completely unable to calibrate the compass. Before it would usually calibrate after about 3 tries. And the problem with the jumpy map pointing me in the opposite direction is worse. I just follow the decreasing numbers now. Very frustrating.

 

My other problem is that the coords I take for my cache hides aren't as good as they were with my Garmin 60. With my 60 I used to get kudos on how accurate the coords were. Now people say "found it with the hint", "the coords were pointing into the river".

 

I'll keep reading. Hopefully someone will have a solution to this problem.

Edited May 15, 2013 by L0ne R