+ldyparadox99 Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Well, my googlefoo is really off today since I'm sure this has been asked somewhere out on the internet, but I can't find an answer! I just got a spankin new Etrex 20 yesterday and can't seem to figure out if it's picked up the satallite or not. The manual says that the bars will turn green...well, I've had 5 bars for ages, but they haven't turned green. Is orange just the default color? Or should they actually turn green?? TIA! Quote Link to comment
+whh0 Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 My bars are red!! I think it just depends on what profile you have the etrex on eg recreational, geocaching, automotive etc You don't need to wait for them to go green. Quote Link to comment
+ldyparadox99 Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 Great, thanks. ;-) Just making sure I didn't break it already (my husband claims I'm certain death to any electronic item that gets within 5 meters of my presence..LOL). Quote Link to comment
+MountainWoods Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 BTW, there are settings in Setup --> System that can help with getting satellite reception in certain cases. There have been times when I had to disable WAAS because the GPS was floundering trying to match satellies with ground stations that were not accessible in my current location. The GPSr would immediately lock onto the satellites, and then I would turn WAAS back on. This situation is not typical, unless you are in really hilly areas like the Ozarks or the foothills of Tennessee. I noticed that the Russian version of GPS, GLONASS, was turned off by default. I turned it on and it gave another whole line of satellites to work off of. It seems to help in getting a quicker "fix" and achieving good accuracy. Quote Link to comment
+ldyparadox99 Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 Cheers! Hopefully, I'm going to get to test it tomorrow on a multi I've been working on. ;-) Quote Link to comment
+JohnCNA Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 If you scroll down on the main menu and click Satellite, it will display 'Acquiring Satellites' in big print while it gets a fix. Once it does, it will display all sorts of cool stuff. How many satellites it is locked on to, type of satellite, current position and altitude and estimated accuracy, etc. Quote Link to comment
+ShaunEM Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 I recommend changing one of your geocaching profile map fields to show current GPS accuracy. Shaun Quote Link to comment
+Mcpat12 Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 I have the same Gps it works great my bars never turn green and it picks up signal. Try to turn it on when you leave to go a geocache so it can pick up the satellites. Turn the back ground light off and then you can leave your gps on the whole trip without waiting for sattalite pick up. Batteries should last at least 12hrs or more on that setting. Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment
+MountainWoods Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 By the way, if you have a car charger to (old) small USB, you can plug in your eTrex 20 (or 10 or 30) with that and really extend your battery life. mcpat12 is right about turning it on. The GPSr can "find itself" a lot quicker if it is turned on close to the same location where it was last turned off - presumably close to home. I think both my Garmin and my TomTom car unit behave the same way. Quote Link to comment
+ldyparadox99 Posted June 17, 2013 Author Share Posted June 17, 2013 Thanks! Got it up and running. Nabbed 2 caches tonight and it did pretty well. Haven't gotten that multi yet...can I just blame it on the GPS rather than my poor command of dutch AND failure to add and multiply correctly? LOL Is there any way on the etrex 20 to add bearing and distance to a coordinate like on some apps? Or will I have to figure out the proper way to do this manually (I obviously didn't do any orienteering as a girlscout) and then add the new coordinate as a waypoint? Quote Link to comment
+redwoodkestrel Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 The eTrex can definitely do distance and bearing! When you are in Menu > Mark Waypoint, when the waypoint editor comes up, click the menu button again (the bottom button on the left side of the unit), and then select "Project Waypoint." It will have you enter bearing and distance from your current point, and will create the projected waypoint. Quote Link to comment
+ldyparadox99 Posted June 18, 2013 Author Share Posted June 18, 2013 Ahha! I hadn't pressed menu yet on the waypoints. Perfect! I have a feeling I'm going to be learning something new every time I go out. ;-) Thank you so much! Quote Link to comment
+londontavern Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 Here's a link to a website with a good explanation and that has excellent illustrations of setting up Etrex20/30's. Quote Link to comment
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