Oregon 450 Compass, bad

[+dukeofurl01]

So, I was Geocaching earlier today with my kinda new Oregon 450, and the compass failed. It would sometimes freeze, and then maybe a minute later unfreeze for a few seconds, then freeze again. Also, sometimes the red arrow on the compass would disappear and come back, but the rest of it stayed. Even when it was not frozen, it was not even close to pointing in the right direction, so I had to use my iPhone, but I got the Oregon so that I wouldn't have to do that. My iPhone compass was much more accurate, never freezing, fluid motion with me, as it should be.

 

Anyone ever seen this before, maybe know a fix?

[+Mineral2]

So, I was Geocaching earlier today with my kinda new Oregon 450, and the compass failed. It would sometimes freeze, and then maybe a minute later unfreeze for a few seconds, then freeze again. Also, sometimes the red arrow on the compass would disappear and come back, but the rest of it stayed. Even when it was not frozen, it was not even close to pointing in the right direction, so I had to use my iPhone, but I got the Oregon so that I wouldn't have to do that. My iPhone compass was much more accurate, never freezing, fluid motion with me, as it should be.

 

Anyone ever seen this before, maybe know a fix?

 

Did you calibrate the compass? This needs to be done occasionally, sometimes after each battery change depending on the type of batteries used.

 

Also, maybe check that your firmware is up to date.

[+kunarion]

know a fix?

See if this helps.

Edited November 8, 2013 by kunarion

[+dukeofurl01]

So, I was Geocaching earlier today with my kinda new Oregon 450, and the compass failed. It would sometimes freeze, and then maybe a minute later unfreeze for a few seconds, then freeze again. Also, sometimes the red arrow on the compass would disappear and come back, but the rest of it stayed. Even when it was not frozen, it was not even close to pointing in the right direction, so I had to use my iPhone, but I got the Oregon so that I wouldn't have to do that. My iPhone compass was much more accurate, never freezing, fluid motion with me, as it should be.

 

Anyone ever seen this before, maybe know a fix?

 

Did you calibrate the compass? This needs to be done occasionally, sometimes after each battery change depending on the type of batteries used.

 

Also, maybe check that your firmware is up to date.

 

 

Yeah, I did all the software and firmware upates a while ago, possibly the very first thing I did when I took it out of the box.

[+kwcahart]

I was having the same problem but after I upgraded to version 6.something, the problem went away.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

On the 450 I like ver 5.50 the best....the latest isn't always the best.

[+dukeofurl01]

That link to that other topic actually did help. As suggested in that thread, I turned off WAAS and that fixed it. Everything else was already set the way suggested.

But I don't understand just why that made any difference, because I know what WAAS is and how it works, so this just confirms for me what I already guessed, this is a software bug.

At any rate, it works now. I used it all day.

This thing uses like 3 times the battery that my old 60CSx used.