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Garmin BaseCamp incorrect distances


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I've recently noticed that Garmin BaseCamp is giving incorrect distances on saved tracks.

 

When we go caching I always clear the track data before we start, and then after a series or the ones we've selected to find I then save the track to open in BaseCamp later. Finding the distance we've covered is an extra encouragement/goal for my daughter to keep her interested in being outdoors rather than glued to some form of screen indoors.

We also do the same thing when out mountainbiking, which is how I noticed the discrepancy.

 

Yesterday I cycled a route round some reservoirs that I've done before with my daughter, I know its roughly 10 and a little bit miles round. I reset the track as normal, had good signal, then popped the Etrex 30 in my backpack and set off. On getting back to the car, I saved the track and again cleared the data.

 

On arriving home, I plugged the Etrex into the PC then opened BaseCamp to look at the track, imagine my surprise when the track summary tells me I've travelled 26.8 miles.

 

Now, my immediate thought was somehow I'd not cleared the previous data correctly and a stray point was adding a huge chunk of mileage, but no, all is as it should be.

I went ahead and uploaded the track to Strava as I usually do, and sure enough Strava reports the correct distance of 10.1 miles :unsure:

 

So my only conclusion, is that BaseCamp is calculating it incorrectly.

Has anyone else come across this??

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What version of software do you have in your eTrex 30?

 

Garmin had a bug that was fixed.

 

The eTrex would write bad summary information to the track file. In BaseCamp open the track data and select all except the first or last point, or you can delete 1 point. BaseCamp should then calculate the correct distance instead of using what the eTrex wrote to the file. If this gives you the correct data it's the GPS and not BaseCamp that's the problem.

 

I would update it to the latest software and that should fix your problem.

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The Etrex is running the latest 4.30 software and has been since it was released, BaseCamp is the latest 4.6.2 which is a more recent update than the GPS itself, which is why I was leaning towards BaseCamp being at fault.

 

Interesting you mention that fault and how to remedy the track, because thinking back I remember a few times I've had to edit stray points off the track from forgetting to clear the last point in a 3rd party program, which would then force BaseCamp to recalculate the distances I suppose.

 

Perhaps the bug was not as fixed as Garmin hoped :(

 

Sadly I deleted the track yesterday so cant test your fix, but will give it a go next time. Also due to having the batteries out to charge them I've re-calibrated the compass too, probably won't make any difference but you never know. ;)

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