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Strange GPS behavior


ras_oscar

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I'm curious in a scholarly way about the cause of a recent event in the field with my GPS.

 

Was caching in an open field with no trees nearby. I logged a find and selected the next nearest cache, poked "navigate to" and started walking towards the next coordinates. The compass pointer both in the map view and the Geocaching dashboard pointed backwards. However, the distance to the coordinates was counting down and the map indicator showed me getting closer to the next hide.   ( FYI the countdown was correct, the arrow was wrong) After a few minutes the compass arrow flipped to show me going in the correct direction.  Any Idea why my Oregon 700 would give conflicting information like that?

Edited by ras_oscar
splng crrctn
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3 hours ago, ras_oscar said:

I'm curious in a scholarly way about the cause of a recent event in the field with my GPS.

 

Was caching in an open field with no trees nearby. I logged a find and selected the next nearest cache, poked "navigate to" and started walking towards the next coordinates. The compass pointer both in the map view and the Geocaching dashboard pointed backwards. However, the distance to the coordinates was counting down and the map indicator showed me getting closer to the next hide.   ( FYI the countdown was correct, the arrow was wrong) After a few minutes the compass arrow flipped to show me going in the correct direction.  Any Idea why my Oregon 700 would give conflicting information like that?

I use Garmin Etrex 20s (non magnetic compass). It often does that but soon flips around. As long as the counter is going down I'm ok as I've gotten used to it.

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On 2/19/2020 at 1:05 PM, kunarion said:

It's a magnetic compass sensor, affected by varying magnetic fields.  When I see anything funky while caching, I stop and calibrate the compass, and the problem clears up.  The full "calibration" is kind of a chore, but some spots simply have the jinx, and you do what ya gotta do about it. 

 

Similar, we have so much iron ore that it's like that a lot.  It eventually calms down...    If not, re-calibrate.   

The other 2/3rds was told that by Trimble Outdoors back in '05 for her app too...      :)

 

One odd one we noticed is, if my phone's in a front pocket, and below the GPSr on my belt, the "pointer" will do the same.

Moving it to the other side usually fixed it .

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