+raouljan Posted August 30, 2002 Share Posted August 30, 2002 I have had a Garmin 12 for years. Nothing very fancy, just able to do the multi-point trig functions necessary to get a 3D fix, routes, waypoints, tracks. It has never "locked up" or "crashed". My yellow eTrex has much the same functionality and behaves itself well. I am thinking about getting a 76S, but frankly all the news I have been reading about problems people have been having with the "loaded" GPSrs is giving me pause..... It appears to me that the more functions in the GPSr, the less reliable they are! Now I hear about GPSrs with math functionsm, barometers, mag compass, horoscopes and DirecTV. Also, firmware revs appears to last less than a month or two before an upgrade is available. So... am I just hearing the horror stories? Or are these loaded units buggy? How reliable is your Vista / Sportac / V / 76S? How many firmware upgrades have you been "forced" to do? Quote Link to comment
+Jamie Z Posted August 30, 2002 Share Posted August 30, 2002 My Meridian Gold has never "locked up." In the eight months I've owned it, it's done a couple weird things... like suddenly lose satellite lock while out in the open... and Um... I think that's about it. Basically, with my "more advanced" unit, I've not had any trouble to speak of. Jamie Quote Link to comment
Couch_Potato Posted August 30, 2002 Share Posted August 30, 2002 During normal use my Legend has never had a problem. It has shut off unecpectedly whil mounted on my MTB but I believe that was because the batteries bounced around and lost contact with the springs. I taped some foam inside the battery compartment and it hasn't happened since. However, as pointed out in the discussion about the calculator, odd things can happen. I've been able to cause a shutdown through caclulations. The calculator function seems to have a lot of bugs still in it. I'm not lost! I just don't know where I am. Quote Link to comment
+OzzieSan Posted August 30, 2002 Share Posted August 30, 2002 Both of my Garmins have performed flawlessly! Next upgrade for me is the 76S. Quote Link to comment
teknofreak Posted September 1, 2002 Share Posted September 1, 2002 maybe they are trying to introduce a windows version into the GPS market Quote Link to comment
+GOT GPS? Posted September 1, 2002 Share Posted September 1, 2002 Of the Vista, GPS V, Magellan Meridian Platinum, I found that the Platinum was the best. My GPS V has been so buggy. The older models were just as buggy to me, like the ones from 1998. These things are comsumer quality, but you cant go wrong with a Garmin GPS 3plus with the latest firmware. ------------------------ My home page about GPS units and information Quote Link to comment
+EraSeek Posted September 1, 2002 Share Posted September 1, 2002 Why buy a map76S? Get a map76! The S has an electronic compass in it, but needs to be held flat to work...but the unit needs to be verticle to get a good signal. Barometric altimeter? Use the satellite reading for elevation. With changing barometrics over the course of an outing my satellite elevation seems just about as accurate. Buy a map76 and a real compass that doesn't depend on batteries. Lock ups? My 12 never has. My map76 only once. Wouldn't shut off or anything. I took the batteries out, and put them back in. Worked fine since. Quote Link to comment
+apersson850 Posted September 2, 2002 Share Posted September 2, 2002 Not too surprising, units with more features seem more prone to lockups, bugs, funny behavior (behaviour is British, isn't it?) and so on. Perhaps that's why Garmin has started issuing Beta versions, to let us ever-alert users do some part (a substantial one, perhaps?) or their software testing for them. Based on my own professional experience, I would say that the fact that it's as easy as it is to upgrade a unit, is likely to tempt market managers to force new versions out the door, long before the programmers say they are ready. On the other hand, technicians will work for ever, given the chance, to acheive ultimate perfection. Still, with the user responsible (read: No extra cost for Garmin) for the upgrading himself, they can take the chance of throwing out new releases every other month. They don't have to send anyone to the customer to fix the unit for him. So, ultimately, we get new features quicker and more frequently, but have the drawback that some of these features are less stable than one could have hoped for. As a last resort, there is always the ability to decide not to upgrade, or to try it and downgrade again, if you didn't like it. So I'm for it. Besides, it's rather interesting to see if one can find the new bugs buried in the latest release... Anders Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.