Vista vs Vista

[freeside]

I recently bought a second Garmin Etrex Vista to give to a friend. Being a big GPS dork, I just had to go take them both out for a walk, and guess what I noticed?

 

The new Vista has significantly poorer signal reception than my old one. My old one would see six satellites, the new one four. Signal strength would be lower too.

 

Has anyone out there had the chance to compare signal quality on two ostensibly identical Vistas?

[+LarsThorwald]

Nope, but I bought mine almost a year ago. I hope that qualifies as "old."

 

Charlie

"One should never begin a journey by heading in the wrong direction."

[+Prime Suspect]

This is hardly a scientific test. For example, did you:

Put new batteries in both units?

Make sure both units are using the software version?

Make sure the battery saver options were the same?

Check that the WAAS setting was the same on both units?

Allow a full simultaneous refresh of almanac data on both units?

Make sure both units were oriented in the same direction and angle?

I'm guessing that you answered No to at least one of the above.

 

[freeside]

Yes to all questions. Please, give me some credit. The units were as identical as possible.

[+LarsThorwald]

NOW this is getting interesting!

 

Charlie

"One should never begin a journey by heading in the wrong direction."

[+Kodak's4]

quote:

---

Originally posted by freeside:

Yes to all questions. Please, give me some credit. The units were as identical as possible.

---

 

I've noticed that when comparing reception with my GPS III and GPS V, I will see substantially different reception (# sats locked, signal strength) in one unit (the GPS III) when the two units are side by side. Separate them by a meter or two, and the reception is identical. I figured it was a receiver interaction issue.

 

Try comparing them with them not sitting inches apart.

 

-Paul

[+Criminal]

Wow, I also upgraded from the III+ to the V. I wonder how many people did that?

 

I did it so my accessories would still work. (I had my eye on the 76S.) Now that I have the V I really like the auto-route feature, even if it does some really strange things sometimes.....

 

If your house catches afire, and there aint no water around,

If your house catches afire, and there aint no water around,

Throw your jelly out the window; let the dog-gone shack burn down.

**Huddie Ledbetter**

[+Criminal]

Wow, I also upgraded from the III+ to the V. I wonder how many people did that?

 

I did it so my accessories would still work. (I had my eye on the 76S.) Now that I have the V I really like the auto-route feature, even if it does some really strange things sometimes.....

 

If your house catches afire, and there aint no water around,

If your house catches afire, and there aint no water around,

Throw your jelly out the window; let the dog-gone shack burn down.

**Huddie Ledbetter**

[+apersson850]

We are four people, who bought our Vistas at the same time, in the same shop, to get a better deal.

Comparing their performance, I've all the time had the impression that they aren't identical in receiver performance. But we haven't actually lined them up to test. Besided, the differece is mostly noticeable when walking or running in the forest, when handling of the units makes a big difference, too.

 

But I don't hold it for unlikely that they do differ somewhat.

 

Anders

[Point2Point]

...if there are differences between units, I must have gotten one of the "good" ones. (Bought my Vista a little over a year ago.)

 

I haven't had nearly as much problems with reception as most people claim with the Vista. I can usually get reception inside my house - and even in the car when it's in the garage.

 

I don't really need to navigate throught my house or garage, but it's nice to power up the unit and have reception before taking off.

[+zenrandom]

I noticed a great deal of difference between my venture and my legend (yes i know they are not the same). My legend seems much more sensitive in area's where my venture wasn't... upstairs in my house, i can lock on for a 3d fix to about 5 sats... i've done this in three houses now for anywhere from 4 to 6 satellites. My venture couldn't even think of doing that well inside. I chalk it up to lack of careful quality control at garmin myself...

 

-zr

 

-----

If it ain't broke, I can *fix* that...

[appletree]

I had exactly the same experience with my two Vistas. The reception seemed to be much less sensitive with the second unit. When I described the problem to Garmin customer support via their web site, they had me return the unit for a warranty repair. They reported that the unit was improperly tuned and they retuned it and returned it to me promptly, with a new set of batteries installed.

 

Unfortunately, I have had a couple of other warranty repair issues with my other Vista but without exception, Garmin has responded promptly, pleasantly, and effectively. All of the problems have been resolved to my complete satisfaction. In spite of the problems I have seen, I still recommend the Vista to everyone who might want a powerful, affordable, easy to carry and use GPSR. I would suggest that anyone who has problems with a Garmin unit should contact Garmin and give them a chance to fix the problem.

[+eagleflyby]

Since we are talking Vista here I guess it is o.k. to throw this in here.

I have recently bought a Vista and noticed right away that it seems pretty picky in regards of lokation however, the main problem I have, is that the unit shows me mostly east in relation to the map. e.g. I am on a road northbound and

the GPS shows me about 500' to the right. Or I am west of some RR Tracks and it shows me east.

When I take waypoints with the GPS and then transfer them onto a Topomap on my computer everything is on the Spot. It almost seems as if the base map in the GPS was shifted.

Also, is there some sort of test one can do with a fixed check point of some sort, lets say you go to a spot and there is a set of coordinates that the GPS has to show and if it is off by a certain tolerance?? then it is to be sent back to Garmin?? Thanks for any help.

[+eagleflyby]

Since we are talking Vista here I guess it is o.k. to throw this in here.

I have recently bought a Vista and noticed right away that it seems pretty picky in regards of lokation however, the main problem I have, is that the unit shows me mostly east in relation to the map. e.g. I am on a road northbound and

the GPS shows me about 500' to the right. Or I am west of some RR Tracks and it shows me east.

When I take waypoints with the GPS and then transfer them onto a Topomap on my computer everything is on the Spot. It almost seems as if the base map in the GPS was shifted.

Also, is there some sort of test one can do with a fixed check point of some sort, lets say you go to a spot and there is a set of coordinates that the GPS has to show and if it is off by a certain tolerance?? then it is to be sent back to Garmin?? Thanks for any help.