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Periodic Power Down - eTrex Legend


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Hi,

 

I have an e-Trex Legend and sometimes I'll set it down on the dashboard or on the seat next to me in the car and when I pick it up, it's off - within a few minutes. It's not the batteries since I have new ones and they show fully charged on the unit.

 

I don't think is supposed to do that. Has anyone else had that problem?

 

Nothing Worth Knowing Reveals Its Secrets Easily - A Friend

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Thanks Wizard, but doesn't the Vista give an option to use it without connecting to the satelites? The Legend does. Which leads me to believe that it was meant to be on even though it can't get a signal.

 

I'm still thinking it's a problem. I've had it for less than 30 days so I'm gonna exchange it.

 

Should I keep the Legend or upgrade to the Vista?

 

Nothing Worth Knowing Reveals Its Secrets Easily - A Friend

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Garmin continually upgrades their software versions, and almost all garmin models have a very current version download from their website at WWW.garmin.com after opening website click on software downloads (left side of web page). Be careful to ONLY ONLY ONLY download the version for your GPS unit. I bought my Vista in March of 2001, a week after they first came out, and have been upgading it every time a newer version was released. I remember they did have a bug, in that it caused a shutdown after a few minutes. In the Vista, if you loose sat recept a menu pops up asking if you want to use the unit without sat. recept. If you upgrade you will receive many new goodies such as Area calculator, Calculator and jumpmaster(for crazy skydivers) and more!

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The Legend and Vista are basicaly the same unit except the Vista holds 24 MB (16MB more) than the legend. This is very useful in the ability of downloading vast numbers of Topo maps into the unit. My suggestion is take the legend back and upgrade to the Vista about 50-75 dollars more, but worth it, especially on those long trips, airline flights etc. I can download all of northern california using MapSource (A Garmin software Product)

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If money is not a problem, then by all means buy the Vista!!!

 

------------- Legend ----- Vista

 

Memory ------ 8mg ------- 24mg

 

Compass ------ No ------- Yes

 

Altimeter ------ No ------- Yes

 

While I don't often use the altimeter, I do use the compass and the Garmin maps.

 

I have a Vista and my daughter with hard earned babysitting money bought a Legend. With the Legend she has to be more picky about which maps she loads. My daughter is not able to load all of the greater Atlanta area maps. I'm able have all of the surrounding Atlanta area as well as space for for travel maps.

 

Regardless of which one you choose, mark the Garmin download page as one of your favorites!

 

I check it daily for updates. (I have my palm synced to the page.) One of the latest updates for both units is the owner page that is displayed at power-up.

 

[This message was edited by st_richardson on October 13, 2002 at 06:11 AM.]

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Does your Legend go off if you do the following?

 

Hold it upside down, i.e on its head. Now tap the the bottom part up with your finger(s), ie. tapping the top of the GPS which is at the bottom, like giving it a knock.

 

Does it switch off? I had a Legend which did this and returned it. I got a new one and it did not do the same thing but is now starting to as well. It really irritates me! It even does it if I hold the batteries firmly in place, so it's not the batteries which get disconnected when tapping. I reckon the Legends have an internal problem. Strange that both my units do this!

 

Robert

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I just tried what RobertM did with his Legend on my Vista. The vista will power down as well. I don't see this as much of a problem because I doubt that will ever happen during normal use.

--------

About wether or not to get a Vista: I really like the electronic compass on the Vista. The altimeter feature is nice, but really you never use it. I haven't bought any mapsource cds yet, but I know 24mb of memory is a lot better than 8 when loading maps. I really do like my Vista, but if you feel you won't need many maps and you don't need a compass, stick with your Legend.

 

Proud new owner of a Vista

 

[This message was edited by MacBWizard201 on October 14, 2002 at 12:06 PM.]

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quote:
Originally posted by RobertM:

Does your Legend go off if you do the following?


 

I can't say if that's what caused my power down or not. But it definately was related to a slight "tap" when I set it down.

 

At any rate I was within the store warranty of my Legend and traded up to a GPSMAP 76S. And it has it's own problems.

 

When the batteries are low and you try to use the backlight (while the unit is busy aquiring sattelites), there is such a drain on voltage that the software tells the unit to power down. I spoke with Garmin this morning at length about it and we were able to narrow it down to the low battery issue. They are aware of it, but the person couldn't say if it would simply become a documented issue or if it would be fixed with a software upgrade.

 

Nothing Worth Knowing Reveals Its Secrets Easily - A Friend

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quote:
Originally posted by GOT GPS?:

What may need to be done is to stretch the battery springs a little bit. I have had to do that to minimize the shut-offs.


 

I had a bad case of the 'battery bounce' problem when I first got the handlebar mount for my MTB.

Stretching the springs a little (be careful not to break them) and that helped a bit. Another thing I've done is add some padding in the battery compartment to help hold the batteries still. I used double sided tape to secure thin strips of foam pipe insulation inside the cover. I cut the insulation so it was only a few millimeters thick but it still takes a little force to attach the battery cover now. So far it has worked well, no auto power - off since I did it.

 

I'm not lost!

I just don't know where I am.

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I had this problem with my Legend. A Garmin tech told me that if it didn't receive a signal it would shut down to save the batteries. You must manually select the "use without sat's" option each time you turn the unit on, if you want it. Other wise it will do the shut-down on you if it cannot aquire the signal(s).

 

He also told me to upgrade the software because there were some issues about shut-downs addressed with the software.

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