Why does my GPS give faulty readings

[+Team Pitkis]

Is there any possibility to calibrate a

Magellan 320 unit to give me readings that

can be shared with other unit owners.

 

So far I have hidden one cache upon which several others have complained that the coordinates I've put out lead into middle of a lake. With my unit the readings are ok and

I can find the place correctly.

 

Me and my family were looking for a cache

that had several "legs" with hints that

required some maths from one place to another.

From that we discovered that a known starting

points coordinates read out quite different

with my GPS unit. Both longitude and latitude

were well of the mark by more than 100 meters.

 

Is there any way of mending this behaviour

of my GPS unit or shall I toss it into river

and never buy Magellan (Thales) product again?

[+jtice]

Well, you should make sure to set the GPSr at the cache location for at least 5 minutes, so that the unit can make sure of its exact location. And your unit should say its reading at least 30 feet or least accuracy. I find that if the coordinates get me within 30 feet of the cache im happy. But if you are off by 100's feet all thte time with every waypoint,,, your unit either needs re-innicilized...... or its defective.

[+Hi-Tek]

Make sure your GPSr MAP DATUM is set to WGS84. If it isn't this may be the cause of your problem.

 

motley. adj. varied in appearance or character.

crew. n. group of people.

[Kerry.]

Start with the obvious, more than a 100m tends to indicate Datum and/or position format.

 

Eliminate both of those as a possible cause first.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

[+Team Pitkis]

To "jtice"...

 

I followed very thoroughly all "best practices" advice given out for newbies in this racket.

 

Staying put over 5 minutes was one of them, machine claimed to be on 2M accuracy, procedure was repeated several times and so on...

 

With my Magellan 320 I can find the spot just

the place i left it, but nobody else can and I cannot find anyone elses caches without help of "luck-extreme". My place is not off by 100 feet but more than 100 meters (about 300 feet).

 

To "Motley Crew"

 

I don't know if this MAP DATUM setting is set

to the value you mentioned but I'll check it.

 

To All

 

I'm not quite sure what "re-innicilized" mean,

but if there is some method of calibrating the unit, I'll be thrilled to learn about it.

[+Hi-Tek]

quote:

---

To "Motley Crew"

 

I don't know if this MAP DATUM setting is set

to the value you mentioned but I'll check it.

 

---

 

I have a Magellan 315 and suffered exactly the problem you describe.To the best of my knowledge there is no way of 'calibrating' it as such.

 

To check you have the correct Datum set do the following:

Press 'MENU' button

Select 'SETUP'

Select 'MAP DATUM'

Select 'PRIMARY'

Ensure that WGS84 is highlighted.

 

Hope this helps you.

 

motley. adj. varied in appearance or character.

crew. n. group of people.

[dave and jaime]

for map datum, formating and re-initializing:

 

map datum formating procedure

press menu

press setup

press map datum, primary, wgs84, enter

quit, once maybe twice

 

coordinate formatting procedure

press menu

press setup

press coordinate system, primary, lat/long, deg/min.mmm, eter

quit, once maybe twice

 

re-initializing procedure

press menu

press setup

press clear memory, all, enter, confirm the delete and unit will shut off. take outside and start-up re-initializing the location data.

 

 

the re-initializing should be done first as everything gets cleared from the unit. if you have waypoints you want to keep, you should download them to the pc or write them down before re-initializing the unit.

 

'Get to the point---speak English!!!!'

[+JohnnyVegas]

You should also make sure you are not holding your GPS close to your body, Your body can block some of the Sats. Your body can effect your GPSr reception.

 

Good luck

[+Team Pitkis]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Motley Crew:

quote:

---

To "Motley Crew"

 

I don't know if this MAP DATUM setting is set

to the value you mentioned but I'll check it.

 

---

 

I have a Magellan 315 and suffered exactly the problem you describe.To the best of my knowledge there is no way of 'calibrating' it as such.

 

To check you have the correct Datum set do the following:

Press 'MENU' button

Select 'SETUP'

Select 'MAP DATUM'

Select 'PRIMARY'

Ensure that WGS84 is highlighted.

 

Hope this helps you.

 

motley. adj. varied in appearance or character.

crew. n. group of people.

---

 

To start with... this MAP DATUM was somehow

set to the value "KKJ" which is a system

used in Scandinavian charts. We'll see if this

helps.

[+Hi-Tek]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Team Pitkis:

 

To start with... this MAP DATUM was somehow

set to the value "KKJ" which is a system

used in Scandinavian charts. We'll see if this

helps.

---

 

Being set to 'KKJ' I believe is the cause of your problem. Now you've set it to 'WGS84' I think you will be OK and find the unit is no longer 100 metres out in comparison to everyone else! Don't forget to re-visit your cache and re-check the co-ordinates (leave the GPS 'averaging' for 5-10 minutes to get a good fix) then edit your cache page and everyone should be happy.

 

Good luck and best wishes from the UK.

 

motley. adj. varied in appearance or character.

crew. n. group of people.