Difference Between Magellan and Garmin units

[edlentz]

OK so yesterday I took and laid out our first cache. I used my new Garmin Venture, made 4 approaches to the cache to get a reasonable location. The first vistitor said that the coord were a bit off. So, today I took my Garmin and a Magellan GPSII and set them side by side in the back yard. Here are my results:

 

Garmin:

N43 37.992

W084 13.596

Magellan:

N43 37.983

W084 13.592

 

Both were set for Magnetic north and a variance of 7 degrees. So the question is:

How much does this matter in the Geocaching scheme of things and am I tilting at windmills?

 

Thanks for getting me hooked on this stuff!

 

Ed

[edlentz]

Sorry the Magellan is a GPS 2000!

[dave and jaime]

according to easygps the difference is 57'. so if you now take half (29') you are well within the error range of the 2 units. as to which is more accurate----i dont think you can discern.

 

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

[+Searching_ut]

To tell what's going on you really need to try taking readings at a benchmark, then seeing how far you are from the benchmark. You can look for some in your area in the benchmarking area, just like looking up caches.

 

As for comparing your 2000 and you venture, which version of the 2000 do you have? is it the XL, and if so is it one of the 12 channel units, or one of the older sequential units. Easiest way to tell is how long it takes to get a lock the first time. If it's 2 minutes or less, you probably have a 12 channel unit. Whatever the case, my guess would be the Magellan is one of the older sequential units, which often are slightly less accurate, depending on conditions of course.

 

Another thing to make sure of is that you had the same map datum selected in both unit ie. WGS 84

[+Renegade Knight]

Using them side by side I've only normally seen a 10' difference in readings. They flip flop as to which is closest to the cache when it's found.

[ltcoady]

One thing that you need to watch out for when doing a side by side comparison like that is if one unit uses a wider first intermediate frequency in it's downconverter design than the other, the receiver with the wider IF will emit a noise spur at the 1st IF image of the other receiver, causing interference with it. I have seen this with a Garmin GPS38 and an Eagle. If the two units were within about 1 meter of each other, the garmin would lose lock. It is not indicative of a fault with either unit, it is just the physics of how superhetrodyne receivers work.