GPS iris?

[Guest Paul Lamble]

I've got a Garmin etrex Summit. A couple months old. What I want to know is if it has some kind of iris in it. When I am out in strong sunlight, it is hard to read because it has no contracts from dark to light. When I step in a shadow it gets easier, and when I'm in my truck or back home, there is no problem. I'm guessing that there is some quality to the unit (or possibly the glass on the screen?) that does this to protect it from direct sunlight. Or is it my OWN iris that is reacting to the strong light?

 

Anyone know anything about this?

 

Paul Lamble

[Guest PneumaticDeath]

I'm not sure about the Summit, since I've only used the Legend, but I'm guessing they're similar. You need to adjust the display contrast for bright sunlight. There are two ways to do this on the Legend: You can use the zoom buttons on the satellite page, or you can do it from the display page on the setup menu.

 

On the Summit (according to the manual I just downloaded), you can at least change it from the setup menu. Changing it from the satellite page is useful because you do need to adjust it after going from bright sunlight to indoor lighting. (i.e. fairly often), and digging through the setup menu every time is difficult. I didn't see a reference to it, but try using the zoom buttons on the sat page as well.

 

-- Mitch

[Guest JIntorcio]

On my Vista, when the Satellite page is displayed, the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons adjust the contrast - the Summit may be the same. There is no "Iris" or other self-adjusting contrast mechanism. What you see may be the effect of temperature on the LCD display. Leave your unit on the dash in the sun in a hot car, for example, and the display will appear to "fade" while it will get darker in extremely cold temperatures. You can compensate within normal ranges using the contrast adjustment.

 

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>>> John <<<

[Guest WaylandersMA]

quote:

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Originally posted by JIntorcio:

..... Leave your unit on the dash in the sun in a hot car, for example, and the display will appear to "fade" while it will get darker in extremely cold temperatures.......

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And if you drop your cell phone in the water while getting a river cache then bake in the oven at 180 F, the screen gets _really_ dark. Amazingly, after cool to touch, it works again.

 

Paul

[Guest WaylandersMA]

quote:

---

Originally posted by JIntorcio:

..... Leave your unit on the dash in the sun in a hot car, for example, and the display will appear to "fade" while it will get darker in extremely cold temperatures.......

---

 

And if you drop your cell phone in the water while getting a river cache then bake in the oven at 180 F, the screen gets _really_ dark. Amazingly, after cool to touch, it works again.

 

Paul