Etrex Lengend

[+Rogue_monkey]

looking at getting a gps unit for both backcrountry navigating and geocaching. was wondering if the Etrex legend is a good unit. also looking for a partner for my first few hunts, check my profile for my location.

 

thanks.

rogue_monkey

[+Brianslost]

I don't have much experience with other units and I bought my Legend before I started geocaching but I love this thing. It does more things than I need it to do. I have downloaded more maps than I can travel too and it has space for 500 waypoints. I can't fill that space. Its a great unit in my opinion. I'm glad I bought it. Now you need to get input from people with other units.

[+New England n00b]

I just checked your profile and did not see any indication of your location?

 

I happen to have an eTrex Legend, and I personally love it - although I have nothing to compare it to, as it's my first GPS receiver.

[+West Tn Dawg]

I am using a Legend with the mapsource software and I dearly love it! Took my daughter out this weekend and she picked up 16 caches! I got 10 new ones myself. Only missed 2 finding 2! I have the mapsource on my laptop and I keep the old yellow Etrex connected to it for navigating in the truck. Then we grab the Legend and start hunting. I also have a Vista, but for some reason I just favor the Legend. I'm not saying it is the best, but you want be disappointed with it. GREAT UNIT!! Didn't see any location in your profile.

[+Rogue_monkey]

hey thanks for the info

i live in ontario canada, i guess there's no profiles in here but my profile in geocaching.com says it.

Edited May 3, 2004 by rogue_monkey

[+New England n00b]

Hamilton? Don't forget, this is an international website with users from all over the world!

 

If you are in the US, what state or area? Keep in mind the profile page you have may not show everything to the rest of us. So while you might have entered it, you may have to check/uncheck a box to make it visible to the world.

[+Rogue_monkey]

ya thanks must have been updating while you where typing message

[+New England n00b]

Yeah, that happens... I've replied to many messages before and then come to find they've already been answered whilst I was typing... DOH!

 

There is a specific forum for nations, and Canda has one. You may get more Canadian readers to help you in your request by repeating this post in there? Dunno, but worth a try, I think. Unfortunately, I am too far away to help you out.

 

Good luck!

Edited May 3, 2004 by New England n00b

[jfreeman_bsj]

I have a Legend and love it, but I don't have anything other than a Map76 to compare it to.

 

I have noticed one thing, and that is when I am heading for a cache in navigation mode about 100 feet out from the cache the arrow will swing 180 degrees and then go back true when I get a little closer. It has done this a few times, and can be a little confusing. I don't know if it is a software glitch or what, but it shows up on the map screen like I went wildly off course even though I was going in a straight line

 

I also wish the Legend had the waypoint averaging mode like the Map76, that makes it a lot easier to get good coordinates when placing caches. On one of my two caches I used the Map76 in averaging mode to get the coordinates and have had a few comments about my coordinates being right on.

[+Brianslost]

I have a Legend and love it, but I don't have anything other than a Map76 to compare it to.

 

I have noticed one thing, and that is when I am heading for a cache in navigation mode about 100 feet out from the cache the arrow will swing 180 degrees and then go back true when I get a little closer. It has done this a few times, and can be a little confusing. I don't know if it is a software glitch or what, but it shows up on the map screen like I went wildly off course even though I was going in a straight line

 

I also wish the Legend had the waypoint averaging mode like the Map76, that makes it a lot easier to get good coordinates when placing caches. On one of my two caches I used the Map76 in averaging mode to get the coordinates and have had a few comments about my coordinates being right on.

 

One thing the Legend does not have in it is a magnetic compass. It can't tell you where north is unless you are moving. If you are standing still or doing a slow winding bushwack bring up the bearing on the screen somewhere and take a sighting with a standard compass. It can always tell you the direction from you to your destination, even if you are standing still. When you get withing 100 feet or so give up on the pointers, they'll only confuse.

[+RuffRidr]

I have an etrex legend as well. I have seen 2 problems with my legend so far. First, I have the screen line flicker that all etrex's seem to get sooner or later. I believe it is a connection inside that has come loose. I jolted the GPS really hard and haven't seen it happen in quite a while. The other problem is the rubber edge that runs around the etrex. Mine has gotten old and tore when I was putting it into the RAM-mount. It still works OK since there is glue under there, but I will have to send it in for repairs soon.

 

All in all, a great unit for the price, however.

 

--RuffRidr

[+briansnat]

I had a Legend and now have a Vista. Love them both. They are easy to use and much more compact that most other GPS's. In 3 years I've never experienced the screen flicker that the above poster mentioned. The rubber gasket does seem to start to loosen after a while and I had this fixed. I have a feeling extreme high temps cause this because it happened on both units late in the summer after I left it on the dashboard of my car parked in the sun too often.

 

Other than that, no complaints. They units are accurate, get great reception (even under trees despite what others may say) and are durable.

[+Rogue_monkey]

to the user who talked about bearing mode. is there a function on the gps that gives you a bearing you are headed and all you have to do is set this on a standard compass and they match bearing. (no math or anything to do like you have do with getting the declination off a paper map for the first time)

[+95_Camaro_Couple]

I'm still relatively new to the sport and will be purchasing a Legend soon. I made the decision after tagging along with a Legend-user to geocache on the weekends, and it seems like an awesome unit! I looked them up on amazon.com yesterday and they have them for $159, free shipping, *and* a $30 rebate. May not be available in Canada, but it seems like a great deal for those of us down here in the US.

 

Paula

[+New England n00b]

In regards to the bearing: You can set up several of the screens with info boxes that can contain one of a large list of info bits. One of these is bearing numbers. You can take the bearing number and use it directly with your compass. I do, and it works well.

[+crzycrzy]

Thumbs up from me for the legend too...

Love my blue !

[Dirtbag Darrel]

Hey gang! I’m fairly new to the whole gps thing and I seem to be on the other side of the fence on this one. I bought the Legend and had huge problems with it. I had so much trouble getting and holding a signal it was virtually unusable to me. I backpack and the only way I could get it to hold a signal was to strap it to the top of my pack face up (out of useable hand’s reach). The only time it would get a signal in the car was face up on the dash (where I couldn’t see it).

 

I took the unit back and got a Magellan SportTrack Map which is a comparable model to the Legend and found the signal acquisition to be at least twice as good. I was able to get the Magellan for $30 less too which is saying something because I picked up the Legend for only $168.

 

How I’m not coming off to negative.

[+New England n00b]

Everyones experiences are different - just because you did not have a good one does not mean that you are coming across negatively. Now, if you had said, "HEY ALL GARMIN USERS ARE IDIOTS!", well, that that would have been negative...

 

I think the difference might come down to the type of antenna - but I find my Legend is more than adeqaute for hiking in my area.

 

Good luck with your Magellan - may it serve you well.

[+Rogue_monkey]

well thanks for all the comments i just went out and got the legend for under $200 cdn. score!

 

cheers

[+Milbank]

I have the Legend. I have never used a gps befor. I really like this one.

I love the small size.

[+wxboss]

The Legend is my first GPSr. I was originally looking at the yellow eTrex, but I ended up spending a little more dough and got the Legend. I'm glad I did. It has some great features as well as doing a good job of locking on to sats. I'm pretty pleased with it

[Dirtbag Darrel]

well thanks for all the comments i just went out and got the legend for under $200 cdn. score!

 

cheers

You may want to do some checking around on the net and at Garmin’s web site because I thought I saw they were having rebates on the Legends.

 

DD

[Dirtbag Darrel]

Everyones experiences are different - just because you did not have a good one does not mean that you are coming across negatively. Now, if you had said, "HEY ALL GARMIN USERS ARE IDIOTS!", well, that that would have been negative...

 

I think the difference might come down to the type of antenna - but I find my Legend is more than adeqaute for hiking in my area.

 

Good luck with your Magellan - may it serve you well.

I find that all gear selection are like the old Ford vs. Chevy argument. When I read reviews on the Legend I saw mostly good reviews so there are a lot of people are happy with theirs. I did like the layout of the gps and some of the little options the SportTrack doesn’t have. The one thing I really like about the SportTrack is you change and customize any screen to show the exact fields of info you want.

[+Rogue_monkey]

by the looks of it you can change the data fields in the legend too, customize customize and customize some more

[Dirtbag Darrel]

by the looks of it you can change the data fields in the legend too, customize customize and customize some more

wow that's cool you can do that with your too. I must not have gotten in deep enough to find that with mine.

 

Hey, I did find the $30 rebate info for the Legend. It looks like it's running to the end of August.

 

http://www.garmin.com/whatsNew/currentpromotions/index.html#

[+New England n00b]

by the looks of it you can change the data fields in the legend too, customize customize and customize some more

wow that's cool you can do that with your too. I must not have gotten in deep enough to find that with mine.

 

Hey, I did find the $30 rebate info for the Legend. It looks like it's running to the end of August.

 

http://www.garmin.com/whatsNew/currentpromotions/index.html#

Yep, on every screen you can add/remove data fields, and change what each field displays at will from a long list of items. I kinda like it...

 

The reason the Garmin and Magellan units are different is due to the antenna - the Garmin is a patch antenna, which I'm told works best horizontally and is better able to handle canyons and stuff like that. The SporTrak uses a quad-helix, which, if I understand right, works better vertically, and has (again from what I hear) better ability to handle tree cover.

 

An engineer friend I once knew said "RF Engineering is nothing less than Black Magic." You get two of the same units side by side and I'll betcha they read differently. Just the way it is I guess.

 

But if what ya got works for ya, well... run with it!

Edited May 8, 2004 by New England n00b

[+oldstah]

Okay; just one more vote for the Legend. I've only had mine a couple of weeks but really like it a lot. Screen image is crisp, and the unit is small.

 

We don't have a lot of tree cover yet this year, so it's hard to say if that will be satisfactory or not in midsummer, but so far it's been terrific. Good luck whatever you go with.

[+clonecone]

You get two of the same units side by side and I'll betcha they read differently. Just the way it is I guess.

It all has to do with the decimal point rounding. Any handheld under $500 has an automatic 1.3 meter error factor in addition to the normal GPS error.

 

I use and train others to use professional grade receivers everyday. I think the Legend is the best receiver in its price range. I never leave home without mine.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

I don't have much experience with other units and I bought my Legend before I started geocaching but I love this thing. It does more things than I need it to do. I have downloaded more maps than I can travel too and it has space for 500 waypoints. I can't fill that space. Its a great unit in my opinion. I'm glad I bought it. Now you need to get input from people with other units.

Actually, the Legend has room for 1000 waypoints. The Venture and Yellow only hold 500

[+Milbank]

Actually, the Legend has room for 1000 waypoints

 

I wonder about this. Is it 500 or 1000 waypoints?

My book on page one say's 500.

On Garmin.com it say's 1000.

[+Geo Leo]

Actually, the Legend has room for 1000 waypoints

 

I wonder about this. Is it 500 or 1000 waypoints?

My book on page one say's 500.

On Garmin.com it say's 1000.

The legend originally was designed for 500 waypoints, but a firmware upgrade allows it to hold 1000. Even if your manual says 500, make sure that you have the latest firmware version 3.6, and it'll take 1000. There's a lot of other undocumented features that have been added through firmware updates that won't be in your manual, such as the owner information screen and battery type selection.

[+Milbank]

Geo Leo,

 

That's great to know, thanks.

I do have the latest software.

 

I was also wondering about the owner info screen as I did not see anything in the book about that.

 

1000 way points, that's great!

[+Geo Leo]

Geo Leo,

 

That's great to know, thanks.

I do have the latest software.

 

I was also wondering about the owner info screen as I did not see anything in the book about that.

 

1000 way points, that's great!

The owner information can be edited by clicking on the owner information line which is on the drop-down menu on the system page.

[+briansnat]

The reason the Garmin and Magellan units are different is due to the antenna - the Garmin is a patch antenna, which I'm told works best horizontally and is better able to handle canyons and stuff like that. The SporTrak uses a quad-helix, which, if I understand right, works better vertically, and has (again from what I hear) better ability to handle tree cover.

 

Actually only the Garmin eTrex line and Gecko line use the patch antenna. All other Garmins use the quad helix. Both antennas work just fine, but the patch does work better if the unit is held flat and face up.

[+briansnat]

The legend originally was designed for 500 waypoints, but a firmware upgrade allows it to hold 1000. Even if your manual says 500, make sure that you have the latest firmware version 3.6, and it'll take 1000. There's a lot of other undocumented features that have been added through firmware updates that won't be in your manual, such as the owner information screen and battery type selection.

 

Check the website for the latest doc. I haven't looked, but I'm sure it's been updated.

[4x4luv]

I have both A ledgend And a 1979 Chevy Luv 4x4 truck with a broken speedometer. I bought my gpsr so I could find my speed out. I've been using it for about 3 years now, NO TROUBLES. The best option is the Power plug/Computer cable. I loose things but as one cable I dont lose it. and in the truck I dont have to worry about dead batteries.