My Etrex Legend Is Playing Games

[+flickerstix]

i am very new to this and i just purchased an etrex legend gps. it sometimes works very well, but occasionally the arrow will start jumping back and forth between directions. it has led me the wrong way on a few occasions already. sometimes if i find another point and then refind the one i really need it points in the right direction. is this normal or is there a problem with my unit?

[+Rogue_monkey]

not sure if this will help. but the legend does not have a electronic compass, you need to be moving for it to work as well as the pointer, so you need to be moving in order for it to tell you which was in north and which way to go. it takes a few seconds to re-adjust once you start moving too. the second problem it might be is that when you get real close to the cache, say about 5m, the needle might start to jump around because the gpsr keeps updating where it is and it has to calulated that position with where the cache is. if thats the case thats when you stop lookin at the gpsr and start seaching around.

 

hope this helps and happy hunting

[+briansnat]

It's not unusual. The Legend (and most GPS's without electric compasses) require you to be moving for the directional arrow to work. If you slow down to much, it might not detect your movement and you'll get the Linda Blair syndrome. This happens for most people when they slow down as they near the cache. When this happened to me when I had my Legend, I'd walk back about a hundred feet and walk briskly back to where I was. This will usually "straighten out" the needle.

 

It will also happen when you and your target are within the EPE of the GPS. If you have EPE of 30 feet, once you're inside that (for instance at the cache site), the needle wil jump around. This is why most geocachers will just put the GPS away when they get within 30 to 40 feet of the cache.

 

Finally, remember that the eTrex likes to be held level with the face up, pointing to the sky. In any other position, reception will not be as good. If you hang it around your neck from the laynard, or hold it in you hand, dangling at your side, you may lose reception, or you signal will be weak.

[+CaveClanFam]

Sell your Legend and get a unit that has a quad *helix*?? antenna. The 60, 72 and 76 series all have the quad and the accuracy is SO much better than the eTrex line. I have had a 72, a Legend, and a 76. For the money the 72 is by far the best (non mapping) to find a cache with. Try and find a fellow Geocacher near you that owns a 72 or 76 and meet up with them for a cache. Compare the two units both out in the open and under tree cover. You will be impressed.

Edited July 13, 2004 by CaveClanFam

[+writer]

This happened to me too when I first used my Legend. I talked to technical support - they said that you have to be moving at about 2mph for the directional arrow to work. It's because of the amount of position data that it keeps on hand to do the directional calculations. However, the mapping screen keeps a greater history and works more accurately at slow speeds. So I just move to the map screen and see how my position is moving towards the cache waypoint.

[+briansnat]

Sell your Legend and get a unit that has a quad *helix*?? antenna. The 60, 72 and 76 series all have the quad and the accuracy is SO much better than the eTrex line. I have had a 72, a Legend, and a 76. For the money the 72 is by far the best (non mapping) to find a cache with. Try and find a fellow Geocacher near you that owns a 72 or 76 and meet up with them for a cache. Compare the two units both out in the open and under tree cover. You will be impressed.

I've used my Legend alongside Meri Sportrak and Platnium users, Map76 users, GPS V users and 60CS users and noticed little difference...and at times actually had a better lock than they did. Is the quad helix antenna marginally better under most conditions? Sure. But I wouldn't say its SO much better than the eTrex's patch antenna that it's worth discarding your eTrex and buying another GPS.

 

I read where someone said that the eTrex has probably found more caches than all other GPS models combined and they're probably right. You go out with any group of geocachers at least half will have some model of eTrex. They must be doing something right.

[Dare and Jo]

Here's something I wondered about last night.

 

If you have a GPSr without a built-in compass (like the etrex) and you're not moving fast enough for it to know your direction... If you orient it according to an actual compass (so north on the GPS points north on the compass) will the arrow then be pointing in (approximately) the direction of the destination (ignoring the difference between true north and magnetic north)?

 

--Dare

[+Robespierre]

The electronic compass is worth a lot to me, but I used an old Garmin12 for months. It was very accurate, but you sometimes have to back up 50' to give it adjustment time, and keep moving. Even an ec will "bounce" and become confused when you're close enough. I still back up a bit sometimes, and sometimes, just standing still (with an ec) works wonders.

[+AuntieWeasel]

If you orient it according to an actual compass (so north on the GPS points north on the compass) will the arrow then be pointing in (approximately) the direction of the destination (ignoring the difference between true north and magnetic north)?

Yup. I have a compass on the same lanyard as the eTrex (or did until the lanyard ring busted) and that's just what I do when I get semi-close to the destination (when I get really close I just look).

[+NightPilot]

It ain't necessarily so. The GPS position isn't precise, so the receiver thinks it's in one place, then in another, thus the destination is in one direction, then in another. Carry a real compass, which you don't have to calibrate every time you use it, and when you get 50' or 100' from the cache, take a bearing with the compass on the direction the GPS indicates. This will give you a line to follow. When you get close, and the GPS starts giving you different directions, just stay on the line you calculated. Then start searching around the area - you'll likely be off 10 or 30 feet or so, because the person who placed the cache may not have done much averaging, and the coordinates may be somewhat off even if you have a good position. The more tree cover, the more variance you'll have. So when you're very close to the cache, the GPS direction arrow may not point to the cache, and in fact may be up to 180 degrees off. Therefore, use your compass before you get that close.