Garmin Legend Set-up

[Boxer Crew]

I hope this is the right forum, they are newbie questions but Legend specific.

 

I have had the unit for a couple of days now, and have found a couple of caches aswell as having great fun. The manual is a bit vague on a number of teh units abilities.

 

Can someone please explain how the course pointer and course deviation indicator works, along with the offcourse reading? I have no problems with the bearing pointer.

 

Is Mapsource the only way of downloading useful maps to the legend. I would quite like some local maps before splashing out on the big CD. Are the maps actually useful, how many people use them to help navigate to cache sites? Do you use Road Maps or Topo maps most?

 

Finally which screens do people use the most. This question is more out of interest than anything. I will continue to fiddle with mine. I have been using the navigation window, however I found my last cache using the map window zoomed right in. It got me right next to the cache. What information is the most useful? I have selected the offcourse box on the navigator window but see my first question.

 

If you read all that - thank you. Looks a bit long winded now I have finished it.

 

Any other useful comments about the legend.

 

Thanks

[+Rogue_monkey]

Ok I'll give this a try and if i'm wrong someone will correct me.

 

course pointer shows you how far off you are from the direct line of travel to the waypoint and by how many degrees and what angle you need to travel inorder to correct this. Basically it is usless to caching as you will be off line most of the time because you will be fallowing a trail.

 

As for maps. Mapsource is all you got and they have a wide range to choose from depending on what you need it for. I personally have metro guide v4 on mine and no topo, while other people will say they have topo. If you do a lot of traveling then city maps will be better but if you use it off road more go for topo.

 

As for your last question I use the navigation screen the most for caching and when i'm driving I use the map page. I've also customized all the pages to show the data I want to see.

 

hope that helps

[+NightPilot]

The course is the direct line between where you pushed the Goto button and the waypoint. The course deviation indicator shows how far you are from this line. I never use them - they're really only useful for flying or boating, not for wandering around on the ground following paths or animal trails.

 

I use the trip computer screen most of the time, showing heading, bearing, and distance to the cache, and speed. The heading shows which way I'm going, bearing shows which way the cache is, and if you make them both the same, you're heading directly to the cache. Knowing how far it is to the cache is obviously important, and the speed is mostly for driving, but if it gets really high in the woods, that's an indication that the position is unreliable. I don't bother with the navigation screen most of the time, because it doesn't give me enough information, and the arrow gets unreliable as you get close to the cache. You can put a pointer arrow on the trip computer screen if you want; you can customize it however you like. The manual explains this.

[HawkesNest]

The course is the direct line between where you pushed the Goto button and the waypoint. The course deviation indicator shows how far you are from this line. I never use them - they're really only useful for flying or boating, not for wandering around on the ground following paths or animal trails.

 

I use the trip computer screen most of the time, showing heading, bearing, and distance to the cache, and speed. The heading shows which way I'm going, bearing shows which way the cache is, and if you make them both the same, you're heading directly to the cache. Knowing how far it is to the cache is obviously important, and the speed is mostly for driving, but if it gets really high in the woods, that's an indication that the position is unreliable. I don't bother with the navigation screen most of the time, because it doesn't give me enough information, and the arrow gets unreliable as you get close to the cache. You can put a pointer arrow on the trip computer screen if you want; you can customize it however you like. The manual explains this.

That is exactly right for the Course arrow, and to just say it again, the Course straight line is created from the point where you are standing to the destination at the moment you press the goto button. If you cancel the navigation and start over from a different location, you will have a new course line from the point where you are standing to the destination at the moment you press the goto button.

 

I would highly suspect that you will find the bearing pointer on the navigation page much more useful for GeoCaching.

 

I just have to say I liked your point of view on the trip computer page. That was some good insight with the heading and bearing data.

[Boxer Crew]

Thanks for the comments guys.

 

I am glad the course pointer thing isn't that useful for gcing. I couldn't make any sense of it. I guess there is more to GPS than just geocaching

 

Its interesting to see the different approaches people can take.

 

Anyone got any others?

[Boxer Crew]

Another days caching, another question.

 

The sateliitle bars are different tones, some are black some are lighter. What does this mean? Again I cannot find any reference in teh manual. It looks like it may be signal strength related.

 

Thanks

[+NightPilot]

Read Page 5 of the manual. The light bar shows a satellite the unit knows is there, but is receiving no signal from. When a signal is received, the bar turns dark.

[+apersson850]

Not really true.

When there's a satellite number, but no bar at all, then the unit knows about the satellite, but can't receive it.

 

If you get the light/hollow bar, then your receiver can get data from the satellite, but doesn't yet have enough to use that sat for positioning.

 

If the signal bar is dark/filled, then ephimeris data (precise orbital information) has been received from the satellite, so that it can be used in the PVT computation. Usually it is, too, although that's not for certain.

 

The color of the satellite on the skyview will follow the color of the signal bar.

[Boxer Crew]

apersson850 - thanks. I figured it was something like that. Now I know.