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Newbie E-trex Question


Team NWTear

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I just got an e-trex (yellow one) for Christmas, and I just started learning about geocaching. I noticed on the Garmin website, and in other locations, that the e-trex is supposedly not WAAS enabled, however...when scrolling through the features I found I could select WAAS on the System screen, under "Mode". I also noticed that the handbook that came with the unit talks about it having WAAS capability. Now I am completely confused as to whether or not it is WAAS capable. :D Does anyone know the answer to this question?

 

Thanks

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Garmin web site info is not updated as often as you would expect. They upgrade the firmware from time to time. Some units are shown on the web site as being capable of recording 500 waypoints, when in fact they hold 1,000, due to firmware upgrades.

 

I don't know specifically about the yellow ETrex and WAAS, but it is a popular unit, and someone around here will drop in with the definitive answer.

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Hey Shibby,

You think that WAAS causes some of that flakiness when you get down close? I knew it ate up batteries, but I thought it was supposed to make it more accurate. I guess if you are just barely getting a WAAS signal, as you move and it finds and looses it, it would really jack up the accuracy. I will try turning it off next time I'm out and see if I can confirm your opinion.

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That's very interesting. I have the basic yellow eTrex with the latest software version (2.14) and there is no waas option in the menu of the unit or the manual that came with it or the on-line manual. There are several eTrex models that have waas capability but the basic eTrex yellow, eTrex Summit and eTrex Camo do not. What software version do you have? It's on the "menu"/"setup"/"system" page.

 

Poindexter

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Hey Shibby,

You think that WAAS causes some of that flakiness when you get down close? I knew it ate up batteries, but I thought it was supposed to make it more accurate. I guess if you are just barely getting a WAAS signal, as you move and it finds and looses it, it would really jack up the accuracy. I will try turning it off next time I'm out and see if I can confirm your opinion.

making the gps more accurate is not the correct way to describe the waas 'process'. ideally waas corrections represent a correction for the systematic errors due to the conditions in atmosphere by using known control points. these corrections are valid only if the conditions in your area closely match the conditions in the area surronding the local wgrs(area of ~150mi radius).

 

personally i wouldnt expect waas to improve accuracy to such a degree that it is essential, and in fact with the variables concerning enviroment i would expect non-waas would be much stable over time.

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You think that WAAS causes some of that flakiness when you get down close? I knew it ate up batteries, but I thought it was supposed to make it more accurate. I guess if you are just barely getting a WAAS signal, as you move and it finds and looses it, it would really jack up the accuracy. I will try turning it off next time I'm out and see if I can confirm your opinion.

Doesn't always make it more accurate, especially if you're not receiving the WAAS signals. :D I generally leave mine off. So to the OP, I wouldn't worry if the yellow is still not WAAS enabled... it's not everything, especially in geocaching!

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I also have a new yellow etrex, it's the same as yours.

Software version 3.00, WAAS enabled, 20 route capability.

I e-mailed Garmin to find out any other info on the upgrade, I will let you know what they tell me. The only bad thing I have seen is that the rated battery life has gone from 22 hrs to 18 hrs.

I have seen one web site with the new info, GPS4fun. Hope this helps.

 

Alan

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