Garmin Gpsr Tips And Tricks

[+Cardinal Red]

Several families of newer Garmin GPSr Units have similar feature sets. If you think you have discovered something that is undocumented (or not common knowledge) in a GARMIN Unit, post it here. Include the specific Unit(s) you discovered this information on. Also include the Software Version # you are on.

 

This idea started with an old post I stumbled across in this Forum. It was lost for a long time, and now I can't find it again. But I re-posted it somewhere as a follow up answer to a Format Conversion question. The value of the information was confirmed when another member commented how helpful the information was. Here it is again to start this topic:

 

GARMIN GPSMAP 76S version 3.20 On the Satelite Screen, you can just "Toggle" between two coordinate systems by tapping on the Rocker Key in any direction. One caveat. It "toggles" between whatever coord system you have your unit set to display, and HDD:MM.mmm If the unit is already set to display HDD:MM.mmm you won't notice any difference.

[+Miragee]

I found the screen for putting in personal information and having that screen show when the GPSr is first turned on. (Good idea in case GPSr is lost and honest person finds it. )

 

Someone else wrote that they had not seen that in the manual.

 

Me . . . I've never looked at the manual.

[+Couparangus]

I wasn't aware of that trick on the GPSmap76s - thanks.

 

I have an eMap too and there's a feature that isn't in my manual. When following a Route, if you press and hold the Find button it takes you to the active route screen where it displays the distance to the end of your trip and the estimated arrival time. You can also get at this screen by pressing Menu-Menu-Routes-(select active route), but pressing and holding the Find key is a lot easier while driving. There is also a diagnostic mode on the unit but I think everyone knows about that.

Edited February 24, 2005 by Couparangus

[+Cardinal Red]

GARMIN GPS MAP 76S version 3.20 When the Unit is powered up you see the "Garmin" Screens. If you just wait patiently till you get a "lock", you will be taken to the Map Screen. If you wanted to watch the Satelite Acquisition process, you must PAGE away from the "Garmin" Screens to the Satelite Screen. But, as soon as you get a "lock", you are taken back to the Map Screen. That really used to Frost me.

 

But, when you PAGE away from the "Garmin" Screens, just go past the Satelite Screen 1 time. Then whatever Screen you stop at, will stay in place when a "lock" is acquired. I generally PAGE to the Satelite Screen the 2nd time and watch the show. I get a lock, but can still keep an eye on it while waiting for the ACCURACY to improve.

[Neo_Geo]

GPSMAP 60C/S - 76C/S - COLOR ETREXES - TIDE STATION PREDICTIONS

No, you do not need MapSource BLUE CHART maps for this either. You will need MapSource installed on your computer though. It only takes less than one MB for the entire U.S.

 

CLICK HERE for more info!

 

Anybody with a new B&W 60 series willing to give it a go?

Edited February 24, 2005 by Neo_Geo

[+Sputnik 57]

A couple of "Easter Eggs" from the Setup Section of the Garmin 60CS/76CS FAQ.

 

GPSMAP 60C/S - 76C/S - COLOR ETREXES Hold ENTR while powering up the unit to get to the test page. Holding ENTR and PAGE while powering up the unit will do a master reset (use with caution!)

 

From the Trip Computer page, press up, right, down and left on the rocker key. A debug page appears. There is a screen shot in this post and a discussion in the few following posts (thanks Murmeli!)

 

And here is a link to Secret Startup Commands for Garmin Handhelds

[tholt4]

GARMIN eTrex Legend Backlight Operation:

If you have the backlight set to any interval other than "stays on", and you have the backlight feature activated (by momentarily pressing the on/off switch), I found out that when you are in tracking back to beginning or end and have the compass screen showing with the pointer, the backlight will come on for the interval selected every time the pointer makes an approximate 20-30 degreee change. I placed the Legend on my dash and only discoverd this when returning from a trip at dusk and noticed the light coming on. Since the pointer moves approximatlely 15 seconds before a turn, you can use this at night and be alerted to the turn. The disadvantage to the backlight feature is that during the day, you cannot tell if the light is coming on if you have accidentally turned the backlight feature on.

[+Cardinal Red]

GARMIN GPSMAP 76S version 3.20 Have you have ever wanted to see your Location (Lat/Long, UTM, ect. ) on any Screens OTHER THAN the Sattelite ( GPS Information ) Page. If you only choose SMALL Rows during Setup Page Layout you will NEVER see this. You MUST choose MEDIUM or LARGE Rows in order for the LOCATION (Lat/Lon) or LOCATION (Selected) options to be displayed.

 

Location (Lat/Lon) will always be in HDD:MM.mmm format. If you have the GPSr set to display ANY OTHER format (UTM for example) the Location (Selected) option will display that. This is a very poorly implimented feature. Even Bill Gates has enough sense to only Grey out choices that are not currently available, instead of just having them vanish.

[Neo_Geo]

Location (Lat/Lon) will always be in HDD:MM.mmm format. If you have the GPSr set to display ANY OTHER format (UTM for example) the Location (Selected) option will display that. This is a very poorly implimented feature. Even Bill Gates has enough sense to only Grey out choices that are not currently available, instead of just having them vanish.

 

So why NOT set your Position Format preference to hddd.ddddd°, or hddd° mm' ss.s", or Maidenhead (or whatever) and use the Location (Selected)? I think the fact that they allow you to show some sort of lat/lon information, even though you have a different format selected in your preferences, shows a lot of foresight on their part. Besides, geocaching just happens to use the hddd° mm.mmm' format. Quitcherbitchin!

Edited March 2, 2005 by Neo_Geo

[+Cardinal Red]

Neo_Geo Posted on Mar 2 2005, 01:48 AM

Quitcherbitchin!

Obviously I was not clear enough in my criticism of the implementation of this Garmin "feature".

 

Edited to indicate my knowledge of this phenomenon is limited to the GARMIN GPSMAP 76S version 3.20

 

So why NOT set your Position Format preference to hddd.ddddd°, or hddd° mm' ss.s", or Maidenhead (or whatever) and use the Location (Selected)?

Yes, absolutley. Use any format that works for you. But it was not immediatly clear to me exactly what Location (Lat/Lon) and Location (Selected) really meant. I tried to explain what the implications of choosing one over the other were EXACTLY.

 

Cardinal Red Posted on Mar 2 2005, 12:39 AM

This is a very poorly implimented feature. Even Bill Gates has enough sense to only Grey out choices that are not currently available, instead of just having them vanish.

If you have very good eyesight, or if you wear very good glasses you might not ever see the Location (Lat/Lon) and Location (Selected) options. It took me over a year to find them. If you select SMALL Rows during Setup Page Layout those options are NOT DISPLAYED IN THE SELECTION LIST. You MUST choose MEDIUM or LARGE Rows in order for the LOCATION (Lat/Lon) or LOCATION (Selected) options to even be displayed in the selection list.

 

There are many times in the Windows operating system that an option is not viable under certain conditions. The classic solution is to GREY OUT that option. You can SEE that it's there, but clearly understand that you can't choose it right now.

 

And how many other users never even knew this was there because of this. Was I the only one?

Edited March 2, 2005 by Cardinal Red

[+Mister_X]

What do you mean...

 

"...choose Small rows during page setup layout..."

 

Can you a little bit more specific please?

 

Gtz.

 

Mister_X

[+LandRover]

Neo_Geo Posted: Feb 23 2005, 08:32 PM 

 

GPSMAP 60C/S - 76C/S - COLOR ETREXES - TIDE STATION PREDICTIONS

No, you do not need MapSource BLUE CHART maps for this either. You will need MapSource installed on your computer though. It only takes less than one MB for the entire U.S.

On the 60CS the tide tables are already in the unit straight from the factory. If you download maps from mapsource the tide stations get purged.

To find out how to get the tide stations back

CLICK HERE for more info!

This worked for me.

[+Cardinal Red]

Mister_X Posted on Mar 2 2005, 10:39 AM

What do you mean...

 

"...choose Small rows during page setup layout..."

 

Can you a little bit more specific please?

 

Specifically on the GARMIN GPSMAP 76S version 3.20, because it is the only one I own, you can "customize" the data you choose to display on the different Screens, except the Sattelite ( GPS Information ) Page. I must assume other Garmin units also allow you to choose which types of data will best serve your needs.

 

But first you are asked to choose the SIZE of the Rows. Your choices are SMALL, MEDIUM. and LARGE. What you are really choosing is Small, Medium, or Large FONT SIZE - and you need a bigger box for a bigger font (There are also several choices for how many COLUMNS of data will be put in place).

 

Apparently the Location information WILL NOT fit into a SMALL box. So if that was your choice, you won't even see ANY Location option when you scall through the list. But if you go for the MEDIUM or LARGE box, it will magically reappear. And you can have Lat/Lon available on any Screen/Page you wish.

 

Warning: It's still too small to read easily because they stack the two numbers on top of each other. LATITUDE and LONGITUDE could have been split out into seperate categories so they would be in their own individual box in a larger font.

[+Sputnik 57]

GPSMAP 60C/S - 76C/S - COLOR ETREXESI Projecting a waypoint

 

I just found about this and haven't added it to the FAQ yet.

 

When projecting a waypoint, the unit defaults to the Units used in setup. For those of us on the West side of the pond, that usually means miles, labled 'Statute' on the Units menu. If the cache requires you to project a waypoint 285 feet at 330°, that can be tricky (especially since there are only 2 decimal places for you to enter the miles). You can work around this the hard way by resetting your Units to Yards (MENU->MENU->Setup->Units->ENTR->Distance/Speed->Yards)--feet is not an option here. Then divide feet by 3, and enter it in.

 

Shortcut: When projecting a waypoint (MARK->MENU->Project Waypoint), cursor over to the little 'mi' in the lower right corner and hit ENTR. A hidden menu pops up right there and lets you change the projection units to mi, ft, yd, km, m, nm. From there, you can select miles, feet, yards, kilometers, meters or nautical miles. (Sorry, rods and veras are not offered). Pretty handy.

 

I'll post a screen shot of the hidden menu when I get time to add this to the FAQ.

 

Happy caching!

[+netrapt]

I just got a new Vista C to tide me over while my faceplate-lens smashed 76CS is repaired by Garmin. (Then the Vista will become a backup unit - which is not a bad idea seeing as how I really rely on the tracks to get back - esp. when I forget to WAYPOINT THE CAR). Anyhow, took the Vista out for its first caching experience yesterday. Today I load the saved tracks into USAphotomap and then click on "go to beginning of track". I'm looking at a single isolated waypoint which does not compute since normally track points are closely spaced. I [F]ill in the map with photos and see nothing recognizable. I assume it is near my house where I started the day. I switch to Topo mode and a city named Olathe appears. This sounds vaguely familiar. I was in San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties yesterday and drove at least 150 Mi to get to the cache but still, don't remember that one. So I put the track into Mapsource with the Western Topo CD and City Select loaded. There's the single point again but there's no map detail. I zoom out and finally roads appear but only to the left of the point (West of the point) and then cities named Lawrence and then Topeka. KANSAS !!? I'm not in Kanasa anymore and I'm not sure if I've ever been in Kansas. Then it hits me. Olathe, KS is where I shipped the 76CS - headquarters of Garmin International. So they seeded my unit with a waypoint for their headquarters and their US Topo product has a dividing line between the West and East CDs within a stone's throw of their headquarters.

[+netrapt]

Update: more investigation reveals 3 seeded waypoints. The one mentioned in the previous post (which is named GARMIN), and waypoints named GRMEUR and GRMTWN. At coordinates:

GARMIN: N 38 51.333 W 094 47.941, elevation 1066 ft

GRMEUR: N 50 58.973 W 001 27.834, elevation 118 ft

GRMTWN:N 25 13.465 E 121 38.416, elevation 25 ft

[billythekidrock]

Yep, had similar waypoints in my new Rino 120 & 130

[+jotne]

GPSMAP 60C/S - 76C/S - COLOR ETREXESI   Projecting a waypoint

 

I just found about this and haven't added it to the FAQ yet.

 

When projecting a waypoint, the unit defaults to the Units used in setup.  For those of us on the West side of the pond, that usually means miles, labled 'Statute' on the Units menu.  If the cache requires you to project a waypoint 285 feet at 330°, that can be tricky (especially since there are only 2 decimal places for you to enter the miles).  You can work around this the hard way by resetting your Units to Yards (MENU->MENU->Setup->Units->ENTR->Distance/Speed->Yards)--feet is not an option here.  Then divide feet by 3, and enter it in.

 

Shortcut:  When projecting a waypoint (MARK->MENU->Project Waypoint), cursor over to the little 'mi' in the lower right corner and hit ENTR.  A hidden menu pops up right there and lets you change the projection units to mi, ft, yd, km, m, nm.  From there, you can select miles, feet, yards, kilometers, meters or nautical miles.  (Sorry, rods and veras are not offered).  Pretty handy.

 

I'll post a screen shot of the hidden menu when I get time to add this to the FAQ.

 

Happy caching!

Image

 

[+Cardinal Red]

Do you have a Garmin that is Blue Chart Compatible, but it never goes near the water? My GPS Map76S fits that description. When I save a waypoint it automatically saves an elevation (accuracy depends somewhat on how long It's been tracking the Satellites this session).

 

But there is also a Depth category that does NOT self populate (unless you actually have Blue Chart and/or you have communication with an external Depth Finder)? Not sure how that works.

 

All I have ever saved in the Depth Category is ZERO. Got to thinking what I could use that Feature for. Best I have come up with is saving the Fix Accuracy when I Marked a waypoint. Such as "17.3"

 

And if you get a Lat / Long coordinate from a Map, a Website, whatever you could include the Source Datum. "84.0" for WGS84, "27.0" for NAD27, ect.

 

Does anybody have any other ideas? Remember this is NUMBERS only (no Letters). And there are three Unit settings available (FEET, FATHOMS, METERS).

 

Range for FEET - ZERO to 1199.8 (increments by .1)

 

Range for FATHOMS - ZERO to 200.0 (increments by .1)

 

Range for METERS - ZERO to 365.7 (increments by .1)

[+greengolftee87]

This is a really neat thread and i like to see it keep going.

I have a question for all you 60c/s owners out there. when you hold the find button you get a screen MAN OVERBOARD do you want to store and begin navigation to the MOB waypoint YES OR NO what does this do i hit it accidently the other day

[+HHL]

This is a really neat thread and i like to see it keep going.

I have a question for all you 60c/s owners out there.  when you hold the find button you get a screen MAN OVERBOARD do you want to store and begin navigation to the MOB waypoint YES OR NO what does this do i hit it accidently the other day

it’s just doing what it says:

»do you want to store and begin navigation to the MOB waypoint?«

that’s plain english, isn’t it?

happy hunting from hamburg.

 

edit: grammar

Edited March 14, 2005 by HHL

[+Sputnik 57]

MOB (Man over board) has been a feature on Garmins for some time. The idea is to give you a quick way to mark a waypoint if, well, someone falls overboard for example. In addition to marking the waypoint (like it would if you pressed MARK), the unit immediately starts navigating you back to the point. I think pressing and holding MARK would have been more intuitive, but that isn't how they implemented it. Pressing and holding FIND activates the feature. This is mentioned in question 4 of the waypoints section of the FAQ.

Edited March 14, 2005 by Sputnik 57

[+greengolftee87]

MOB (Man over board) has been a feature on Garmins for some time. The idea is to give you a quick way to mark a waypoint if, well, someone falls overboard for example. In addition to marking the waypoint (like it would if you pressed MARK), the unit immediately starts navigating you back to the point. I think pressing and holding MARK would have been more intuitive, but that isn't how they implemented it. Pressing and holding FIND activates the feature. This is mentioned in question 4 of the waypoints section of the FAQ.

ok i went outside and tried it but i dont get it. why would i navagate to a waypoint that im already at???

[peter]

ok i went outside and tried it but i dont get it. why would i navagate to a waypoint that im already at???

Say you're out sailing and a storm comes up. You send one of the crew up to the front of the boat to lower a sail when a wave comes over the deck and washes him overboard. Now by the time you get the sails under control and can turn the boat around you may have moved some distance and in stormy seas it can be hard to spot the swimmer in the water.

 

So the MOB feature lets you push a single button when you see the guy go into the water and the GPS will then help you steer back to that same spot and hopefully pick him back up again.

 

There was a previous question on the "Depth" field. This gets used if you have connected your Garmin GPS to one of their compatible depth finders. In that case the waypoints (and I think the tracklog as well) will record the depth of the water.

[+Sputnik 57]

ok i went outside and tried it but i dont get it. why would i navagate to a waypoint that im already at???

I give up. Why would you? Maybe you hit it when the water skiier you are towing drops a ski, so you can circle back and pick it up. It only seems useful to me if you are moving pretty fast.

[+NightPilot]

On a dark night, 50-knot winds, high seas, you don't have to be moving very fast to need a way to navigate back to a point. Not everyone uses a GPS on land or on a small calm lake.

[+Cardinal Red]

This might not have been of any interest to anyone but me, but what the heck.

 

When I marked a waypoint for the very first time on my GPS MAP76S it was auto-numbered 001

 

Of course you can manually rename it to a text name for clarity, but if you just want to quickly save a series of points you can keep accepting them as 002, 003,004,005, etc. For clarity you can rename them to text later. The next Waypoint you create will auto-number to 006

 

If you want to reset the auto-number sequence, create a Waypoint. Renumber it to 001. Save it. Then delete it. The next Waypoint will auto-number to 001

[+ohgr]

Here's some fun Garmin hacking links:

 

Etrex Knowledge Base

 

Make your own Etrex power cable

 

GPS Map Edit, allows you to edit Mapsource Maps

 

Create vectors maps which can be downloaded to Garmin GPS receivers

 

Some really nice Non Garmin specific gps hacks

Hack A Day Misc. GPS Hacks

 

Ohgr

[+Red Eye Rebels]

I use MOB sometimes when headed into some pretty thick woods. If I know I am going deeper than I will be able to see the edge from I will either mark the truck, or mark the woods where I enter, then reset on my geocache. After a find its easier for me to locate the saved waypoint, and one touch is pretty easy. I don't know it's worked great for me, but I guess we all have our own methods.

[+Arndtwe]

BUMP! Cool, I came across this thread in a Google search!