The New Hampsters Posted April 18, 2005 Share Posted April 18, 2005 Hi All. We're new to the game and are having some difficulty with the accuracy of our Garmin ETrex. It often gives conflicting readings. Is this common to all GPS units, or are some models more accurate and consistent than others? Any info and opinions would be welcome. Thanks Quote Link to comment
+Team Tired Boy Posted April 18, 2005 Share Posted April 18, 2005 Is this inaccuracy that you noticed mostly when you get close to the cache? Quote Link to comment
kittycatgirl Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 I have the same GPS, and my accuracy is always in the 20's, never below that. I would let it sit for an hour, and still accuracy in the 20's. I think it depends on the antenna for the accuracy to be lower. Hope I helped! kittycatgirl Quote Link to comment
+IVxIV Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 No GPSr made is perfect, they will all start to waver in their directions & distance especially moreso once you're very close to your destination. Remember, the satellites they're using to calculate your position are over 11000 MILES overhead. So it's understandable why they're challenged when deciding where to send you once you're 20-40 feet from your goal. lol As far as general accuracies of different models, I tend to notice the NEWER GPSr's have on average been noticably more accurate than older generation designs. And the issue with antenna style (patch vx quad helix) has less impact on "general accuracy" And contrary to some peoples opinions, a more expensive GPSr will NOT necessarily be more accurate. In fact, a cheap entry level NEW model will probably be more precise than an more expensive older model. Quote Link to comment
+W7WT Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Hi All. We're new to the game and are having some difficulty with the accuracy of our Garmin ETrex. It often gives conflicting readings. Is this common to all GPS units, or are some models more accurate and consistent than others? Any info and opinions would be welcome. Thanks April 10, 2005 we had a GPS Contest as part of the Spring Fling. We had 35 contestants where we gave them coordinates and a flag. Then they planted their flag where their GPS indicated ground zero or as close as they could. The winner was a Garmin Etrex Legend which was 11 1/2 inches from ground zero. Over half of the group was within six feet and all were within 15 feet. Model or type of GPS didn't seem to indicate one any better than another. Also the experience of the geocacher didn't seem to be a factor. In fact some of our group with high number of finds weren't any closer than anyone else. In finding caches, I think skill acquired in finding caches is probably more important than the GPS that you use. Dick, W7WT Quote Link to comment
+Miragee Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 When I was up in Joshua Tree National Park, where the sky was very clear and there were no hills or trees, the accuracy of my Garmin eTrex Vista actually got down to 9 feet. Usually it is between 14 and 32 feet, depending on cloud cover or trees. I'm learning now to depend on it less once I get within 30 feet of the destination. That's when I try to "think like a Geocacher." Quote Link to comment
Pinon Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 My wife and I (dog too) went for a short hike. According to my Magellan MeriGold, it was almost exactly 2 miles from start to finish back to the car. We live about 5 miles from this hiking area. Then, on the Merigold I punched in our home waypoint and took off heading for home. I have a white "+" mark in my driveway where I set my coordinates for my home location. I always check this location when we come home when using our GPSr. When we pulled into the driveway and passed directly (and stopped) over the "+" mark, my MeriGold usually says...2-4'. It does this just about every time. Sure makes me glad I bought a Magellan MeriGold. I really love my MeriGold.... Quote Link to comment
+Miragee Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 My eTrex Vista can do exactly the same thing. The only reason I mentioned the 30-foot distance above is because I don't know how carefully the cache hider was when they took the waypoint . . . and I don't know what kind of GPSr they used. Only if you placed the cache, and took the waypoint with your GPSr, can you expect it to deliver you to exactly the same spot, and then only under ideal atmospheric conditions. Oh, did I forget to say I love my Garmin eTrex Vista? Quote Link to comment
flir67 Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 with my sportrak color on the highway on a clear day doing 70mph I got 7feet epe on average but no higher than 12. when I slow down it goes to near 20 or less. flir67---- Quote Link to comment
+EScout Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 April 10, 2005 we had a GPS Contest as part of the Spring Fling. We had 35 contestants where we gave them coordinates and a flag. Then they planted their flag where their GPS indicated ground zero or as close as they could. The winner was a Garmin Etrex Legend which was 11 1/2 inches from ground zero. Over half of the group was within six feet and all were within 15 feet. How did you determine "ground zero"? If you set it with another GPSr, how do you know how accurate this point is? Quote Link to comment
+RumJungle Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 If you are in to details of "why" -- check out Sam Wormley's site. It has lots of information about GPS and accuracy. Quote Link to comment
+W7WT Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 April 10, 2005 we had a GPS Contest as part of the Spring Fling. We had 35 contestants where we gave them coordinates and a flag. Then they planted their flag where their GPS indicated ground zero or as close as they could. The winner was a Garmin Etrex Legend which was 11 1/2 inches from ground zero. Over half of the group was within six feet and all were within 15 feet. How did you determine "ground zero"? If you set it with another GPSr, how do you know how accurate this point is? Of course we didn't know just how accurate it was. Some events are fortunate to have a surveyer in their group to mark it with their expensive GPSs. We did what we could with a 76C and a external antenna on a 10 foot pole. Went to the site for several days ahead of the event and let the 76C acquire until it would read down to about 6 feet. We were able to get all the bars with D's including #47 the WAAS satellite for this area. Then we set it to averaging for over 2000 counts. At one point on the day of the contest it read down to 2.4. (Some one commented in another topic that this is impossible that they only go down to 6 feet) He may be right, all I know is what we read. With 35 contestents we never had any complaint, not even from the Maggy guys. So, I say again we never said it was accurate, but we did spend a lot of time trying to make it as accurate as we could. Dick, W7WT Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 It often gives conflicting readings. Is this common to all GPS units Yes. Quote Link to comment
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