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Etrex Vs Etrex Vista Same Accuracy??


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I just upgraded to an ETrex Vista from the base model Etrex. Is it possible that my Vista is not as accurate as my first one? It seemed as though when I used my first one that I could return to the same spot within 10 ft. Now with my Vista it seems more like 30 ft. I know this may seem trivial to some but not to me. Any constructive or enlightening comments would be appreciated!!

 

MESasquatch

Edited by MESasquatch
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Their should be no accuracy difference. The Vista simply has more bells and whistles. Any difference you're seeing is probably due to external conditions (poor satellite configuration, etc.).

 

Have you checked that they are set up the same? If for example, the Vista has the battery saver option turned on, and the yellow doesn't, the yellow will appear to be more responsive.

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I was caching with a friend this weekend - he had a regular etrex, I had a vista. He consistently (over an 8-cache spread) had better accuracy and kept his signal when mine said it couldn't find enough sats. I was slightly peeved, but I did have the nifty electronic compass to make up for it. He theorized it was the mettalic plastic on the vista compared to the transparent plastic on the regular, which makes a little sense.

We did tend to zero out at diffrent locations, but never very far apart.

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mpm, in my internet wanderings, I've seen a post documenting just that info. Apparently the author scraped off the metallic paint and received better reception. Some comment was made (I think) about a civil suit due to Garmin selling this unit with that problem.

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I was caching with a friend this weekend - he had a regular etrex, I had a vista. He consistently (over an 8-cache spread) had better accuracy and kept his signal when mine said it couldn't find enough sats. I was slightly peeved, but I did have the nifty electronic compass to make up for it. He theorized it was the mettalic plastic on the vista compared to the transparent plastic on the regular, which makes a little sense.

We did tend to zero out at diffrent locations, but never very far apart.

What release are you on? If you haven't upgraded the OS since you bought it, that's a far more likely explanation than the color of the plastic.

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What release are you on? If you haven't upgraded the OS since you bought it, that's a far more likely explanation than the color of the plastic.

 

That's a good question, and I'm not sure, but I see on the Garmin website that the latest update is dated in 2003, and I bought my unit last year, but I'll definitely check on it.

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Here's the reply I got from Garmin to my question about the issue:

The Theory that you describe is not correct an the plastic covering of the

Vista doe snot have an adverse effect on the units ability to acquire

satellites.  How large of an accuracy difference did you notice?  Did you

have WAAS enable on your Vista and did the unit acquire the WAAS satellite

signals?

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With WAAS off the Vista and Etrex will be the same for error. They will never show you as being at the same location at the same time except by luck and chance. If you have WAAS enabled on the Vista and it's had time to acquire the WAAS satalites, and get a good lock etc. your Vista will be more accurate than the eTrex. It takes a long time to get good WAAS data going though.

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