Garmin GPS - Garmin GPS EtrexLegend Trip Comuter Screen....

Author

Garmin GPS EtrexLegend Trip Comuter Screen....

nejeztao@yahoo.com

2006-11-20, 3:33 pm

When I use the Trip Computer Screen of my EtrexLegend GPS and change
one of the fields to Location(Lat/Lon) and another field to
Location(selected) for the purpose of geocacheing the data in both
screens is the same. I was trying to use it that way so I could watch
my currrent location as it approched the Target(selected) location so I
did not have to scan a piece of paper. If they both show your current
location, which is the case, what are the two different Locations
for.???
Frank

Jack Erbes

2006-11-20, 10:33 pm

nejeztao@yahoo.com wrote:
> When I use the Trip Computer Screen of my EtrexLegend GPS and change
> one of the fields to Location(Lat/Lon) and another field to
> Location(selected) for the purpose of geocacheing the data in both
> screens is the same. I was trying to use it that way so I could watch
> my currrent location as it approched the Target(selected) location so I
> did not have to scan a piece of paper. If they both show your current
> location, which is the case, what are the two different Locations
> for.???
> Frank

If you put your cursor on the point you want to go to and press and hold
the joystick down for two seconds it will create a waypoint at the
cursor location. You can edit the name and the details for the waypoint
as it is created.

After you have created a waypoint at the location you want to go to you
can press the Find button and go through the process to choose that
waypoint as a destination, I think the waypoint name will be displayed
in the "Location (selected)" data field on the Trip Computer page.

Once you have a destination selected, if you want to see the heading to
it you would have to change one of the data fields to display the
bearing to the waypoint and another data field to display the distance
to the waypoint.

I don't know of any case where the Garmins display the destination as a
lat/long position, it is always either a name given to a waypoint or the
name taken from or based on some map data you select.

And I don't know of any case where you can go to a blank spot on a map
without creating a waypoint at that spot as a destination.

Garmin keeps re-inventing and re-defining terms and using different
names for things that had other names previously. It tends to keep
people a little off balance and also makes it a little hard to explain
things to people.

A waypoint it a location, it can also be a destination. In some cases,
like when you have a route with multiple waypoints, Garmin likes to call
the last waypoint in the route the destination.

If a route has several waypoints (be they called destinations,
favorites, contacts, or whatever) in it, and you are going to them one
at a time in the listed sequence, the waypoint you are going to at any
given time would be your current waypoint. Maybe Garmin has decided to
call the current waypoint the "Location (selected)".

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at adelphia dot net)
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)

Nejez....

2006-11-20, 10:33 pm

Jack Erbes wrote:
> If you put your cursor on the point you want to go to and press and hold
> the joystick down for two seconds it will create a waypoint at the
> cursor location. You can edit the name and the details for the waypoint
> as it is created.
>
> --
> Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at adelphia dot net)
> (also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)

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**Thanks Jack............I'll give it a try and check it out. Will let
you know.

Nejez....

2006-11-21, 4:33 am

> Jack Erbes wrote:
>
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I tried as suggested but both sets of data are always the same.
I also called TechSupport at Garmin and after some research work,
while I was on hold, they were able to tell me that it can't be done
the way I wanted to use it. You can't have sets of data (Lat/Lon) of
two different locations on the Trip Computer screen for the purpose of
watching your current location approach the target location. I then
asked what the difference was between the two and he could not answer
or tell me how they were intended to be used so back to paper in one
hand and GPS in the other as I go looking for more geocaches.
Thanks anyway..............

nolonemo@yahoo.com

2006-11-21, 12:33 pm

You could create a waypoint for the cache location that was the
lat/long. The destination field would display that (if there a
destination or next waypoint field - I'm in the office) However, you
would be limited by the length of the waypoint names the Etrex will
display, so of limited use (though you could display the decimal and 3
digits after for each coordinate -- .234.735 -- Presumably, you would
be close in enough so the degrees wouldn't matter.

Jack Erbes

2006-11-21, 10:33 pm

Nejez.... wrote:
<snip>
>
> I tried as suggested but both sets of data are always the same.

So you're saying that if you move your cursor and create a waypoint (2
second joystick press) the lat/long for the new waypoint is the same as
your GPS location and not where the cursor was located? That does not
sound like it is working right if so.

What is in the Target(selected) data field on the Trip Computer page
when you first start your GPS? Is there anything there then or is it blank?

If it is blank, use the Find button to choose a waypoint and choose to
navigate to that waypoint. Does the name of the waypoint then how up in
the Target(selected) data field.

> I also called TechSupport at Garmin and after some research work,
> while I was on hold, they were able to tell me that it can't be done
> the way I wanted to use it. You can't have sets of data (Lat/Lon) of
> two different locations on the Trip Computer screen for the purpose of
> watching your current location approach the target location.

No but can't you change the data fields to have one show the distance to
the waypoint that you are navigating to? And change other data fields
to show the range and bearing?

> I then
> asked what the difference was between the two and he could not answer
> or tell me how they were intended to be used so back to paper in one
> hand and GPS in the other as I go looking for more geocaches.

I've never geocached, maybe that is the issue for me. But Good Luck
with that!

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at adelphia dot net)
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)

Nejez....

2006-11-22, 3:33 pm

Fron Frank.......

Bottom Line...............
Garmin got back to me, after some research on their part, and
explained that the difference between the two:
Locations(Lat/Lon) and Location (selected) on the
Trip computer page
is not that the two show different Waypoint but that they show the
same waypoint in different formats if you chose to view it at the same
time in two different data fields.
They (Garmin) do agree that for geocacheing what I was trying to
do is a good idea but the GPS unit does not do it that way.
So let it be said, so let it be so.................and I will.
Thanks guys........

apersson850

2006-11-24, 10:33 am

I've heard that it was once a US army request, that the unit should be
able to display both hddd.mmmmm format and one user selected format,
for the current location, at the same time.
If Garmin fixed that, then the DoD would buy a few crates of GPS units.
Money talks.

Don't know if this is true, but it was a rumor when they introduced
this feature a couple of years ago.

Anders

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